Levi Turns 1-Year-Old

At 12 months old, Levi stats are:
Weight: 21 lbs (24th percentile)
Height: 29 in (26th percentile)

On Levi's birthday, I took the three boys to the Trampoline Wairhouse. All three had fun because they have areas for all ages. Levi loved rolling around in this bouncy house with his brothers. I also introduced him to a small slide for the first time, and he went crazy with excitement.

Later that day we had Kyle's side of the family over for pizza and cupcakes (my side of the family was out of town). Levi loves pizza, and he ate himself so full that he would only touch his cupcake.

I tried to get him to eat the cupcake by giving him a bite of frosting on a fork, but he just stole the fork and had fun playing with the fork instead. He was a mostly-clean birthday boy. And very happy. No tears at this birthday party!

 Dear Levi,

We survived the first year of your life! Wahoo!!! You were a great baby, but man, that first year is always long for me. I am loving having you around. So is everyone else. We are in a good place right now because we all sleep through the night, and you are eating so many different foods-- including whole milk! You are almost completely weaned from nursing.

Friends, family, and strangers often comment on what a happy, smiley guy you are. And it is true. You are happy. You are happy to hang out around your brothers. You are happy to eat. You are happy we just switched you out of the infant car seat. You get so excited when Jason and Daddy come home for the day, which of course, makes them so excited to see you. The other thing people often comment on, unsurprisingly, is your beautiful, red hair. You look like you'll take after Jason and Uncle Quinn with a blonde patch of hair in the back.

Your older brothers are so good about watching out for your safety, and they love to make you laugh, although they certainly don't have any long-lived mothering instincts. Jason has given you the nick-name "Buddies," and now Noah corrects me when I call you "Levi." "No mom," Noah says, "his name is Buddies." I am often summoned to come grab "Buddies" because he is wrecking whatever game Jason and Noah have set up. You are often cast in the role of "giant baby" who comes to wreck the town or fort that have been erected.

Your current modes of movement include crawling on your hands and knees, and cruising around furniture. You have four teeth (2 on top and 2 on bottom). Changing your diaper is torture for all involved parties. You love to sleep with a particular spotted blanket and while sucking your thumb. We still get two naps in every day. Some of your favorite foods include berries, cheerios, yogurt, pizza, most soups, crackers, corn, chili, and asparagus. You refuse green beans and eggs. One of your favorite toys is a light-saber; it is so much fun to whack things with it.

I love you so much!

love,

mom

The Snacker

One of Levi's new, favorite tricks is helping himself to crackers from the pantry. And shaking out the whole bag onto the floor.

Levi's First Easter

Levi's first Easter was fun. He didn't actually hunt for eggs, but he had fun playing with empty plastic eggs.We of course did more egg hunts than needed. First was the hunt at the church. Then we did a moonlight easter egg hunt in our back yard on Saturday night with Kelli and Thomas, complete with confetti eggs to smash over each other's heads. Then the Easter bunny delivered some more eggs on Sunday. And finally, Kyle's mom did an egg hunt at her house on Sunday evening. The boys had so much fun.

The Leprechaun Capers

Dear Megan,

In the last email you wrote me, you asked if we had any fun St. Patrick's activities planned. With a first grader in Mrs. Richardson's class, it was impossible not to. Jason had done so many St. Patrick's day activities at school that he was bursting with ideas, excitement, and expectations. Therefore, Kyle and I feel wrangled into putting on a bigger St. Patrick's day celebration than what we grew up with. Still, I did try to tone down Jason's ideas.

First off, he was making Leprechaun traps all the time. At first he was interested in giving them away to people who might not have their own, such as his grandparents and other friends. Then, as St. Patrick's day grew closer, he wanted to make multiple traps to keep for himself to increase the odds of catching a Leprechaun at our house. I limited him to just one at our house. 

St. Patrick's Day eve was filled with the wonder of "will the Leprechaun come in the middle of the night?!" Kyle and I were afraid we'd have an early-morning waker, just like for Christmas, only this time anticipating a Leprechaun. So, we assured him that Leprechauns like to be tricky, and therefore come at unpredictable times. Our visiting Leprechaun did not come until Jason was at school, Kyle was at work, and the rest of us were at Costco. Under strict instructions from Jason, we did not check the trap until Jason was home from school. When I picked Jason up from school, I told him that the trap looked different... Jason was bursting with anticipation!!! The drive home was filled with musings over what the Leprechaun might have done. Did he turn the milk green? Did he turn the toilet water green? (Gulp! No, he didn't!) 

Immediately upon entering the house, both Noah and Jason checked out the trap--together. They both insisted the other not forge ahead to be the first to look. While they looked at the trap at the front door, I worked a little magic with the milk. Ta da! It had been turned green. 

Unluckily for us, the Leprechaun was too smart to get caught in our trap. In order to get into the box (trap), he had to climb a rope, then go down a slide. This tricky Leprechaun smartly held onto the rope while he went down the slide, which enabled him to climb back out. He took the pennies, but he was nice enough to leave chocolate coins in their place. He also put chocolate coins in Jason's pot of gold decoration that was hanging on the window.

After finding the coins and the green milk, Jason ran around the house to see what else the Leprechaun had done. Jason happily reported that the tricky Leprechaun had moved our downstairs couch a few inches. Sure! Whatever you say.

St. Patrick's Day dinner was declared the "best dinner ever" by Jason. It consisted of green scrambled eggs, regular toast, regular hash browns, and St. Patrick's Day juice (green smoothie topped with whipping cream and sprinkles). Jason had been begging me to make this St. Patrick's Day juice after having it in his class at school.

Now, on to the next holiday. We finished making confetti eggs that we can smash on each other's heads during our Easter egg hunt. We've also dyed hard-boiled eggs (not for smashing on heads). We're doing a moonlight egg hunt with flashlights on Saturday night in our backyard. Kelli and Thomas are coming. I still need to go out and buy stuff for the hunt this week.

How is Tyson? I hope he wasn't down with that fever for too long?

love,

Louie

3/01/16

I asked Jason if he wanted to play coach-pitch again this year. He said, "Sorry mom. I won't have time. I will be busy every day making a secret hide out with Elena this summer." I told him that coach-pitch will be over before summer comes. "Well we will be building every day during the Spring, too," he said. I got a good chuckle over that one. Oh, the busy schedules of first graders.

Winter Fun

Jason learned how to ride the ski lift this year, and he loves skiing. Kyle took Jason skiing a couple of times after skiing lessons were over.

Free zoo day in February.

Noah Turns 4 Years Old

For Noah's birthday this year, I chose to keep things simple by planning fun things to do with just our family. I'm glad that's how I planned it, because we were all in various stages of a cold, and not feeling very well. Even though we had colds, I let go of my better judgement and took Noah and Jason to play at Jungle Jim's Playland because Noah had his heart set on going there.

For dinner I bought McDonald's happy meals and brought them home instead of taking the kids to the play place. Jason fell asleep for the night at 6 o'clock, so it was just me, Kyle and Noah having cake and singing happy birthday. Thankfully this sweet Noah was perfectly content celebrating with just his parents!

Noah loved getting a Yoda costume, a craft box, and more Lego Duplos for his birthday.

Dear Noah,

What a big year this has been for you! You got a baby brother, became potty trained, and started preschool. You are also growing so tall. At 4-years-old you are already 42 inches tall, which puts you in the 92nd percentile. We keep saying that you'll probably grow taller than Jason one of these years.

For starters, getting a baby brother was, thankfully, not too rough on you. Three main things helped you (and me) get through the transition. First, having Jason to play with was a big help. You two play so well together! I love watching you two play because you have big imaginations. Yes, sometimes there are tears as you fight over who should do what, but you two can usually work it out. When Jason leaves for school in the mornings, you are always sad to see him go. Second, lots of screen time helped you with having a new baby take up mom's attention. You love to watch TV or play games on the Kindle. Third, you have great self-soothing skills with your two fingers, your blanket, and your bear ("ghostly").You still want to suck your fingers all the time. For now we let you suck them, but we have a new rule that you can't talk with your fingers in your mouth because I'm afraid it's affecting your speech. I've also told you that you need to stop sucking your fingers when you get to kindergarten. Time will tell how that goes.

With the transition to being a big brother well in the past, you have already started asking me when we're going to have our next baby. I asked you how many more babies we should have. You answered, "Two." Ha ha! I am glad you think having a baby around the house is so great. You are a great protector of Levi. You keep an eye on him and let me know when he's about to be in danger or when your toys are about to be wrecked by him. Levi has taken on the role of "giant baby" in your games who comes to wreck things. You'll say things like, "Oh, no! Giant baby is coming!"

Potty-training you was hard. But after struggling through it for a month and a half, everything clicked, and you've been great ever since. You have a laid back, let mom do it personality, so it takes time for you to adjust to doing things on your own.

Preschool comes with mixed emotions. When I tell you it's time to get ready for preschool, you always say "I don't want to go!". I have to reassure you that you will have time to watch a show and play with your toys before school starts at 10:00. Once you get to school, you always have a blast, especially since three of your friends attend with you. You come home from preschool in smiles, telling me about some of the things you did.

Drawing has become one of your favorite activities. I've loved watching you get more and more detailed in the things you draw. You also love to color.

You and Jason love to play Pokemon, Star Wars, and Angry Birds. You two have made up your own game called "Piggy and Babentures" that combines those three things together. Why is it called "Piggy and Babentures"? Because you could't say "adventures" at first, so the name stuck.

Seldom do you let us call you "Noah." You usually insist we call you by some other name, but the name is always changing. Regular names you like to be called are "Scrat" (from Ice Age), "Lucario" (from Pokemon), and "Red" (from Angry Birds). But after watching something on TV, you also like to be called a character from whichever show you were watching. You can get downright angry at people when they mistakenly call you "Noah," so we came up with a rule that you can be called anything you want at home, but at preschool and primary, you must go by "Noah." The rule has helped eliminate a lot of frustration regarding your name.

I love having you at home with me. You are a home-body who loves to do things quietly around the house, such as watching a show or playing with your toys or drawing pictures. Sometimes I really have to convince you to get out of the house. But once Jason gets home, you two turn into loud, crazy boys who turn the house upside down in all their adventures.

This year we plan on teaching you how to ride a bike with training wheels. And we also plan to continue enjoying your company as we enjoy one more year of preschool. I love you so much!

love,

mom