Eleven months! Wow! It's time to start planning a birthday party....
What's new?
Levi has crawling mastered and is getting around pretty fast. I love when he thinks one of us is chasing him and he squeals and "runs" away. He also pulls himself up on everything and pushes chairs around, practicing his walking.
I've seen glimpses of him starting to make sense of the world around him which is so fascinating to watch. He loves to imitate our sounds and gestures - throwing his hands up in the air at the dinner table and clapping are his favorite. He's still a super fun and goofy kid, always in a playful mood. He has six teeth and more coming in. Levi's 18m clothes are getting small and I added t-shirts in size 2T to the mix a few days ago. It's happened that Ava wore one of Levi's shirts to school the other day, and Levi one of Ava's sweaters. As you can see in the pictures, his hair is getting really long. I have a feeling a first hair cut is not too far ahead in the future.
I'm barely breastfeeding him now; I nurse him once after we all get home, which he needs also emotionally after a long day at daycare, and then at night on demand, which has been mostly comfort nursing . In the last few days he's been actually hungry at night and we've started to give him a bottle before we go to bed and during the night. I'm a bit afraid of introducing a bad habit of eating at night, but maybe it's just a growth spurt. All I can say is that it's for sure easier than dealing with a cranky baby in the middle of the night or raw nipples in the morning.
At dinner, he eats mostly everything that we eat now, which is always a huge mess, but not having to prepare baby food and/or spoon feed makes a big difference. Another random first: I took the kids to Burger King for the first time recently when Tony needed a few hours to work around the house. Levi didn't care for the apple sauce but loved Ava's cheeseburger. I'm happy to report that none of the kids really cared for the food, but loved the experience, crown, playground, and all.
At daycare, he finally got a new teacher who is absolutely wonderful and whom I trust completely. His transition to the one year old room is coming up, and we had a bit of a hick up when it was decided to just move him over to the new room without much of a transition when the center's director was away for a few days. It didn't help that the teacher for the one year old room was also new and Levi hadn't got a chance to get to know her. As most babies, Levi doesn't do well with abrupt changes and needs a bit of time to adjust to new situations. The director and his infant room teacher knew that and had planned a two week transition period. I was so glad when his infant teacher pulled me aside at the end of a day and shared her concerns. I was able to address it with the center and when the director returned from her trip, she immediately came to talk to me and suggested we roll things back and take it slow as originally planned. While not ideal, it confirmed that I can trust my kids' teachers and the director to know my kids and to make decisions accordingly. I made sure to let them know how much I appreciated it.
Next time: Levi's one year update!
And just like that, we're getting close to the 1 year mark! I think I jinxed it, when last month, I reported that the kids haven't been getting sick. We had several days in February where Tony and I had to work from home or take a day off to take care of sick kids. I'm not sure I should be thankful or disappointed that they were never sick at the same time, but always on a rotating schedule. The latest incident was this past Monday, when I spent the afternoon with Levi at the walk-in clinic after daycare sent him home with what they thought might be pink eye. Turns out they were right. He was also diagnosed with an ear infection and has been on antibiotics since. At least he is feeling well.
Last month, after scooting around for months, Levi finally figured out how to crawl. He still scoots on his belly when he wants to be fast, but has figured out that crawling doesn't take as much energy. The other day, I walked over to him, wanting to pick him up, and he thought I was "chasing" him, and he started to scoot away from me as fast as he could, giggling like crazy. Oh I love those little moments.
He's been really talkative, saying mamamama, dadadada, vavavavava, nananana, bababababa, ... and he loves when we respond to him and make it a conversation. He also picked up this strange noise that sounds like a sick rodent, where he's sucking in air, creating a weird sound in the back of his throat. It's his happy sound.
Food wise, he still pretty much eats everything, and he is much more of a puree fan than his older siblings ever were. I still nurse him first thing when we come home in the afternoon, as well as before bed. Oh and at night of course, but that's mostly for comfort. I think he's pretty much done nursing at night except for maybe one more night/early morning feed, but he loves to be close and loves to sleep with my boob in his mouth. I'm so over it. I think it's time for sleep training, but who has the energy for that? Not me!
I'm really hoping I'll get back into writing blog posts. I have tons of ideas, but no energy to be creative and turn it into something. At least I have these monthly updates to get us through this phase.
Isn't Levi starting to look like such a big kid? I'm loving it. As much as I love the baby stage, toddlerhood is so much more fun.
Last month was the month of hitting milestones. In my 8 months update, I talked about all of the things that were almost happening. And now, at 9 months old, Levi has reached some of those milestones.
An exciting, busy, and joyful 2017 is coming to an end, and for Levi, no all of us really, it means a lot of changes are coming up. We have all become so used to our new routine of me staying home with the kids, being in charge of a lot of the household chores, and a bit more family focused and relaxed life. 2018 means going back to work for me and therefore a much tighter schedule for everyone.
This last week of December was the kids' first week at their new childcare center. It's a brand new location for them, so only a few kids are enrolled. While Noah and Ava are super excited about the new place, all of the new toys, kids, and teachers, Levi's transitioning hasn't been as easy.
