Happy 18-Month Birthday Levi!!

Our sweet and precious little Levi turned 18 months old on July 22, 2013.  Even though we've watched a little one grow from a newborn to a toddler twice before, it still amazes me how the Lord's designed them to develop, explore, and change so quickly. We cherish and marvel watching him learn and grow.  It's a bitter-sweet thing.

Here's a little snap shot of the life of Levi as an 18-month-old.

Some of the words he's saying are:

go

gone (gah!)

ball  (baw!)

bus (buh!)

banana (nah nah!)

please (eesh?)

gun (neh!)

hot (hah!)

teeth (eesh!)

walk (kah!)

 
He still spends a little bit of time each day in his play pen "jail".  Here he is in his play pen after just having toppled over a stacking block choo choo train.  He likes to build with blocks and then knock them over. 

He still loves to watch Barney, but also now enjoys some Bible song DVDs we have, Sesame Street, and Baby Einstein DVDs.  He is still very much infatuated with remote controls and has been seen sitdting right next to his Wii-playing brothers with some mismatched remotes in his hands thinking he's playing the game too.  :)

Levi has surprised us by taking a great interest in drawing with big boy pencils.  We've never had a toddler hold a pencil so well and so early!

He is drinking from a little juice glass that's perfect for his little hands to hold onto.  The only time he has a sippy cup (of water) is on a car ride or at church.  He's only drinks one of three beverages:  water, raw milk, or smoothies with egg yolks, fruit, yogurt, coconut oil, and raw milk. The smoothies are his favorite.  He can down an adult-sized smoothie in less than about two minutes if we'd let him. 

He loves to dance and clap his hands.  His favorite songs are "If you're happy and you know it!", "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" and  "Jesus Loves Me!"  He can also make a variety of farm animal sounds such as "Moo!" and "Qak" (quack), "Mow!" (meow), and "Woo" (woof).

He started climbing up into the big chairs a couple of weeks ago.  He was so proud of himself when he found out he was able to do that!  He has a hard time getting down by himself, though. 

Like all little brothers, Levi LOVES to do what his big brothers are doing.  This summer we've been having a lot of "Table Time" when we practice our coloring and handwriting.  Levi likes to practice too.

One of his favorite toys is this little grocery cart.  He fills it with his treasures and pushes it all over the place.  He loves to wear hats too.  The black cowboy hat in the cart is one of his favorites.

Balls are one of his absolute favorite things!  He has a built-in ball radar that gravitates to balls no matter where he is.  He can find them fast and loves to play catch and throw them. 

He enjoys riding on our Thomas Trike outside, although the steering doesn't work very well from all the use and abuse from his big brothers.  We have to get him a new one soon.

Like all toddlers, he loves to point in the sky when he sees birdies or airplanes!  He gets very excited to show me what he sees. 

Another treasured toy:  his radio flyer walker wagon.  He likes to sit it in and hang out sometimes.

Levi has a special relationship with each of his big brothers.  Nathanael and Levi have been rough housing lately.  Nathanael loves to tickle him.  Hunter loves to chase Levi all around the house playing "tag."  Levi laughs and squeals when Hunter catches him!

Levi really enjoys brushing his "eesh" (teeth) and asks to do so often. 

He's also figured out how to climb up onto the bottom bunk.  Hunter has been begging me to let him start sleeping with him on the bottom bunk, but I'm not quite ready for that yet.  I'm hoping I can keep him in his crib for several more months.  We've also had to start putting the ladder to the second bunk up as we've caught him up on the top bunk a couple of times now.  He climbed up there all by himself on the ladder!!

A smoothie ice cream treat in our popsicle molds. 

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He can eat an entire apple all by himself.  Like...the WHOLE apple.  It takes him about 20-30 minutes or so to do this and it's become a pleasant, daily activity in his high chair when he (and mommy) need a break from him getting into everything. 

His favorite book for a couple of weeks was this little word picture book.

We must have read it to him well over a hundred times.  Last week it was in a bag we brought to the pool and we lost it.  I've been heartbroken over losing it because it was so precious to him.  I'm ordering him another one next week because I can't bear the thought of him never clutching it in his little hands and asking us to read it to him again. 

Here's Levi at his 18-month-check-up at the doctor.  There's a big, wooden play bus in the waiting room and he was THRILLED to play with it.  Busses are another one of his favorite things.  He spend a lot of time at our front windows watching the busses go by on the bus loop during the school year, but he's been missing not seeing them over the summer.  

The doctor declared him wonderfully healthy and he was 29 lbs and 33 inches tall.  In the 90th and 95th percentile.  His favorite foods are mommy's homemade bread with butter, bananas, apples, kiwi, mashed potatoes, green beans cooked in coconut oil, sweet potatoes, cheese, chicken, roasted seaweed and any kind of fish we may fix for him.  He used to eat anything we put it in front of him up until a few months ago.  He's actually gotten quite picky lately and we've been working on replacing his carbs and bananas with other foods, but we haven't been as successful as we'd like.  On a more positive note, he eagerly takes his fermented cod liver oil every day without as much as a flinch.  :)  He's also started feeding himself with his spoon and fork. He's got 11 teeth, 3 of which are molars still coming in.

We are so thankful for Mr. Levi Benjamin.  He is such a delight to all of us and has truly "harmoniously joined" our family just as the meaning of his name states.  

 

18 Months Old!!