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.

Happy Resurrection-Day! (and some more scooting)

Better late than never, right?

I've started many posts in these past couple months so that I could have the correct date assigned, but am actually completing the post in a very tardy manner . . .
I wonder if anyone is still

Anyways, happy (belated) Easter!! Unfortunately, I had to work, so I didn't get to go to church. Thankfully, my friend, Amanda, took the wonderful picture of my good looking men at church!

I just adore this suit my mother got for Levi. So, I get to share all the fun pictures of me trying to capture him in it when I came home from work.

The DiChiara family on Easter.

My sweet little boy and his Mama.

Just starting to hold himself up standing (not yet able to pull himself up, though!)

On the go!! (see the video below)

Just mesmerized by those eyes . . .

This picture makes me laugh. He was giving me the frustrated/mad look. I think he wants something I have. He's tightening his butt cheeks in frustration.

Still at 11 months old, he loves to sleep like this. He looks like such a little man with this suit!! :-)

The first video I recommend everyone to watch. It's him scooting around to get his Easter basket (which he absolutely LOVED from his Nana). It's hilarious!

This second is longer, and probably more for family to watch Levi open his Easter basket, though. The first minute, however, is also pretty funny with Levi "pacing" back and forth (read: scooting) because he wants us to give him his bottle.

Crawling Alternative

Levi still cannot crawl. Really, I'm not sure if he ever will. He never really has gotten into spending prolonged time on his belly. He has developed an alternative to crawling. We fondly call it the "Butt Scoot". It is honestly one of the funniest things to see. I have two videos capturing where it all began. The first video is from Jan 31st--the very first time we noticed him doing his scooting (at 8 1/2 months). The second video is particularly hilarious, taken March 4th (at almost 10 months), really on of the first times he was really mobile in scooting, including the carpet. You can hear how hard he's working at it with all his panting. :- He's even quicker now--I'll have to take another video to share!