No Sprechen Sie Levi

Levi is incredibly conversational these days - he'll have entire verbal exchanges with us, his daycare teachers, sometimes other children, his crib, his toys, his food...

None of it is recognizable words, of course. Not even a "mama" or "dada." has come our way. I think he laughs at us when we try to convince him to take the developmental steps we think he should be on top of.

For example: walking. And yes, we've heard every parent tell us once they begin walking you wish they were less mobile. We know. But its so funny that Levi can stand completely unassisted, take steps like a pro while lightly holding our hands, even go from a squat to a stand while holding an NBA-size basketball. Yesterday, his teacher Miss Stacy tried to get him to walk all day, and he would pretend to start taking a step, and then put his foot down and laugh at her.

We had a fun July 4 - on the Sunday before, we were invited to a party by some friends from church. We decided to play it by ear to keep Levi up or not, depending how fussed he got. He was happy as a clam until about 9, and then just wanted to be held and the fireworks were starting around 9:30 so we figured we'd stay so he could watch.

Yeah. Levi spent most of the fireworks looking in the other direction. Many of the kids present had glo-sticks and were playing with them, and there were a lot of people around that he kept watching instead. We figure he doesn't really understand scale - fireworks about two inches high without the knowledge of perspective probably don't seem that impressive compared with whirling glo-sticks that are slightly larger.

Levi has also been embracing his love of water - we went on a visit to my grandma, known as GG for Levi, and he got to play in a wonderful little kiddie pool she had all ready and waiting for him. We also visited Baltimore for a day to spend time with one of my best friends, Katie, and he spent ages and ages in some fountains there. He was literally shivering and we finally lured him away to put on dry clothes.

The boy is back at daycare, as I'm now in my second week of work. He seems to be adjusting well again - we visited there several times a week while I was unemployed so he saw the kids and teachers regularly. His naps aren't as long, but he has a great time with everyone and I still go to visit him a couple of times a week on my lunch break.

(Tim would like me to put a note here telling people to stop reading if they'd like to avoid a bodily-function story below. Clearly he has retained his sense of dignity much more so than I have as a parent :)

Levi and I had an eventful experience on the way and while we were at my grandma's - though its not events I'd like to live through again. He had thrown up in the night without us realizing it (what kid throws up and goes back to sleep without crying? Our kid.) I had planned to leave around 8 on a Thursday for Long Island. We got going by about 8:30, and he was getting pretty hungry around 12:30 so we stopped somewhere east of the city for a bite. While heading down a residential street back to the expressway, I heard a funny coughing sound from the back seat - yep. More puke. The good news is that he had only eaten a banana, some crackers and some milk that day (he didn't eat any of his lunch). The bad news is that, well, we were driving on a 100-degree-day in the middle of some random neighborhood. I took him out and stripped him down, and then had to have him hang out in the passenger seat with the air conditioning on him full blast while I did my best to wipe down my seats, his carseat and buckle, the floor, etc. I was streaming with sweat and poor Levi was all upset, but I got him dressed and buckled back in, and I changed quick since he'd gotten it all over me (Did I take my shirt off on the sidewalk somewhere in New York? yes, yes I did.)

I hoped that was the end of it - Levi was still hungry and not terribly fussy, so we had a great afternoon playing in the pool and yard at my grandma's and then a yummy dinner.

However. (scary music cue). Around  4 a.m., I woke up because levi was suddenly rolling all over his crib in his sleep. I got up, checked him with the lights dimmed to see if he had puke all over his shirt, and he seemed fine. Then I turned the light on all the way. No, no there was no puke. But lets just say something else was all over his backside. And the crib. And his blanket and quilt. And a pillow. and in a moment...me. So...about 40 minutes later Levi was cleaned up, I was again in new clothes, I had hand-washed everything out and hung it on the line to dry, and had found him a pillowcase to cuddle with in place of blankets.

His virus changed the next day from a tummy bug to a fever, so we spent the rest of our time there cuddling him while he alternately cried and slept. My grandma was marvelous in making sure we had everything we needed, and Levi was mostly back to himself by Sunday afternoon. Which was good, because I started work the next day and couldn't stay home with him!

I'd share another funny story, but its about boogers and I feel like this post has already talked too much about bodily functions :)