Ordinary Days in the Divine Dispensing: Levi's 12th month

From December 24th until January 23th, Levi had his last few days as a baby and became a toddler. (You can read all about his one year celebrations here.) Over the course of the month, he learned a few new words, became more independent, and got his 4th tooth. It's kind of crazy to think that he's one year old! One year ago my water broke on the night of January 23rd. One year ago I saw his sweet face for the first time on the morning of January 24th. It was quite a crazy morning! HA! January 24th 2015 was a lot less work for mom and dad. :)

Levi's speech has really started to take off. He's not so big on signing like Caleb was, but he is speaking so well. He is beginning to copy tons of words, and I honestly believe he knows what most of them mean. Some words aren't super clear, but a few of his new phrases/words you can understand: "yum yum" (for wanting food), "amen" (when we are praying), "thank you" (when you hand him something or when he hands you something), and "done". He also started waving hi and shaking his head yes (he could already wave bye and shake head no).

A couple of cute things he has started doing is sharing his food with me. If I'm holding him, he usually just steals food out of my hand and starts eating it (haha), but now he will actually hand his food out to me to eat. He smiles really big when I take a bite and say "Nom nom nom. Yummy, Levi! Thank you!". Another thing is that he knows where all the rooms are in the house now. If I tell him that it's time to go wake up KK, he knows exactly where to go! The first time he walked to Caleb's room and straight to his bed and started "talking" to him to wake him up was INCREDIBLY cute. Caleb could only turn over toward Levi, smile, and say "Hi, Levi" very sleepily. :)

The independence and adventurousness continues to increase as the days go by. Not only will Levi walk happily all over the house by himself (I do not let him go for very long haha), he started standing up in his high chair (had to start strapping him in), getting on top of the boys' picnic table by himself, and getting into the seat of the picnic table by himself and sitting with brother. It's very cute and wouldn't be so scary if he could actually get down from the table safely. He has not mastered that just yet. He can climb down from the fireplace ledge by himself though which makes me a little less nervous when he climbs up there. He also starting bouncing on the little trampoline when he gets on it. Before he would only climb onto it and stand or sit there.

On top of the table. Making mommy so nervous.

Climbing down from the ledge

Happy to be on the trampoline

Bouncy, bouncy, bouncy :)

We are in a sleep transition phase right now. Some days he gets in 2 naps. Some days he only takes 1. I basically just go by his cues and his attitude. Sometime I'll push him past his comfort zone when we have plans to do something in the morning, and he usually does pretty well with skipping that nap. Other days I wouldn't even THINK of skipping that morning nap. The cranky monster starts coming out hehe. It's a really great day when both boys will take their afternoon naps at the same time, and mommy gets a little time to get stuff done or take a nap or work out. It doesn't always happen, but I'm thankful when it does! The pictures below are from one of the days that Levi had an early nap, and so he and Caleb had opposite nap times. While brother slept, we went outside and played with bubbles :)

Before now Levi's favorite food was blueberries. He would get so so excited anytime he saw them. He still likes them, but now he has a new favorite: clementines! The boy could eat them ALL day. He asks for them constantly. We have them on top of the counter, so it's hard to hide them. I think it's a good time he starts learning that even good things are better in moderation, and we don't always get what we want ;) His taste buds prefer naturally sweeter foods: carrots, clementines (sweet fruits), and sweet potatoes. Funny enough, though, he will NOT even try cake. Maybe the frosting freaks him out. I don't know. But, any time we've put it in front of him he CRIES! :( I can't complain. Cake isn't good for us anyway, and he's doing just fine with his fruit and pouches :)

Our sweet potato boy :)

Did not want his cupcake. He prefered the balloons :)

The struggle is real. Cake is not Levi's friend haha

Just like big brother, he is starting to shy away from meat. I think it must be a texture thing. Caleb did not like meat products/eggs from 12 months until about 2 years..maybe a little later than that. We could chop it tiny and hide it in rice from 12 months-20 months, but then he figured it out. To this day the boy fights us over eating chicken haha. So, we have started chopping meat/eggs/tofu into tiny pieces with Levi. We mostly just stick to cheese and peanut butter though. He definitely LOVES shredded cheese and pb!

Hiding food in with the corn :)

For the first time ever on January 18th, Levi was able to open the spout to his sippy cup by himself :) I was pretty surprised. We were sitting in a church meeting, and he took the cup out of our bag, opened it, and drank. Then he smiled really big. He's getting so big!

In more exciting news, Uncle Joe came to visit us at the end of December! It's a pretty long drive, but he made the trek to come and spend time with us over winter break. Tim took some time off, and we all hung out at the house. The kids love Uncle Joe. He plays music for them, plays with them, and always brings them great toys :)

Daddy making special Hot Pot for Uncle Joe

Clapping for the good music

Mesmorizing

Can we play too, Uncle Joe??

Tickle fun

Snuggly tickles

Time for some serious tickling!

Outside fun with Uncle Joe..

At Levi's 1 year appointment, the doc said he looks great. He didn't grow very much at all physically, but developmentally he grew ALOT. Maybe he had a little stunt in growth from being sick for 6 weeks in December and in January and not eating much. :( Poor baby! He was 20 lbs 7.5 ozs (20%), 29.5 inches (45%), and his head was 45.3 cm (20%).