Music to My Ears

Levi's first laugh was, I think, on September 1st, at 3 1/2 months old. I tickled his belly right after feeding him, and he let out a giggle. It definitely took me by surprise! I was hooked. Seeing Levi laugh has now become one of my favorite things. It wasn't until about 1.5 weeks later that I was able to capture some first little laughs on the video camera. This video was taken on Sept. 13th, just shy of his 4-month birthday.

My Cutie: 3 1/2 months

You can't tell me there's anything cuter than this little boy. :-)
He has graduated from sucking on his entire fist and has moved to his individual fingers (although, there has been occasions when he'll try to put both fists in his mouth).

Maybe not the best quality photo, but I LOVE his smile! He is one happy boy!

A little frustrated, but getting a tummy workout!

Look at him lift up that bottom! He's going to be crawling way too soon . . .

One of the rare moments when Levi drifted off to sleep himself without being coaxed. He lay on our bed, hypnotized to sleep by the spinning ceiling fan, while Mama got ready for church.

Mama and her little boy. :-)

Proud parents with little Levi at church.

"Don't worry, Dad. I've got the bottle."

Just chillin' in the bouncy seat . . . I think he's getting too long for it!

Joy in the Routines

Sure, there are personal sacrifices that go along with having children (and so many more, I am sure, as they continue to get older), but Levi really has brought a lot of joy to our lives. We really enjoy the little daily things in taking care of him: getting him up in the mornings, changing his diaper (such fun bonding time!!), and giving him a bath. Really, sometimes Dustin and I "fight" about who gets to do one of these with Levi. Especially waking him up in the mornings (yes, he's still sleeping through the night--bed at 9 or 9:30pm, and we wake up him at about 7am during the week). We love being the first thing he sees in the mornings and the delightful smile that comes across his face. So much so, we sometimes race each other up the stairs to be the one to see him. Here's a couple videos of these routines we enjoy with our precious boy.

Since this original posting, I have since deleted the bath video . . . I figure it may not be best to leave that one on the internet . . .

Some More Little Milestones

Obviously we've been having fun with the video camera lately. Both of these videos were taken at about 3 1/2 months old. The first is a cute video of a "Tummy Time" workout. He's actually been doing very well in this department (Ms. Brittany works with him every day), but this particular video is cute because he got tired pretty quickly.

This next video really probable is only appreciated by a mother. It's one of the first times he really reached his arms out to touch a toy. Up to this point, he would only touch what was on his chest. We added this dangling frog toy to the toy gym which he has turned out to really like because of the crinkly noises. This is a little short video.

Levi's Loose Lips

Here are a couple videos of Levi's first real chatty moments. Music to my ears. The first is on August 26th when Grandpa was in town--Dustin was videotaping before I got home from work. The second video is 6 days later when Mommy got to get some bonding-time in [which I think happens to the better of the two ;-) ].

A New Season

After spending 3+ weeks at ChildTime Daycare, we worked out another amazing opportunity. A good friend of ours from church, Brittany Oaks (the mom of Levi's "girlfriend", Ruthie), started taking care of Levi the very beginning 0f September (the 2nd). She has decided to stay home from work ever since she had Ruthie (1 month younger than Levi), and after working through the details, she has agreed to watch Levi for us. She has made a commitment to watch him at least for the next year. The Oaks live in an apartment downtown, so their location is even perfect for Dustin since it is close to his work. We are so very happy for this situation--Levi can have a lot more personal attention and love from Brittany than he could at the daycare.
Now, there was nothing "wrong" with the daycare Levi was going to. We really feel like the two workers in the Infant I room, Linda (top right) and Aileen (bottom right) did the best they could to take care of Levi like we had asked and love on him the best they could. The reality is, though,
between the two of them, they at times would have up to 5 to 7 other infants to take care of at the same time. There is really only so much attention one can give to a child in such a situation. His last day at ChildTime was August 29th, and sweet Linda and Aileen had put together a little photo memory book for Levi including pictures of him and his friends there! I know they had gotten attached to the charming Levi in such a short period of time. I actually started crying when Dustin showed me the book (he really is so loveable!!). I know it's silly, but I felt bad for letting them get attached to Levi and him to them, then change situations again. How sad to expect to be able to watch someone grow-up and invest time in them thinking that, then the next day find out that's not going to be the case! Obviously, I very am happy and without regrets about our new situation, but I couldn't help but feel a taste of bitter-sweetness in the transition. I am thankful for Linda and Aileen's time and love invested in Levi those critical 3 weeks while I was transitioning back to work-life.

Here's a picture of Levi with Ms. Brittany, actually a couple weeks after being there (breaking chronological order for a moment). Things have been going quite well. Levi doesn't seemed as drained and tired when I see him in the evenings. He's been napping like a champ (at the daycare, sometimes he would only nap for 15-20 minutes!) , and Levi and Ruthie have been copying and learning from each other. Brittany is so wonderful with Levi, loving on him, singing and talking to him, reading to both of them, and even taking the two of them on walks with her new double stroller. :-) She is really a blessing from the Lord. Dustin and I are so very happy to have her in our lives and little Levi's.

In Review: Beginning of Levi's Third Month

Again, my apologizes for taking so long to up date this blog! The next posts will be in chronological order of Levi's Third Month (I can't let go of my OCD-tendencies).

In the picture to the left, this is introducing Levi's favorite toy: his John Deere deer. Dustin went to Iowa to help open a Chick-fil-A, and the town he went to is on the border and near Moline, Illinois--the John Deere World Headquarters. D brought this deer home for him. I think this was the first object that Levi intentionally has grabbed for, and he has become quite attached to it. I think he likes it so much because it's so soft and the deer's nose and front paws are the perfect size to go into his mouth. :-)

We had a couple friends over to watch one of the Bengals preseason games. Levi, of course, dressed the part with Daddy.

The kids were so cute together, so we couldn't resist a photo-shoot. Abby Rosenfeldt loved holding Levi and posing for the camera while Caleb was slowly inching away.

Levi was in unusual form around Jessica--he cuddled up easily to her!

The DiChiara Family all dressed up for Laurel and Jonathan's wedding.

Levi looking all spiffy. :-)

Levi holding his own bottle for one of the first times! (I believe the "first time" was just 1-2 weeks earlier, right after turning 3 months old). Granted, it would eventually slip down, and he couldn't correct the position . . . but his big-baby hands are being put to good use!

Grandpa came in town and got some Levi-loving. Levi was chatting-up a storm with him--look for some later posts on video from this.

One of the first times Levi really held on to his rattle and intentionally playing with it.

He's tring to fit it in his mouth, but it's too big . . .

. . . still trying . . .

Blackout

Hurricane Ike made it's way up to Ohio this past weekend, on Sunday, Sept 14th, with tropical storm winds (40 mph) with Category 1 Hurricane gusts of wind (75 mph)! I thought Ohio was as land-locked as it gets--who knew that we could a tropical storm?! As a result over 900,000 customers in Cincinnati lost power on Sunday--affecting well over 1 million people! All of Ohio was affected by this storm--the largest power outage of the state's history. Two days later, still 500,000 Cincinnati customers remained without power. We were one of those families . . . in fact we remained without power for greater than 4 days!! These were long, trying 4 days, especially since it was expected to continue work-as-usual. Finally, at our wits-end, we awoke this morning with power!!
It has been a long, challenging week managing work, a 4-month-old, finding a way to store my pumped breast milk each day, finding warm water to wash the supplies (we have an electric water heater), finding a place to take a warm shower, eating out every night, and washing our clothes at a laundry mat before going out of town this weekend.

Thankfully, Dustin's store didn't lose power, and Sunday night we moved my precious 180 ounces of frozen pumped breast milk to his freezer. This is liquid gold, and I immediately was concerned about it when the power went out. I am so thankful for the back-up location!! The thought of losing this supply makes me shudder . . . Monday morning we moved our salmon fillets and recently-stocked freezer of Lean Cuisines, etc. to his freezer as well. We lost everything else in our fridge and freezer (but thankfully was not super-full!). But really, things could have been way-worse. The weather has been nice and cool. We still have running water and toilets that flush. No trees fell our our house (although one is very close to doing so), and we are healthy and safe.

The images here are actually from a T-shirt being sold to remember the event. I think it's pretty funny (http://lookatmeshirts.com/details.php?pid=394). From the website: "No one saw it coming... no even Derek. The sun was shinning, the bengals were losing, it seemed like a normal day in Cincinnati. And then the wind picked up... and it blew harder... and it blew harder. Electric went out...which blew more. But we came together and we survived. Join with us and celebrate as we pay tribute to the Cincinnati Hurricane that ripped through the Tristate on September 14th, 2008."
(Derek is our local weather man that has his own jingle ringing: "Derek said it would be like this.")

All this said, I was planning on doing some mega-updating on this blog Sunday. I have the pictures and videos downloaded and ready for the posting. It figures that the power went out right at 1pm on Sunday. I apologize for the poor updating!!! I promise I won't be this bad for good--I had a lot of deadlines recently at once (a few presentations, posters, late shifts, and events I have been involved in planning). Excuses, excuses, I know. Just know that I love bragging on little Levi and am aching for the chance to do so on here!
Meanwhile, we "celebrated" his 4 month old birthday two days ago (read: I sang to him). He's getting so big! His laughing occasionally, reaching out and grabbing toys, and just found his feet this past Saturday, September 13th. He's so precious, and I can't wait to show everyone else.