September Update

Happy September!! The weather cools down gradually and is filled with the promise of change. Levi grows and learns and changes daily. He now has 14 teeth: the four top front teeth, teh four front bottom teeth, four molars and, as of yesterday, two top eye teeth. He smiles all the time, mostly. He cuddles with his mom and dad and stuffed animals and sometimes his grandparents get that treat. His hugs make his mom feels like a million bucks. Sometimes, he even bostowes a sweet kiss ("mmmmwa").

Levi continues to show a strong preference for tools, e.g. hammer, pliers, wrench, toothbrush, remote controll, hair brush, eye-glasses, sword, etc. His talks a lot, mostly jibberish, but he can say "no" and "wait" and "what(?)". He signs "more" and "all done" and we're working on "apple" and "pear", two favorite things to eat, and "diaper" so that he can tell me when he needs a change(I often procrastinate or forget). He still nurses to sleep and sleeps in the bed with Nate and me at night, but we're working on getting him used to his own bed (his crib turned into a daybed). He usually takes good, long naps in it.

Oh! He finally started to walk as a free agent on the 26th of August. He walks like a real pro. He has great balance control. He knows how to go up and down stairs by himself (a trick he mastered in June-ish) but can go up and down in an upright posture with the help of an adult.

Grandma Paula taught him to sit on the bottom stair and he looks very nice - sitting pretty.

He did his hair for the first time last Wednesday (23.Sept). He dipped his comb or his hand into a cup of water and ran it over his hair. He looked absolutely perfect when he finished.

We are still not feeding Levi sweets. In fact, we even stopped feeding him ice-cream. So that means: no candy, no deserts, no sugar cereal, and absolutely nothing with corn syrup in it. Instead, he eats cucmbers, carrots, apples, peaches, bananas, beans, lettuce, pretty much anything we eat (with the exception of refined sugar). And ... he absolutely loves it! When I want to eat something I don't want him to eat, I just make sure to have fruit leather, cucumbers or apples ready for him. So far so good. And he's such a good example, I'm eating less and less sugary stuff.

Jedi Levi

Levi was playing with one of Nathan's light sabers the other day and Nate caught a couple pictures and videos of the event. There are four of them; I just couldn't talk myself out of posting any of them.

Levi Schmevi

Our little Levi is quite the person. He free-stands a lot more and has taken a couple of steps by himself, but he usually crouches down and crawls or does the crab walk. He has 3 molars and a fourth is about to break the gum. He has been a bit more irritable than usual the past two weeks and we think maybe it was because of the teeth.
He is eating more and more solid food and the variety is expanding. He's still not a huge fan of meat, in general, but is more willing to eat it than he used to be. He loves fruit, pickels, cucumbers, zucchini bread (with wheat flour and half of the sugar called for), bread of all sorts, and his very favorite is beans. He loves burritos full of refries, or the collection of black and pinto beans that we give him out of our Cafe Rio dishes. He will eat almost anything, which is lovely. He's even less picky than I am.
He loves to figure things out and explore as much and as often as possible. He takes great delight in playing with toilet paper, stroller or car wheels, and all the buttons he can push while he sits in the driver's seat in Grandma Paula's car and waits for her outside Costco (with Mom, of course). He's getting really good at drinking from different sippy-cups. He loves water and was recently introduced to whole milk.