The end of babydom

You know how in the morning when you first wake up, sometimes you stumble into doorways, trip over things that have always stood in the same spot, forget about 50 percent of what you were supposed to remember to do in the morning and by some miracle, make it to work/daycare/school/playdate/etc. mostly on time? And then by around 10 a.m., close to four hours after you wake up, you suddenly start feeling alert after you've finished 20 ounces of coffee, read about 30 emails and remembered all the things you forgot this morning? No? is no one else like that (I'm looking at you, Mrs. Gavel)?

So guess who else is like that in the morning - minus the to-do list and the coffee. Yep, your favorite non-Jewish Levi. Every morning at about 7:30 I wake him up to get ready for the day, and about 75 percent of the time he's still dead asleep. He hears me open the door and turn on the light, and rolls over to get up. It takes him at least two tries to stand up. When he does, he tends to ram into the side of his crib and fall over again. I'm not even kidding - in a crib with rails every inch and a half he can grab onto to stand up, he mostly falls over in the mornings. And yes, he inherits that from me. Some other people in this household get up the first time their alarm goes off and run off to the gym - gross.

With a card from GiGi

Levi has changed SO MUCH in only the past few weeks, really. In early April, we took him on a flight to England and he was small, cuddly, could stand but was nowhere near walking, etc. In summation - in the last stages of babydom. Now? oy. Oy in good ways and challenging ways. He rarely eats a meal without throwing most of it on the floor. He constantly grabs at things he knows he can't have. He constantly stands on things (chairs, diaper change table, grocery store cart) that he knows he's not allowed to stand on. He tries to run everywhere at top speed. But he also does other big boy things - he puts his clothes in the hamper at the end of every day. He helps mommy with the dishes. He is starting to put his toys away. He will walk straight from the sidewalk after you take him out of the car up to the front door. He points at things he wants or wants you to tell him about. And, oh yes, he puts gravel in his hair :)

Levi spends a lot of his time trying to figure out how things work (yes Dad, I can hear you saying "he'd be a good engineer"). When we unplug the outlet protectors to plug in a cell phone charger, he finds the outlet protector and tries to put it back. He spent a half hour last night trying to get the top to my to-go coffee mug back on. He tries to put things back the way they started after he takes them apart, and even when encountering new things, he still tries to find out how exactly they're supposed to work.

He also loves. and I mean loves. all things water. He tries to jump in fountains he sees, and at a church picnic recently, he did a nose dive into the pool. Tim was right next to him, but it makes me happy that I signed him up for swimming lessons. They say (well, OK, my mom always said) that you should expose kids to water early in life. And I think (OK, also, she thinks and now its ingrained in me) that everyone should know how to swim. not dog paddle - swim. And Lancaster offers affordable classes through the city recreation program that are way cheaper than the Y, hurrah!

At Levi's first major league experience - Phillies vs. D-backs

We actually took a lot of photos for once, so there is a good chance Tim might be back soon with a photo narration post!

Movin' on up

Success! We have a stepping little boy! He apparently decided that yes, in fact, he can get from point a to point by standing on two feet. I guess that’s what all these tall people do every day.

I wonder a little bit if he isn’t slightly genius. His daycare class is made up of children all born within about two months of each other, except for a couple of babies. He was the only one of the six older kids who wasn’t trundling around on two feet – the rest were all running everywhere by now. However, right around 15 months is when they start moving up to the next class room, depending on their ability to cope (sometimes younger ones go long before older kids if they can adjust more easily).

As of today, only two of the other five kids are still in Levi’s class. One of them is only there a couple of days a week, and the other is a little girl who only started walking a couple of weeks ago herself. I think Levi was waiting until he could be the big impressive little boy with his steps, the man on top of the mountain, as it were, and not be lost in the group of toddlers who’d been walking for ages, that’s old news bro.

But nonetheless, he now has some stepping power!

The little man also has begun mimicking sounds and sort of words. Still no mama or dada language, but he has a book we keep in the car that makes various animal noises, and in the mornings on the way to daycare I can hear him trying to copy the sounds.

It’s made me realize how many sounds I myself make – sometimes he’ll copy me with a little ditty or word I was saying – well, copy as closely as he can.

Levi is more and move loving to discover how things work. If we have a cord plugged into one of our outlets, he comes over with the outlet cover we would normally have there and tries to unplug the cord to put the outlet cover back. Safety first! He loves the wooden puzzles where you put pieces in the carved out spots, or putting lids on his cups or bowls. He'll try to find the right hole for any sort of small toy - he put a cork in a decorative jug without any direction while we were visiting a friends' house today. 

He also can make his own fountains :) In the tub, he'll take our green pour cup and half-fill it with water, and then shake it so the water comes out in spurts, like a fountain! We call it the Levi fountain. 

In some not so great news, Levi's skin is not so great. He has apparently inherited my skin, which can be uber sensitive and prone to excema. Anywhere he gets kind of sweaty and then scratches, or that rubs (see: waistline of diaper), he gets a red rash that takes several days without sweating or scratching to heal. And since its above 90 degrees every day, he's had rashes on and off since Memorial Day when the heat index started being so unreasonable. 

We had a visit a couple of weekends ago with Tim's best friend from childhood, Ryan, his wife Jen, and their five-month-old, Declan. Levi is actually not much bigger than Declan, but more mobile. And Levi doesn't sleep as much, unfortunately. We spend a weekend on a cabin overlooking one of the fingerlakes, with a wrap-around deck and big picture windows. We used to go camping with them every summer, but with small children we've graduated to air-conditioned cabins :)

Levi had his 15-month doctor's appointment last week (!!! how can he be so old!) He's 22.6 pounds, in the about 20th percentile, and 30.5 inches tall, in the 40th percentile or so. So he's not growing up quite as fast, and becoming heavy enough to give my arm quite a workout when I carry him around. One of my junior high girls asked me if my arms are ever sore from carrying him, and I was like, YES. all the time. Good news though, I went back to the gym about a month ago and have been going at least three days/week, so I'm starting to get more in shape, and hopefully my arms won't hurt as much. I did a CrossFit workout on Thursday though, and I'm still hurting Saturday afternoon. Apparently it takes more than 4 weeks to get back in shape, man.