Etiquette

On our way home from a visit to Grand Rapids this weekend, we stopped at our favorite place for custard goodness:

While we were sitting at the booth waiting for our food Levi let out what we call at our house, “a pop.”  Hoping that Levi has learned some of the manners we have been trying to implement, I said, “Levi, what do you say?” He turns and says, “I popped.” With as straight of a face as I can muster, I say, “and then what do you say?” He matter-of-factly says, “I popped in my chair.” What a proper little boy.

Look what I can do now!

Our biggie girl can sit up for a few minutes at a time before falling over. She seems to like to view the world from this new angle.

Levi is in to ‘catching’ lightning bugs these evenings.  He won’t pick them up himself, but he loves to point them out!

Big Boy Bed

I cannot tell you how excited I am about this twin bed for Levi! Although we have known for a few months now that Levi is just too long for his toddler bed and needed a twin bed, we were concerned about him being able to get out and roam freely. Well, with this bed, he still cannot get out and I love that! Sounds cruel but I figure since he really has no need to get out and doesn’t seem to mind at all, it works! This bed (from Wal-Mart of all places) is a bunk bed that can be separated into 2 separate beds. So, we put him in the bed that would be on the top and used the wooden rails on just one side, since his bed is against the wall. Seth’s sister, Hannah, has been visiting us this weekend and she helped Seth put it together, as well as went to Sam’s Club with him to pick out a new mattress! Levi took a great nap in his bed today and I’m sure he appreciated all the extra room he had!

Here are a few pics from today:

His old toddler bed (which has a crib sized mattress) looks so small compared to his new bed!

Sleeping so cute :)

Awake and recharged! :)

What his room looks like now!

CL Visit and 6 month photo shoot

Wow – one post in the month of March and this’ll be the first in April. We’re doing pretty well with this blogging thing. Anyway, this past weekend we went to Seth’s parent’s new condo in Clear Lake for a long weekend. We had a great time. Levi had a ball with Papa and Nama throwing stuffed cats, chasing real cats, and throwing croquet balls around the yard.  We went down to the lake and played at the park and threw plenty of rocks back into the lake.  We had beautiful weather and it was so nice to be down by the water and watch Levi enjoy it so much.

 

Chloe is Six Months Already!

A little update on what Chloe is up to these days:

• Usually eating 2 – 3 times per night between 8 pm and 7 am though she’s given us glimpses of better things to come
• Finally over her RSV she got back at the beginning of March though she still coughs occasionally
• Not the biggest fan of rice cereal or any solids for that matter!
• Can roll both ways and perch up on her elbows
• 17lbs 7oz and 26.75 lbs
• smiles so easily to both people she knows and strangers
• naps 2 –3 times per day. Lately she sleeps roughly 10 to 12 and then 2-4 with a “nurse-nap” to get her through til her 8 pm bedtime (but really no set schedule yet)
• has her two bottom teeth (got them 4/13 and 4/15)
• such a happy baby and loved so much!

 

Easy Supper

We found this recipe at  allrecipes.com for Slow Cooker Texas Pulled Pork. It was delicious and made a ton! Make sure you toast your rolls. It makes it even better!

Home Studio

Props to our friends the Chidisters for the inspiration and reminder use to Picasa for our image editing needs. Meribeth had fun taking these pics of Chloe today. A picture we didn’t include on the blog was Levi up in her grill during the photo shoot. We do still occasionally take pictures of our first child. :)

Peach Tea

After church today we had a simple lunch so we could get Levi down for a nap by 1. As lunch was finishing up, I pulled a Snapple Peach Tea out of the fridge and started drinking it. Of course, Levi sees it and decides he is parched as well and asks for some.  I decided it wouldn’t hype up his little system too much to give him a little taste, so I give him the bottle.  He proceeds to chug it like it’s the best thing he’s ever tasted.  I take the bottle from him and turn to Meribeth and say, “Was that a bad choice to give him some?” Levi then points at the bottle and says, “Mo, mo, mo, mo bad choith?” Once I stopped laughing I had to let him know this stuff was called Peach Tea and not ‘bad choice’. None the less, he helped me finish it off and took a good nap despite the natural caffeine running through his veins.

Funny (HaHa + Grr) Kids

We have some funny kids.  Levi was funny haha yesterday and Chloe was funny grr.  Meribeth made a carrot cake yesterday for our church luncheon today.  I guess we don’t have cake enough around here because Levi watched Meribeth put it on the kitchen table when it was all finished and grabbed his bib and said “chair” as he tried to get into his highchair.  Then he looks at Meribeth and says, “Happo Bithdee Cake” hahaha.  It was so cute.  Poor guy.  Hopefully it’s not all gone when we go through the line today at church.

Then, last night at supper, we were just sitting around the table eating and Levi says out of the blue, “Go Hawkeyes!” We got an ornament for Christmas that sings the Hawkeye fight song and yells “GO HAWKEYES!” which he absolutely hates. We got a kick out of that too.

Chloe has been funny in the sense of going to sleep at night lately.  Last night she would NOT go to sleep and kept waking up in her bed after we’d get her in asleep.  This went on until 1140 or so last night.  The night prior she was asleep at 1010 and we didn’t hear from her again until 430 or so.  We have no idea what makes for a good night and what doesn’t, but we’re sure she’ll grow out of it soon enough.

Reading the mail.

3 months and counting!

Pepperoni

At one point we were worried about Levi’s speech development.  Now he’s whipping out four syllable words like pepperoni.  It’s so cute.  Guess we can cancel those last two speech appointments!

Quite a Day!

I was updating our tumblr blog today with new counters along the right side. Noticed that today Chloe is 2 months old and Levi is 2 years, 2 weeks, and 2 days old! I thought it was neat.

Pizza not puppy.

Last night Meribeth made pizza for supper as she often does when we need something delicious and fast for supper. Later that night we were talking to Levi, and one of us said:

“Levi, what did we have for supper?”

Levi thought for a second and said, “puppy…..PEE-tah!!” It was pretty cute as he cycled through his ‘p’ words to get to the right one!

The other weekend, when I took Levi to the park, I took some pics of him that I stitched together below. You can click on it to make it bigger.

1 month old already!

Chloe turned a month old today.  She still has her rough nights, but things are getting better on the whole.  We took some cute pics today of her in her crib.  It’ll be a while until she’s sleeping in there, so for now, we just use it as a photo op:

  Seth took Levi to the park today in the 45 degree weather.  His nose got a little rosy, but judging from the pictures, he had fun.

New Words

Here are some of Levi’s new words these past couple of weeks with his version in brackets:

tractor - [tra-co]

tree - [tree]

heavy - [eh-vee]

water – [wa-wa]

video - [vee-va]

TV - [vee-vee]

honey - [ahnee]

music - [me-me]

happy - [happee]

Hi baby - [Hi Baby!]

reach - [reesh]

push - [psh]

fish - [fsh]

cookie - [coo-kee]

We were walking out of an appointment today and the lady at the front desk heard him jabbering coming down the hallway.  She said, “He’s quite a talker!” That’s not something we ever heard people say during the first 22 months of his life!

Chloe Elizabeth is here! (And almost 4 wks old!)

It’s safe to say we are terrible about keeping up this blog, but how could we not write a post about our newest addition to the family!! Chloe Elizabeth was born October 21st and it’s hard to believe she will be 4 weeks old on Wednesday already! We are so proud of her and think she is the sweetest baby girl we have ever seen :) A little bit about her . . . She loves to be swaddled and is easily soothed by a combination of the vent fan in the kitchen and us holding her and jigling her round and round (hard to describe but if you are around us very much. you will see it! :) She pretty much only sleeps in her swing or bouncer seat and is NOT a fan of the bassinet due to its flatness (we think). She eats every 2-3 hrs during the day and has gone as long as 5 between feedings at night. She is growing at a faster rate than her brother did. . . was up to 9 lbs 2 oz at her 2 wk check-up and was discharged from the hospital at 7 lbs 15 oz. Levi, on the other hand, left the hospital weighing 8 lbs and was just 8 lbs 12 oz at his 2 wk check. She does a good job at letting us know that she hates the car seat, is bored, or hungry! Her cries are so shrill and desperate and we really don’t remember these cries with Levi. But, she is easily consoled for the most part and a walk to the kitchen fan can sooth her most fussy moments :) We love her so much and are so thankful that God has entrusted us to be her parents! Here are a few recent pictures of our little sweetie:

  

Wipeout and Haircut

The other week we drove over to the mall to pick up some stuff.  Seems like we’re always picking up random things to get ready for baby sister’s arrival.  It had been a pretty cold day, so Levi hadn’t been outside all day.  So, when we pulled into the parking lot, we put him on the ground to let him walk in by himself.  Well, he started off in a full-out run.  The lot is a little slanted, and he got going a little faster than he could handle.  And, before either of us could react he fell down, caught himself with his hands, but his inertia kept him going forward and he smacked his lip and chin into the cement.  He bit his lip pretty good, and scraped his chin up, but otherwise escaped unscathed.  We were thankful as it could have been much worse.

Here he is the next day after getting ready for church! 

Levi’s hair was getting a little shaggy and unruly, and with the new baby on the way, we figured it was time for a new cut.  There was a salon nearby that offered half price for the first cut so she decided to take him there.  He did so well.  She used the buzzer on his neck and head and clipped away without any problems.  We think he looks like such a little 5-year-old!

Well, he doesn’t realize it yet, but we sure do.  Baby sister is arriving awfully quickly!  She is officially due the 21st, but there are no signs thus far of any forward progress.  So, we’ll see how things go.  Meribeth and Levi are sick this week, so it’s a good thing in a way that she hasn’t decided to emerge yet.  We’re praying mommy and Levi heal up and daddy doesn’t get it before the baby comes.  Here’s a nice snot shot of Levi!