Baseball, Swings, & Birthdays

(**I'm finally updating the blog with posts I started long ago. Sorry for the "old" pictures--trying to stay chronological. Hopefully I'll get this up to speed in the next week or so... Do I even have any followers of this blog anymore?)

Levi's first Red's game, dressed in style. Dustin registered us in the Hamilton County drawing at the beginning of the year, and I got a call early April to let me know that I won 2 tickets to a Reds game in the County Suite seats. What a way to watch a game! Free dinner, dessert, and drinks, nice outdoor seats, and A/C with multiple big screens just steps inside. Thank you, Hamilton County! :-)

Go Reds!

Levi chilling with Dad.

A fun day at the game!

April 23rd was Levi's last day at ChildTime daycare. A last-minute opening came up at Mt. Washington Baptist Daycare just 5 minutes down our house (great staff, less kids in one room, and even better priced!). Levi saying bye to Tasha and Tasha.

SWINGS!!!
Here are pictures of Levi's first time on the swings. He loved it!

I loved trying to catch the delight on his face. :-)

I love his giggles!

Relaxing in the park. :-)
-------------------------

Happy 29th, birthday, Dustin!!!

Levi with birthday-Daddy.

Out to eat at P.F. Changs with the Larsons and Laginesses.

Dustin is showing Levi how to blow out the birthday candle (Levi's 1 year birthday just around the corner....)
Courtney & Dustin--"cheese".

Ladies of the group. :-)

The following weekend, I threw Dustin a "Rock Band" birthday party. Fun times!

(Yes, I made this . . . :-) )

Jammin' times:

Birthday boy! :-)
(**thanks, Amanda, for a lot of these birthday pictures!!**)

Family and friends all came together for Dustin's birthday to surprise him with a treadmill. (Yes, this is actually something he wanted. We had been talking about this for a long time.) Since Levi was born, Dustin hadn't been working out at the gym after work, because he felt more of the burden of picking up Levi earlier from daycare. He would feel guilt in spending that extra time at the gym. And, Levi usually had to nap in the afternoon, so no opportunity for Dustin to leave the house to exercise. Many thanks to all the wonderful friends and family that came together to make this gift possible! No way we could've afforded it on our own. Dustin has been enjoying it (and me too!). Here's Dustin trying it out (and being silly):

First Words

At 11 and 1/2 months, Levi started saying his first words. Officially, Dada was his first word. (I have assured Dustin that's it's just because it's a lot easier to say than Mama. ;-) ). A couple weeks of intermittent "Dada's", Levi surprised me when I picked him up from daycare today. Almost as if it was a normal, every day occurance, he waved and said "Bye-bye" to the ladies as we left. I was shocked--did I really hear correctly?! Later this same day he said "ball" very clearly. He also started saying a verison of "diaper". So exciting!!! Almost out of no where, we had 4 words: Dada, bye-bye, ball, & diaper. He would only say these words very intermittently and unpredictably--but it was a fun start!


These 2 pictures are part of a collection every Italian child must have--"basta face" pictures. He loves his basta!


Just some fun in our yard.

Here's a very short clip of the cute babbling he was doing constantly around this time.

Levi is so funny. It really is amazing how a little child can already have so many "quirks." Levi is really weird about touching new textures. He is really not a fan of his skin touching the grass.

Lifting up one foot to minimize time in contact with the grass.

He's thinking--can I lift both of my legs up??

Here's a picture from 2 weeks earlier with Levi doing the same thing in the grass.
Not the best picture, but you can see he's not so sure about that green-stuff.

Also, around this time, Levi just started mastering his clapping (just in time for his birthday-audience around the corner!). Below is a video of it. It was fun to start seeing him clearly understand what we were saying and responding appropriately.

11 Months

Some of you know that at 8 months old, Levi's pediatrician referred him to a government-funded program called, "Help Me Grow", to evaluated his development. The referral was at a time when he wasn't gaining weight AND was behind especially in gross-motor development (ie: he couldn't get himself into a sitting position, although he could sit up well). Levi ended up qualifying for the program due to his motor skills. Well, be the government, it took 3 months for someone to start coming to the house and help him.

This is all background and context for the following picture. Levi JUST started learning how to get up into a sitting position about 1 week before turning 11 months old, thanks to some moves one of the HMG physical therapists taught us to do with Levi (he picked it up, after that, in 4 days). As a result, there were a few nights where Levi would wake up crying because he sat up in the crib, but didn't know how to lay back down. The below picture, taken 2 days shy of 11 months, is how Dustin found him during nap time, apparently exhausted, but unable to lay back down!

Poor boy was hard asleep!!

Grandpa was able to visit and read Levi a bedtime story. One of the most attentive times I've seen Levi at this point during story time!

Our happy boy.

April 24th was Levi's last day at Childtime Daycare. Here are picture of Levi with Tanya and Tanya, two of the 3 ladies Levi with whom he spent his weekdays. We are thankful for the care they provided for Levi--they would always do everything we asked.

(Yes, Levi chunked up quite a lot this month as well!!!)

We moved Levi to Mt. Washington Baptist Daycare, at a church walking distance from our house! A spot opened up early, and we took it. We knew we had to eventually move knowing that Dustin would no longer be working downtown in the next few months, and wanted to take advantage of the opportunity we had.

For the past two years, Dustin has been signing each of us individually up for a drawing that Hamilton County does to give away tickets for Reds and Bengals games. Well, they drew my name for tickets in one of the Luxury Suites! Wahoo! Although they lost that game, it was a fun, beautiful day!

Dustin went a little overboard with Levi's Reds gear, so I had to get many pictures capturing it!

Here are some pictures at a nearby park. It was sooo hard getting a good picture of Levi because he wouldn't sit still long enough--he'd start scooting to me or away from me! Below is the best I could get.

Levi loves the swing!! It was so fun to hear his giggles! You can hear some of the giggles too in the video below.