Living the Country Life: Levi

Levi loves to be independent. Unless there is something that I want/need to do, then he is the neediest child on the planet. I remember Charlie being this impatient at this age too so I know it is a phase but man he is an expert at pulling on my leg, getting between me and whatever I'm trying to do and ultimately getting his own way most of the time. Really though, Levi is just a little sweetie. He's friendly with pretty much everyone and loves giving out hugs, kisses, waves, etc. As long as mama is within sight all is well in Levi's world. When Charlie gets upset about something Levi will drop everything & take Charlie is blankies & his sippy. It's just too sweet. He has started to be cry a little bit when he gets dropped off at daycare. By the time they get to the toy room he is just fine. It's worse on days Charlie has school. Cheri says he's always waiting by the gate when Charlie gets back & gets so excited to see him. But at home, I think he would be perfectly content if I just held him & carried him around 24/7.

This month has brought a continuous round of illnesses. Poor guy seems to get about 3-4 days off from a fever or runny nose before he comes down with something else. Pretty much constantly since Labor Day. No fun. And of course he passes absolutely everything to Charlie. It could be a long winter around these parts. The worst one was a fever that that turned into 2-3 days of the worst drooling I have ever seen. His entire shirt was drenched. When Charlie caught this particular illness we took him in for a strep test because he had white spots in his mouth. It was negative but we are certain Levi had the same thing which resulted in so much drool.

Not teething- just drool. And refusing to wear a bib.

He's saying a ton of words now. The biggest development has been him saying "I want ____" (insert 'nana, "nack", miiiiilk, MAMA, etc, etc). He tries to repeat most words we say and he's picking up new words left & right. He calls Charlie "Cha-Cha" and it is adorable. I would say "cha-cha" and "mama" are by far his most said words. One funny thing is that he will say most words but he will always sign "please" and "thank you" instead of even attempting to say it. He also likes to say pee-pee and sit on the potty before his bath. He hasn't went in the potty yet & I'm in no rush, as long as he trains as easy as Charlie did eventually :) It might be fun to make a list of all of his words, but it probably won't happen - I'm sure it's way over 50 words he knows. And I can't remember how much Charlie was talking at this age.

He continued to dislike the highchair with the tray on it. If we pushed the high chair up to the table he would just push himself back. We tried Charlie's booster for awhile but since it doesn't have a stray he wouldn't sit down. Molly & Ryan let us borrow the booster seat that came with Haiden's high chair. It works perfectly! It sits up high enough that he can sit at the table (we have a booster at grandpa & grandma's but it doesn't sit up high enough) & it has straps to contain him. So happy to have found this solution until he can sit in the booster Charlie uses & sit still! He's still a picky eater and sorts through his food. He doesn't like his food mixed together & prefers using big people utensils. We got him to eat spaghetti squash & he doesn't complain. His stand by foods are the same - fruit, yogurt, pancakes, all carbs. He also really likes stealing my bacon every morning. He also does excellent drinking out of a cup as long as we don't put much in there.

His favorite accessory is the step stool. He drags it all around the house to get whatever he wants. Anything we don't want him to have needs to go in a cupboard otherwise he will get it. One of his favorite past times is to fill up cups with water from the fridge. Anytime he finds a cup he'll take off and fill it up. He also will try to pull the stool out from Charlie & take it away. As you can imagine, that goes over really well. I haven't decided if he will leave the Christmas tree along this year or not...

The boys are starting to fight a little bit more & 99% of their scuffles are over toys of course. They both want to have the exact same thing but right now it's easy to redirect Levi with something else. I'm sure that will end sometime. But they are both really good with each other most of the time. Charlie is patient & Levi is always so happy to see him! They've been playing "ring around the rosey" a lot and it's so fun to watch them. He's starting to dance a lot more which is hilarious and he tries really hard to do somersaults too. Otherwise they spend a lot of time playing farm - combining, driving tractors & playing with blocks. He is pretty good at trying to avoid picking up his toys though :)

Finally started saying "cheese" & smiling for pictures. Just squints his eyes closed & grins.

Still going to bed around 7 after reading lots of books. His favorite books are the Little Golden Books "The New Puppy" (and he loves yelling "NO" during all of those parts) and still "Bambi's Hide & Seek" and all farm related books. Depending on how tired he is determines how many books we read - he'll pile them all up but push most of them away if he's really tired. He also likes when Charlie reads with us & then we sing. He loves the "choo choo" song we sing at ECFE (the 4 times we have went) & twinkle twinkle. Still Getting up around 7am but usually he is awake between 5-6am but he will fall back to sleep unless Charlie busts in there. Taking a decent nap in the afternoon. At daycare, he's napping in the pack & play in the toy room now with the big kids. I'm sure he thinks he's big stuff. He also likes to lay on the couch, floor or on his toybox with this blankie & pretend to sleep.