July 10, 2013

Picture dump again!!!  I'm really hoping that one of these dumps will catch me up and then I'll be back to posting at least a few times a week. :/

Sweet Luke.  He's in such a better mood these days.  He's trying new foods, and I've found that he has an easier time if I just hand him a big of hunk of something vs. chopping it up in little pieces.  Oh hey, he started clapping yesterday!!! I started clapping for him about something, and suddenly he had a look on his face like something clicked in his brain, and he lit up and started clapping himself!  So cute hearing those chubby little hands pat-pat together.  Now he starts clapping along with Levi, or will clap with "If You're Happy and You Know It."  Very, very cute.

After nap snack time.

We went up to Manistee for a day and then over to our family's cottage for the weekend of the Fourth.  Levi LOVES my dad's Jeep and that's all he wanted to play with.  So Dad ended up driving it to the back yard so Levi could play in it.  That and the riding lawn mower.  Who needs a swing set??  We did go to a playground close to the beach too for a little bit.

Chilling at the pond at the cottage. :)  Until doggus interruptus. ;)

Oh my goodness!! Isn't he cute?

Our neighbors had some sewer issues and their driveway had to be torn up.  Levi has been waiting with bated breath for the cement truck to come and pour the new driveway.  Today was the day.  He was thrilled, thrilled, thrilled.  Luke was equally horrified and became a cling-on.

 

Back yard fun today.  It looks like Levi is driving off into the jungle.

Can you find the little boy?

I had to add a couple teepee trellises for my overachieving vining plants.  They already have been overcome and you can hardly see them. :/

I picked several zucchini this week and sauteed some for dinner tonight, and saved a few to make zucchini bread if I have time in the next couple of days.  There were a few beans that Levi and I ate. :)  My cucumbers are finally starting to kick in, and from the looks of it we'll have squash a-go-go.  And roughly a thousand cherry tomatoes.

July 8, 2013

My camera battery is dead so I have no pictures to post, but I'm starting to get antsy because I'm sliding big-time on posting.  I want to keep up with Lukie's milestones and haven't been.  So this will probably be a terribly boring post, but I want to write stuff down for my own sake before I forget.

Luke woke up from a nap or in the morning at some point this week and had pretty much changed from a baby to a little boy.  Nana says that he never was interested in being a baby; he's always wanted to be a big boy.  That pretty much sums him up.  He stands in his crib and jumps up and down when we get him up from naps. He attacked the stairs and scrambled all the way up just a few days ago.  He crawls like it's his J-O-B and he's on a very serious mission; his little palms slap on the floor in this loud rhythm.  He's obsessed with water - he always wants to stand by the bath tub and peer in, and if the water is running he streeettttcccches his little arm out to try to touch it.  Now that he can crawl and another set of teeth are breaking through, Luke is in a MUCH better mood throughout the day.  He kind of takes off and plays by himself a lot of the time - we'll say, "Wait - where's Luke?" and he might be standing up looking out the front window, or in Levi's room tinkering with Levi's toys, or standing up at Levi's work bench gnawing on blocks. He LOVES to play with whatever Levi's playing, and Levi is NOT pleased with that.  We're working on it.  We're trying to teach Levi that if Luke comes after whatever he's playing with, he can offer him an equally cool toy to play with so they can play together.  It works sometimes.  Usually I'll hear Levi say, "Here Lukie, lou are welcome to play with this bowl" (tosses Luke his empty snack bowl), or "Lou are welcome to play with my sandal."  I'm like, "Buddy, you can't just give him something stupid. Give him a toy that is just as fun as what you have."  Really working hard on impressing on Levi that we love each other more than we love our stuff.  Not an easy sell on a 2yr old.

Levi loves to read.  If one of us sat down with War and Peace, Levi would sit the entire day and listen to us read it. He's always been that way. Luke has nearly no use for such nonsense.  He WILL give a loud shriek of happiness when I open up "Brown Bear," but other than that he's got better things to do.  He flips, turns, somersaults, climbs, slides...whatever he can do to move as much as possible when it's book time.  Today I read to Levi with one hand, and had the back of Luke's shirt gathered in my other fist, literally tethering him from leaping off the couch with reckless abandonment.

I wish badly that I had my camera this afternoon - it was one of those classic impromptu moments that make you wonder if you DID have your camera, would you have even been able to do justice to the moment by grabbing a picture of it???  I had the boys in the back yard after naps.  The kiddie pool was out, and still had water in it from yesterday.  I wasn't planning on anyone 'swimming' in it, just wanted to water the gardens and move on.  Luke took off on his mission-crawl across the yard.  Crawled face-first into the pool without missing a beat.  I stripped him down and let him sit in there, but he didn't have any toys so I didn't think it would last very long.  Oh, but he started splashing like crazy (I nearly need a surfboard to get out of the bathroom after his baths, so you can imagine his glee in this little pool).  Enter a big brother who can't be outdone.  Levi steps in the pool (feet first, no face-planting from that boy) and start to splash/stomp with his feet. Long story short: I end up with two boys, naked as jaybirds, violently splashing in this teeny kiddie pool, BOTH laughing so hard they can hardly breathe.  And they have the EXACT same laugh when they reach that about-to-die-laughing point, so you can hardly tell them apart.  It was incredible.

So there you have it.  Only mental pictures.  I'll try to be a little better about posting this month. :)

June 28, 2013

I had Luke's 9mo checkup at the beginning of the week: he weighs 19lbs, 4oz, which is a crackup because that puts him in the 39th percentile, and he's not exactly teeny weeny, so 61% of kids his age are bigger than he is?!  Levi weighed that exact weight at 9mos but was an inch and a half longer so he seemed a little skinnier.

So far this week he has dabbled with blueberries, string cheese, vanilla yogurt, and banana bread.  Faves are the yogurt and banana bread, of course.

My soul is singing because the weather is so beautiful.  We play outside most of the day every day.  I put the baby monitor in the window while Luke naps and Levi and I do yard work together.  I fill the kiddie pool while the boys sleep and the afternoon sun makes it like bathwater, and I just strip Luke and plop him in after nap time.  Levi pulls out Matt's lawn mower, Luke splashes, I weed, Molly prances...we are all happy. :)

Living a little piece of crunchy dream: crazy garden, laundry flappin', and a naked baby.

I love the look of baby neck and ears from behind.  It's just cute. :)

Our neighbors loaned Levi a little four wheeler.  He calls it his "Jeep" and he LOVES it.

"Here, Mama.  I brought lou a sammich." (a cake of dirt and dried grass)

No, Matt is not trying to channel Britney Spears.  Highlight of Levi's day: helping Matt drive the car into the garage when he gets home from work.  Luke usually wants in on it too.

Amazonian garden.  Who knew watermelon went wild? (stringier-looking plant on the right foreground)

Our toy baby.  He LOVES toys.  He really got into Levi's lawn mower tonight and kept pulling the "start" pull-thing over and over again. Just like Levi does.  It makes a loud revving sound that delights all who play with it.

June 21, 2013

Sorry, a bit of a photo dump here.  I'll be brief with each one.

Our gardens.  Are slightly out of control.  I have done nothing but water them.  It's kind of scary.

Luke mowed the lawn with Matt and fell asleep. :)

 

 

 I almost hate to broadcast this because I'm selfish and want all the chicken for myself.  But Kapenga is up and running again, and Levi can't stop talking about going to the chicken farm and playing on the tractor (even though he didn't actually play ON the tractor).

The other night after dinner I made strawberry banana "ice cream" (frozen strawberries and bananas, a little bit of coconut milk and a little bit of vanilla in the food processor) and we ate it on the front porch.  Very fun.  Unfortunately, Matt had to work in the evening so it wasn't as fun as it could have been if he were there. :(

 

Hilarious moment: Luke was standing on the front step holding onto me.  Levi said, "I'm going to teach Luke how to walk."  He stands up.  "First, you get up.  Then you go like this." He walks down our front walk and turns around. "Then you go back."  He returns to the steps.  It was just that easy.  Surprisingly, Luke didn't catch on.

 

Levi finally painted.  He's painted at Josiah's before, but never wanted to paint for me at home.  He finally agreed to paint a (very late) Father's Day picture for Matt.

 

Josiah came today!  We walked to the park (clarification: Josiah and Levi ran the whole way).

 

If only my pictures could capture their giggles.

 

Levi: "I don't like this. I don't like this."

 

Me: "Levi, look at me thru the hole! No, thru the hole!!  Josiah, look at me!  Levi, come back!  Look at me thru the hole! Josiahhhhh - smile!! Levi! Ugh, never mind." *click*

 

Bruvvers.

 

June 17, 2013

Well.  Here we are again.

Luke turned NINE MONTHS OLD last week!!!  This age where they start to morph from little babies to little toddlers is riotous.  He finally got his crawl on - starting with a jumping spider technique (walk hands forward...hop both knees forward simultaneously...), and now he's a pro.  He pulled himself up to standing at the window today, and has designs on the stairs.  With his crawling came his vocabulary burst - and mounting frustration that now that he has a taste of freedom, he wants MORE. Lots more.  And he's very inclined to let you know. ;)

He's starting to catch up with his brother's feeding moxy, and is starting to be interested in putting food in his mouth. The other day I gave him blueberries and coarsely chopped pear and he was pretty pleased with those.

His nightly sleeping pattern is slightly less turbulent.  We really can't complain. He sleeps like a rock star during the day, goes down wide awake and plays himself to sleep, goes down without a peep at night, and when he wakes at night he really wants some food in his tummy and about 99% of the time goes right back to bed wide awake without a complaint.  We're just kind of tired of feeding him at night, but that too shall pass.

Luke gives amazing hugs.  When we pick him up he wraps those chubby little arms around our necks and hangs on for dear life. He loves to laugh at his brother and play with Levi's toys.  Levi's okay with sharing sometimes; he does pretty well if I tell him it's okay to not want Luke to play with something in particular as long as he offers Luke an equally cool toy as an alternative. So far he goes along with that plan most of the time.

His personality is certainly more....assertive.  He's not fussy-fussy, he just knows what he wants, when he wants it, and will crawl-chase me around the house to let me know in no uncertain terms that I am not with the program.

He loves his bath.  He splashes so hard that I usually end up drenched and so does the rest of the bathroom. :)

I pulled out the kiddie pool the other day. Levi can take or leave the kiddie pool (I bought it last summer under the guise of a good time for a toddler...really it was for me to park my miserably-hot, pregnant keester in it while the toddler played with something else).  Luke LOVES it.  Big hit.

Not an uncommon look:

Poor, tired baby. :(

I didn't get a good picture of it, but the other day Levi woke up with a *perfect* faux-hawk.  He takes his bath at night, so wakes up in the morning with some pretty gnarly looks, but this one beat all.  And it was STRAIGHT UP.  There was no putting it down. So I put some product in it to make it look like it was done on purpose.  I am not one to style his hair, EVER, but this was nearly an emergency. You can kind of see it in this picture.

June 7, 2013

What good is a dirty garden if you can't play trucks in it?

I don't mean to brag...but...isn't my garden cute?

Rainy morning fun: pretending you are a tug boat and using Mama's resistance band to drag a ship (er, the dog) into harbor.  He came up with that, I did not plant it in his head. He does have a Little Critter book about a tug boat, maybe that's where it came from.  Molly was not clued in to the game plan and wasn't terribly cooperative.

 

Soooo....he found another 'ship.'  His basket of books (thankfully, a heavy old milk bottle basket).

 

Yes, he did pull it as far back as he could. And yes, he did let it go.  And yes, it was funny.

 

Back to the dog.  Moving targets are more fun.

 

June 3, 2013

If we had girls, I doubt that a morning of playing outside would involve insisting on pulling out the trash can, tipping it over and opening it to say, "Look, Mama!!  I brought you some garbage!  See?"

But I could be wrong.

Matt converted Levi's crib to a toddler bed this weekend, and Levi loves it.  So far I don't think it's occurred to him that he can get out and mosey around, and we're sure not letting the cat out of the bag.




And Luke finally, finally figured out how to crawl. He looks like a little jumping spider when he does it, and man is he ever happy that he has forward motion!!

That's about all I have to report today. :)