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).