Saturday, January 28, 2012

Keeping us on our toes

Levi has many talents, not the least of which is keeping us on our toes. Whenever I think I have him figured out, he throws me for a loop.

Case in point: today he took a 3.5 hour nap. Other than once when he was sick, he's never slept that long during the day. I'm not complaining, but I did check on him about 14 times! I think it was a combination of his soon-to-pop teeth and a habit he probably gets from me: catching up on sleep on the weekends after a long week. I went to bed at 7 p.m. Friday night, true story.

In general, Levi's pretty flexible with sleeping - even if he's tired he doesn't fuss too much, and if he does he tends to go right down. We've kept his bedtime somewhat fluid, partly because he's travel-sized and partly because his nap schedule has never been well, a schedule. Some nights he takes an hour nap and wakes up at 6:30 p.m., so he won't fall asleep until after 9 p.m. other nights, he'll get tired around 7 p.m. and down he goes. We tend to wait for his cues, whether its looking drowsy or fussy (you know, pulling my hair and such).

The other night, he was very awake and chatty for most of the evening, so we sat him next to us in bed (with our space heater on it was warmer in our room for the moment) and cuddled a bit. Tim had brought up some snacks, including a bag of pretzels and hummus. Apparently Levi got very tired almost instantaneously, because he went from sitting up and chatting to relaxing backwards and getting comfortable - except the bag of pretzels were right behind him and he was trying to cuddle up  for sleep with them!

The teething is back full power these days (well, mostly these nights). When work is stressful and busy and I'm tired, which is most days, I love to come home and just hold Levi and play and read to him. But some nights this week he's been so fussed from his poor teeth, he just cries and won't be held and won't be distracted with toys and just flails around. Those nights Tim and I take turns a lot more :)

Levi had his first real snow this past weekend - it snowed on Halloween but has been relatively warm since then. I was going to walk downtown to market and trussed him all up in his snowsuit (thanks auntie Kara!) but decided after a few blocks that it was too far to carry the bug on my back. He may have been glad to get out of  the suit, he looked like a little marshmallow :)

Levi's transitioned the things that make him laugh. We used to just poke his nose and he'd go crazy. Now he needs actual entertainment :) He gives big belly laughs for some things though -- when you kiss his tummy; when you build a tower of blocks and it falls over, and when he throws things on the ground that make a loud noise.

We also took Levi on his first visit to the zoo last week. Yes, in January, but it was free. We kept him all wrapped up and I'm not sure how much he could see, but it was fun. Then he got to play at our neighbors house while we watched the Patriot's win :)

We have been delinquent about taking photos, but as tomorrow is Levi's nine-month birthday, I figured it'd be worth a nice little photo show.









Sunday, January 15, 2012


We just had to tag-team a diaper change. Levi has begun to either scream like its torture or laugh and try to crawl off of the changing table. Tonight was the latter, only there was a very messy/smelly diaper that Tip was trying to keep away from his squirming, half-dressed body, and keep him on the table, and actually clean him/the diaper up. As I sat down to start typing this blog post, I heard "help" from upstairs, and ran up there (after I realized he was serious) to find him holding Levi in the air by his feet!

Levi continues to enjoy bathtime, and gets all excited, kicking his feet until we take off his clothes and drop him in. He even loves cuddling in his towels after, being all wrapped up.


He spiked another fever on Thursday, andhe either recovered from it faster as his immune system is growing, or it might have been from teething. He slept for three hours in the late afternoon and the fever was gone when he woke up. He stayed home from daycare on Friday, and actually slept most of the day as well, including a five-hour nap, a two-hour nap and going to bed at 7:30 (all unheard of in a normal day's schedule). So maybe he was getting a bit of an infection and slept it off. He's been fine most of the weekend.


It was our first weekend without Tim since Levi was born, and my first one without Tim since we first got married, actually. This is scary on may levels: if Levi wakes up early, we can't take turns getting up, so that the other can sleep in; if Levi is up a lot during the night (which he was on Friday) we can't take turns with that, I was in charge of making and keeping a good fire going both days to keep our house from being freezing, which I'm not terribly good at, and I needed to feed myself! I managed to build some good fires and stayed on top of them, so that worked out, and the rest of it we just took one thing at a time. Thanks, Conrads, for the Chinese food, that helped with meals :)






Levi had his first table food the other night - bananas. Up until now he's only eaten pre-mushy baby food. I got him to eat it, which was great, though he didn't quite understand the concept that he could pick it up himself and put it in his own mouth -  he just mushed it between his fingers when he did pick it up ;)

Still no crawling, if anyone's wondering. He can sit like a pro and reach everything he wants by either folding in half at the waist or scootching his butt toward it, but no hands and knees movement. 

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Christmas fever

We have come out on the other side of Levi's first Christmas, first fever, and first....I can't think of something else but I always try to list things in threes.


The fever cropped up marginally on Wednesday before Christmas, but shot above 100 degrees on Thursday morning. I spent the last couple of days before the weekend working from home, which was actually manageable since Levi slept a lot of the time, and was mostly okay playing next to me on the couch or floor. I had a phone call on Thursday that I couldn't miss, and I was hoping Levi would be OK for that half an hour or so playing next to me. The moment the PR person put me on hold to connect me with a vice president, Levi started crying. Fortunately, I picked him up and put him in my lap, and was magically able to hold my cell phone on my shoulder, Levi in my lap and type out the interview word for word. I guess my hands mesmerized Levi because he sat there staring at them while I typed for the whole half an hour :)

Other than sleeping and a lot of whining, Levi is still pretty easy going during his cold, though his passy is his best friend and he wants to be held at all times, both completely understandable. The worst has been at night, because Levi couldn't sleep for more than a few hours at a time without waking up from coughing and being super congested.

The fever broke late on Saturday night, the fourth day of it, but the congestion is hanging on still.

The sick baby and rather sleepless nights made for a pretty quiet Christmas weekend, but it was still very fun. My siblings, parents, grandma and aunt were here for Saturday and Sunday, and everyone was gracious with letting us take naps and helping with cooking and cleaning.

All of the sleeplessness ended up leaving me with a sinus infection I couldn't fight off without drugs and taking a lot of naps, which worked out since I've had this whole week off of work, thank goodness. One of 56 percent of the workforce off between Christmas and New Year's, according to NPR.

The week off was mostly spent relaxing (no, my house is not sparklingly clean since I've had free time, I opted to be a rebel and not actually use my time to be responsible :) Tim's parents were here for Monday through Wednesday and his sister's family was here Friday and Saturday. So most afternoons and evenings were spent hanging out with family, and most mornings were spent reading, playing with Levi, or running quick errands. 

Levi has enjoyed his time with family, from getting held almost all of the time, to playing with new toys. Though his interest in opening presents was mostly with the wrapping, particularly any ribbons on his presents. He got some very cute little outfits for Christmas and a slew of new toys, including a handmade Noah's ark with several more pairs of animals from Nanan and Papa (Tim's parents).


Levi's been making some new sounds, though some are because of the phlegm I think. He makes this laughing sound in the back of his throat that sounds like he's trying to clear it and/or choking. He keeps making the sound because he thinks its funny. He also makes little hissing sounds like a snake,
though sometimes he ends up just spitting drool that way :)

He's become very good at grabbing things between his thumb and forefinger, and particularly like to play with and chew on tags - no matter how small they are. And of course, picking items up to bang them back down again... or throw them on the floor, if he's in his high chair.

I don't have any photos of our time with Tim's family, but every other member of the family took lots of photos, so feel free to email some to me and I'll add them to this post folks!