After his evening toilette Leo goes to the bedroom in a festive atmosphere.
The procedure begins.

First, he needs to be given a choice:
- Leo, would you like to sleep in your parents’ bed or in your room?

In 99,8 % of cases, he chooses the first option.

He climbs up (by himself, of course).

He puts on his pyjamas.
This stage needs to be played out cleverly, so that he doesn’t realise that he’s being helped,
and that he’s not getting dressed completely by himself.

Another stage of this charade is the pulse oxymeter

- Leo, give me your hands.

Unfortunately, his little paws are knitted together, fingers tangled together,
and there is now way to separate them.

Leoparent is trying and struggling, but there is no way.

It takes about five minutes, Leo is bursting with laughter.

Then, he needs to be given options again.

- Leo, can we put the sensor on your right hand?

- No, not the right hand today. The left one.*
100% missed shots.

Then, Leo turns on his ventilator and pulse oxymeter, connects the tube,
turns on the music and the lamp on his nightstand.

He’s all ready to sleep.

At least in theory.

Then, a vulnerable moment comes,
Leoparents have to wait for Leo to decide to go into horizontal position.

Under absolutely no circumstances is he to be rushed.

Or it’s going to get nasty.
Finally, he lies down.
20 seconds go by.


He sits.

- Drink!
Leoparent (prepared) hands him a glass of water.

Leo drinks up.

-More!

Leoparent hands him another glass.
No, he won’t be drinking more after all.

So Leoparent outs the glass away. Leo lays down.
30 seconds. 


He gets up and shows ten fingers.

- 10 what, Leo?

- Kisses.
- Oh ok, 10 kisses.

Leo kisses one Leoparent 10 times.
He lies down.


He gets up.

- 9!

There goes 9 kisses.
Then 8, 7, and down to 1,
which gives 55 in total.
He lies down.

He gets up.

- Door!!!!
The door is not closed!
Leoparent gets up and closes the door.
He lies down.

He gets up.

- Doggy!
Leoparent gets up and starts to look for the doggy…

And so on… until he gets tired and falls asleep.
And there is no way to skip or speed up these evening procedures.

Really, there is no way.


* Naturally, everything is expressed with Leogestures.

Himself!!

All by himself.

With his own little hands.

Without any help. Himself!!

Me, myself – the finger points to his chest three times.
So that there are no doubts whatsoever.
By himself!!!

He has to turn on the lights himself, close the dishwasher,
put on his shoes, get the elevator to come, turn off the taps,
go down the stairs, wash his hands, and turn on the ventilator.

Unfortunately, he has to cross the street by himself, too.
No, no hand holding, no! Himself!!

Every time we cross a street it’s a huge fight.

Because parents won’t back off. And he won’t as well.

They take his hand, he starts to cry, they drag him, he lies down on the street.

He’s big enough, he has to do things his way.

Himself!!!

The same is with food.
When someone boorishly takes advantage of an unguarded moment
and puts his food on a fork for him and then puts it into his mouth,
he spits it out immediately,
puts it on the fork again (by himself!!!),

and then places it in his little mouth (by himself!!!).

Any help is unwelcome.
If it does happen,
it has to be immediately annulled, taken back.
 ctrl+z
+delete

And if not, here comes a brawl.

Because he needs to do everything by himself.
Himself!!

His index finger works non stop.
Sometimes even in his sleep.

All by himself!!


Nobody knows how and when this happened exactly.
Over half a year ago it turned out that Leo identifies all the digits correctly,
and about two months ago, he started to count.
Currently, he counts to five perfectly,
quite well to ten (up and down), and he manages to go beyond ten sometimes.
He can (in the range up to 100!!!) type numbers on a calculator
and show numbers up to 20 with his fingers.
And he’s trying to count the world all the time.
He constantly informs his parents how many people there are in the room,
rats in the cage, glasses on the table, and dogs in the street…
Sometimes, he stands aside and counts something in secret with full concentration.
Mathematics has even made its way to Leoart.

Ladies, Gentlemen,
A man with five fingers on each hand!

Leoart, A Man with Fingers, August 2013

Leo had a Holter monitor put on.

For 72 hours.
 Electrodes installation has gone (surprisingly) quite smoothly.

Unfortunately, it got only worse and worse later
– 
tens of centimetres of cables, plasters, three electrodes,
and a transmitter fixed to his belt and mobility limitations caused an avalanche of fights.
One brawl automatically turns into another,
and then another and another – third, fifth, tenth…
Generally speaking, the brawl of all times is on.
May these 72 hours be finally over…
May the results be good

Because of all the exciting holiday adventures,
one of the most important parts of the blog has been a bit neglected:
evolution of Leoart!

Ladies, Gentlemen!
These are the works from 21st July 201:


Leoart, A Sitting Figure, with hands and fingers. Crayon on paper, 2013


Happy Man with Dog Ears, crayon on paper, 2013

The truth is that for these few moments spent almost normally,
we have to work a lot, unfortunately.

In terms of organisation, logistics and also physically.

Even a one day trip out of town means taking Leo’s portable emergency kit with us…

And if we forget something, we usually have to go back.

As most of Leogadgets are not available in pharmacies,
children stores or at gas stations…

It was close, and Lo would have spent his first night under the stars!
The only obstacle to this was us not having enough wood for the fire.
However, the fact that we didn’t make it until the morning is completely irrelevant,
as elated Leo fell asleep looking at the fire
(after eating baked in the fire potatoes),
and the ventilator and pulse oxymeter were plugged
in thanks to a brilliant invention of a many-meters-long garden cable!!!
Before the night came, he had quite an interesting and busy day, too.
Leo’s water fun is evolving into extreme sports,
just as his encounters with animals
– not everybody would have the courage/willingness for this kind of closeness.


There are days when life with Ondine seems quite normal…

Leo is totally into his dad.

Only dad counts nowadays.

And he only wants with daddy.

Only to daddy.

And he looks up only to his daddy.

Because daddy is the best.
Daddy has to put him to sleep.

Daddy has to dress him, suck him, change him.

Daddy is not to leave the apartment.

Daddy, daddy, daddy.
Only daddy.

Mommy has been dethroned definitely.

Daddy drags his Leotail everywhere.

Nasty male deal that Leomom sometimes takes advantage of, for her own goals.

Smart, sweet, cute and charming.

A hysteric, despot and terrorist.

Delicate, sensitive, and affectionate.

Ruthless, stubborn, impulsive.

Cuddly, empathic, compassionate.

A manipulator, brawler, raving madman.

Patient, understanding, cheerful.
Malicious, touchy, grumpy.

Brave, ambitious, and joyful.
Bored, chimerical, nervous.
Nice, repulsive, prudent, impulsive, conciliating.
Selfish, bad-tempered, annoying.
Gluttonous, uncompromising, greedy.
Consequent, precise, interested.

Moody, kind, unbearable, loveable.

Bipolar personality.

A two year-old.

Leo.

As promised, here are a few words on the last Leotrip.

It was of a professional nature – Leo worked as a model (!!!),
And Leodad was the model’s personal assistant, porter, oarsman, driver,
private escort, provider, and photo set coordinator, and Leomom was the photographer.

It didn’t stop anyone from having a good time, though.

The collection of Leo’s experiences has been enlarged by:

- cruising on a boat

- bursting with laughter on a pedal boat;


- exploring the flora and fauna of Masuria’s meadows;


– walking in the wheat;


- rolling on the grass;


– running far, far away from his parents;


And naturally, it couldn’t go without new culinary experiences
–
 Leo assisted in baking pizza in a wood-burning stove.

He ate more pieces than any of us, and there was him and five adults at the table…