Levi Update - 18 months!

Our Little Man is not so little anymore!  He weighs 25 lbs and is 32.5 inches tall.  Levi is running and climbing and rarely stops moving.  And he's always "busy."  He sits down then he gets up then he takes the book and moves it here and then moves it there and then he finds something on the ground and puts it in the trash can because that's what he sees us do and then he climbs on the chair and then to the table and clears everything off the table and then it's back down again to play with a toy for two seconds and then we start over again...

Levi is a fun-loving kid.  He often tries to make us laugh and get us to do things that he thinks are funny.  Like putting his foot in our face to do "poo-tinky" feet.  Or shaking his head back and forth so that I'll do it.  Or making silly faces.  Or dancing around when music is playing, or not when music is playing.  He laughs a lot and delights in his family, especially Dylan and Lydia.  He says Du Du and I can't tell if that's Dylan or Daddy.  He says Mom-ME and often calls for me loudly.  So word count:  Mommy, Ball, vroom vroom for car, woof woof for any animal, Bub-ble (his first two-syllable word), Du Du, sign for more, sign for pooping, sign for all done, and go-gurt for yogurt, his favorite food.

I thought Levi was going to give up the baby food for a while there but I'm still giving him some just to make sure he's getting his veggies.  He also like the apple sauce pouches, meat, soup, cold cereal and regular oatmeal (we are done with the baby oatmeal), pasta, all kinds of fruit, and any kinds of cookies.  Here he is using a fork for the first time.  He's still nursing but I'm trying to decrease the number of times each day.  The pre-nap nurse will be the last and hardest to give up.  He's getting better with the sippy cup but it's still a challenge.

Levi is a sweet kid too.  He gives us lots of hugs and he cuddles with a teddy bear at night to sleep.  When my parents were visiting he brought a Truck book to my dad and climbed up in his lap because he knew my dad would read it to him because he did so earlier that trip.  

Lydia Update - 7 years!

Lydia - the delightful girl who wanted and apple and banana on her ice cream birthday cake!

 

Lydia - the adventurous, yet wise and tenacious in trying new things girl who got ice skates for her birthday to use at her ice skating lessons.

Lydia - the loyal friend to all, who brought two friends to see the Nutcracker with her as her special birthday treat.

Lydia, the loving daughter and total family girl who comes up to us with arms open wide and says, "Hug" and then gives us one of her big hugs.

Lydia, the silly and quick-witted one who never misses a beat with a quick response to her brother's antics.

Other Lydia-isms from this year:  one time she had a scratch on her head and she said "hey mommy, I'm like Harry Potter."  She likes to make chicken sounds and many a times I have thought she was just off in her own world not paying attention when I ask her something and she's making these noises but then she says, "that's chicken for 'yes mommy.'"  

Lydia is super smart too.  Lydia is now reading chapter books and often surprises us with the big words she can read. Over the holidays Dylan said to Lydia, "I'll give you $5 if you can tell me what 11 plus a 11 is."  She surprised us all when she said 22.  Of course we made Dylan give her the $5 even though he tried to get out of it.  There have been many times when Lydia quietly says the correct answer to something that you're not expecting her to know and we say "what?" and then she gets all embarrassed and won't repeat it.  While Lydia still gets embarrassed when she realizes people are watching her, she is getting better and better about her shyness.  She is able to stand in front of the whole school and (albeit quietly) give answers to her teacher's or the head of school's questions.  Most of her friends' moms have now actually heard her talk...:)  She's never been embarrassed to talk to kids, just adults.

Lydia is super loyal to her older brother and still enjoys spending a lot of time with him.  She still likes to do art projects.  She played baseball with Vienna Little League last spring and is signed up to play softball this spring.  Lydia started taking piano lessons this year and is great about practicing.  Lydia spent 5 days at PA Grandma's house this year by herself and went to Moms and Tots with me in July.  She performed in her second dance recital but is now taking a year off from dance.

Lydia now weighs 48 lbs (she gained 4 lbs this year) and is 45.5 inches tall (over 2.5 inches over last year).  She still sucks her thumb but we are seeing improvement!

Lydia still loves penguins and says that she wants to rescue penguins when she grows up and live in Antarctica.  We ask her what she is going to save them from and she said people and seals.  WE LOVE OUR LYDIA!