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.

No Sprechen Sie Levi

Levi is incredibly conversational these days - he'll have entire verbal exchanges with us, his daycare teachers, sometimes other children, his crib, his toys, his food...

None of it is recognizable words, of course. Not even a "mama" or "dada." has come our way. I think he laughs at us when we try to convince him to take the developmental steps we think he should be on top of.

For example: walking. And yes, we've heard every parent tell us once they begin walking you wish they were less mobile. We know. But its so funny that Levi can stand completely unassisted, take steps like a pro while lightly holding our hands, even go from a squat to a stand while holding an NBA-size basketball. Yesterday, his teacher Miss Stacy tried to get him to walk all day, and he would pretend to start taking a step, and then put his foot down and laugh at her.

We had a fun July 4 - on the Sunday before, we were invited to a party by some friends from church. We decided to play it by ear to keep Levi up or not, depending how fussed he got. He was happy as a clam until about 9, and then just wanted to be held and the fireworks were starting around 9:30 so we figured we'd stay so he could watch.

Yeah. Levi spent most of the fireworks looking in the other direction. Many of the kids present had glo-sticks and were playing with them, and there were a lot of people around that he kept watching instead. We figure he doesn't really understand scale - fireworks about two inches high without the knowledge of perspective probably don't seem that impressive compared with whirling glo-sticks that are slightly larger.

Levi has also been embracing his love of water - we went on a visit to my grandma, known as GG for Levi, and he got to play in a wonderful little kiddie pool she had all ready and waiting for him. We also visited Baltimore for a day to spend time with one of my best friends, Katie, and he spent ages and ages in some fountains there. He was literally shivering and we finally lured him away to put on dry clothes.

The boy is back at daycare, as I'm now in my second week of work. He seems to be adjusting well again - we visited there several times a week while I was unemployed so he saw the kids and teachers regularly. His naps aren't as long, but he has a great time with everyone and I still go to visit him a couple of times a week on my lunch break.

(Tim would like me to put a note here telling people to stop reading if they'd like to avoid a bodily-function story below. Clearly he has retained his sense of dignity much more so than I have as a parent :)

Levi and I had an eventful experience on the way and while we were at my grandma's - though its not events I'd like to live through again. He had thrown up in the night without us realizing it (what kid throws up and goes back to sleep without crying? Our kid.) I had planned to leave around 8 on a Thursday for Long Island. We got going by about 8:30, and he was getting pretty hungry around 12:30 so we stopped somewhere east of the city for a bite. While heading down a residential street back to the expressway, I heard a funny coughing sound from the back seat - yep. More puke. The good news is that he had only eaten a banana, some crackers and some milk that day (he didn't eat any of his lunch). The bad news is that, well, we were driving on a 100-degree-day in the middle of some random neighborhood. I took him out and stripped him down, and then had to have him hang out in the passenger seat with the air conditioning on him full blast while I did my best to wipe down my seats, his carseat and buckle, the floor, etc. I was streaming with sweat and poor Levi was all upset, but I got him dressed and buckled back in, and I changed quick since he'd gotten it all over me (Did I take my shirt off on the sidewalk somewhere in New York? yes, yes I did.)

I hoped that was the end of it - Levi was still hungry and not terribly fussy, so we had a great afternoon playing in the pool and yard at my grandma's and then a yummy dinner.

However. (scary music cue). Around  4 a.m., I woke up because levi was suddenly rolling all over his crib in his sleep. I got up, checked him with the lights dimmed to see if he had puke all over his shirt, and he seemed fine. Then I turned the light on all the way. No, no there was no puke. But lets just say something else was all over his backside. And the crib. And his blanket and quilt. And a pillow. and in a moment...me. So...about 40 minutes later Levi was cleaned up, I was again in new clothes, I had hand-washed everything out and hung it on the line to dry, and had found him a pillowcase to cuddle with in place of blankets.

His virus changed the next day from a tummy bug to a fever, so we spent the rest of our time there cuddling him while he alternately cried and slept. My grandma was marvelous in making sure we had everything we needed, and Levi was mostly back to himself by Sunday afternoon. Which was good, because I started work the next day and couldn't stay home with him!

I'd share another funny story, but its about boogers and I feel like this post has already talked too much about bodily functions :)

Let's go to the beach

(intro ominous music) Levi. has learned to climb up and down stairs.

I love watching how his little mind works to figure things out. He's made the decision to climb up our stairs before if I ran upstairs to do something - he tried to follow me a couple of times. Then the gates came out.

But he mostly stays downstairs. He's not sure what to do or how to get down from the bottom step or the hearth, and he doesn't like getting stuck anywhere.

Doing laundry with mommy

However. Yesterday, in preparation for the heat-wave coming our way for the rest of this week, I was outside weeding while he stood next to me playing with our mulch. After about 45 minutes, he got bored and crawled back up the walkway to our back stoop, which has three concrete steps leading up to the door. he proceeded to climb the steps as I walked toward him. He sat on the top step and crowed for a minute, and then tried to get down - feet first, backwards, as he should, though its not something he's ever figured out before. He climbed right back up and then tried to come down a different way - head and hands first, but he got stuck between the first two steps. I picked him up and put him back on the top step with his feet facing backward. Levi then spend the next several minutes climbing up and down and up and down. I eventually got tired of standing next to him and I couldn't weed several yards away with him playing on the concrete, so we went inside to play instead.

Stealing mommies cookies

Levi has also started making Indian noises. I don't really know what else to call them - that's what we called them when I was in kindergarten. You make an "ahhh" sound and put your flat hand over your mouth over and over again to make the sound vibrate. He does that regularly now, and giggles at himself.

Still no walking yet. He had a couple of falls while practicing taking steps by himself on our hardwood floors, and now he's very careful to always hold onto something if he's trying to move.

Levi also has a new love of pillows. He'll play on our bed for ages while I'm getting ready for job interviews or networking meetings, just in a circle of pillows, falling on one after the other of them and laughing uproariously.

He's also becoming more frustrated and stubborn. Not that I can talk :) he has little tantrums when he can't get what he wants. If its just something he's not sure how to get because he's too little or can't figure it out, I tell him to have patience while I help him. If it's something he wants and knows he can't have, I put him on the floor to kick and scream until he's finished and will behave again. I don't have time to try to calm a nonsensical child down while they're trying to take out one of my eyes :)

But those aren't all the things Levi has been up to. While I've been out of work, we had some beautiful timing with one of Tim's cousins bringing her family over from England to visit for two weeks - with six year old and three year old daughters.

We started a few weeks ago by having a lovely picnic in the park near Tim's sister's house, and then heading out for some home-made ice cream at Lapp Valley Farm. We spent some time at a local baseball game, where it commenced to pour and soak some of us through and through. Levi liked helping to hold the umbrella up :) We went strawberry picking with our neighbors, Joelyn and her son Kai who's about 19 months old. Levi sat next to me and ate berries and then put the bits he didn't eat into a my bucket. and then he started crawling up and down the little aisles looking for more :)

At the beach!

We also headed out to New Jersey for a wedding I was in, and Levi got to spend some time with his great grandma, my aunt and my sister. The next day we headed to the beach where Levi enjoyed playing in the waves and the water, as we slathered him with sunscreen over and over again.

Then we headed up to New England for the week, spending a couple of days with Tim's fam and then a couple with mine. At Tim's parent's house we had a birthday party for his cousin Micah, who turned three. We spent some time out on Papa's boat, where Levi either slept or tried to get out of his life jacket. We also headed to the little beach on a lake up in New Hampshire, and spent more time in the water, played some mini golf where Levi crawled around and tried to put people's golf balls in the holes instead of letting them play. At my parent's house, he learned how to handle being in the same room as their puppy, Jack, and spent a day driving around the coast of Rhode Island. We had yummy Italian food, walked around the state park, saw some glass being blown and spent some time climbing on rocks outside of a light house. He actually got a little cut on his knee from all the rock climbing to play in some pools of water, ah boy children.

And now we're back home. I think by the time. we made it back home after a week and a day or so, Levi was super excited to just stay in one place. Whenever we run an errand and come home he gets all excited, kicking and waving his arms.

Levi, coming soon to a 5K near you

We've adapted the style of photo blogs recently, which are entertaining to say the least with Tim's captions. However, I must confess that somehow in the past couple of weeks we've completely failed to take photos. I tried to grab some yesterday but Levi kept crawling toward me and grabbing at the lens.

There have been a few major changes in our lives recently. Levi has been practicing standing without holding onto anything, and now seems to understand the concept of walking - we dashed around Lowe's today with me holding his hands and he taking big leaping steps. He might be running before he gets to walking...

However, my life seems to have gone into the opposite direction. I lost my job this past week unexpectedly, via  some staffing changes from a new editor. I've been, well, devastated. Both the jobs responsibilities and flexibility were a great fit for me, and I so loved being able to write full-time. So, in the meantime, I'll be staying home and taking care of the little man while I look for another job. For those wondering, I will be looking for something full-time, though when our family is bigger I might go part-time. I love the regular schedule of going to work and living a professional life matched with my family life.

But back to Levi :) I can't remember if I've posted that we've discovered he does not have a milk allergy! At his one-year appointment, his doctor said that if I've been eating cheese, ice cream and the like and feeding Levi, and he's had no reaction of any sort, then he's not likely to be allergic. So we've been having milk every day with every meal, and eating up yogurt, which he loves, and cheese sticks, and of course the cupcakes for his birthday. He does not like ice cream at all though -- he insists on trying it whenever I'm eating it but puckers his mouth because its cold whenever I let him try any. Ah well, more for me.

He came out in about the 10th percentile for weight, at 18.9 pounds, just under the 50th percentile for height at 29 inches. No worries about his weight, he's just a skinny man who started crawling right around the time he started to get meat on his bones.

Levi's also become quite the babbler. He has entire conversations with himself and I wish I knew what he was saying :) He also plays catch with himself. He throws his little plastic balls, they bounce a little ways away and then he crawls over to get them. He also has started to climb up on things - the hearth (and not know how to get down), and the first step at the bottom of the stairs. Oy.

Also, as the humidity thickens, his hair gets curlier and curlier. Though he looks like Tim, he's got my brother, Patrick's, little blond curls :)

Caaaaaaaaake*

What? Why is everyone smiling at me like that?

What the...? What are you doing?

Guys. Seriously. What is happening?

Oh.

Oh, I see.

Mom, let me... uh... see that a minute...

I'm just gonna see if...

MOWLF!

What? Now why is everyone smiling at me...

*Or, if you are Brynne Condon, "Taaaaaate"

Photos courtesy of Krista Casler

Levi's Second Year Begins

Yesterday was the first day of Levi's second year.  We're very proud of our little guy and what he's accomplished so far :)

Holly thinks he's starting to look more like a little boy and less like a baby.  I sort of agree... except I think he's beginning to look more like an old man with his pot-belly, skinny legs, and no butt whatsoever.  If we gave him a Hawaiian shirt and some Isotoners, people would think he was just an old midget.  At a retirement party, perhaps.*  His elderly physique is never more on display than when he's standing, which he does very often these days, we're happy to report.  Most of this standing is demonstrated at the new activity table that Grandma, Grumpy, and Auntie Sam got him for his birthday.

As you can tell from our gape-mouthed expressions, this is a VERY exciting table

Though Levi's party got rained out and postponed until this weekend, he still had a blast (as usual) with Holly's parents and sister in town.  We opened presents, went to market, went out to lunch, Levi flirted with the waitresses.  Pretty standard fare.  Levi has still not yet officially said any words, but I think if he could talk he would tell us he had a great birthday and a great first year.  Here are his memoirs, in caption-form:

Hey, everybody!  Thanks for readin' my birthday blog!

What's this in my hand, you ask?  Oh, just some developmental flash cards I got from daycare.  I'm right on track!
At least I think I am... I wish I could figure out how to eat these tasty-looking cards.

Speaking of eating... I could go for a snack right now....  Wait, what were we talking about again?

Ah, yes.  Reflecting on my lifetime achievements and gazing off in wonderment at what is yet to come.

Great things, I'm sure!  I love life!  Carpe Diem!

Mmmm... carpe.  My favorite.

*Hat-tip to Kara Prahl