Levi the Leg Leech

If you've been with our family at all over the last 12 months or so, you've observed that Levi is a Momma's Boy. And that's an understatement. The boy loves his Momma. If I'm in the room, he's not interested in being with anyone else. He loves snuggling with Momma. And after he wakes up from a nap in the afternoons, he expects me to either hold him while I do my housework or sit down and play with him on the floor. Either way, he wants 100% my undivided attention. Many evenings, you'll find me trying to fix dinner in the kitchen, stumbling along with Levi the Leech attached to my leg.

The other adult in the house (I won't name names) is oh so helpful at times like these. He says things like, "Good grief! All that baby does is cry!" or "Gosh Almighty. I can't even think straight with all that crying!" or my favorite.... "Well, get him, Baby! He just wants you!" As if I needed these things pointed out to me.

Now, don't get me wrong. I love my little Leech Momma's Boy.  Most of the time, he's happy and content. And if his big brother is around to give him attention and play with him, he can be distracted away from me. But during Arsenic Hour (the term we use for the time period between awakening from nap and eating dinner), no one else but Momma will satisfy. And while I appreciate this passionate display of love, it would really be dreamy to fix dinner without a leech firmly fixed to my leg. Just sayin.

Back to School in Style

Last year, Bird started going to "prek" two mornings a week at the local First Baptist Church. He (and I) loved it. It was such a success that we signed him up to go again this year. When we recently started telling him school time was coming up, he wasn't too excited. He was also puzzled as to why he would have a new teacher and classroom. All the anxiety ended, however, when we went to orientation last week. When Bird walked into his new classroom, he looked around, did a fist pump, and said, "YES!!" The room is chock-full of awesome "big boy toys" like firetrucks, cars, tractors, and trains, and a few babydolls for the girls. No doubt sharing will be a hot topic this year in class.

So Tuesday was his first day of 3 year old PreK. Like most parents tend to do, we had a special outfit chosen for the first day of school. It was a cute solid blue shirt with plaid shorts that his Granny bought him. We washed it and set it out the night before. Tuesday morning, Bird got up and dressed without any complaints. He even agreed to wear his extra cute tan loafers instead of his tennis shoes! I fixed his breakfast and showered while he ate. When I finished, I went to check on him in the kitchen and found that he had completely changed his wardrobe. No longer was he wearing his cute plaid shorts and tan loafers. Instead, he had put on a dirty pair of jeans and his "work boots." And his nice, clean, ironed blue shirt now had chocolate milk spilled down the front of it.

Now, let's pause for a moment so I can give you some backstory. All spring and summer long, I have STRUGGLED to get Bird to wear shorts. He LOVES jeans and hates shorts. It's a battle I've fought EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. of warm weather. And basically, any outfit I choose for him is a loser. Now, you're caught up.

So Tuesday morning when he appeared in his jeans and boots, and I saw the determined look in his eyes, I decided I was done fighting. I've come to the conclusion that I have better things to do than argue with a 3 year old about his wardrobe. So, with that explanation, here's our "First Day of 3 Year PreK" picture. Now you understand why my kid looks like he chose clothes fresh from the dirty clothes pile. It's because he did. And because of that cute little smile - I'm ok with it.

Now I Totally Get It

As a kid, I can vividly remember my Mom or Dad saying to me, "Hailey, let's just be quiet and enjoy the radio for a few minutes." I remember thinking What? Enjoy the radio? Why? We've got important things to talk about here! It just seemed silly to sit together in the car silently and listen to some faceless voice talk or sing through the car speakers.

Now, I totally get it. In fact, I even found myself saying the EXACT. SAME. WORDS. to Bird today. We were driving to Rome to run errands and then meet some friends for a playdate. He was excited and was even more talkative than usual. About 10 minutes down the road, I just couldn't take it anymore. I felt like I was being bombarded with pellets of constant chatter. I marveled that his breathing could keep up with such a breakneck talking pace. He kept firing questions at machine-gun speed, and he would even resume talking before I could finish answering a question!  I worried my ears might spontaneously combust and melt off my head.

While stopped at a redlight, I turned around and tried to get his attention. Bird was talking so hard it took 3 repetitions of his name (each gradually louder than the last) before he quieted enough to realize I was talking. "Jackson - be quiet and listen to me, please. My ears are hurting, and I really think we need to just all be quiet for a few minutes and listen to some music."

After quietly listening to me for (what must have been an excruciatingly long) 3 seconds, Bird started right back at it. "Why are your eaws huwting, Momma? Do you have a bat flying around in there? Them bats are mean." I turned up the radio and loudly announced, "Bird, I can't hear you anymore. Let's just be quiet."

With the music at full blast and Levi sound asleep, the only other thing I could hear from the back seat was an occasional "NEVER.... EVER.... UGLY....." From what I gathered, Bird was raising his voice at designated intervals to emphasize that I should "Never ever again be ugly to him and tell him to stop talking." Duly noted.

Levi's 1st Birthday Party

The fun started Friday, July 26th when Meme & Rayray arrived in town. We spent the day playing at the playground, grilling out, and opening some of little Levi's birthday gifts.

Then, on Saturday, friends & family came over to celebrate. We partied with a "Hungry Caterpillar" theme since Levi is my little bug. Meme made Levi a beautiful quilt, and of course made his party shirt and hat. The cake, which was SUPER yummy, was from Kroger.

We served sandwiches for lunch and let the littles play in the sprinkler and kiddie pool.

Levi had lots of help from his cousins opening gifts.

But he wasn't too thrilled about his birthday cupcake. My theory? He wanted a CAKE, not a miniature version.

After the party and a L O N G nap, the boys spent the rest of the day hanging out with Meme & Rayray and riding Levi's new motorcyle from Granny & Pawpaw.

It's hard to believe that an entire year has already gone by. Happy 1st birthday, little Levi Bug! You're really not so little anymore, but I love every single one of your 25 pounds of chubby tubby muscle! Thanks for bringing us so much joy!

Have Your Cake, and EAT It, too!

Just as we did with Jackson, we bought Levi a cake the week before his birthday for the sole purpose of taking pictures of his first cake smash. Unlike Jackson, Levi LOVED it. (Here's a flashback to Jackson's 1st birthday cake smash a few years ago...)

My poor Baby Bird had an ear infection and wasn't too excited about cake.

Now, back to Levi. As you can tell from the pictures below, he took the slow approach at first. He picked at the cake for a bit, and Daddy had to smush his little hands in the icing. Once he realized that it was edible (and sugary), he dove right in. He ate several fist-fulls of icing, then skipped the hands completely, leaning over and eating the icing straight off the cake with his mouth. Finally, he made it an entire-body dining experience by shoving his feet in and then pulling the icing and cake off his toes and eating it. You can tell from the smile that the eating technique mattered little. It was all about the taste. Smash it, Little Bug! Smash It! Happy (early) 1st Birthday to my hungry little caterpillar!

Them Ain't Tawkin Right!

I'll be blatantly honest with you (as usual): I let my boys watch TV. When Jackson Bird was a baby, I tried to keep him away from the TV when Jacin had it on, and I was careful to limit Bird's tube time as he grew older.  As a new Mom, I had read that watching TV before the age of 2 can decrease your child's creativity and leave them "imagination-challenged" (or something). However, once Bird started riding our dog Rascal like his horse, swimming in the bathtub as if he were diving for buried treasure, and fixing the imaginary engine under the kitchen table, I determined our boy was not void of an imagination. And when Levi came along, I decided that there were certain TV shows that had distinct benefits - educational, of course. So I gradually welcomed Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Word Girl, and Wild Krats into our daily routine.

Mickey Mouse comes on from 8 to 9am and teaches teamwork and creative problem solving. (It also keeps them entertained and somewhat quiet while do the morning chores. Too much verbal communication first thing in the morning overwhelms me, so thanks, Mickey, for the help.)

Word Girl and Wild Krats comes on PBS in the late afternoon. Word Girl enhances vocabulary skills and Wild Krats introduces the wonders of the animal kingdom. (Incidentally, my bedroom TV picks up both of these shows, and Bird enjoys watching them in bed with me while I finish my nap.)

Yesterday, something devastating happened. About 5 minutes into a Word Girl afternoon episode (and about 4.5 minutes into my extended naptime), the sound stopped working on the PBS channel. Jackson hollered about it, I messed with the remote, but to no avail. I simply could not get the sound to work on channel 8. That meant naptime was over and we had to get up. I forgot about it until this morning.

At 8:05 this morning, I put Levi in the pack&play in my bedroom and stationed Bird in my bed. I turned on the TV to Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and jumped in the shower. About 3 minutes later, Jackson Bird yells, "Momma! Them ain't tawkin right!" After yelling back and forth a few times, I determined that for some reason, Mickey and his friends were experiencing difficulties with their verbal communication. I grabbed a towel and went to investigate. Strangely enough, Mickey and his friends were singing the Hot Dog song in Spanish!! Bird pointed to the TV and reiterated, "See! Them ain't tawking right!" (Yeah, Mickey's not the only one, kid! I silently quipped to myself.)

It was then that I remembered the difficulty we had experienced with Word Girl yesterday. Could it be that somehow Bird had messed with something on the remote, rendering Word Girl mute and causing Mickey to sing in Spanish? After pressing a few buttons, I changed the setting back to English, but not before discovering that Mickey isn't just a cute, friendly, wealthy little mouse: he's bilingual, too!!

I'm Just Firsty!

So it's about 8 o'clock at night. Jacin had just given our teething baby a dose of Ibuprofen and walked out. While I'm rocking Levi, I'm silently thanking God that I've almost made it through another day. Suddenly I hear Jacin yell, "Jackson! No, NO!!" Thoughts immediately start racing through my mind. Oh cheese. Where did he pee this time? What was he "washing" in the toilet? How many window panels has he hammered out? I wait and listen to hear more when Jacin bursts in the door to Levi's room. "Hailey, Jackson just chugged this whole bottle of Ibuprofen."

Now, you might think I'm insensitive, but I'm pretty sure I rolled my eyes and emmited an audible sigh. I'm guessing my response is what prompted Jacin to start shaking the almost-empty bottle and yelling "The whole bottle! What is it gonna do to him?!" Now please know that I immediately discount any quantity-related words spoken when my husband is in a panicked state. So the words "the whole bottle" I quickly realized to be an exaggeration. The question was just how much Jackson had, in fact, really consumed.

I stood up with Levi in my arms, calmly walked over to my panicked husband, and grabbed the Ibuprofen bottle. It was only about a quarter full, but I knew the bottle had only been half full a few minutes ago. So no, he had NOT, in fact, "chugged the entire bottle." But it was pretty amazing how quickly Bird had crept in the bathroom, noticed the open bottle, and tipped it. Bird's explanation? "I'm just firsty (thirsty)!"

I asked Jacin to call Poison Control while I finished rocking Levi to sleep. Jacin looked at me like I was totally ignoring the fact that our oldest son was in dire straights with death knocking at our door. All the while, Jackson's peeking out of his room shouting, "I was just firsty!"

So Jacin managed to calm himself enough to call Poison Control and tell them that our 35 pound 3 year old had consumed about 2 ounces of Children's Ibuprofen (about 10 times the normal dose). Their advice? Watch for vomiting. Just when you thought the night couldn't get any more exciting!