Celebrating our Levi!

Today was a full day! We planted grass seed in our front lawn and weeded the garden this morning, then went to the park on HF to play for a couple of hours. Adam threw the parachute guys for Drake and a bunch of other kids, Adam and Drake (and then Adam and I) played catch, and Levi ran and climbed to his little heart's content. After that, we headed home for Levi's nap, during which Adam and I finished up Levi's cake and wrapped gifts (seems like we're always procrastinators!)...and generally prepared for his little party.

After the birthday boy woke up, the festivities began - only Levi wasn't in the best of moods. The first thing he wanted when he came downstairs was to play with one of the balloons we'd hung up, which promptly popped and scared him! It took him a little while to recover from that. Opening gifts seemed to stress him out, too. He finally relaxed a little more when it was time for cake and ice cream, even blowing out his own candle (to his - and our - surprise)!

Then with a full belly, he set out to play with some of his new gifts, specifically his wooden stacking vehicles from our favorite Alaskans, and his new "road rug" from Gr & Gr S. "Buddy" and Daddy played dart guns with some of Drake's awesome new Nerf darts he received for his 6-1/2 year birthday (Drake and Levi are exactly 4-1/2 years apart, to the day...so Drake got a little gift too). Anyway, the dart game escalated (which you can probably imagine if you've spent any time around Adam and Drake) and pretty soon they had set up a small target shooting range on the coffee table with little road signs from a wooden vehicle set that Levi was playing with on his new road mat. At least a solid hour was spent after that with all three of them very involved in the target shooting game! Levi doled out ammunition while the big guys shot the two Nerf guns...then when all 25 darts had been expended, Drake and Levi would run and collect them all and set the signs back up to be shot again. What fun!

Anyway, I have SO many pictures I want to post from today, but only a limited amount of time...so you're getting the condensed version on the photo end, for sure. It was a full and eventful day, and we spent it cherishing our youngest son and brother - how blessed we are to have our Levi in this family!

Always my helper, this one will do any chore I ask - even picking up his toys - with enthusiasm! He really wanted to rake the topsoil this morning, but I thought a pushbroom might be a better choice for him, and he was willing to compromise!

Big Bro got the honor of raking, which he seemed to enjoy...at least for a little while!

Bucky seeding the lawn

Keepin' everything Even Steven...

My darling baby, you are adorable!

At the park - Drake and Daddy played catch for a little while.

Climbing with some help from Mommy!

Ready to blow out the candle on his car cake! (Check out the flames...it was a fun cake to make!)

Setting up the "targets"!

The shooting game!! I have so many pictures from this (and video too) that I might blog about it again another day if I get a chance. It was hilarious!

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We are so thankful for Levi and his role in our family - what a joy he is! Tomorrow morning at 6:11 he will officially be two years old. But if you ask him, "How old are you?" he will already answer, "Two!"...we've been practicing for a week now!

Playground!

This morning, the boys and I met some MOPS friends at a local playground. This particular playground is in the middle of a shopping center parking lot! Half of the playground has regular play equipment, and the other half has a splash pad on it. Drake is one of those kids who is slow to "warm up" to some things, and water parks are one of those things. He never did warm up to the idea of playing at the splash pad today, so we stayed on the "dry" side of the playground. It was so hot, though...even I wanted to make a couple of dashes through the water! (Notice that the boys were strippin' by the end! Believe me - I would have, too, if I could. Those darn indecent exposure laws!)

Drake the climber

Levi wants to be a big boy, too!

Crawling over to the slide

Now, if he could only figure out how to get up there!

On the climbing wall...

...and climbing up!

A hot and sweaty baby! Eventually Levi was stripped down to his diaper and crawling around. I actually had a lady I didn't know come and ask me about cloth diapering! So that was kinda cool. :)

One last climb up for Big Bro before it was time to go home for lunch - and a nap for the cranky, smaller one! ;)

So all in all it was a pretty fun morning. We're having our MOPS family picnic for the summer this coming Saturday, so I'll be seeing these ladies/kiddos again soon, plus the daddies. There is this one particular mom who has a baby 2 weeks younger than Levi, and she has always seemed to relish in "kid competition" with me. And of course, with Levi still not walking at almost 17 months, there's no contest here! I feel bad because I cringed when I saw her today. It didn't take much small talk before she commented, "Wow, he's STILL not walking? He's sure taking his time, isn't he?" So what am I supposed to say to that? I agreed that he was indeed taking his time, and assured her that he was just on his own little time table - all children are different - and that I wasn't too concerned about his development. Her son is like Drake when he was a baby, and was one of those early walkers, like before his first birthday, so he's of course running circles around us.

Sigh. Seeing the two of them next to each other put this little seed of doubt in my mind. Is Levi really okay, like I've truly believed until this point? But 18 months seems to be the cutoff before the doctors start getting alarmed and writing referrals to who-knows-where. Come on, Levi. A month to go...let's get to walkin' already! ;) But seriously, I must remind myself that even when I'm unsure, God has it all under control. A beloved pastor we had at our last assignment used to encourage us to wonder, "What is God up to?" And when you look at it from that perspective, any problem or trial can look like an adventure instead of a concern.