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.