What? No Birthday?

Today is February 28th and in less than 10 minutes or so it will be March 1st. Do you know what happens on Feburary 29th? It is Levi's half birthday. So since there isn't a February 29th in 2009 I guess Levi won't be 1 1/2 right? I sure hope so, because I have every intention of putting him in nursery tomorrow. I've been waiting for this day for too long. Last week I tried to persuade Jason to let me put him in just a little early, to get him used to it, but Jason thought that was 'cheating' and would have none of it. Oh well.

Levi has grown up a lot, just in the past few months. I am always amazed by just how smart that little man is. Here are some new things he's been up to:

- He will now grab your finger (or hand, or leg, or pants) and drag you to where he wants you to go. It's pretty cute, though it sometimes it's to something he shouldn't be getting into. Then he'll get quite upset after all the work he's done to get you there and get whatever it is for him, just to refuse assistance.

- He will point to things when counting or he'll grab your finger and move it to count things

- He can put his clothing in the laundry chute and put dishes in the sink (we put them in the workforce early!)

- Staying on the cleaning theme, he loves to sweep and vacuum, though he is pretty scared of the big vacuum when it's on. We have a smaller, more portable one that he loves to 'use' when either one of us are vacuuming, it's pretty sweet.

- He has been sleeping in a 'big boy bed' for the past week, though I didn't think that would happen until AFTER the baby came. Him and dad sure showed me.

- He can 'say' and identify a LOT of different things (by 'say' I mean say the first syllable...he's only done two syllables or sounds a couple of times)

- He loves to color

- He will fold his hands when it's time to pray, and is pretty good at reminding us to do so. But then follows it by laughing when he sees everyone closing there eyes and bowing there heads. When Amen is said, he most often follows it with a big 'Ahh' and spreading his arms out like an evangelical preacher (not that that's bad, I just have no idea where it came from)

- He can open doors. (I have been dreading him learning that one for quite a while now). Luckily it's only a few in the house.

- He climbs chairs, even the tallest ones, with ease

- He loves putting pennies in banks (or jars).

- If you ask him where his 'baby brother' is he'll come up to me and kiss or hug my stomach. It's hilarious, though I am interested to see what he will do when the baby comes and we ask him where is baby brother is.


As an end to this report, recently we found out Levi is in the 95% for height and 90% for weight. Yes, he's a big boy. But I don't think anyone ever expected him to be anything but huge, not with the genes he has. It makes me wonder just how high those grocery bills will get when he's a teenager. One can only imagine.

Happy half birthday Levi!!!! We love you so much!

Updates

Yesterday Jason asked me why I haven't posted any 'updates' on our family and what has gone on in the past month or so. So here I am, at his request and for all of you dying to know what we've been up to......

Almost four weeks ago my grandfather passed away which was a huge shock to all of us. He was really close to us and we will miss him a lot. For the two weeks following, it was pretty chaotic with funeral arrangements, family coming to town and all that. The funeral was a wonderful, joyous celebration of him and his life and was exactly how he would have wanted it. We are doing pretty well with it all and know he is on to great and important things.

Because my grandmother is in a rehabilitation center from a fall she had almost two months ago, it left there house empty and so she asked Jason and I (and Levi) to come an live in the house and stay after she comes back. After a lot of though and consideration we decided to move in and will be helping my grandmother when she is able to come home (hopefully less than two months).

So for the past several weeks we have been cleaning, arranging, moving and organizing everything. Jason, Levi, baby Max, and I will be living upstairs while my grandmother will be downstairs.

It is nice to live in our own 'place' we can settle into and call our own (sort of). For those of you who don't know, we have been living with my mom for the past year or so. Last Thanksgiving my grandfather got very sick while we were visiting for the holidays and we decided we needed to move back to Oregon from Provo to help out at my grandparents (especially since I was the only one in the family not working). While we were at my mom's we were able to get a lot accomplished financially but most importantly I able to help out at my grandparents house and spend a lot of time with my grandparents and they got to bond with Levi. I am glad Levi had that time to really get to know and love his great grandpa. They were such buddies.

So here we are. The house is a LOT closer to Jason's work and is still pretty close to the rest of our family. It is a very roomy, comfortable place. Jason has been excitedly working on setting up his huge 120 gallon aquarium he got for his b-day and we are lucky to have enough bedrooms upstairs for me to have a craft room (ok, I have to share it with Jason's office. I take what I can get) which I am VERY excited about. Levi loves it because there is a huge backyard and lots of new things to explore. And he loves the laundry chute. So far I've found a banana peel, a shoe, and some garbage. It makes doing laundry a lot funner because I never know what I'm going to find next.

Well. Hope that's everything. Oh. Levi goes into nursery next week. As you can tell I'm very excited.

THE FACE

For the past several months Levi has been making what we all call "The Face". I don't exactly know how it all started but it is the most hilarious thing ever. He mostly does it during food time though it has nothing to do with food (I think). It took quite a few attempts to get it on camera, so enjoy!

Double Digits

Today we go from being 100 days away from meeting baby Max (Jason is pretty set on the name and I'll most likely give in) to 99 days. While 99 days seem like a lot, it really isn't. I learned with pregnancy no. 1 that time sure does fly and with us moving, baby proofing a new house and getting ready for it all, I know that the time will come too quickly for me. I think I need at least another 6 months or so to be ready. Oh well. A girl can dream right?

Another countdown: Only 21 more days till Levi goes into nursery!!!! But his half birthday technically only happens every four years because it is Feb. 29th. So. I wonder if we can get him in the week BEFORE he turns 18 months. Hummmm..... We haven't been able to pay much attention in church for over a year and a half because of that little man who doesn't ever sit still. It will be a good couple months while it lasts and then baby no. 2 is taking his rightful place as distractor during Sunday school.