15 month

Levi is 15 months old today!

Levi & drum

This has been in draft form for a while and I just stumbled upon it a few minutes ago. It has been busy lately, Levi is walking now.

Spaghetti and giggles

It was a Good Friday!!

Levi is 9 months old now! We have taken him to the Dallas Arboretum two times in the last month. Today we took his Easter pictures. Here are a few...








This one is my favorite!

He loves to bang the eggs together. He has not figured out that there is food inside the eggs. We put the little puffs that dissolve in their mouth inside the eggs, since he is not ready for real candy.

He loves to take the eggs out of the basket, not put them back in, so tomorrow's Easter egg hunt should be interesting!

He is very serious about this egg hunt business.

 

 Yet highly distractable since there is so much going on around him. There were millions of people there today it seemed.

 

Daddy loving on him! 

:-)

Hanging out at the park bench.

 

His expression here is cute.

 

He had fun snapping the head of the tulips off.

 Yet another expression. Love the eyebrows!

 Loosened up a bit here and cracked a smile.

Crawled all over the place. 

At one point he had an egg on the concrete walkway. 

He tried to pick it up but it popped out of his hand. 

So he crawled to it. Tried to pick it up. It popped out of his hand.

So he crawled to it... 

You get the idea!

He didn't nap while we were there but he was asleep before we pulled out of our parking spot. He slept while we ate out and all the way home.

It was a Good Friday! Thank you Lord for ALL the gifts you have given us, your Son and my son! And the best husband a person could ask for!

Laptop

Levi's 1st laptop! Best part is, it was only $5.00!!!

Wrestling Match

Usually my sweet husband gives Levi a bath, tonight I gave it to him for reasons I will get to in a minute. Bath time with a crawler/cruiser is not bath time, as much as a wrestling match. First thing he does when I put him in 3 inches of water is pull up using the faucet. Then he promptly falls face first into the water. He gasps breath inward so that when he hits the water mouth first, he sucks in a big gulp of it. Like lightning I pick him up gagging and sputtering. More of the same happens for the next 10-15 minutes until I pull him out.

Now, why me tonight? A few nights ago Jesse used his multi-tool saw thing to cut some dry wall. We are hanging our TV out of reach of little hands, so we have to do some rewiring. Well when Levi heard the high-pitched dental-like drill sound, his bottom lip tucked in, his eyes got huge, and he sucked in a big breath for a terrified wail! I have never seen a look of sheer terror on his face before.
Problem was that we weren't done sawing yet. I took Levi in the other room so it wouldn't be as loud. His lip still quivered. He kept leaning to see what was making the noise but then shying away and clinging to me, not quite sure what to do. 
So last night I put Levi in the bath with some water running, the radio blaring on my phone and the heater going. That way he wouldn't hear the saw.  It worked! Whew!

8 months

Last month Levi learned how to crawl on all fours. This month he has perfected this mode of locomotion. He has become really fast. One minute he is in the living room with me, the next he is through the kitchen, going to the bedroom to find Daddy.





























He continues to play with new faces and sounds. Just today he started making a face he learned long ago and has not done in a long time. The "Ooh" face. I have not captured it on camera recently but I will keep trying to get it.
 


















Taking pictures of him has become quite interesting. He loves the camera. He wants to play with the camera. ...Our really nice camera... I think not.







This is the official 8 month old picture. It took some doing to get him sitting next to the Tigger long enough to snap the shot.

Do you see the cuteness I have to put up with? Yea, life is good!

Freyja

I have the best dog ever! Freyja  is constantly by Levi's side. When he pulls her hair, she licks his face to make him let go! He of course thinks she is hilarious when she catches a ball, plays with Isis or pants in his face.
 
However, Levi does not think she is funny all the time. Like when Levi is playing with the doggie door. Usually Freyja is careful when she comes in the doggie door now, but sometimes she forgets and runs over Levi.  He will eventually learn to not hang out by the doggie door.

As of today Levi is 8 months old!

At the zoo

 

Nana, Aunt Vicki, Cousin Elizabeth, Cousin Benjamin and Levi all went to the Forth Worth Zoo today. This was Levi's first trip to the zoo. Levi's favorite exhibit was the bird room! They actually went into a room with all the birds flying around. Nana said he kept looking around at all the birds. At around 2pm he fell asleep in the stroller and slept all the way home.

I'm hoping to see more pictures tomorrow.

Dusting the floor

Before you call CPS, he did this all on his own. We really don't make him dust for us! For that matter, I have no idea where Levi learned to dust, because he certainly has never seen his mama do it!  Perhaps his Meephs taught him on Friday when she babysat him.

Sit n sew

Hours of work complete! Yea!
I trimmed all these half square triangles so they are square again. Now for the fun part. Piecing. That may have to wait until next month's sit n sew at Blue Ribbon Quilt shop. Next month my sister is going with me. Even Better!

Motorboat Video

The first 15 seconds are funny!

Motorboat face

Sleeping Angel

My baby is growing up! This morning I went in to check on him because he had slept so long. He was asleep on his tummy with his toosh up in the air. It reminded me of yoga's eight angle salute pose.

   

He was so cute! Even cuter...He slept for 8 1/2 hours straight! After about 5 hours I kept waking up, thinking that I slept though his cries. When he did wake up he crawled to the corner of his crib, pulled up, stood looking over the rail at me through the window and cried. (There is a french door dividing the nursery from our bedroom.) So pitiful. ;-)

7 months old

Better late than never, right? So Levi is actually 7 1/2 months old now but I didn't want to do his pictures while he was sick and fussy earlier this month.

Yes, he is pulling up on things!

Love this expression!

He has discovered how to make a motorboat sound with his lips.

Add caption

He gave Tigger a hug but I missed the shot because the flash was overheated. Dern!

Photographing him has gotten a little more interesting! I love all his expressions and excitement.

Meephs

Meephs babysat Levi today so that Jesse and I could go out on a Valentines date. We went to Red Lobster. I ate so much that it is my only meal today! I enjoyed spending time with Jesse today.

When we came back Meeph and Levi were both taking a short snooze! They were so precious!

Crawling!

Levi has learned to crawl!
It is so stinkin cute!! He has become hyperactive, super excited boy now that he can get to all the things he wants to see up close. The first night Levi finally got crawling down pat, he played so hard that he got sweaty.

Trouble is this hyperactivity carries over into night time. Plus, he had a bout of upper respiratory infection and got a little spoiled because he slept in bed with us. Now that he is better, he doesn't want to stay in his crib all night.

My Nana always told me, "This too shall pass". I hope tonight is the night that he finally sleeps better.

I still have to take his 7 month picture. Hopefully I can post it in the next couple days.

Newton's Law

Levi discovered Newton's Law for himself tonight.

For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

So if Levi hits the bathwater lightly with one hand it makes a little splash. If he hits it with both hands and both feet as hard as he can, it makes lots of big splashes!!!



When he is on the floor, not in the bathtub, Levi has learned to balance on 2 knees and ONE hand, freeing the other to get into mischief!

A New Sound

Levi learned a new sound from Nana!

It is really cute except for the fact he was up half the night playing with this new sound. I think he was also up much of the night thinking about how this crawling thing works. He is on the verge of crawling. He gets up on his knees and rocks back and forth. Then he gets down on his belly and belly-surfs backwards all the way across the room.
We'll be in trouble when he does truly become mobile!

Old tricks and New tricks

A person couldn't ask for a more pleasant way to wake up on a Saturday morning. At 8am I hear my son begin to babble to himself. I lay there and listen for a while.

After a few minutes he tries out his favorite trick, babble at the top of his lungs.

"GAAAAAAAAAH! YAAAAAAAHHH!"

Then he tries out his new trick that he just started last night, and my new personal favorite.

[whispered in the sweetest tone you've ever heard] "aaaaahhh. gooooo. yaaaaah."

He babbles some more before he begins to whimper. (It is 8:30 now.) I walk to his crib and peer in. The biggest grin you ever saw grows on his face. My heart melts again for the millionth time. I take him out to the living room where he laughs and giggles in his bouncer. I make my hot cocoa, munch on fresh berries and watch Levi's smiley face bounce up and down, up and down.

Let the day begin! I'm ready for this day to continue!

Bathtubs and Squished Flowers

Last night I was giving Levi a bath. I put him in a baby bath tub in big bathtub. He has enjoyed splashing around in his tub, exploring the toys I put in there for him. But last night he decided to expand his exploration to the walls of the tub.

First he touched the far side of the tub. Scratched it to feel the texture. 

You could see him thinking: Huh? Smooth. Very interesting.

Then he reached over to the opposite side of the tub. Scratched it to feel the texture.

Expression: Utter Shock and awe! Mouth forms a perfect ohhh shape.

See him thinking: WOW! They look the same AND feel the same!!!

Hear him giggling with joy and excitement at his new discovery.

I don't know why that discovery was so exciting, but it made me happy to see.

How wonderful it must be to: 

1) make discoveries for themselves, rather than have to study about it in a book or be told about it

2) discover new things every single day, and rejoice in it

3) uninhibited by what people think about you. ( how you react, how simple the discovery)

It makes me think of my students. So many of them, by the time they are in middle school, are beat down. Some of them are so beat down that they have given up on themselves. They no longer seek new discoveries, because they believe they will only fail in the attempt. They have been mocked by their peers so they become afraid to go "out on a limb" to discover new things.  It is safer to hide behind certain undesirable behaviors.

On the bright side, sometimes their other teachers and I am able to reach a student. We can encourage them and help them build self confidence.  Too often we do not see this come to fruition. We just plant seeds, that later bloom fully or, sadly, get squashed again. But it is the hope that I can help a student bloom that keeps me going back to work every day. 

I recently heard about a student that I didn't have a big hand in helping but did a little. We helped her bloom again. She moved away. She is continuing to bloom despite circumstances working against her. I am so very proud of her. And that is why I teach middle school...to help the squished flowers.

Now will someone help me figure out how I got from the bathtub to squished flowers?