Tiny ones

We've all got a touch of a head cold these days, so just photos today!

Hilarity amongst the mess

So while friends were over Saturday afternoon, we were having pasta with meatballs for lunch. Levi, predictably, couldn't manage to keep his little bowl on the table. Right after Matt noticed that it might fall,

splat. hit the floor, with a good dose of marinara sauce on the fabric-covered seat on the way down. So after Levi picked up all the pasta and meat, helped me wipes off the floor, and i scrubbed as much sauce as I could get out of the chair, Levi climbed back up. As I walked back to the table after putting the disinfectant spray away, Theo, who was lounging in Tim's lap, leans over and yukes all over the floor. And then Levi climbs down from his seat, because he was done, and left a big red pasta sauce hand print on the fabric that I'd just scrubbed. And while I love having two tiny boys, sometimes there just isn't enough soap.

Theo is working on starting to pronounce some consonants like baba or mama - he's pretty good at trying to mimic us. When he's not drowning in drool, that is. He's taken to sucking on his bottom lip....not sure why, but it's pretty adorable. He's also almost at the point where he can scoot backwards a bit - his daycare teacher was trying to get him to try going forward today. I told her to stop, he's only six months old, I need a couple more months of no movement before I have two precocious children climbing the walls :) He also had his first taste of cereal this past week, as he is six months old today. He LOVED the spoon...and managed to dribble 95 percent of the cereal back out of his mouth, of course. But he was ecstatic about finally being allowed to grab something that looked like it had to do with eating - he's been reaching for our water glasses, utensils, plates, napkins, placemats, and table plant, for weeks now! We're going to try with him tilting back a bit in his bouncy seat next and see if we can get him to swallow any of it, ha.

Levi is proving to be very imaginative, which often ensues hilarity. Some recent conversations:



Levi: Mommy, see you later!

Me: Where are you headed?

Levi: To the office!

Me: Oh - what are you going to do at the office?

Levi: Eat pickles!



Talking with Daddy after Levi slipped and bonked his head on the floor:

Tim: Careful with your head, buddy, it's the only one you have.
Levi: I want another head.
Tim: You want a second head?
Levi: I want to take this one off and put on a different one.
Tim: But i like this one.
Levi: This one hurts. (so matter-of-fact about it, too)


When looking up at the globe we have sitting on a shelf in our living room:

Levi: a ball!

Me: That's right, do you know what shape that is?

Levi: A wrecking ball!

There are dozens more. He likes to pretend to be a racecar, which first involves collecting random items from around downstairs and "stowing" them on Theo's playmat. then he sits next to Theo crouched under the arches of the playmat and makes noises like he's careening around curves and coming to a dangerous stop, while launching himself left and right and sometimes overturning the playmat and/or letting piles of random things fall on Theo....


He's also getting quite good at remembering words from books - we often leave blank spots and he fills in the right details. Recent favorites include the Little Blue Truck, The Very Busy Spider, and Frog and Toad are Friends.

We had a lovely holiday season - a trip up to Tim's parent's house, freezing cold New Hampshire temperatures, and some fun times with family. The road trips were a bit grueling, but Tim's a trooper and drove late into the night/early morning each way. Theo - not so much of a trooper, but hey, I wouldn't want to sit in a carseat for hours on end either. We had some fun making ginger bread houses, cooking with Nannan, and playing endlessly with cousins. We went candle-pin bowling, a New England-specialty, and Levi had the time of his life :)

We spent New Year's as per our usual practice - in a nest of blanket's and pillows on the living room floor next to the wood stove, watching movies. We rented Turbo for Levi, who was hilariously named Theo, so now we call baby Theo Turbo occasionally :) We had delicious sushi made by Tim, and yep, I went to bed at 10 p.m. :)

Theo's becoming more engaging - he can hold grip toys and manipulate them into his mouth, and loves to hit and kick anything he can figure out how to reach. Or play with noisy things - I gave him a bag of ritz crackers that was mostly empty all rolled up and clipped, and he went to town on it the other night. He likes to play with his friends at school or church during tummy time - chatting and drooling together :)

Levi is starting to connect language he's heard elsewhere with new situations. He started saying "because" when he asks him why he is doing something, ha. he likes to give Theo toys....but he also likes to boss Theo around and tell him which toys to play with when. Ah being the eldest. He got some trucks and airplanes for Christmas that have little screws in them that he can take apart and put back together by himself - LOVES them. He also has at least two dozen new (or used) books from gifts. Two of them he has memorized already (Little Blue Truck and a Chuggington trains book).

And now for the pictures!

A Day in the Life

Life is busy with two kids, but always interesting! I thought I'd detail some common occurrences/conversations in our lives!

Weekday mornings (7 a.m.): Levi wanders out of his room, clutching two of the blankets from his bed. Tim

Theo's first Thanksgiving! 

and I are both almost ready to go, and I'm getting ready to feed Theo while sitting on our bed, and Levi wants to "sit on Daddy's side" so he drags his blankets over to Tim's side of the bed. He then refuses to pull our sheets and bedspread over him, but instead, runs back and forth from his room several times and drags his quilt, two pillows, sheepie, doggie, and a fleece blanket onto our bed. He then proceeds to jump and tumble all over with them, until I sit down with Theo, shouting "I jumping! My pillows!" :)

Levi almost always asks for some food after he wakes up, but since he gets a full breakfast at daycare and because he takes at least 45 minutes to eat breakfast every day, I give him a snack before we leave - usually two pretzels, because a bag of pretzels at that rate can last quite awhile :) Today, he asked for the pretzels shortly after he got up, and then sat in our bed munching on them while I fed Theo. (I know, crumbs in bed. It's OK. Reminds me to change and wash the sheets!) I went to grab a diaper for Theo after he was done nursing, and when I came back, Levi was pretending to feed Theo a pretzel. Exceeeeeept. Theo was moving his jaw kind of funny and then I realized Levi had NOT been just playing pretend. I

pounded on Theo's back (he wasn't actually choking, I just wanted to make sure nothing was on the back of his tongue) and stuck my finger in his mouth while I asked Levi if he put a pretzel in Theo's mouth, to which he answered a cheery "pretzel for Theo!!" Oy.

Levi is very interested in sharing his things with Theo, but the practice is not executed very well. He tends to put cars or trucks RIGHT next to Theo's face, or drop things in his lap, which fall down, or give Theo things just long enough for him to get his hand around and then say it's Levi's turn and take it back. Theo just drools away and watches him intently :).

At school: I race Levi to get in the car in the mornings. Tim's idea - one of his best ever! Levi will climb in on Theo's side, then hurry to climb into his seat while I put Theo's carseat in, and be sitting quietly ready to get

buckled by the time I walk around my car. On the way to school, Levi now asks to see a green trash truck, or a yellow school bus, or a red pickup truck, etc. On occasion, we actually see one of those in the 8-block ride :)

Levi pushes the buttons in the elevator on the way to his classroom, and then runs down the hall to his room. He hangs up his jacket, and puts his hat and mittens into his bucket, then goes to wash his hands for breakfast. He gives me kisses,which has somehow morphed into European-style air-kisses on one of my cheeks. Then I bring Theo to his room, where he's all smiles and gurgles and sometimes has tummy time on the floor with another little one a few weeks older.

I see Levi and Theo at lunch - Levi tells me what he had for lunch (peaches, mommy! This kid would eat his

weight in peaches every day if he could) and Theo grins at me while he eats.

In the evening: Tim usually has Theo in the ergo because with no set nap schedule, by the end of the day he's a little whingey and just wants someone to hold him. We chat and play while Tim gets dinner ready. Levi is often outside (even in this chilly weather) playing with his trucks, tools, or building stuff. If it's too dark, he's inside, usually driving a truck or a train around (delivery mommy! A red car! Beep beep!) or building airplanes or trash trucks or trains or castles out of his Mega Bloks*. When dinner's ready, Theo sits in the bumbo and drops his toys over and over again, and gets drool all over the table while he tries to lean ever closer to our plates. Levi sits in his seat and disdains utensils for his hands instead. Pretend is getting to be a big part of his life right now, and the other night he ate all of his carrots - after pretending they were racecars and driving all over his placemat. Tim tried to ask him something a couple of times, but each time Tim started talking, Levi broke into loud "Oooooooo eeeeeee ooooo eeeee" - apparently a car alarm or ambulance sound is the same as racecars, in Levi's world. After dinner, Levi clears his plate and then "time for trucks" i.e. plays some more.

After things are cleaned up, it's time to "read books" which is how we introduce bed time. Levi LOVES to

read books, so its a nice transition. He picks out his jammies himself, and prefers dinosaurs, if he has any of those clean. Sometimes we put Theo in jammies also with dinosaurs on them, per Levi's request. After brushing our teeth, Levi picks out a book or two. Current favorites include Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, Caps for Sale, Where's Spot, and a variety of truck and train books from the library. Levi will ask many times to read more than a couple of books, until we get up to leave because it's bed time and then he'll shout "Prayers!" Except one time for some reason I couldn't figure out what he was saying and I asked if he was saying Bears or Hair or Bees....duh. He says Thank you Jesus for anything from trucks to his teachers to what he had for dinner, and then stays up on his bed talking to himself and pretending to read books for awhile.

Theo usually cuddles with us while we're back downstairs puttering around. He prefers to cuddle with me, because he knows where the food's at, so sometimes when I give him to Tim, he starts bawling :/ But I usually feed him one more time and then hand him over to Tim to chat with him for awhile. Theo will start fussing a little bit and nuzzling his head into Tim's chest, and then Tim will take him upstairs and put him in his crib with his Patriots blanket.



*which should not be casually referred to as Legos.