Saturday, September 22, 2012

Little Pumpkin


There are many reasons to have children: getting other people to take care of your home and yard for you, giving someone the responsibility to care for you in your old age, and the most important: entertainment.

Levi is constantly entertaining us. Yesterday while we were sitting on the front porch, Levi kept walking around and around in a circle, essentially running laps, and cracking up every time he rounded another...corner of our porch. Somehow, it's hilarious. One day he very carefully put the pieces of bacon we gave him for dinner on top of a dishcloth, which was on top of his sippy cup. When we handed him the bacon again to eat, he delicately put it back on the cloth....yes. He seems to have such intensive reasoning processes and conversations in his unknown language, and it's so funny :)

Helping Daddy cook
Recently, we turned Levi's carseat around to face forward. Safety standards recommend to face backward until kids turn two, so we were aiming to keep him that way as long as possible, but we're pretty sure he gets carsick. He's randomly thrown up three times (aside from when he actually had a tummy virus) in the car. The good news? Tim and I can clean up Levi, area of the incident, and be back to business in only a few minutes now. The bad news? That's not a skill we really want to have.

Yay for hugs!
Oh - but why I was explaining that originally was to tell you Levi's new habit of straining as high as he can to see out of the windshield. Tim calls it Levi's "peeking" face. I never had a mirror that worked in my car to see him while I drove, so this is pretty exciting. I turn around at red lights all the time to say hi. He either has his peeking face on or his "zoning because I'm in a car and now I'm super tired" face. Both equally funny.

Related to that, Levi has been sick to his stomach pretty often over the past few weeks. Once he actually had a little virus, but he's been throwing up pretty regularly at night - just once each night, two or three nights a week. He's not fussy, he's fine during the day, nothing at all seems to be wrong. So we're thinking it could be one of two things: either acid reflux, or celiac (inability to process wheat products). We've been tracking what he eats, and eliminated carbs for dinner in case its the former. He actually hasn't thrown up since we eliminated carbs and made sure he eats at least an hour before bed, so we'll see how it goes. We'll chat with his doctor about it at his next appointment, or sooner if it seems to be worsening. He's already got some seasonal and environmental allergies from my side of the family; we were hoping to avoid the food issues from Tim's.

What's the deal with that, anyway? I thought your kids were supposed to get the best qualities you have. Levi has: my stinky feet, the habit I have of making noises to narrate everything I'm doing; Tim's (previous) tendency to eat and eat until he's a little sick to his stomach, and more that I can't think of right now Not that he also doesn't have good qualities, but couldn't we just remove the not-so-great qualities of genetics when we reproduce?

Levi's newest love is markers. Sometimes drawing with them. Other times just putting the caps on and off, which he can't really do by himself, so he brings them over to us to do that. He also prefers to color on papers that are already colored on, rather than a new piece of construction paper.

We had our first swimming lessons with Levi today, which he of course loved. For the first time in his life, he seemed to stop kicking though, which was ironic I guess. he did like the jumping off of the side part and playing with the kickboard. Aaaaand got rowdy when we were trying to leave, of course.

Fall is my favorite time of year - it makes me SO energized and happy. I keep thinking of fall activities we can do, and fall decorations. Last weekend we went apple picking with friends, and Levi LOVED it. he picked some of the apples himself, and also ate an apple for the first time - usually he doesn't eat them cut up, but he was all over chomping on a whole apple for a couple of hours. I made two pies for a work party, which were delicious of course, and we brought some extras home to snack on - Ida Reds, very tasty.










Thursday, September 6, 2012

More: cuteness.






I have a confession: the idea of dressing Levi up in a costume for Halloween I think is the best thing ever. I imagine him dressed up as a cute little lion or tiger, or maybe a little sailor outfit. But  while visiting Wendy's on the way home from Gigi's this past weekend, we hit the jackpot Halloween idea: Where's Waldo! Wendy's kids' meal toy was a little set of glasses. Or rather, two sets...which might have been a fluke. But isn't he the cutest thing you've ever seen!








First taste of sushi!
Speaking of the cutest thing ever, Levi now reads books to himself almost every night. After brushing our teeth and getting ready for bed, we sit in his chair and read one story before lights out. And after I read the story out loud to him, he takes the book and starts turning pages, talking out loud to himself, pointing at pictures  and chatting about what's on the pages. Also the cutest thing ever :)



We had a big accomplishment while riding in the car on Long Island this past weekend - Levi finally signed the word "more." We've been trying to teach him a handful of signs for about 9 months now, focusing mainly on the words "more" and "all done" so we know what he wants when he's yelling or throwing food at mealtimes. In the car on the way to the beach, I was asking (sitting in the back next to him) if he wanted more goldfish crackers, and he signed it correctly (some kids just clap their hands or make a fist with one hand but have an open palm in the other)! He also will sometimes copy us when we add "please" or "thank you" signs before or after giving him food. So it seems that Levi is good at doing things well, just....after awhile. Someone asked me at a party how long he'd been walking because he's so sturdy on his feet, and the answer was three weeks. I can't blame him, I hate doing things unless I'm good at them - so he's just watching and waiting until he's sure he'll be successful :)

We've been traveling the past couple of weekends - first for a weekend with my family in the Hudson Valley. My brother is a camp director off the Taconic Parkway, and he booked a couple of hotel-style rooms for us and the rest of the crew to stay in for the weekend. We all showed up after dinner on Friday night, and then spent Saturday hitting up a semi-famous (and expensive) county fair there. We got our (OK, my dad's) money's worth even though it was pretty nasty out in the direct sunlight: we saw big horses and little ponies in the ring, watched some dirt bike jumps, ate fresh apple cider donuts, apples, and fresh peaches, went on a couple of legit rides, ate fair food, saw baby farm animals, watched a Frisbee dog display, and saw contests of dogs jumping into water (deck dogs I think it was called?). All kinds of stuff. And ended the day with some yummy milkshakes and a dip in the camp's lake.

We also went to visit my grandma, now known as GiGi (for great grandma) and spent time at the beach and playing in her yard. I brought some finger painting craft stuff, but Levi either wanted to spill the finger paints or to eat them. sooo...at least we talked about the colors. Levi loves playing in the ocean, of course, and while we were at one beach on the bay side (read: teeny tiny waves and a sandbar that Levi could have walked out on himself for quite a ways), he just sat right down in the water and played with the tiny pebbles in the sand. He will also play with his sand toys, but its a distant second, and if he could see the water he tended to walk toward it. And when standing in the water on the non-bay side, he kept trying to walk farther and farther in, even as the waves crashed and washed up to his waist. Swimming lessons start the week after next :)


Visiting GiGi was, of course, fabulous. Delicious food, great company, the beach, and getting to sleep in while she watched the little man :) He's become kind of addicted to his little sandals. We can't put them on fast enough in the mornings for him (he shoves the second one at my face while I'm trying to push his toes into the first) and he not only insists that he put them on every time he notices them by the door or by his changing table, but he brings us our own shoes to put on. Even if we've just taken our shoes off, he keeps bringing them back to be put on. It's a good thing I own about 50 pairs or shoes :)