Budding artists and dancers hit the dance floor

Since we now have two kids it is harder to blog about each of them and remember the details well to keep the blog updated. Obviously – life is hectic! Anyways, I try hard to get these things in the blog so that we have a memory of where we have been and what fun stuff we did along the way. But I just had to note that I feel guilty at times for not getting detailed enough about keeping up with what the kids milestones have been lately, etc. That being said:

Kaylee can now count to about 30. I believe she knows more of a one-to-one relationship when counting now. She knows the upper and lower case letters for most her letters, can write them. She knows her sounds for her letter and likes being quizzed which word starts with what letter. She is mostly correct in her responses and love to show off. She also knows most of her body parts that are a little less common like collar bone, wrist, chin… She can write her name in upper and lower case letters. She cannot yet write her last name. She is confused about which is her last name and which is her middle name. She knows how to tell somebody what her mom and dad’s name is if she gets lost. She thinks that our state is our address.

But this is the exciting thing!....Yesterday suddenly she was drawing people. For a while now, she has been drawing a series of sticks and circles saying they are her family members but really you can’t discern or determine what’s what when looking at them. Yesterday it was totally out of the blue that she was drawing people with arms, legs, a circle for a head, and she even was drawing eyelashes and fingers!!! She drew herself first, then Levi, then Eric and myself. She tried to draw our house but I didn’t honestly recognize it as a house, yet. Eric and I were so excited for this. We were looking over her shoulder to see what she would draw next. She was so excited that she drew about 4 sheets. I will scan them in and put it up on the blog.I fully intend to display it at my desk at work. I’m so proud of my little
budding artist!

We went to a kid’s concert/show type thing yesterday. It was my sister’s boyfriends band playing. Levi has his moves – I’ll tell ya! And not just a stock of 4-5 moves, he is creative and they just sort of flow out of him. There’s a lot of cute little diversity to his moves. It’s always sudden, not totally in control, and way down to near the floor so far you marvel at his flexibility. He gets a bit overwhelmed at concerts and won’t participate if he’s had too much. Wants to be held a lot. They both dressed up and got filmed beforehand so they were on screen in their get-ups during the performance. My little stars – I couldn’t be more proud of them! Kaylee wanted to be at the front, center of the stage for the show. I put my sister in charge of her so that we could be off to the side with Levi. My mom instinct kicked despite the fact I could not see Kaylee in the crowd whatsoever, but it was when they let out the balloons and I got to Kaylee in time to pull her out from under several kids trying to grab at balloons. My dad helped out, which was super awesome and so great! Levi had a great spot on his shoulders for some of the show.

Kaylee wanted some dance shoes at the store the other day – this is going to sound stupid but I just didn’t think about the noise that tap shoes would bring to our home. Suffice it to say, yesterday they were returned for a nice pair of ballet slippers instead. My budding dancer was ok with the switcheroo because the tap shoes were “cutting my feet”. It is all too soon for my little fashionista to have to pay the price for fashion’s sake!

trip to colorado!

Mixed in are a couple of Valentine's photos above.

Then! We've been having a great time on our short vacation to Colorado. Of course the highlight of the trip is meeting our new nephew, and seeing the rest of the family again. Sammy is so cute, cuddly and little, levi Was never that small. Sammy is 9 lb 3 oz at four weeks old, totally normal just my experience is so recent, having a newborn whose a 9 lb 13.5 oz from day one. Kaylee's so in love with running around playing with her cousins I've hardly seen her. She wants to be a big girl and doesn't want her momma right now, my first mom-you're-just-not-cool-experience with her. Oh well, it's been fun knowing she's having a real good time playing. They unit forts, played with the trains, played a rollicking game of ball and chute with Eric where they were almost so excited as to be out of control. Uncle Eric is just too cool, tossing them one by one high up into the air and then slamming them onto the couch.

Yesterday we went to the butterfly pavilion. Levi was so excited he was pointing and waving his hands excitedly up and down. Kaylee had a great time on the zip line ride, which I should be able to add an awesome photo of when I get home. the day before that we went to a pool that had a lazy river with a whirlpool vortex thing and also a mild version of a wave pool. Everybody had a great time. Today we might go bowling we'll see. This was only a four day trip with all the time on the road so we have to head back overnight tonight already.MoRe later kids want attention... Take care!

Levi slept through the night!

Levi slept through the night again! The times in the last 17 months he's done this are less than 10, and suffice it to say I am sleep deprived. I've gotten used to it. This morning felt great though, and if he's like his sister she slept through at around 18 months on...one can only hope, it would be a welcome change for me for sure. One reason he did this is he's feeling better after being diagnosed with an ear infection on Thursday. At the doctors he was 26 lb 4 oz.

I am enjoying myself at the moment with the kids, loving that Kaylee is almost done with the terrible threes and Levi hasn't started his terrible twos yet (too much). I know in a few months he may begin the public tantrums, the writhing as if in agony on the floor when you say no to their silly demands...that is no fun,and embarassing! Anyway he was a perfect angel at the grocery store yesterday, he was saying "hi" to the people who smiled and waved at him, and he bopped to the music in his carseat on the way home. He asked me a couple times to pick him up while in the cart and I just kept going without an issue, I am loving that agreeableness at the moment.

Levi is learning his eyes, ears, nose, head, hair....he said to me yesterday"ear" touching my ear, and "hair" touching my hair, I was so impressed I didn't notice he had stolen my earring. Glad he didn't swallow the thing before I realized it was gone.

Sorry this post is all about Levi, but it seems fitting on his 17 th month birthday.