Wednesday, July 20, 2016

4.5 Months

A little update on our little man:

Levi has gotten very good at rolling from his back to his tummy now. He can do it pretty quickly if he wants to but he still hasn't figured out how to roll back which means that once he starts getting tired of being on his tummy he just complains until someone rescues him. Haha. He has gotten very good at pushing his chest up while he's on his tummy though and pivoting to try to get to toys. He is also very into screeching lately and experimenting with his voice- usually at an exceptionally high pitch. He squeals when he's happy and he shrieks when he's mad. I get very excited when he finds a different octave and decides to coo instead! Just this week he has started to really get the whole prop sitting thing and can hold it for a good 10-20 seconds or so before slowly folding in half or tipping to the side. He LOVES to stand and wants to do it all the time. He is fascinated by food and if Eric or I am eating something he tries his best to grab it and put it in his mouth instead. I can't eat while nursing him anymore because he will unlatch and stare and me and then try to put his hands in my mouth. In general he is a very distracted nurser these days and will frequently stop eating to look around, especially if he hears Eric nearby. I wear a nursing necklace and have found that that helps a lot to keep him focused and his little hands busy. If I don't wear it he is constantly waving his arm around, grabbing at my hair, my clothes and my face. He also kicks sometimes while nursing. Basically he is just never still unless he is really asleep.

Levi loves his feet. He likes to grab them with both hands and try to put them in his mouth. He pulls socks off to try to eat those also. He loves to chew on things, especially his fingers, and he is always slobbery although we haven't felt any teeth coming in yet (thank goodness!).

Levi really likes to be outside and to be around other people to watch, although he really hates it when the sun gets in his eyes. Thanks to the family FHEs we have started doing a couple weeks ago, we have learned that Levi likes to fingerpaint (with the paper and paint inside a ziplock bag taped to the floor) but is underwhelmed by bubbles. He is generous with his smiles but chuckles only very occasionally- usually when being smothered with kisses.

We are still working on figuring out sleep. We don't swaddle Levi anymore because he can roll. Instead, he sleeps in a zipadee-zip (we affectionately call it his "zippy"). It makes him look like a little starfish and it's adorable. And it keeps him from scratching himself in the night, which is especially helpful as he is falling asleep because he is obsessed with rubbing his eyes when he is tired and as he is falling asleep. He still struggles to sleep at night although naps are getting a little better. He usually takes three one hour naps a day: one in the morning around 9, a mid-day nap around 12 or 1 and an afternoon nap any time between 3 and 5. He sometimes fights going down for naps but if I catch him in the right sleepiness window before he gets too tired, its usually not too hard to get him down during the day.

We start putting Levi to bed at night around 8pm. I nurse him to sleep at night and he usually goes to sleep really easily and if we are lucky he will stay asleep until around 12:30 or so when he wakes up to eat. The last couple weeks though he has been waking up around 10 and fussing until one of us gives him back his binky which helps him fall back asleep right away. After that 12:30 feeding, he is still distinctly lacking in a schedule and unfortunately he has been waking up A LOT lately. I usually end up feeding him again sometime around 4 am but he is up a couple other times besides that when he just needs his binky back to fall asleep again. He is an adorable little side-sleeper. Even if we lay him on his back, he immediately rolls on his side to sleep. Levi pretty consistently wakes up for the day around 7 am. When Eric and I are especially tired (ok most of the time) I just change his diaper and then bring him into our room and lay him on his play mat by our mirrors and he is generally content to talk to himself in the mirror and play with his toys for a little while.

I am definitely looking forward to when Levi starts sleeping better. I try to establish good sleep habits with him but it's hard.  We have a distinct bedtime routine and I keep him in the dark during the night (thank you blackout curtains!) and light during the day for naps. I am just hoping he will learn how to self-soothe a little more so that when he wakes at night he doesn't need us to help him go back to sleep as much. Someday it will happen right? I find myself wishing I had read Bringing Up Bebe when I was pregnant so I could have started practicing "the pause" earlier. But oh well, I'm sure we will work it out eventually and in the meantime, I actually function quite well on fragmented sleep. :)

So yeah, that's a little update on Mr. Levi. He is very expressive, very opinionated, curious about the world and I just love him so much. Since Eric was home yesterday, he helped me snap these pictures of Levi and I love them! I love how they catch at least a bit of his personality.
























Thursday, July 14, 2016

When life gives you lemons...

So my neighbor's mom, who is an older lady, is in the hospital with a UTI that has now turned septic  :( I've been thinking about my sweet neighbor all day because I talked to her this morning and learned about how her mom is sick, and then a little later in the morning I saw the paramedics come to her house and take her mom away in the ambulance. So I've been worrying about how my neighbor and her mom are doing and I decided to make my neighbor some cupcakes. Now normally I don't like lemon flavored things at all, but when I thought about making cupcakes for my neighbor I suddenly really felt like making lemon blueberry cupcakes. So I pinterested a recipe and made them. Then when my neighbor got home from the hospital this evening I took them over. And as soon as I told her that they were lemon blueberry she got this smile on her face and told me, "You know, lemon is my favorite!" I had no idea that she loved lemon. I barely even know her. But Heavenly Father knows her. And He knows that lemon is her favorite. And I feel like He definitely inspired me to make these lemon blueberry cupcakes just for her so she would feel loved at this difficult time for her and her family. Because I would never normally have chosen that flavor. But I did today because that's what she needed. It was a great reminder to me that God really does know us and love us individually.


PS. These cupcakes really are delicious! For anyone who wants the recipe, here you go: http://therecipecritic.com/2015/04/lemon-blueberry-cupcakes/

Saturday, July 9, 2016

California!

After having been on vancomycin (and 15 oz of Kefir a day!) for almost 2 weeks, I got the all clear from my doctor to go visit my family in California! It was perfect timing because my Oma's birthday is on July 3rd and there was a big celebration planned. So Eric and I packed up our stuff and little man and drove through the night on Saturday the 2nd to get there in time for Oma's birthday and the 4th of July! I was super apprehensive about how the drive with an almost-4-month-old would go but it was actually super smooth! After fussing trying to fall asleep for the first 45 minutes or so, he slept the whole rest of the trip without a peep except for the last hour when he was awake and ready to be up for the day! It took all the rest of my energy and every toy we had brought to keep him entertained for that last hour but it all worked out and we made it to my aunt and uncle's house without a hiccup where we promptly handed Levi off to my parents and went and took a nap! Hooray for grandparents! Haha.

It was so nice to get to be in California and see a lot of relatives that I haven't seen for a long time and introduce Levi to all of them. Thankfully, all of Dad's siblings were able to be there for Oma's birthday which was pretty special.

Aunts Anne, Lynn and Claire and my dad. I love how they all look alike

We celebrated Oma's birthday and 4th of July together on Monday with a big BBQ. I contributed magic cookie bars and this super delicious flag fruit pizza. Thank you Pinterest. Haha. 


But seriously all the food was delicious and it was so fun to get to hang out with cousins and other relatives. The only not so great moment was when Levi and I managed to fall out of the hammock because a certain younger relative who had been sitting in it with us decided to jump out without warning! Levi was totally fine but I saw our lives flash before our eyes and ended up with some lovely scrapes and bruises on my knees, left arm and shoulder as I tried to somehow land and break the fall while keeping baby from hitting the ground and me from falling on top of him! Note to self: beware of sharing a hammock with a baby and a 4 year old! Haha.

So Monday was great to hang out with family and celebrate and then on Tuesday, Eric, Levi and I headed to Davis to see my brother and sister. Traffic was absolutely horrible on the way there- probably all the folks heading home from 4th of July festivities at Tahoe- and little man cried almost the whole way leaving me feeling frazzled, frustrated and exhausted. But once we got to Katie's house and he got to get out of his carseat and eat and get changed he was a happy little man. And once I had had some lunch and got to relax with my siblings, I was pretty happy too. We pretty much just hung out and played the longest game of Munchkin ever and I talked about what a good candidate Katie's house would be for fixer upper. Haha. Now that I've been watching that show and Property Brothers I can't help but see what could be changed or improved about pretty much any house I walk into! I was like, "Oh man, this place would look so much better if we knocked down this wall and redid these floors!" Haha. I don't think I would ever want to actually buy a fixer upper and do it myself but I certainly do love watching the show and I do like imagining how spaces could be improved! 

Anyway, after spending the afternoon with my siblings, we went on to Santa Rosa to stay with my parents for a few days. Thankfully, the drive from Davis to Santa Rosa was not nearly as trafficky as the drive to Davis from Nevada City but little man still cried for the last 40 minutes straight which was not so great. But this time, I was driving and Eric was sitting next to Levi and that was a lot more tolerable for me. 

We got to see my old friend from growing up, Nicole, that night. It was so good to catch up with her and so lucky that we both just happened to be in Santa Rosa at the time since she lives out on the east coast as she is working on her PhD in education- early math learning. Her research sounds super interesting but hearing her talk just made me super glad that I am done with school! 

Wednesday, Thursday and Friday we pretty much just chilled at my parent's house. We got to go swimming with my mom and go eat delicious Indian food and Levi got introduced to the piano for the first time. He loved it! It was so adorable to watch him hit the keys and then look up at the music as if he was reading it. Makes me wonder if he's going to be a musician some day like his family members on Eric's side. It was so nice to be able to just relax and have my parents and Eric around to help care for Levi and not have to do any housework or anything. And I just love my hometown and being there is so rejuvinating for me. 

We also got to spend some time with my good friend Lauren and hear all about her life and what's been going on with her. I wish we lived closer to her so we could spend more time together! 

Swimming with Mom and Eric

Levi wasn't sure what to think of it at first but after he warmed up to it he had a lot of fun splashing and walking in the water.

Oh so bright Mom!


My litlle man LOVES to stand and he is getting so good at it!

He also loves playing with his daddy!


Look at those chubby legs! 

Friday night we drove through the night again and came back home. Thankfully Levi did even better on this drive than he did on the way down! He feel asleep immediately and slept the whole way, waking only when we stopped to nurse and change him every few hours. Little man has been really struggling with sleep ever since he started rolling over (what?!) and we had to stop swaddling him. He slept so much better on those long car rides than he has any other night recently! Wish he would sleep that well in his crib! Sigh, we'll get there I hope!

Levi is all about his toes recently! He loves to grab them and try to put them in his mouth :) This is seriously such a fun stage! Now if we could just figure out the whole sleeping thing, life would be pretty darn near perfect :)