Friday, June 13, 2014

Levi is 2 years 2 months old!

I wish I could bottle up this stage Levi is in right now.  I want to never forget all the hilarious, creative, and silly things he says and does right now.  He is such a joy to be around and makes me laugh all the time.  I absolutely love his little personality that is developing day by day.

Here are a few favorite sayings he says often:
  •  You hear that? 
  • What's that?
  • Delicious! (all food just about)
  • I love .....! (He says this about almost everything, even if he doesn't particularly like the thing he is saying it about.  Forever the optimist.) 
  • Gulp!  I swallowed fly guy. (He's obsessed with the fly guy book where fly guy gets swallowed.  He says thing all. the. time. when we are eating at the table.)
  • snow monster scary...mean..big..... (We've watched Frozen twice and the 'snow monster' maid a very big impression on Levi.  He talks about him a lot!)
  • Levi silly (He will say things that are not true just so I will say 'no...that's silly.'  For example, "That's red(it'll be blue)."  "That's momma's car."  He knows the right answer but likes hearing me correct him and say 'Levi's silly.'
  • Arg!  I pirate.  Ahoy matie. (He has never seen Jake and the....(can't remember) but he'll close one eye every time and say this.
  • Thank You for momo and papa, granna and papa, and molly.  (This is definitely one of my favorites.  We pray at meals and at night time and he'll thank God for different things....but almost always for those mentioned above.  So sweet.  He'll just start thanking God for everything he can spot or remember for the day(tv, water, blanket, food we've eaten, window, and so on).
  • I'm in the Lord's army. (He loves this song!!  But usually just says I'm in the Lord's army and then moves on.  We were praying the other night and he said, "And thank You for I'm in the Lord's army.  Amen."  Ha!!
  • There.  That's better. (He says this after closing a door, throwing something away, putting something away.)
  • I Levi.  (He makes sure people know his name when we are out and about.)
  • Levi do it. (He talks in third person a lot. )
Levi also LOVES to be silly!  When he interacts with other kids, he will do socially awkward things to get the other kid to laugh...like spit, make silly noises in their face and so on.  Oh dear!  We are working on appropriate silly things to do.  :)  He also loves when another kid is being silly.  He laughs at what I call 'typical boy humor' on tv shows or movies.  If someone falls down stairs, gets bonked, and so on, he gets so tickled. 

Levi has recently embraced the make believe world!  He is constantly pretending he is something else.  TV shows REALLY stick with him....so he'll often play out something he saw on TV.  On one episode of Umi Zoomi they 'rescue' Abby....a little girl in a tree house who was too scared to climb down.  He pretends he is in a fire truck 'rescuing' Abby all. the. time!!  His broom is his fire hose.  He piles up tons of pillows and blankets on Nora's play mat and there you have it....fire truck.  :)  We were driving home from the Houston area this past weekend and Levi had that toy that when you pull the lever down it spins and says an animal name.  He played with it for about two hours....it transformed into a car, car horn, tuba, trumpet, and water cup.  He is far more creative than me that's for sure!!
The month of May was pretty brutal for our family....lots of colds and then the bug.  Poor guy didn't know what hit him.  He would just come find me and then spew all over the place.  Not once did he hit a bowl or the toilet.  :/

This kid loves food!!  And loves to see himself in a picture.  :)

We visited Lacey's family and my mom and dad at the beginning of May.  Levi and Harp were so cute together.  Such sweet cousins!

This is my parents' house, but Levi could play in the sandbox all the time!  It will be so crazy hot in San Angelo, with no shade, and he acts like he can't even feel the heat.  I'm a wimp and stay in the shade most of the time.  :/

This is Levi pretending to be an astronaut blasting off to the moon.  Usually his rocket is blankets all piled up.

Have I mentioned how messy this kid is?  Whether he is eating or playing, he will be covered with food or dirt, soaked with water, or something!  Even though this creates more work for me, I love to see him throw his entire self into whatever he is playing with.  He's all in! 

Every square inch of our house is free for play.  Poor Keller.  He actually loves the attention.  Levi wouldn't know what to do without him.  One minute they are 'best buds' the next minute Levi is so frustrated at him.  Cracks me up!

It's fun to see Nora loving on Keller too these days.  She lights up every time he comes around...oblivious to her unless she has spit up.  :/
 
I love seeing families where all the kids look alike.  But at the same time, I absolutely love having kids that look so different.  I think it is so beautiful!

My goof ball!

So Levi is definitely not perfect or always sweet to his sister, but if he is well fed and well rested, he is usually a very sweet big brother!!  He lights up when he sees Nora....especially when I let him go 'get' her from her nap.  That's the only time he's allowed to jump in her crib.  He wants her 'jumping' with him, driving, flying or whatever with him.  Of course that means she just sits there and I protect her from his crazy ways...but still sweet intentions.  She just adores him!  Even when he wrestles her to the ground(yikes), she is just giggling and loving every bit of it.  Until she's had enough and lets everyone know it.

Sadly, he has started seeing her play with a toy he wants and will come take it and say 'Mine.'  Lovely.  Teaching kindness and sharing is not easy.

Levi loves playing with everything.  Seriously!  Except he is not a big fan of coloring.  

This is one of his favorite shirts.  Somewhere he picked up a huge interest in motorcycles and talks about them a lot! 

Easter Sunday in Wichita Falls with Josh's family!

Levi is truly a little sponge.  He wants to know everything and can remember sooo much!  I know that is what kids do, but it is shocking to watch him just absorb information and then tell me weeks later something he saw, heard, or learned.  We went to a rodeo months ago, but he remembers all about cowboys and horses and cows and so on.

He wants to know specifics, names, details.  He must get this from his daddy.  :)

We fed the ducks while in Wichita Falls and Levi has talked about that over and over and over!

Discovering candy inside the Easter eggs.

Levi is Josh's little shadow.  He goes wherever he goes when home.  I'm pretty sure Levi knows the name of more tools and more gardening verbiage than I do at this point.  Levi loves his daddy!  Such a sweet bond they share.  Makes my heart happy.

Sweet sibling play.

Wish these two could be closer together.  They have so much fun playing.


I love passing through Lubbock and getting to see my dearest sweet friend Janna and her two precious babes.


Birthday pancakes!!


Bath time is fun and fast.  :)  It's all fun and games until the splashing gets crazy or Levi feels like jumping on Nora.  We have fun, get clean and get out. 

Levi has entered the phase of wanting to be naked.  A lot!  He usually is without shorts or shirt while at the house.  He goes all naked after his bath for a little while.  His favorite.  It was on one of these occasions that he happened to be running in circles.  He was running kind of funny and I asked him what he was doing.  He replied, "I'm running and shaking my penis."  Oh dear!

We have also had the talk about Nora being a girl.  They bath together and I was just waiting for him to notice the differences.  He asked one night, "Where's Nora's penis?"  I told him she didn't have one because she was a girl.  He had one because he was a boy like daddy.  And that was it.  Made sense in his little brain and we moved on. 

I adore this little guy more than I ever thought possible!  He is so very loved!!

Monday, May 26, 2014

Nora's 5 (almost 6) month pics and updates

I cannot believe our sweet Nora will be six months old in 9 days!!!  Wow!  Time truly does fly.  She is the sweetest, smiliest baby girl! (most of the time)  Over the last few months I feel like she has mellowed so much and become so smiley.  She can hardly look at a smiling face and not smile back.  And when she does, it is a big, open mouth smile that just melts your heart.  Or at least mine.  :) 

No teeth poking through quite yet, but lots of slobber, finger or anything she can reach chewing going on.

We haven't been to her 6 month well check yet to see her stats, but as of the last time we took her in:

5 months:
weight:15 lbs 11 oz  70%
height (I'm looking for it) 70%

4 months:
weight: 14 lbs 3 oz 61%
height: 25 in 74%
head: 16.5 73%

She eats like a champ: 5-6 oz every 3-4 hours.  And she still wakes up at night to eat.  Boo!  She acts like she's starving right around 4 every morning and then goes right back to sleep.  

She is growing way to fast for this momma.  I am now buying her 9 month clothes....which are a little big but the six month are already fitting a bit snug.  Crazy!  But, her feet are still tiny.  If I put shoes on her, which is never, she can still fit 0-3 month.

This cutie pie needs her sleep.  She naps once or twice in the morning and then usually twice in the afternoon/evening.  We try and put the babes down around 7:30-8.  She usually sleeps 12-13 hours at night(with that 4 am feeding in there).
I think I'm in denial that she's getting old enough to try certain things....like a swing, umbrella stroller and jumper.  Oops!  I just keep thinking she is still my little baby.  Here is her first time in the stroller and a swing on Memorial Day.

She absolutely loved the swing!!!


And she loved the jumper....we have a mover folks.  I lowered the straps after I took this pic.  Funny note, Nora ways it down way better than her brother ever did.  She hits the floor pretty soundly.  Ha!

Nora has turned into a total wiggle worm.  She rolls around front to back and back to front like a champ.  But she occasionally still gets stuck on her tummy when she's flustered and then becomes more flustered.  She used to hate hate hate tummy time, but over night she seems to have gotten so much stronger and sees the potential for further movement on her tummy.  She tries to scoot a bit but then just rolls.

Bringing my girl to a baby shower.  Love those chunky cheeks.

Nora smiles at a lot of people, but needs a bit to warm up to a new person or surrounding.  Then she's usually all in...unless she happens to be super tired and then she wants her mommy.  It's pretty sweet to me that she knows I'm her mommy.  I can get the best smiles out of her.  :)

Serious face.

Nora can sit up pretty well but still falls forward or to the side if I'm not behind her.  The bumbo....love/hate relationship.  It helps me out sometimes, but she tries so desperately to reach things out of reach that she nearly falls out.  Scares me to death!  

Her hair is just long enough(on top) to try a pony.  Can't wait!

We have officially moved Nora exclusively to her crib for all naps and night sleeping.  Yay!  This was much harder than anticipated! (First time to sleep all night in her crib was right after she turned 4 months.  All night without waking up to eat was 4 1/2 months, but then quickly reverted back to waking up once to eat.)  She loved her rock n play...a lot!!  She actually started rolling over on to her tummy(by herself) which seemed to help her sleep better in her crib.  But I was a bit slow to the game buying her a bumper.  I always wondered how necessary they were, especially since she doesn't use a pacifier.  But I found out....oh yes.  This is why.  She woke up multiple times with arms or legs stuck out of her crib. 

We visited my mom, dad and sister's family in May.  So very fun!!  My mom has a way with babies.

Nora has had a terrible stint with sickness lately.  She spiked a really high fever(the highest was 104) at the beginning of May.  The doctor thought it was an ear infection.  Gave her the antibiotics and she seems to be better.  Then her fever spiked again as soon as meds were done.  Took her back in and they found out she had a uti.  Poor baby!!  We just finished that and go back tomorrow to see if the infection is totally gone. (Then Levi and I got a stomach bug.)  So ready to be done with sickness!

Nora loves to be held.  When we go places with lots of baby holders, she's great...super chill, go with the flow, all smiles.  When we're home, and I must sit her down, she gets much more grumpy.  She is not a screamer, but a fusser.  She clearly gets the point across she wants to be held. 

Have I mentioned that visiting my mom's house(and mother in law's house) is like a mini vacation for me.  Extra help, entertainment, and loving on the babes.  No house to keep up or be in charge of planning the meals.  It's pretty awesome and makes coming home a bit sad.  But that's where Daddy is and we couldn't do this parenting gig without him!!

My younger sister, Lacey, had baby Ruby at the end of April.  Once Nora was better we finally got to go and meet her.  Such a precious baby girl!!  Love you Ruby!  But she sure makes my girl look so big!!

So to get Nora down for a nap, she generally doesn't want to be rocked much anymore.  We lay her down with her bunny(which she loves) and let her cry for 5-10 minutes.  She almost always conks out.

Nora moved up to size 3 diapers this last month.  She has room to grow into them, but I got tired of squeezing her into the two's.

We have had lots of snuggles over here....more so than normal with this sweet girl being so sick lately.

Nora is 5 months in this pic and we are waiting to be seen by the doctor the first time she spiked a high temp.  But she was still all smiles with that Tylenol/ibuprofen in her system.  Hard to believe she was really sick.

Nora Jessie Louise Teel, we love you to the moon and back!!!  So glad we get to be your parents!

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Nora at 3 months and Levi at 23 months

 Sleeping beauty....even on walks.

 Momma's big 'helper.'

 Celebrating Josh turning 31!!

 Still....not a fan of tummy time.


 Enjoying the fair.


 Levi and Nora did great sitting through two hours of rodeo!  Levi seemed to enjoy most of it.  Nora slept the whole time unless it got loud and then she'd cry....but quickly calm down.

 My loves!!


 So big!!  ;)


 This girl loves her tickles!




 Levi wanted Nora to look outside with him.  Ha!

 Sweet kisses....that can turn dangerous very quickly.  He wants to crawl in with her.  :/


 First ice cream cone.  Yum!!  And messy!



 Levi's first playing buddy.

Cutie pies!  Love them dearly!!