The Yates Place: November 2017

After a busy and hard few months, I finally got myself a little treat and invested in a laptop (albeit, a very very cheap Black Friday laptop. But it works). Our current computer situation isn't conducive to me doing much of anything, including blogging, our budget and bills, checking my junk email more than once a week, making Shutterfly gifts, etc. etc. It's located upstairs, directly outside of Samuel's room, and I basically can only get up there if
a) all my children are gone or asleep and
b) Eric is not up there and wants to hang out downstairs by himself and
c) I don't have 5000 other things I need to get done distracting me downstairs.
This does not happen very often.

Anyway, I have lots of catching up to do.

To start with, I'll try to give a brief snapshot of my sweet Levi who just turned 20 months old on Thanksgiving. I'm not entirely sure how this is possible, as I'm quite certain I just gave birth to him last week.

Levi is about as cute and sweet as they come. He definitely has some toddler 'tude going on too, but man, he can cheese at you and melt your heart in a second.

He loves to wave and smile at everyone (whether they are looking at him or not).

He's still absolutely addicted to his pacifiers, sometimes employing two or three at once. Some days I make him leave them in the crib, but he's legit teething right now, so I feel bad and let him have them most of the time (plus I'm just dealing with a lot kid-wise right now, so sometimes my threshold is pretty low for what warrants attention and what doesn't. If a pacifier is going to stop a tantrum or keep him from chewing on something he shouldn't, I'm all for it).

He is obsessed with books, balls and "vroom vrooms".

He is a man of few words, but getting there slowly.

If you leave a pen anywhere, and I mean ANYWHERE within his grasp or even slightly out of it, he WILL find a way to get to that pen and write all over the nearest piece of paper (or sometimes blanket or couch or floor).

He is quiet, so you never know if he's just playing nicely or into something. I affectionately refer to him as my "smooth criminal" because he likes to take things and hide them. Quietly.

My absolute FAVORITE thing that Levi does right now - if I'm sitting on the couch or in the recliner, he will turn around, look at me with the biggest smile on his face, and run, arms wide open, wanting to sit and cuddle. It's seriously the best.

He likes to tell me when he needs a new diaper. He does not want his diaper actually changed. I'll ask him if he wants a new one, and he will shake his head no and run the other direction. He's always sure to tell me when he's done something though, even if it's just a little pee. I tried sitting him on the toilet one day. He was not a fan.

Levi is finally interested in tv a little. I might be the worst mom ever, but I'm pretty excited about that fact because it means he *can* be entertained when I'm cooking dinner or something for 5 minutes. He still follows me around 90% of the time and whines to be picked up while I'm cooking, but at least I occasionally get a break.

We generally watch Daniel Tiger together once a day. His vocabulary is pretty limited, but he likes to point at the tv and say "Anno," which I've come to decipher as "Daniel."

Other things he says:
Mama, Dada, bear, ball, baby, bu-duh (brother), pap-pap (pappy), duh (for his paci. I don't know why), this, nana (banana), milk, more, bye bye, cheese, uh-oh, etc.
He totally understands everything we say/follows multiple step directions, so I'm not super worried about his speech. It will be interesting to hear what's going on in that little brain eventually, but for now I'm kind of good with just one kid talking my ear off constantly!

Favorite books (this week) include: Brown Bear, Corduroy, Olaf's Hug Book, Wow! I Know How!, From Head to Toe (in Spanish), Peppa's Windy Fall Day, That's Not My Truck and Mr. Brown Can Moo.

We're still working on our listening skills, but Levi overall has been the sweetest little helper. He loves to clean and will pick things up of his own accord or take wipes and start wiping the table and floor without being prompted. It's kind of hilarious to me that he and Samuel came from the gene pool in that sense! haha.

What else? As of his 18 month appointment, he was still giant - 34.5" and 27.5 lbs. He's pretty much in all 2T clothes now.
His iron was finally back to normal (wooo!!!!). No more iron supplements!!

He still loves to eat, though he's gotten a little pickier lately. I'm still trying to figure out what he does and doesn't like. Unfortunately we've gotten in the bad habit of eating a lot of bars - Clif Bars, LaraBars, Protein bars - for breakfast and snacks. It's not that they're so bad, it's just that they're expensive, and both the boys are eating those and not real food so much. So we've got some work to do. Eric and I are debating about trying some form of clean eating/Whole 30 in January - actually, I'm fairly certain we are going to do it and I'm working on a meal plan - but I'm not sure what that's going to look like for the kids. There are still a lot of kinks to work out.

A few more Levi things -

He loves to be outside! He often says "walk? Sto-wuh (Stroller)" and will go climb in the stroller and try to buckle himself.

Oh, and he can buckle basically anything. And still likes to figure out how EVERYTHING works. He will spend forever trying to get a lock to cooperate or get a coin in a coinslot on a play cash register then open the drawer to get it out.

He can also climb on almost anything, but is still generally very calculating and assesses the situation before trying something.

He really really really wants to plug and unplug things. That's been fun to deal with.

And he is the best sleeper! (generally. Since I wrote that he will probably be waking up tonight). He usually sleeps from 745/8-730/745, and takes a nap from 1230-3.

Oh and he is super cute with our little Bible storybook. He like to bring it to me and say "Bible!!" He also is great about folding his hands when it's time to pray, I'm pretty sure because he know that usually means there is food coming after. Haha.

Anyway, I'm pretty enamored with that little blonde headed brown eyed boy. I wish I could keep him this sweet and small forever, but I know they have to grow up sometime. For now I'm soaking up all the toddlerhood I can!!

I started this like 4 months ago, so I'll go ahead and post and finish up later. :-)

June was a busy but (mostly) fun month! Samuel finished up preschool and did two weeks of swim lessons. Levi gave up his morning nap (mostly). We had lots of playdates and gym time. Said goodbye to a lot of sweet friends. We went to/taught VBS. Eric finished up his first year of fellowship. We drove to Arkansas for the first time since 2010 or 11, then Eric and I got away for a (real!) vacation for 3 nights. That was glor.i.ous.

The biggest/only real struggle in June was trying out ADHD medicine with Samuel at the beginning of the month. I wasn't super comfortable with that to start with. It worked (by calming him down), but only for a short time and when it wore off, he was a hot mess. We switched to a longer acting version and it just made him an emotional mess the entire time. So, after 3-4 weeks of all that, I nixed the whole thing. Seeing him in his natural (crazy) element was much better for my momma heart. I'm not opposed to medicine if he really needs it, but we are trying some other interventions first. I want him to be able to succeed on his own as much as possible. More on that later, though.

Anyway, here are the June highlights!