Surprise Visit to L.A.

Last weekend we flew down to L.A. to surprise BeBe and Granddad for their 40th wedding anniversary and for the first night of Hanukkah. Boy were they surprised! They had NO idea that we were coming. We had planned to FaceTime with them to light candles for the first night of Hanukkah and showed up at the front door instead!

Aunt B and Uncle Dean graciously picked us up at the airport, and we stopped by Whole Foods to pick up Hanukkah dinner feast of latkes, chicken and veggies..

We knocked on the door and when my mom asked who it is was, I had no idea what to say, so I just said "Open the door". Some of our favorite BeBe responses were "oh my gosh, you have to be kiding," "I don't believe this" and "oh my gosh, you should not do this". It was a blast!

We all lit candldes together on Levi's first night of Hanukkah. It was so nice to all be together. What a worlwind of a trip but so glad we did it! They'll never forget their 40th anniversary, that's for sure!



Quick picture of us before leaving L.A.



Levi's first night of Hanukkah



Little buddies

Christina and Levi

Half a year old (already)

Levi has discovered he can get his feet into his mouth

• He is 16 pounds, 11 ounces (+) and just over 27 inches long
• He loves to squeal!
• He talks all of the the time. Daycare says he talks all day long. Mostly da-da and ga-ga. We are trying to show him who mommy and daddy are, but we wont be surprised if his first word is doggy
• He has discovered that he can put his pacifier back in his mouth but right now he is more interested in teething on it than sucking on it. We are sure it'll be some time before he's able to find it in the middle of the night and put it back in
• He has such strong legs. He can pull himself up from sitting when he's holding onto us. We are sure it'll be awhile before he can pull up on furniture - thank goodness
• He loves everyone at daycare and everyone loves him too. The kids bring him toys all day long and put his paci in if he's upset...it's so cute! He is by far the youngest but not for long. 2 babies will be joining daycare early next year
• He has slept through the night (the whole night) twice in the last 2 weeks from about 8 to 6 am but its not the norm (unfortunately)

6 month photos!

We just took his 6 month professional photos and we cannot wait to get all of them back. Levi will be the star of our holiday card this year, of course! Here is a preview!

Thanksgiving Weekend

We had such a wonderful thanksgiving this year. We are so thankful for all that we've been given this year. Levi is such a blessing and we feel so fortunate to have such a happy, easy going, active, talkative and giggly little guy.

BeBe and Granddad came up from L.A. to spend the weekend with us. They got in Wednesday afternoon and left Monday afternoon, so Levi had 4 full days of fun with them. My mom had been up just a few weeks ago but Dad hadn't seen him in person since September. He has changed so much since he last saw him.

We have cooked almost everything from scratch the last few years and we managed to do the same this year. Levi was passed from family members and friends while my mom and I worked in the kitchen for most of the day. We were thankful to have a total of 8 adults (including us), 2 babies and 3 dogs for our thanksgiving meal. Aunt Jenna came down from the city with her roommate Jen and our friends Kim and Chris and their newborn Maverick joined us. Levi sat at the head of the table and enviously watched us eat our thanksgiving meal. Our small 1040 square foot house was very full and full of thanks!

We cannot wait to think about how far we've come a year from now. Next year Levi will join in on the feast!

 

 

5 months

Levi is growing like a champ and has been up to so much these days.

• He is talking more than ever (sometimes screaming)
• He loves to laugh but its usually because we tickle him. So far he is most ticklish on his neck, feet, and sometimes on his knees
• He's sitting up by himself, so doesn't really spend much time in the bumbo anymore
• While he rolls over front to back and back to front, he doesn't do it consistently, which we are thankful for
• He doesn't spend much time on his back on the play mat anymore because sitting up is too much fun
• He still loves his activity saucer and is able to play with pretty much everything. His new favorite thing to do is slam his hands on the buttons that play music. He'll do it over and over again
• He's still getting used to being in the jumper and could use another couple of inches to jump a little more consistently
• He's getting more interested in food, so we have him at the dinner table with us. He plays with his toys and we pick them up because he has discovered this thing called gravity. We are pretty sure he's going to love food when he gets his hands on it
• He has discovered how to knock things over and loves knocking over his stacking cups before or after we build the tower with the cups
  He loves banging things together and onto the table, which makes for very musical dinners
• He was almost sleeping through the night, but now there is too much exciting stuff going on in his world to sleep plus he's started to teethe
• He's had his second cold, and thankfully the only part that bothers him is the snot sucker and the not sleeping well part too
• He's starting to teethe and loves to gnaw on our hands and his hands mostly. He's not to into the teething toys yet
• He started daycare and so far so good. He's happy when we drop him off (if he's awake) and excited when he sees us at the end of the day
• He still loves his doggies. I wouldn't be surprised if his first word is da (as in dog not dad - sorry Jeff)
• He's getting a little attached and definitely likes to be held a lot more

A few 5 month photos of the little man:

 

Along Came Maverick

Our good friends Kim & Chris recently welcomed their son Maverick. He was just less than a week overdue so everyone, especially Kim & Chris, were so excited when he finally arrived. Happy and healthy little boy - 8 pounds, 6 ounces and 20 inches long. 

Levi is just over 5 months and its hard to remember him ever being that small. Thank goodness for pictures to remind us how little he once was!

Levi is excited that his little buddy is finally here!

What we've been up to

We've been up to a lot since our last post. I went back at work and its going pretty well so far. Daddy was able to spend 3 days a week at home with Levi while I was working (more on that in abother blog post written by daddy).

It was by far the longest I've been away from him, but things went better than expected. I was a little sad the day before, but it made it easier knowing that Levi was home with Daddy. I was lucky enough to receive a few pictures on my first day at work, which cheered me up!

Levi and Mommy before I left for the day

The Giants are world champs again this year, and we were able to partake in all of the action. Our friends from birth class, Jason, Kendra & Harry are die hard baseball fans and asked if he wanted to to to the Giants Playoff game against the St. Louis Cardinals. So we decided to be spontaneous and headed up to the city for the game. Proves that you can be spontaneous when you have kids...well at least when there is just one :)



One of my favorites



 

Little buds

 



The boys will be much more into the game one day



All 6 of us Giants fans



 

 

In other recent events, the Rosenfelds came into down for a long weekend. My mom came up for a couple of days to visit while I was still off on Mondays and Tuesdays. I helped to throw a baby shower for our friends. We've been busy!

First Halloween

How else are you supposed to celebrate a baby's first holidays? By going BIG, of course.

A few weeks ago, we drove about 45 minutes south to go to a pumpkin farm with Christian, April and Jeremy. We chose this particular farm because there were SO many activities to choose from for Jeremy, and Levi too, of course. There were trains, a petting zoo, corn mazes, a big pumpkin patch. What more could 2 little boys ask for?

We rode the train first, which Jeremy loved. Then we went to the petting zoo, which Levi really enjoyed. He pet the goats and the bunnies and was amazed by the turtle. The bunny was definitely his favorite. He couldn't stop moving his fingers through the bunnies fur. He was so tender with them.

The corn maze was tons of fun. Jeremy led the way and had a blast and Levi was so exhausted that he fell asleep mid-way through the maze. The parents were stumped by many of the maze clues but we made it out alive!

We managed to pick our pumpkin and attempted a few pictures of the boys in the pumpkin patch. Both of them were tired but Jeremy held it together much better than Levi did.

A few photos from our adventure to the pumpkin farm!

Levi was lucky enough to have two Halloween costumes this year. His tiger costume was given to him by his Buddy and Bettie. He was able to wear it to our birth class reunion and Athena's 3rd birthday party which was a costume party.

On Halloween, he was a giraffe (of course).