Are you still there smiley?

We're working on more sign language, since Levi is starting to use the few he knows regularly. He uses more, all done, please, and now thank you pretty often (sometimes it takes prompting). Also: touchdown. We're working on "help" next. And we're also working on using our words - mainly to say "mama" if he needs something, rather than whining or yelling.

We're also still working on identifying body parts. So far he's pretty good at eyes, nose, and occasionally ears. And of course - his belly. If you ask for his belly he'll lift up his shirt like a good little streaker for you.

Levi has fully entered the gaping, confused look photo stage. He still smiles regularly, but the moment the camera is turned on him bam. slack jawed, vacant eyes, wondering where exactly he is and what exactly he's doing.

He'll spend hours (well, OK, minutes, but he's only a year and a half old, so minutes are kind of like hours) playing with a piggy bank. Putting the coins in one by one, then taking out the rubber plug and starting all over again. Thanks Nannan and Papa for the England present.

We got Levi his own monster slippers for Christmas (Tim's family did Christmas the day after Thanksgiving this year), because he's constantly taking ours off our feet to play with. He loves them :)

 Best we could do for a semi-smiling photo. Thanks for the super cute vest, Auntie Kara and Uncle Matt!

You can't see it in the photo, but Levi's three older (boy) cousins are all playing in the leaves in front of him. He loves to play and hang out, but when he's first getting used to people, he'll just stand and stare for awhile. Like so.

Remember when most of your time as an older sibling was spent keeping the younger kids OUT of your PERFECTLY CONSTRUCTED Legos? No? Just me then? Or - if you're more like Tim, remember when your days consisted entirely of food, cartoons, and Legos, with the occasional short trip to school as an interruption? Anyway, Levi discovered Legos over the holiday weekend. Or rather - when you hit them, they fall apart. He dutifully said "uh-oh" every time, however, that does not translate to actually being sorry.

Playing with Papa and Nannan's brilliant present (more below). He opened that one first....and was pretty content to play with just that one for the rest of the gift opening :)

A toy which entirely involves opening and closing doors after you figure out how to unlock them? Maybe Levi will have a career as a safe cracker and be in a future Italian Job movie!

Reading his new noisy book with Nannan! Levi actually picks out his own book every night and sits quietly in my or Tim's lap to read it.

Maybe on the way to a smile? Maybe?

Levi likes to do all things mommy and daddy do - including dishes, cooking, putting things away, brushing his teeth, etc. I may have had to use three towels to soak up the water on the floor after this last bout of washing the dishes.

Photo bomb by chef Timmy at the end!

Thanks to Auntie Krista for taking marvelous photos in general.

Levi-isms

We thought we'd share with you a few new things for Levi that Tim and I find particularly hilarious :)

First - we've been teaching Levi to fist-bump. It takes him awhile to grab on to new skills, but once he gets it, he uses it non-stop. He waves hello, goodbye, thank you, good to see you, etc. waving = most forms of communication for Levi. He high-fives at least three times every time you ask him, and sometimes just starts hitting your hand when you didn't realize it was high-five time. He also signs "please" regularly now, almost every time he signs "more." Manners matter :)

He also tries to wear our shoes nowadays. Not all of our shoes, only certain pairs. He'll go grab them from where they are, put them on the floor, and then circle them, researching the best plan of attack for putting his foot in. Occasionally he can actually walk in the shoes. Or - maybe just one.

Levi can also play on part of our local playground by himself. He climbs up the four steps to the kiddie slide, switches his legs around, and pushes himself down! He even scootches forward to get off the slide onto the mulch below by himself. I forgot the camera today to get pictures of that, but we'll grab some soon.

Right now he has taken everything out of the three kitchen drawers he can reach - tupperware lids, measuring spoons/baking utensils, and plastic bags. And he's mad he can't get to the fourth, and only drawer missing from his schemes. Our kitchen floor is covered. And he's walking around chucking all of the above to decorate it more fully :)

Levi has also discovered stickers - he's been on top of coloring with markers for awhile, but we had some in a Halloween thing, and he started sticking them all over me. He also likes to stick the tape and labels on the Christmas presents I've been wrapping. He's a good little sticker-man.

I should say that Levi is good at coloring on paper...and on people. We make sure he's not going to town on the walls/floors/carpet/furniture/toys, (though I did find chalk randomly on the wall by our backdoor yesterday), and he's usually pretty good about it. I figured skin is fine, so long as he asks permission first (I can see his daycare teachers now with green marker on their faces...). And what is the best body part to color on, you ask? Why, his belly, of course! And mommy's too, shouldaseenthatcoming.

We had some fun family events in the past couple of weeks - Halloween and trick-or-treating, picking out our Christmas tree, and a visit from the fabulous (and favorite) Katie!

He's also slowly figuring out how things like doorknobs, some of his put the right shape in the right hole toys, and other such problem-solving things work. If a door handle is lever-style, he's got it figured out. He knows our old-school doorknobs turn, but he can't figure out quite how they work. (good. hasn't reached adult-level intelligence quite yet, at 18-months old).