I'm tall, I have my own room, and I'm great at pooping. And smiling. In that order.

Levi's two-month appointment was on Monday, and today he is officially 8 weeks old! He's very good at focusing on objects, particularly if they're colorful, though he doesn't really seem to want to grab them yet. His crying has increased, as it generally does with babies but so have his smiles, so its okay. Like most babies, he likes a change of location/view.

His talking noises have increased, though I can't seem to catch much of it on video. I think he likes to talk when he hears other people talk, particularly Tim. He often coos a lot when Tim is singing to him. I'll have to try to capture that sometime :)

At his doctor's appointment we discovered that Levi is (or was, on Monday) 10 pounds and 9 ounces, smack in the 50th percentile for his age, and in the 75th percentile for length (I don't have the exact length, my little pediatric book they were supposed to give me never happened, so its coming in the mail supposedly). Maybe the genes from Tim's dad and my brothers are coming through in Levi's height :)

Levi moved into his own room last night. Mainly because I was tired of his noises at night! The co-sleeper was PERFECT for the first two months of his life, saving me from having to transition so extremely with getting up multiple times a night, or having to sit in his room and rock him to sleep. I could just sit in my own bed, half asleep, etc. I could even fall asleep with my hand on his tummy to help him feel secure but be sound asleep myself two feet away on my own mattress.

But now...he's in his own room. He didn't seem affected by (read: realize) that he was in a different place. He sleeps like his dad :) He's got a little musical mobile on his crib that he enjoyed for awhile, and once he fell all the way asleep (read: I was so tired I tried to just put him down when he was wide awake, and he was not having that) he slept well, giving us almost seven hours straight, which he sometimes does. Usually its about five hours, for once during the night and once more eating before I leave for work.

Should I be entertained by my play mat? No - I think I'll just sleep.

That's the other news - I've gone back to work "from home" part time as of Friday, for the next three weeks. I've got a sitter coming to the house each morning for about four hours, also named Holly, during that time, and I just hit up a local wireless hot spot like Panera or a local cafe to bust out as much work as I can in those four hours. It was okay this a.m. I've been doing work from home for about two weeks now, so that wasn't too bad to sit down and get down to business. I didn't think I'd have too much of a problem leaving Levi, I'm not a terribly sentimental person, and we did have some extra cuddles this morning. I was a little sad, but since I'm a uber-compartmentalizing person (hence the lack of sentimentality) as soon as I started doing work, I completely focused on that and hadn't thought much of missing him until it was time for him to eat (read: me to pump). I blame my brothers for giving me this ridiculous ability to focus while I do work, because they were freakishly annoying when I was younger and we homeschooled, and I had to learn to shut out everything around me, all physical distractions as well as distracting thoughts, to just complete whatever I'm working on.

We've been reading more books, particularly ones with very bright and contrasting illustrations that Levi can focus on for a minute. As well as mommy's favorite books, like "I love you, Stinkyface." And Daddy's favorite books, like "Frog and Toad are Friends." I'm considering working another part time job (it's a bad habit, what can I say) at Barnes and Nobles or Borders so that I can buy all kinds of books for him :) Just kidding, only one job these days for me.(Tim made me write that last sentence because I promised to stop trying to work so many jobs once we had kids. But seriously, like, four hours every Sunday or something for a 50% discount on books? I bet I could make it work ;)

Levi and I had our first road trip over the weekend, to a friend from college's wedding about two hours away. Though he couldn't really stay at the reception because the music was way too loud, we walked around the Country Club it was at, which had very pretty grounds, and we had a great time with several of my friends that I haven't seen in quite awhile. Levi was mostly very calm, slept fine at night and was okay with being carted all over and driven around most of the weekend. Right up until the car ride home, during which my (world traveler) friend Katie turned around in the front seat most of the ride to hold his pacifier in, which was sweet :) Now we're ready for our big road trip to New Hampshire for July 4/Julie's (Tim's mom) 60th birthday. A big thank you to Levi's grandpappy (guess which one of our parents that is) for the hotel room for the night at the wedding.

He licked my Neck!

Already 9 a.m. and he's beat :)

So Levi is learning more and more every day. He's learned that smiling will make us stop everything we're doing to pay attention to him, even if doesn't seem to know what he's smiling about or why. He's also practicing touching things with his hand open whenever he can. He loves to look at thing, go to a new room, a different place so he can see new things. However, his most practiced and enjoyable way of learning is...by licking things. If he can get a blanket pulled up to his face, he'll lick it. Yesterday I put a black and white toy near him so that he could look at it, and through some wriggling it ended up near his face...and he licked it. He licks my arms, neck, shirt, etc. throughout the day, whether or not he's hungry.

We broke our no-pee streak on Thursday morning. at 5:45 a.m. Levi's really good about not peeing while I change his diaper. I usually still put a little cloth over him anyway, because i know the time I don't is the time he'll pee everywhere. When he gets upset while I change his diaper, he usually tries to poop on me (good thing I have those killer mom reflexes now), but this morning he peed through everything. Ah well. We'll re-start the streak count.

Exactly how mommy sleeps....

We had our first date night out on Sunday. Holly O., who's going to be taking care of Levi for a couple weeks when I first go back to work part time. We headed out to watch the new X-Men flick (brilliant performance by James McAvoy, btw) and Levi was an absolute angel during his most fussy time of the night for Holly. Gotta figure out how she did that ;)

Levi has recently discovered his feet! Or rather, he can touch his feet with his hands and sometimes plays with them. However, he doesn't seem to have any idea what they are. Just like when he smacks himself in the face. or pushes his pacifier out of his mouth. jeez.

Its like a bandana. only for babies.

Helping to make the bed for Uncle Shawn

So I am rapidly becoming Levi's favorite person. Or rather, the only person likely to be able to calm him during his nightly witching hour(s). I went to the gym on Wednesday night for about an hour, and he cried the whole time I was gone and would not be mollified! Poor kid. Or rather, poor Tim! During the day, Levi's pretty much fine with anybody holding him anytime, but anytime after 7 p.m., he might just have a little fit if it's not me. It must be that distinct smell of unshowered, sweaty (95 degrees here yesterday) and milky mom.

This is actually how he fell asleep.

He has had longer times of being awake and just hanging out, though his arms and legs never really stop moving :) During bath time a couple of nights ago when we put him on his tummy, he actually held himself up for a minute on his knees and elbows and rocked back and forth. He particularly likes to look at lights, which I try to keep dim for that reason, still people's faces, and he does seem to like a change or room or location sometimes just to look around, though things are still blurry for him.

We've started getting into a little bit of a bedtime routine, nightly screamfests aside. I change his diap, wrap him up in his swaddle, read him a little book while he gets drowsy, and lay him down in his crib. sometimes he goes out like a light, sometimes I hold his passy in his mouth until it puts him to sleep.

The passy-dana. Very similar to Pasadena, it keeps his passy in place. 

He's also started to be scared at loud noises sometimes. He's always had a strong startle reflex, but it hasn't ever made him upset, just jumpy. But if I sneeze, blow my nose loudly, or drop something, he often has a little high-pitched cry when he startles and then I have to cuddle him for a minute to reassure him that the sky isn't falling.

Our Levi is turning into an old man a bit prematurely :) He's a little over ten pounds, I'm guessing, which means we should move up a size in diapers, according to the diaper packages.

. His tummy's getting large, which is great, however, he has a teeny tiny waist and butt, like an old man, and the larger size diaper just hangs off of him. He's also in need of a comb-over or something, because his hair thinned out so much at the top of his head, but stayed all around the sides. It's pretty funny looking, especially when he gets a little sweaty and the side hair gets wet and curly!

another try

due to technical difficulties, we had to redo our birth announcements. here's a preview:

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Nostrils

So this week we've discovered many things about parenting.

Levi's become much more fussy than before, particularly in teh evenings, as is true with most babies. Now, about 90% of the time he's crying because something is wrong - he's got a teeny but painful burp, he wants his diap changed, he wants to be held, or he's hungry. However, sometimes he's just screaming. And whenever we can get him to be quiet (we're usually sitting in bed by that time of the evening) he gets this uber-calm look on his face - mouth hanging open, eyes staring, clinging to one of our shoulders, etc. And he always ends up staring straight behind our headboard at the black and white curtains in the window behind one side of our bed. So we've been joking that whenever he's upset its because he JUST wants to look at the CURTAINS! :)

The other night, Tim was playing with Levi, touching his cheeks, his ears, his nose, etc. While touching his nose, Tim noticed that the cartilage around the outside of the nostrils is pretty firm - i.e. not smushy like most noses are. If you push on them, they don't close. Obviously, this is a built-in safety feature of newborns that we just didn't know about, so that if their face is mashed up against something at least their nose won't close. However, it resulted in a conversation involving poking our own nostrils to see if they were as firm as Levi's (mine are much less smushy than Tim's), and me literally saying, "no, see, poke my nostril!" to which we realized exactly how absurd the entire conversation was :)

Also this week, Levi has stepped up both his muscle exercises and noises. A couple of times now he's made a sort of cooing noise, more than just his usual squeaks or grunts! He also has (somehow) stepped up his crazy movement of arms and legs and squirming all over. The other day he was lying on my tummy as I was on my back, resting, and through one quick twist of his midsection, he completely flipped over and started falling onto his back (onto the bed next to me). I caught him with my super reflexes that have apparently come with being a mom, but how in the world does a one month old flip his entire body over with just one well-executed stretch?