A Letter to Levi- 8 Months

Dear Levi,

You are now 8 months old!  You are such a cool little man!  You are killing us with your beautiful smile adorned with two bottom teeth and dimples.  Your hair is getting longer and you even have some super messy hairdos these days. I still can't believe I have a blonde haired, blue eyed baby.

You are wearing 9 month and 12 month clothing and weighed 21.5 lbs about 3 weeks ago.  You are also about Chino's height these days- however tall that may be :) Everywhere we go people say you are a big kid, and you are! I love that you are such a big boy.

You gave us a big scare last month when you got really sick for the first time.  You have such a wonderful attitude and you tried your best to still play and smile although you weren't feeling well.

You are learning more and more tricks.  You know who we are and started reaching your arms out for us to pick you up- it melts our hearts.  You also learned how to clap and break into spontaneous applause throughout the day- while playing, on a walk, or even while having your diaper changed.  And why not?  Life is pretty amazing, right?  You love playing with your toys and get excited when you see your favorites.

You are getting to be so strong!  You sit like a champ, roll over whenever you have a chance, and can pull yourself to standing with barely any support from us but our fingers for you to hold.  Crawling isn't really your thing yet, but you have plenty of time for that.

Just like mama, you are a fan of food.  We had a rough start with purees at first and you much preferred finger foods, but we found a few purees that you enjoy and you are now eating two of them at daycare with Baba Tania.  You sometimes cry when they are gone.  You are still drinking milk at school and at home and have had formula supplemented 3 times in the last 8 months with the rest being mama's milk. Your favorite foods are yogurt, the different kinds of fancy puffs, any fruit you can get your hands on, french toast or pancakes, and your sweet potato and cranberry butternut squash purees. You also steal any food that mama or papa are eating, but that's a given. You are very good at feeding yourself and will sit in the high chair in the evenings eating your snack while we eat.  Your brother Chino loves that you eat now because he hangs out by the high chair waiting for his snacks to drop!

You babble, squeal, and spit all the time.  You blow raspberries and say 'mama', 'baba', 'dada', and a few other sounds. You sing yourself to sleep and seem to really enjoy music.  You love going to daycare and seeing your friends and especially love seeing your baba and deda every day.

You are such a sweet, happy little boy!  You have really bonded with your papa over the last month and you boys really enjoy each other's company.  He reads you books, picks you up and swings you really high, and practices wrestling with you.  It makes me so happy to see you play together!

You're my little sweetie pie and we have so much fun together, or at least I like to think we do.  I make you laugh (more than anyone else. neener neener neener) and you have the sweetest laugh I have ever heard! You grab my face and snuggle against me when you are falling asleep and I wish I could bottle that up and take it with me everywhere I go. I refuse to believe you are growing up, but you are and you get better each day.

 

On your 8 month birthday I did this comparison- crazy, right?  You are so much cuter on the outside, although equally heavy. And mama sure had more time to do her hair before you got here but it's worth every moment spent with you. 

Happy 8 months, my sweet boy!

Love,
Mama

A Recipe

As with everything else, I am surprised by our little guy's eating preferences and tastes. We did not start solids until 6 months and by then he had only really had a taste or two of banana and sweet potato. He was pretty enthusiastic with eating from the spoon and seemed to like puréed foods.

Fast forward to a few weeks later and we have a picky little bear on our hands. It seems that he is way too cool for baby mush now that he grew 1.5 new teeth. He tries to steal our food and goes to town mashing things up with his teeth and gums.

Since he seemed to like my homemade waffles, I tried out a veggie version.

Zucchini Waffles:
5-6 grated zucchinis
1/2 cup whole wheat flour or baking mix
1 egg
Salt and pepper to taste

- mix all ingredients and make in waffle maker.
-also works in pancake form
-feed to dog, husband, and picky babe

A Whole Year

I must be getting sentimental in my old age. All I could think about was January 7 in my head all this weekend. This will forever be my favorite date. First, it is our sweet nephew's birthday (love you, Benny)! Second, this day is when we met our lovely boy last year.

As we counted fingers, toes, and vital organs my heart just about popped out of my chest. 10 healthy fingers and toes, a beautiful heart with all chambers, a cute button nose, and a perfectly shaped head made up our sweet healthy baby. The tech asked us if we wanted to know the sex and we found out our Levi was a boy! I was overwhelmed and so excited and I knew he would be a boy from very early on.

A year later I still marvel at that beautiful little boy and am grateful for each of his fingers, toes, and the beat of his heart when I hold him. What a difference a year makes.

6 Months!

So, it's almost time for a 7 month update, but here is Levi's 6 month stats and update:

Stats:

Levi was 19.75 lbs and 26.5 inches tall at his 6 month appointment. He is still holding strong at 90th percentile for weight and around 75th percentile for height. He has reached all his 6 month milestones and mama and papa are just so proud and thankful for our healthy boy.
 

 

Favorite Things to Do:

Levi is such a happy little boy! He loves playing peek-a-boo, jumping in his jumperoo, grabbing our faces, playing with all his grandparents, and squealing. He has a delightful high pitched squeal!

Highlights:

Levi rolled over on December 1 and did it again a few days after! He gets the most excited look on his face when it happens! Levi also celebrated his first holiday season with us!

Eating and Sleeping:

Levi started solids after his 6 month appointment! He is a fan of real food more than baby mush. We keep trying, but so far he has hated carrot puree and yelled at me when I gave him oatmeal. Levi prefers my bread, small pieces of boiled baked potato, veggie soup, and even rice.  He is still drinking lots of milk and lets me know when he is hungry!  

I have been doing some more research on feeding the little man and found these sites very interesting (family members- feel free to read these):

 

http://wholesomebabyfood.momtastic.com/here/solidsmonths6-8_800.pdf

http://www.babycenter.com/0_baby-food-revolution-new-rules-for-feeding-your-baby_10320504.bc

 

Nicknames:

Little bear, Levchik, dino baby

 

Every month I say it is my favorite month. It's because life gets better and better with our sweet little boy by our side.

Little Baby on a Horse

Oh yes. This just happened.

5 Months- A Letter to Levi

Dear Little Man,

You are already 5 months old!  You are doing so much at 5 months and you have become your own little person.  You have the best smile and giggles and you light up the room wherever you go...(OK, so you only go visit your very biased family or the grocery store, but still).

You are not quite eating big kid food yet, but over the last couple of weeks you tried banana, sweet potato, and squash and you loved all of them.  We are going to officially start food at 6 months.  You are still drinking mama's milk like it's going out of style and you are growing so big!  You still eat every 2 hours during the day and have made it so far without any formula supplements.

You are wearing 6-9 month clothes, although you should probably be wearing 9-12 month clothes.  You have a very strong body and big thighs like mama and daddy had when they were little (and one of us has now post-baby).  You probably weigh over 20 lbs now, but we won't know for sure until you are weighed at your next appointment.  You wear size 3 diapers and your shoes are 6-12 months.

Daycare is one of your favorite places to go.  Your Baba and Deda take such good care of you and you love your little friends.  You love sitting outside and watching all the big kids play.  The other day you saw the leaves flying and you were trying to catch them with your tongue, silly boy.  You are starting to get a little bit of separation anxiety and are drawn to your parents if we go somewhere with unfamiliar people.

Sleeping is going well.  You like to party until 10 or 11 at night and then fall asleep until your tummy wakes you up to eat any time between 2:00 and 3:30 and then eat every 2-3 hours again until the morning.  You like to sleep in and Papa wake you up for daycare at 7:30.  You give a sweet little smile to start the day and I'm pretty sure it melts Papa's heart.

You love your playmat, Sophie, and anything you can put in your mouth.  Mama and Papa just set up your jumperoo and high chair and those are the jam right now too.  You also just discovered your big brother Chino and you love watching him and even petted him for the first time the other day.

Baby Bear- we love you so very much!  You are a happy, happy boy and have brought so much joy to our lives. We can't imagine life without your smiles, dinosaur shrieks, and blowout poops.

Love,
Mama

Four Months

We had our 4 month appointment a week early and little man is growing and growing!  Life is crazy as usual and we are still working on getting the hang of things!  Here is our 4 month update:

                   

Stats: Levi is 17 lb 1 oz (80%) , 24.75 inchess tall (50%), and his head is also in the 50th percentile. What can I say, my son is built like a Greek god. He is wearing 6-9 month clothing and 9 month clothing and has the chunkiest thighs ever.

Favorite Things to Do: Levi is a happy little guy and loves smiling at us. He thinks mama and papa are pretty funny and smiles any time we smile back at him. He has a grunt of a laugh when we pretend to scare him by saying 'boo' and will sometimes chuckle.  He is still a big fan of his skip hop playmat and loves his girlfriend Sophia the Giraffe.  He still loves taking walks with us and loves looking around at the world. Now that he is at daycare with grandma Tania, he loves looking around and playing with the older kids.

Highlights: Levi started daycare at Grandma's house (my mom). He is adjusting beautifully and seems to love it there. Mama is getting used to being away from Levi and I may or may not have had a meltdown.  For now, I need to be working and I'm glad he has a safe place to stay all day.

Eating and Sleeping: Levi has made big strides in the eating and sleeping department. He takes a bottle at daycare with no problem.  This was my greatest worry and fear going into daycare and I'm so glad he eats like a champ.  I now have the great joy of pumping at work, which I hate with a passion, but I'm determined to continue to breastfeed for as long as I can.  Levi also moved to his bed about 2 weeks before he turned 4 months and has done well.  I am a little jumpy with the baby monitor, but he does a great job.  I will not mess with the sleeping gods, but sleep has been going fairly well for us.

Nicknames: Boo boo, honey, Levchik, Mishka

Our sweet, sweet boy- we love you so much! Every month I say 'this is my favorite age' and I think it's because you make life better and better.  Thank you for making me stop and enjoy each moment with you and for providing laughs every single day.