The Goodrich Gossip: Levi Dean Goodrich

Levi -

My 6 1/2 year old boy. I can't believe you were just in my arms and I was changing your diapers. Cheesy I know but it's true and when you have kids you'll understand what I'm talking about.

One of the things I have noticed more and more is that you are a peacemaker. Whenever there is a fight or argument almost always you are quick to try your best to solve the problem peacefully.

You have always loved stories and love to tell them as well. Right now most of them are very long and involve armies, battles, super powers and lots of other boy stuff. We've had to change things because you like to tell LONG stories, I mean an hour and a half to two hours story which I don't always have the time to listen to so we've had you divide them into chapters and you always remember where you left off and pick it right back up. It has been starting to rub off on Max who has become quite the story teller as well.

I have been trying to convince you that instead of just telling stories you should write them but you didn't like that idea when I suggested it because you said you weren't good at writing things. You seem to feel more self conscious about that (you did with drawing as well) and so avoid doing it but you are getting a lot better with drawing and writing. In fact we just reserved some 'how to draw' books at the library per your request. Monsters and robots of course.

Like everyone else you adore your baby brother. Whenever you hear him fuss you go to him and start to talk to him or sing him a song. When he's laying on the floor you like to grab his hands and pull him to a sitting position. You often want to do more but I have to restrain you a little bit because this mama gets a little nervous.

You have been doing piano all this school year and are doing well, though I do have to do a little persuading with it. Right now you are working with Krista on playing the first half of the Superman theme, it's so awesome to hear you play a chord! I hope you keep it up because I think once you get the basics of it and can pick music that you like you are going to love it. I've even looked up the Mario and Starwars themes for you.

You are my little bookworm and I love it. I think one of the things I wanted the most for my children, at least as far as education and academics goes, is that they would all have a desire to read books. I don't really care what (to an extent) but books of all kinds are so wonderful. Some of my favorite memories I have are of me reading books and now it is how I de-stress as well as feel connected to the world and to others past and present.

The book you are enjoying the most are Geronimo Stilton, The Magic Tree House Series, Scooby Doo, Lego, Bionicle, graphic novels (you just read a Percy Jackson and loved it!) you like pretty much any book that you can get your hands on. Nese has been reading the 5 Children and It, one that I listened to when she read it to me as a kid. You also love reading books with facts in them. We have a huge collection of Eyewittness books and you like to grab them and read them when it suits your fancy along with the ZooBook and National Geographic magazines.

Along with that you LOVE LOVE LOVE the library and get quite upset if we don't get to go fairly often. Then when we do go you quickly grab as many as you can then will have your eyes glued to a book until we get home. Love it.

These pictures were taken a couple of months ago and now you are missing your two front teeth and a bottom one. It is still strange to see you without them, you just seem so much older.

Speaking of teeth on your bottom one is slightly crooked because that's just how it grew in. I remember several months back you asking about it and with a worried tone in your voice you asked if there was a way to make it not crooked. I explained about braces and that maybe one day you would have them. I didn't think much of it then not long after when you had your shirt off and were doing push ups or something you talked about having a 'buff chest' which you and Max talked about for a while. It made me realize that boys can also feel just as self consious as girls. Duh. Of course they can but I hadn't really had much experience with boys feeling self consious about how they look.

Well. I hope you don't ever feel like you need to look a certain way or dress a certain way to fit in. You are such a handsome guy. You have super soft amazing skin, with a couple awesome freckles (which I LOVE), a dimpled chin, big brown eyes, long fingers, arms and legs. You are just handsome. And I love your style, it is all boy. Right now you don't seem to care about what you wear though you would live in Nike basketball shorts, a tee shirt and tennis shoes if you could. Again, I hope you always remember that none of that outside stuff really matters, it all fades anyways and it's how you treat others that really matters.