Kaylee's going to begin Preschool!

Kaylee got accepted to preschool - she will be starting on Sept 8. She got in the class with all the other daycare kids! She has been on the waiting list for a bit. We are excited. I'm hoping she likes it. She's been curious about it for a while, asking when she gets to go. She's a smart cookie, so this will just fuel what she's already got going on...we'll let you know how her first day goes!

Kaylee continues to be our little reader. She knows most of her letters, and loves to "read" to herself and to us. She "reads" the book first, then it's our turn to read it to her. She doesn't want to be limited on number of books before bed, but it is a must to get her to bed. It feels weird telling your kid, hey that's enough reading now...

I learned that Levi walks only at home and will not do it at daycare (yet). That's interesting. He only does it when he feels totally comfortable and with parent then. However, as I have mentioned, he climbs right up the stairs at daycare no problem.

Levi's Walking!

Levi walked for the first time Tuesday. He has taken steps before but this was 6-7 steps across the living room floor. Very exciting! He also saw himself in the mirror this week and said “baby.” Very proud of my smart little guy. He has also said "Here you go" and tries to feed me and his sister. He has also said, "Jump down" and consistently says: Uh-oh, Up, Down, Mom and Dad.

He's also taken to throwing things. He sits at his highchair and really winds up, throwing food straight out his highchair at a fast pace. Will have to find out if he doesn't like the food and wants another kind, is not hungry or what. The beginnings of our need to start to teach the rules has begun. "No eat" was quickly followed with "no hit," "no throw." Also the distract to another activity/toy has been used more and more as a way to get a behavior to stop. To encourage a way to throw that is ok, we are playing more ball together. He has been very taken with pushing a car around on the floor lately. This keeps him busy. He also has been doing what I call a "turbo-crawl" across the floor. A very fast crawl to get at something.

I saw him climb onto Kaylee's stool the other day, peering up onto the counter. Scary - he could have fallen glad I was there watching him. He can also go up stairs now very well. And goes up and just starts playing with the kids while I'm still talking to our daycare provider when I drop him off.

He's also liking drawing with chalk now on the driveway, though at times he still wants to taste it instead of draw with it.

Brute baby!

Funny story about Levi's first trip to the fire station...they took them to the station for a fun daycare excursion. Each kid got to sit in the fire truck, they heard the siren, met the firemen, yada yada...anyway at the end they had little fire hats for each kid. Levi took his, grabbed it and immediately tore it in half. This was a pretty sturdy plastic large red hat he just tore in two with his bare hands! Everyone was shocked he was able to do that! No other kid destroyed their hat that day. My little boy already had demonstrated his brute strength!

At home after he played with Kaylee's hat a bit. It looks really cute on them, I'll try to get a photo!

Last weekend we went to a wedding and Eric was a groomsman. Eric looked so great in his suit, and I got a great dress that matched his tie on a great sale! Eric has lost a bunch of weight and well, he looked great! Ill have to post photos! Rehearsal dinner night we had the kids, it was a crowd that loves and adores kids, so it was great to hear and experience such nice kid comments/interactions. Levi had an au natural mow hawk and they were all ga-ga over his hairdo! (no pun intended) when kaylee saw her daddy standing up in the rehearsal, she screamed out "daddy!" and tried to run to him. It was evident we don't attend church and then I was glad they didn't come to the actual wedding the next day. That day, it was more than 8 maybe 9 hours away. I missed them when I saw other people's kids but it was nice to catch up with friends sans children, get in adult conversations, have a couple drinks and dance away the evening (till ten anyways, were getting old!) Eric danced a lot with me and I was so so happy, I didn't expect that since he usually shirks away from being on his feet because of his bad ankle. We had a great time and meanwhile the kids got to go to the park and hot tubbing with Krissy and matt and later in the night, my Mom and Dad. Next day we all went to the brunch and again enjoyed showing off our kids to th kid-friendly crowd/family of the couple that got married. Btw, cutest vows ever! They gave pastor three things they love about the other in a secret note mailed to the pastor and read aloud in the ceremony, balled my eyes out ( happy tears).

Jump and then...faceplant!

The other day Levi fell into something, bumping his head. I sai,"oh Levi are you okay?" and hugged him, looking at his face for a bruise. He said to me, " ok".

Yesterday he was so excited he stood by himself his celebrating got a bit risky, since he jumped up fell on his knees and then did a face plant. Oh well gotta learn the physics of it at some point right? He fell on carpet which was good.Yesterday Levi tuned 11months old, only one month till his birthday!

Kaylee is funny to me when I'm working with her on dressing, she's said a couple times, "Mom it's not on correctly." I get a charge out of that, it's such authoritative, managerial language for a 3 year old.

Yesterday we had a fun time at the beach with my Mom. As kaylee fell asleep last night, she whispered to me, "Mom I had fun at the beach today." its so much fun to her more of her thoughts, feelings and exclamations as she becomes more articulate. She's becoming more independent, her mantra at the beach after donning her life jacket was "mom I don't need you." (but happily for me, she still did and does, calling for me many times while I swam nearby)

Levi stands by himself!

Levi is standing by himself! He’s been doing this for about a week, now. He stands up from squatting usually, all by himself. Then puts out his little hands for balance and then when he gets really excited about his newfound ability, he shakes his hands up and down rejoicing and celebrating pumping his arms up and down and doing “so big.” It is hard to explain exactly, but oh so cute! So proud of my independent little boy. He had been pushing me away a little bit lately when I try to hug and kiss him, he’s my tough guy. But, thankfully, not so tough as he still wants to nurse often and still wants to sleep near me. Which by the way is a source of contention for me, because I try not to oblige him in sleeping with me because it really screws up my sleep and gets us into a bad restless cycle but at the same time I get too tired to deal with the waking/crying at 4-5 am and just give in so I can get a little more sleep! He still gets super excited when I come home from work, doing his scoot-drag-scoot-drag crawl on his butt across the floor to meet me with a squeal and a yelp for me to pick him up. He smiles so widely with open mouth and I can see the dimple under his pudgy cheeks. Probably my favorite part of day, aside from Kaylee yelling out at the same moment “Hi Momma! Hey Daddy! Momma’s home!” It’s nice to be loved!!! Though, Levi might’ve just realized he’d rather not go to daycare and be separated from me, because this morning there was a bit of squirmy whining as I left. Oh well, that phase had to begin at some point!

Pretty soon walking will be around the corner. In the meantime, we’ll have to further babyproof our surfaces now within his reach! He’s a curious little explorer, always moving and busy. By the way, he can and does say, “Up” on a regular basis now. Of course, with this new accomplishment I can’t resist obliging him!