Race Day!

As I mentioned in my previous post, Matt has been training to run in a 5K race and today was the day! The weather was absolutely gorgeous for a race. Levi and I had great seats near the start/finish line as we watched and cheered for Matt while he ran an awesome race - his first ever!! His official time was 27 minutes, 52 seconds - quite a bit better than his goal of a half hour. Way to go, Matt - I am so proud of you!

Here are some pictures from the race...

Still Here...Sort of

I know, I know - I haven't posted anything for a long time. Thanks to everyone who filled me in about that fact (like I didn't realize I wasn't posting) - you know who you are!

As for an explanation...computer issues. I know that sounds like a cop-out, but it's true. First we started getting popups when we were online, then we couldn't get online for about a week, now we can get online again (bypassing the wireless router) but the computer has contracted a virus, so now we have sent the computer off to my dad to see if he can help us fix our computer issues. It isn't that I didn't want to post anything, rather I couldn't post anything.

Tonight I'm over at my sister's house watching my nephew for the evening. Since Henry went to sleep as soon as his head hit the mattress (no afternoon nap will do that to a kid), I'm borrowing her computer to do a little online catch-up. Hopefully we will have our computer fixed soon and then I can get back to posting a bit more regularly.

Until then, here's what's been happening with L-M-N-O...

• We spent every weekend in May at a cottage - either Matt's family's or my parents'. We had a fun time cleaning, painting, getting things ready for summer, and enjoying a relaxing Memorial day weekend. For some pictures you can check out my sister's blog.
• Levi has started to say quite a few recognizable words: "pees" (please), "della" (Bella, as in his cousin), "moo", "baa", "a-doo-a-doo" (cock-a-doodle-doo), "no, no, no" (just today - not in context, but showing me what I must say an awful lot!).
• A new discipline technique for Levi - that worked for about 3 days. We have a decorative birdhouse in our living room that I put fake flowers in to go with the season. A few weeks ago, I swapped the Christmas flowers for some more summery yellow flowers. Levi discovered the new flowers and figured out that he could pull the flowers and buds off the stems. So, when we played in the living room, he started sneaking around the couch to the birdhouse. One of those times, I tried counting to 3 in a stern voice and to my surprise, Levi left the birdhouse and came back to playing by me. I was quite excited that we didn't have to start a "time-out" technique yet because it seemed like this approach might work for now. About three days later, Levi was again sneaking around the couch to "play" with the birdhouse flowers. I started counting in my stern "mom" voice: ONE...TWO... "tree" (Levi's voice from the other side of the couch). Now what? I couldn't help but laugh. So much for that discipline technique - now I can't even get past ONE without hearing "doo" (two) and "tree". We've decided instead to start working on counting and Levi is learning "four" and "five"...
• Levi tried broadening his cuisine... My mom came over for a day in May to help me weed our landscaping (a big help - thanks Mom!). After Levi got up from his nap, he came outside to help too. Under our deck in the backyard, we have an extra piece of wood laying on the ground, so I flipped it over to weed underneath it. We found lots of creepy-crawly things underneath and I pointed them out to Levi. I even went so far as picking up a worm with my glove to show it to him. He wasn't scared a bit, in fact, he took it from me(which I thought was kind of cool at that point) and then proceeded to try and put it in his mouth (not so cool!). Why did I think that the worm wouldn't go in his mouth when everything else he touches does? Perhaps the best part was that when I tried to get the worm out of Levi's hand, I nearly shoved it right into his mouth - way to go on my part!
• Matt has taken up running and is getting ready to run in his first race (a 5K) this Saturday. Levi and I are looking forward to cheering him on and showing him how proud we are of him for doing the race! Levi's been practicing saying "go, go, go" and "yeah, Daddy" - I think he'll be ready in time for Saturday :)

Well, that's at least a stab at getting things caught up. Now I need to catch up on my blog reading and see what everyone else has been up to. It's sad how out of the loop you feel when your computer is down...just kidding!

More than I give him credit for...

Deep down, I know that Levi understands more than he is able communicate back to me, but sometimes in my busyness I forget to notice that he does understand.

I realized this again when Levi and I went to school to pick up TRIP today. As soon as I opened Levi's door he started making an animal noise. Levi has a distinct sound for a duck's quack (pretty accurate) and a dog's bark (not so accurate, but we know what he means), but for the rest of the animal population he has a generic animal noise. At first I thought today's sound was the "goggy" (doggy) bark, but like I told Levi, there were no dogs visible in the vicinity. He kept at it though, determined to make me see that he knew what he was talking about.

Once I got him out of the car seat, I let Levi get down to walk around in the parking lot. He started walking toward the basketball hoop that was a parking space away from the van. He was pointing at the net, so I figured that was what he was talking about. Usually when I figure out what he means, Levi gives me some indication that I've gotten it right, but no such luck with the basketball net. Then I looked again and finally saw what Levi had been seeing the entire time...there was a bird sitting on the basketball hoop! As soon as I said "Oh, you see the birdie up there!" he started smiling and made an even more excited birdie sound.

I am reminded again that Levi is like a sponge soaking up EVERYTHING around him and that I can learn a lot from him. Every day, a new discovery and a new adventure. What a way to live!

Levi's Latest...

For the past week Levi has been walking around the house muttering something over and over. After a few days of hearing him repeating it again and again, I finally figured out what it was that he was saying...

Tickle, tickle, tickle. Tickle, tickle, tickle.

It started when he was a little baby. Every time I go to tickle Levi, I say out loud "tickle, tickle, tickle". I love hearing him laugh, so I do it pretty often. Apparently more than I realize, hence the new phrase constantly coming out of his mouth.

It's really quite cute, once you know what he is saying. I'll let you be the judge...

(Disclaimer: This is my first attempt at doing anything with video clips from my digital camera. I made the mistake of turning the camera on end while videotaping and now I don't know how to rotate it (so you don't have to turn your head sideways). I figure you can deal with it, especially once you see how cute Levi is in the footage!

15 Months

Today I took Levi to the pediatrician for his 15 month check-up. Levi did really well for the doctor, but he wasn't too excited to wait for the nurse to give him his shots!

Here are his stats at 15 months:

• Height: 33-1/2 inches
• Weight: 24 pounds, 2 ounces
• Head Circumference: 19 inches (for anyone who cares!)

Somewhat patiently waiting

for the nurse to come back with the shots...

Nearly "loosing it" while

waiting for the nurse to come back with the shots...

Hugs from Grandma

make waiting for the nurse much more tolerable!