Very Merry!

We had a very Merry Christmas! (despite the trip we took to the emergency room early Christmas morning..I'll explain in a bit.)

Christmas Eve, Levi and I made cookies for Santa while Daddy and Grandma Winnie took a last minute trip to the Lego store to make a little gift exchange.

Here's the baker eagerly awaiting the first batch of wonderful molasses cookies for the big guy in red.

We had a nice Christmas eve dinner with the Girard family.

Levi got to open a bunch of presents and was in surprisingly good spirits given the bark cough and wheezy breathing he woke up from nap with.

We got home from Grandpa and Grandpa G's house after bed time but quickly sprinkled some magic reindeer food on the lawn and put out a bowl of carrots for Rudolf and the gang.

We left out cookies, egg nog and the thank you letter Levi wrote to Santa. Then we all went to bed...

 

Christmas morning we were making phone calls to the on call nurse and Levi's doctor. He woke up several times in the middle of the night just sounding awful! Around 4:30am he could barely breath at all. The doctor said we needed to get him in to the emergency room. She was so sweet, apologizing because we'd have to spend Christmas morning in the ER. The emergency staff was great.

We were admitted quickly and they got Levi on a nebulizer to open his airways.

After deciding he has croup, they gave him some steroids. We waited the necessary two hours to make sure the steroids were working, they sent us home with a prescription for two more days of steroids.

So that was our big adventure! Certainly not the nice special Christmas morning I had in mind for us. But it didn't dampen Levi's spirits much. He certainly didn't want to take a nap since he had all those new toys to play with.

 

Gabe's dad and Joanne arrived in the evening and we had a nice Christmas dinner with them. And of course...more presents.

We sure were lucky to be able to see (and enjoy) so much time with family. Watching Levi get loved on by everyone is definitely my favorite part of the holiday season.

We had very Merry Christmas!

The best part of vacation is...

all the extra play time it brings.
Levi and I met our friends (Danelle and Weston) here on Monday morning.
Levi was a little unsure about those big crazy bouncy things at first, but he warmed up to them. I have a video on my phone of him laughing so hard he can hardly jump. It's pretty hilarious. Levi wanted to go down the big slide several times but every time would get scared on his way up and at the top (telling me "I don't like it"). But as soon as we started down the slide he was laughing every time.

We had more friends (Peggy, Zachary and Zane) over to play on Tuesday morning. We only get to see them two times a year so it's always nice to have time to play with them.
For some reason the big boys thought is was fun to play with the old baby Levi toy I got out for Zane.And Levi was pretty infatuated with baby Zane. He hasn't really had much of a chance to be around babies and he seems to love them.
Gabe's been on vacation too since Wednesday. We decided to go to Lowe's to get supplies needed for several small projects we've been meaning to get done. A few have been finished, but Gabe's mom is arriving today so the painting of the guest room will have to wait until all of our holiday visitors have come and gone. Levi got a little project to work on while we were at the store.He was pretty proud of his creation. It's sitting on our mantel right now.
We went to Zoo Lights with Grandma and Grandpa G this week, wrapped all our presents, and came down with another cold. Gotta take the good with the bad.
I'll be back later this weekend to give the full holiday report!

Holiday Spirit

Sometimes it's hard to feel festive.
But now that I'm on vacation, we've had our annual cocktail party, and Christmas is a week away...I say BRING IT ON! Plus, Levi's excitement is contagious!
Here's a little sample of the fun we had with friends (and some family) on Saturday night.

And the festive part of the season is underway.

Roughhousing with Dad

Winter is starting to settle in.
And although we haven't had a ton of rain yet this year, it's been pretty cold. We've been a bit limited in our play choices the last few weeks. But we're managing to find new silly things to do. (And I'm preparing for a special year end play post that I'll post as our last of the year.) Levi sure does enjoy roughhousing with Daddy. That's always a fun play time. (And it's good for Levi's development according to this article I found.)

This is going to be a quick drop in today.
Our holiday cocktail party is in less than 4 hours. With the busy last week of school, I've still got cookies to bake, appetizers to prepare and a house to clean. Good thing Levi's already playing at Grandma and Grandpa G's house. I really hate the fact that I have to clean my house before and after a party....

"Mommy, put your shoes on."

This is one of Levi's favorite games.
Put things in Mommy or Daddy's shoes and then tell us to put them on. He loves it when we squeal because there's something in our shoe that shouldn't be there.
On Wednesday morning I was greeted with these surprises in my shoes as I frantically tried to hustle out the door. It made me smile.

Gabe and I have something new to play with.
We bought this today.Christmas came early for the two of us.
I'm sure Gabe is sitting in it as I type. There are lots of new features to play with.

Holiday Traditions

Growing up, this time of year was always filled with lots of holiday traditions.

Letters to Santa (I sure wish my mom would have saved them. I bet they'd be pretty funny to take a look at now.)

A trip to the tree farm (I'm sure it took us girls hours to all agree on a tree. Funny...I don't remember that part.)

The joy of putting my favorite ornaments on the tree.

Caroling with friends/family from church.

Christmas Eve dinner with family at my Grandparent's house.

Opening one present before bed on Christmas Eve. (Always new jammies!)

Getting up early Christmas morning and waiting for mom and dad to join us.

A Christmas morning full of gifts, a sweet breakfast treat, and playing with new games and toys.

So much fun. And so many happy memories because it was the same joy filled activities every year.

And I want Levi to have those kinds of memories too. Things that he can look back on when the "magic" of Christmas has faded. Creating these traditions with him is really important to me.

So this week we've started creating our own family holiday traditions.
Levi's enjoying the advent calendar that has a little treat in it each day. So far it's been stickers, race cars, silly robot toys and fun holiday activities to do as a family. He can't wait to find out what's in the pocket each evening.
We went and cut down our tree at the farm.
And decorated it with the Christmas music on. Levi wanted to touch, play, and put every ornament on the tree this year. It's fun to see him so excited.And of course, Levi had to help daddy put the star on the tree. It's a tradition for sure!
We have lots more holiday activities (soon to be holiday traditions) awaiting us!

Breakfast Buddies

This little monchichi is one of Levi's favorite things to play with right now. He especially loves sharing his banana with her at breakfast. (But doesn't love it when her face and bib get dirty with banana.) Part of his attachment to her might also be the high pitched voice Mommy uses as her voice when Levi asks her what she's doing. Levi and little monchichi have some pretty exhaustive conversations. Levi always wants to know why she doesn't have any socks on. She assures him that her feet don't get cold because she has a fur coat on.

We're into full Christmas preparation mode this weekend. I'll be back tomorrow, or Monday, to give the full report. I came down with a really nasty cold on Sunday night and decided I couldn't stay home sick at all this week since it was the end of the trimester. (I sure wanted to but I had kids presenting debates.) So, of course, the cold has really hung on. I just haven't been able to shake it. I think the best thing I can do this afternoon is crawl into bed while Levi's napping and see if some extra sleep will finally do the trick. Levi appears to have caught the nasty bug too. Hopefully he'll be over it quicker than I am.

Thanksgiving with Grandma Winnie

Our thanksgiving weekend consisted of...
*mornings spent playing at the park.*finding big puddles to splash in.*helping Grandma make the cranberry salad.*an attempt at a family photo shoot that ended with rocks and sticks thrown into the river.
(Keep an eye out for our Christmas card in a few weeks. It will have the best shot of the bunch on it.)

And of course lots of snuggles from Grandma Winnie, time spent with family over delicious food and interesting Thanksgiving conversation from a two year old.
When we sat down to eat Thanksgiving dinner (or maybe it was dinner part 2-the day after) Levi turned to Uncle Kirby and very matter-of-factly asked him: "Kirby, (pause to think) you have penis?" Thankfully Uncle Kirby was able to pretend not to hear him, even though Aunt Joann and Grandma Winnie heard him across the table.
Potty training has made this kid very curious about every one's body parts. Normal right?

Thanks again Grandma Winnie and the Johnsons for having us. It's always nice to see you all!

Boys at play

This week's play post is brought out early this week because we're heading down to Oakridge for Thanksgiving. It will be the first year Gabe and I haven't hosted the big day at our house in...I can't remember how long. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. And I have to be honest, I'm a bit sad not to have a big turkey in my fridge and a pie cooling on my counter. But at the same time, this year has been exhausting. I literally feel right now like I usually do in April. I'm so exhausted, and I'm thankful I didn't have to do all the shopping and prepping for the big meal this year.Since I have the week off (unpaid), Levi and I had a chance yesterday to have friends over to play.
I can't even begin to tell you how happy I am to be off this week. I sure am thankful for this little mini vacation. I think it will get me through December!

And Finally That Dancing Video...

Here's the dance video that Heidi has been promising. Sorry for the odd aspect ratio, it came off of Heidi's phone.

This One's For Grandma G

Hiding

For months now, one of Levi's favorite things to do is hide things. He hides from Daddy every night before bed. His race cars like to hide underneath blankets and pillows. One night this week Gabe and I came home to this lovely mess. Levi decided one whole bin of random toys needed to hide in the space between the kitchen cabinets and his shelf of toys. Levi is so good at hiding things he very often hides them and then can't find them later. For example, his two favorite race cars who are currently MIA. Levi asked for them before bed tonight but we couldn't find them. We were lucky to get his mind off of them and get him into bed. Gabe's not so lucky. He's still searching for them right this moment because we know the kid will ask about them as soon as he gets up. So far we've both been unable to locate them in all of Levi's usual hiding spots.

Unfortunately for Levi, we don't have enough leaves in our yard to hide in them. But he sure had fun "helping" me rake them up this morning. (Figured we better get some leaves picked up, and gutters cleaned, since we had a dry day today. The rain is suppose to be back on Monday.)I'll see if I can convince Gabe to throw a dancing video on here when I'm done. Or tomorrow...if he's still searching for two race cars when I go back upstairs.

Potty Training in Progress

We've been encouraging Levi to use his toilet for the last 2 months.
He'll go and get really excited about it, but has never been able to really tell us when he needs to go.

Since I had Friday off, we decided we'd let him try big boy underwear and see how it went.
We made this little book in the morning and he got a sticker to put in every time he went in his toilet. He did great! I took him to his toilet every hour and he didn't have a single accident.
Here he is showing off his new big boy underwear.And here he is giving me the side eye for taking so many pictures.

So, Saturday came. Levi went poop in his pants. Twice.
He wants to go in the toilet. He knows big boys don't wear diapers and babies do. He doesn't want to be a baby and talks all the time about how big he is.
After a tough day on Saturday, I was watching him really closely on Sunday morning. He's gone poop in his toilet several times in the last few months and we talked a lot about keeping his underwear clean. As I was cleaning up the mess from breakfast, I spotted Levi in the corner of my eye and I knew what he was up to. I whisked him up to the bathroom and...here he proudly shows Lightening and Francesco what he did in his potty. (I cropped it so you didn't have to see it too!)

So...the potty training is still in progress. For now...

Speaking of "Smile"

This is one of the many silly things Levi started doing this week. Apparently this block that goes to his wooden train, is the prefect camera.

He walked around most of the evening on Tuesday telling us to "smile".

I'm telling you, this kid is quite the character. He's got some really funny dance moves we need to show off one of these days too.

I've surrendered

to stickers!
They are literally all over our house. See:

Even Levi's favorite race car has to have stickers on him.Sure, I could make a rule about where stickers go...but parenting is all about choosing your battles right? And this isn't a battle I feel is worth fighting. Especially since we've seen some "terrible two" behavior for the first time this week. Levi's decided he has to cover his face and cry when he doesn't get his way. Like when he's told he can't take 4 race cars to bed with him.

Well, Gabe's at work today. So Levi and I went to Target this morning and then decided this rainy Saturday was perfect for making a fort under the dinning room table.

This is Levi's new smile. I guess it's what I should expect when I say... "smile".

Trick or Treat

That's been Levi's favorite saying this week. (Even though the kid still hasn't gone trick-or-treating...maybe next year. I don't really get the point taking a kid as young as he is.)

We went to the zoo on Saturday so Levi could wear his costume and see other kids dressed up.
It was cool and foggy.
Perfectly creepy.
Here's our little spider all dressed up.I should probably mention that at one point (not that long ago) Levi was terrified of spiders.
But when I started asking him what he wanted to dress up as, he insisted it had to be a spider. He's now been talking about it for months. I guess he's over that fear!

Levi and I also decided to make Halloween treats on Saturday.
Since Gabe and I aren't huge sugar cookie fans (and because I didn't want to deal with the mess of frosting) we made gingerbread cookies.I think someone just likes to help mommy so he gets a treat in the process.Here are our finished cats, moons and pumpkins.

Now I've got to go so Gabe and I can watch the third episode of this.
And I'll be up all night tossing, turning and having bad dreams that zombies are after me!
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Dodge Ball!

Levi's been taking a sports class at the community center this month on Thursday mornings. It's for kids age 2 to 4 so he's one of the youngest in the class. The first week they played soccer, second week they played basketball, and the third week they played baseball. Well, I got to join Levi and Grandma in class this week because we had evening conferences at school on Thursday. This week we got to play "dodge ball". The coach modified it so it was basically tag. The coach told the kids to throw the ball to get each other out. Levi sure was good at running around the gym, away from the kids with the ball. But when his team had the ball, he didn't really get the throwing-it-at-someone-to-get-them-out idea.
Here's Levi sitting with some of the other boys on his team when they were tagged out. (Along with their coach)
When class is over, they open up the whole gym and have an indoor play park. There's lots of toys to ride on and mats to jump on. Levi's favorite thing?
The scooter!Might have to look for one on Craig's list this spring.

For the love of fall

Fall is my favorite season.
I wish I could say it's my favorite time of year, but returning to work/school sorta bumps it out of that category.
I love fall because along with the clear cool days and beautiful changing leaves comes...
the search for the great pumpkin,
and a strong little boy showing off the perfect one.

Trips to pick apples include...
playing on big tractors,
checking out the cool hand cranked apple peeler and slicer,and enjoying fried biscuits and apple butter.

But maybe the best thing about fall is...
running through the rows of apple trees while eating an entire apple.

Clearly we had trouble getting this kid to stop enjoying his apple and take a picture.
Hope you're enjoying autumn as much as we are!

Go Ahead and Jump!

Levi has been working on his jumping for a while and has finally gotten off the ground. He's getting pretty good now we though you might like to see.

If you are into jumping videos, these may also interest you.

Jump
-or-
Jump

-Gabe

A Happy 7th Anniversary

Time sure does fly.
It's hard to believe, 7 years ago, this important event happened.
We've had 7 really great years. We've been extremely blessed.
I am thankful for this amazing man. He's a wonderful husband and a great father.
We joke when we're alone that all we do is talk about Levi. Of course, there's some of that because we love him and we miss him. But the truth is, we still have a great time together.

Being without our little man allowed us to enjoy dinners after 6pm and listening to this album. Which we both love, but it isn't really appropriate for young ears and a little mouth that repeats everything heard. Oh, and I can't forget the best thing of all...sleeping until 8:30 and enjoying coffee in bed.
This weekend was filled with moments we enjoyed together.
We stop to enjoy the view.We "laughed" as Gabe kicked my butt at every game we played. (Well, he laughed while I tried to hide how frustrated every defeat made me feel. I'm a bit of a poor looser.)We enjoyed one of the many things Gabe does perfectly. Seriously, if you've never had a s'more made by Gabe, you are missing one of the most delicious experiences in life.And we enjoyed some perfect beach weather. Perfect!

Eat it up!

Before I share the photo of the week, I have to share a Levi-ism. He says so many silly things now and I need to be better about writing them down.
One of his favorite expressions is: "Eat it up"! Often followed by naming what he wants to eat up.
Sometimes it's food. Like the big display of pumpkins outside Trader Joe's. Some times it's objects like the trimet bus. Sometimes it's disgusting things like poopy diapers (I think he just says that one because we make a big silly deal about how gross that is). And sometimes it's people.
It reminds me of this book.
The night Max wore his wolf suit and made mischief of one kind
and another
his mother called him "WILD THING!"
and Max said "I'LL EAT YOU UP!"
so he was sent to bed without eating anything.

Well, this was the conversation we had on the way home from running errands this morning.
Levi: Sun is hiding.
Me: Really? Where?
Levi: Behind clouds.
Me: Tell the sun to come out.
Levi: Come out sun.
Levi: Eat sun up.
Me: I don't know about that.
Levi: Hot (referring to the sun of course)
Me: That's right, the sun is hot.
Levi: Daddy blow on it.

Now for the photo. Gabe and I are leaving Levi with Grandma and Grandpa G this weekend. We're going to the coast for the weekend without Levi to celebrate our 7th anniversary. So here's an early photo of the week. We can hardly get this kid to play with anything other than race cars!

Handy Men

Here are my handy men hard at work again.
We got a new entertainment unit a few weeks ago, only to discover that the receiver barely fits into it. So Gabe bought, and installed, a little fan to keep the unit cool. Of course Levi had to assist in the installation.

We might have a little boy who wears big boy underwear here pretty soon. He's gone poop on his little toilet 3 times in the last week or so, and goes pee almost every night before bed. He's excited about getting to wear big boy underwear. Not so thrilled about telling us when he needs to go. That's why we haven't "officially" started the whole potty training thing. This kid has never been too unhappy when he's poopy or wet...we'll see how it goes!

Play with your food

or raspberries at least!More evidence that I'm not kidding when I say this kid is in love with berries. He and I had some really good laugh this week at dinner. He'd put berries on his fingers and then tell me to take more pictures. He is definitely at a very silly stage right now and we're loving his goofy personality.

What I'm not loving is the headache and stomach flu(?) I've been fighting for the last three days. I really hope I'm sick and it's not the stress at work making me sick. I've spent most of the day in bed. Levi and Gabe ran errands without me. Hoping I'll be up to some fun tomorrow. Although I did bring a big basket of work home with me. And, of course, left the most pressing work sitting on my desk.