Outdoor fun

The weather here has been just beautiful! Finally, I can open doors and windows in the morning and evening to let in some fresh air without turning our house into an oven! Yesterday after school, the boys and I went outside to play in the backyard and beyond. Drake's friend/neighbor/classmate Tyler was outside, too, so the boys had some fun together! Here, Levi is showing off his walking skills. The big boys were taking turns getting Levi to walk to them. He's getting better all the time...

Did you catch the part at the end where Tyler got grossed out by Levi's drool? ("Ewww"...while wiping his arm on his shorts! So cute!)

And here's another little clip of them all bouncing together! Gotta get those wiggles out!

Anyway, we had a good time playing outside. I also took quite a few still pictures, which I'll be sure to post soon.

Big day for a little boy

I'm only allowing myself a couple of minutes to post today, but I just want to give a quick update on Levi. His "dreaded" 18-month appointment was this morning - I was dreading it because I expected our new doctor to have a very adverse reaction to Levi's weight/size issues, and I thought that since he (new doctor) is a first-year resident, and therefore probably very by-the-book and overly cautious, would most likely refer us all over the place because of Levi not walking, and possibly even for his lack of speaking. I was also hoping to convince the new doctor to allow us to cancel our appointment with the pediatric gastroenterologist that we have scheduled in P. next month, but I did not have high hopes of succeeding.

But good news! Dr. Miller is not your stereotypical first-year resident. He seemed very logical and confident in his ability to go ahead and use common sense! He actually allowed me to cancel the appointment in P. with the gastroenterologist (for now) and only wants to see us back in three months to check out Levi's weight and the walking situation, rather than refer us yet. He said that some kids really don't start walking very much until even 2 years old, but the fact that Levi can take steps, but just prefers to crawl, tells him there is nothing wrong with his gross motor skills. He said it makes a big difference to him that Drake and Adam both had really similar growth patterns to Levi's, as far as being low on the charts (and that Drake's was pretty much identical - high for weight when exclusively breastfed, and then dropping way down around 6-9 months), and that he assumes Levi's weight is totally normal for him, and that there doesn't appear to be anything wrong. He okayed all this with a staff doctor, which makes me feel even better.

At last - I love common sense!

Oh yeah, and while I'm (sort of?) on the subject, or thinking about it anyway, Levi is really coming along in the sign language department! I think he's having that 18-month language explosion they talk about in signs instead of words. I made a list last night to take to the appointment, in case the doctor was concerned about his speech. He only says maybe 4 or 5 words, but there are 22 signs on the list that he does recognizably! I was surprised there were that many once I got them down on paper. (In case you're interested, here's the list: eat, milk/nurse, drink, please, thank you, more, cracker, apple, shoes, walk, bath, book, gentle, fish, bird, cat, dog, horse, lion, bear, dinosaur, deer/elk/buck...and he also shakes his head for "no.")

So anyway, after the appointment, Levi had 4 shots, including his first MMR. Poor little guy. But at least those are the last shots he needs until kindergarten (and that's a LONG way out, or so I like to tell myself anyway!) so I'm very thankful for that. My sweet little boy did very well, even wanting to walk around on his sore legs afterwards...but now he's sleeping soundly. I imagine he will have an extra long nap after all the "excitement" today!

Catchin' up with Levi

I think we are finally approaching the walking milestone with our precious Levi! He took six steps this afternoon, all on his own! Three slow steps, a very long pause, and then three more. He really wanted a pinecone he had spotted in the weedy area behind our backyard, and that's all it took to motivate him!

I am breathing a sigh of relief, as he's already passed the 18-month mark (on Drake's birthday - they're exactly 4-1/2 years apart, to the day!). His 18-month checkup with our new doctor is scheduled for next Thursday. I am still gearing up for the possibility of a referral to physical therapy for him, but a little walking is better than none at all! He walks so quickly and easily now while holding on to a finger, but he just isn't too eager to let go. Anyway, we'll see what develops from here...

I just have to post this adorable video I shot tonight while Levi was playing in the tub. He discovered that he could slap the water really hard, and water would spray all over the place! What an exciting discovery! (As long as you're not the one who has to wipe all the water off the floor afterwards, that is.) As you can see, he thought he was a pretty funny guy:

Another adorable thing he's been doing lately is loving his shoes! He frantically signs "shoe!" and then often "please!" and "walk!" I don't think I've ever known a baby who loved shoes quite like this boy does! I think he realizes that in order to go on walks outside, which he loves to do, he has to wear shoes on his feet. I'm loving this little guy!

Levi at 17 months

I just had to start off with this picture because I think it's hilarious...and I'm in the mood for some hilarity after the past four days. With that said, I wanted to fill you all in on some tidbits about Levi. I am fully aware that this will be the second post in a row (that relates to the kids) about only Levi. But rest assured, Drake is still alive and well, and full of his own antics which I will blog about soon.

Levi is really a different child - different than Drake was and different than most other babies I know. At 17 months, he is clever and charming and full of life. However, he does not walk or talk yet, aside from his exuberant "da-DA! da-DA!" every evening when Adam walks in the door, and "dah" (often accompanied by a sign) for pretty much everything else. Once in awhile, I hear "ma-ma-ma-ma" or "no-no-no-no" but those are pretty rare. Oh yeah, we sometimes get "t-k-t-k-t-k-t-k" (tickle, tickle) accompanied by tickles, too! But that's about it. Levi does not like to read books and really does not like to have his teeth brushed! He really likes baths, and he loves shoes. Loves! He is enthralled with the kitchen garbage can; to his mother's dismay, he loves to "put things in." Sigh. We have found shoes, toys, and other similar items in the garbage can. Even if he's not putting something in, I sometimes find him gazing curiously down into the trash. I need to be more diligent about putting up the baby gates to the kitchen while he is awake!

AND keeping the bathroom door closed. Here's why. Objects also get put into the toilet. But he is more particular about which items go in the toilet - they need to be bathroom-type items. We've found the entire roll of toilet paper unrolled and half of it in the toilet. Also, stray leftover tubes have been known to be found floating. I've come in to see him busily swishing the toilet brush around in there (yeah, it's definitely up and away, now!) and here's a good one - diapers! We use cloth diapers, and he's witnessed plenty of times how the "solids" get shaken off into the toilet. So the other day, I had a stack of clean, folded diapers in the living room that just hadn't made it up to the boys' bedroom yet...and I find Levi in the bathroom shoving something under the lid of the toilet. Hmmm...what could be in there? Two clean (well, used-to-be-clean) diapers are floating in the toilet bowl! He had found them in the living room and crawled with one in each hand into the bathroom to "dump" them for me! Eager to help, are ya? When this boy is older, I am seriously putting him to work.

Even without speaking, his wheels are definitely turning, and he can follow the directions I give him when asked to do something, like "come here" or "stand up" or "sit down in the tub" or "put it away" or "give it to me, please." He knows the rules, too, although that doesn't mean he consistently follows them, of course. We're working on that. Right now one of our big obedience issues with him is not throwing food on the floor. To show us that he is through eating, he starts pitching food - and his cup - over the edge of his tray, and even faster when he sees me about to put a stop to it. We have been really working on this lately, and he doesn't do it much anymore if someone is watching him. Instead, he dangles the cup or piece of food over the side and pretends to throw it - but doesn't let go - and gauges the reaction of the watchful adult. Is it worth it? He knows he will get two thumps on his fingers if he lets go, but he really, really wants to. Thankfully, he's been making the right choice more and more frequently, so I've stopped fantasizing about having a dog in the house to clean up under the highchair.

Yeah, this is getting long. But keep reading. You can do it - just a few more paragraphs! And there are more pictures coming up...

So I mentioned something about signing. We've been teaching sign language to Levi since he was under a year old, and he's been catching on very well, especially recently. So even though he doesn't speak, he can actually communicate a lot of what he wants or what he's thinking about to us, which seems to alleviate some frustration for him. Here's a list of (I think) all the signs that Levi has been doing consistently on his own: eat, drink, milk/nurse, more, please, cat, dog, fish, bird, shoes, hat, gentle. Here are some that he does occasionally or is just learning: airplane, thank you, deer/elk, cracker, squirrel, juice, swing, horse, book. I may have missed one or two...but I think that's it. It's been fun! I found a cool website called ASL Pro that has a very extensive video dictionary of ASL (American Sign Language) signs. So now I can learn pretty much any sign I want to teach Levi, and I can watch someone do it on a video clip! So I'm excited about that. He is really picking them up quickly now, and I'm eager to teach him as many as he can learn, because it's nice to be able to "talk" with him. (We started signs with Drake, but it kind of fizzled out when he learned to talk - which was pretty early - so he never learned very many.) Anyway, it's been gratifying to be able to communicate with Levi on a somewhat normal 17-month level, even though he's not speaking yet.

Now, here is what I actually set out to post this evening - some pictures of my non-book-loving baby actually loving a book! Yeah, wow! He is so not into books, like at all, but he fell in love with this particular one a couple of days ago, and now he finds it and brings it to me and signs "please, please, please" with a big smile, until I read it about 15 times. And then when I finally stop, he has a meltdown. So besides reading "Hello, duck. Swim, duck, swim! Hello, rabbit. Hop, rabbit, hop!" again and again, we've also been working on the sign for "book"...and so now he sometimes signs "book, please" instead of just "please".


Here's Mr. Levi with his favorite book, Swim, Duck, Swim.

He loves it so much he likes to kiss all the animals. What a sweet boy. Mama loves you, Bucky!

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.