words

Levi is a hoot!  When he's excited about something (like when I'm going to give Caleb and Logan a treat for being dry, which means he'll get a treat, too....  or when I ask if anyone wants ice cream) he raises his hands and shouts "Yay!!"  It's super cute - I tried to get it on camera yesterday, but failed.  Today I made chicken nuggets for lunch and when he saw them he thought they were cookies, so he was excitedly shouting "Gookie!  Gookie!"

Any tractor we see or hear starts him off on "Bapa?  Bapa?"  (Papa.)  My dad's tractor and wagons are parked in the back here to be ready for harvesting the corn by us, and since Levi has spotted them I think I've heard "Bapa" about a million times.  And, of course he's a big Daddy fan!  First thing when I went into his room this morning it was "Daddy?  Daddy?  Daddy?" several times.  Or when we're at the table he'll often point at Mike's chair and ask about him.  Or if we're out and about and he sees a truck like Mike's.  He gets super excited to see Mike whether it's when we're visiting him at work or when he gets home in the evening.  Who wouldn't be excited??  :)  I guess he talks alot about whoever NOT here, though - last night I was out doing some shopping and Mike said Levi couldn't stop talking about Mommy.  :)

He's getting better at saying Sadie's name.  We can't really get him to say his name or Caleb or Logan.  He sort of says "thank you" and he can kind of say "Yes, Mom"!  (I wasn't really working on that with him, but he'll repeat it when I tell Caleb or Logan to say it.)  I love it when you ask him if he wants something - he'll say "Hm" and lift his head in a slight nod.  Of course he's very good at the word "NO" - he uses it alot with his brothers.  :)  He's pretty jealous of what he thinks is his - whether it's a toy he's had his hands on recently, or if one of the other boys wants to sit on my lap.  Last week Mike and I did "couch time" for the first time in forever (Hooray for celery harvest being done!), and I don't think Levi knew what to think of us actually sitting down next to each other on the couch and talking.  :)  He was pretty sad at first (acting like the whole thing was pretty traumatic), but he did GREAT at staying where we told him to!  I was surprised because I haven't practiced it much with him.

Levi is no longer my shopping buddy.  :(  He doesn't want to sit in the cart anymore (and it's quite a production to get him forced in the seat and strapped in), but if I let him walk he hasn't learned about staying by me and he wants to run off.

Caleb and Logan have been learning so fast!  They are both pretty good at counting to 20.  They might get a little tripped up in the teens, but otherwise do well.  They can recite their ABC's, and Logan especially has gotten more curious about letters and "reading".

This morning I had a chance to talk alone with Caleb and I asked him what he wants to be when he grows up.  He wants to be a daddy, make celery, drive the dump truck, work in the shop fixing things, and work with Mike.  :)  The reason I got to talk with Caleb was because Logan slept in!  He was up some in the night with a bad dream.  I woke up a little before my alarm this morning and there was Logan in bed with me!  Mike got up crazy early to do some field work for my dad, so I thought maybe something had happened while he was up and he had just put Logan in bed with me and I just didn't realize it.  But when I talked to him later he said he didn't - so I guess Logan got in on his own and I just had no idea!  Anyways, Logan woke up then saying he wanted to be on his own, but when I put him back to his bed he was upset about a bad dream, so I set him up with his lantern and a few books.  He must have been up for a bit yet because then he ended up sleeping until 9am.

We made a trip to the library today.  I really wish we could do it more, but Levi is not a fan!  Caleb and Logan love it, but Levi protests LOUDLY when I try to keep him from running all over and pulling books off shelves...

Don't think I wrote about the snow last week.  We had a crazy early snow here.  A couple inches of heavy, wet stuff.  Caleb and Logan were thrilled!  I dug up what I could find in snow gear and sent them out the door.  They had fun playing outside for quite a while.  My mom was nice enough to offer to come over to be with the boys for just a bit so I could head out with my camera.  Thankfully the snow was all melted by the next day!  :)

The other night we did alot of running around due to soybean harvest, and the boys did great being in the van for so long (and I didn't even have to turn on a movie once!).  They did get to ride in the combine a bit with Mike, but we also followed Mike in the combine down the road, brought him back to his truck, went to pick up Chick'n Lick'n, brought that over to ZFS to eat (in the van as it was too cold to eat outside), and then followed Mike back with some wagons.

It's a beautiful day here today.  Gotta soak it up while we've got it!

interviews

I did these interviews with Caleb and Logan a few weeks ago.

hmmmmm

Last night on the way home from Gopher's, Logan was insisting that sometimes he sleeps with his eyes open.  Then Caleb said that sometimes he sleeps with his eyes open because his eyes get a little bit hot.  :)

Poor Levi

My poor baby hurt his pinky toe today.  :(  The boys and I headed over to my parent's this morning so I could wash windows, and after that my mom and I were trying to get some lunch stuff ready.  Levi pulled a table leaf out of the rack and it fell on his toe.  I THINK it's going to be okay without a visit to the dr (Little toes look so funny anyways, how in the world do you know if it's broken??) - there's just a small cut, and the toe is red, but not swollen, and he's walking around fine.

The rest of lunch wasn't great even after Levi calmed down...I started dropping his morning nap about a week ago, and he can get rather cranky.  :)  But, if he takes a morning nap he won't take an afternoon nap, and we just can't have that!  Dropping the morning nap is a bit of an adjustment for me - I remember that with Caleb and Logan, too.  Going from having some "down time" in the morning AND afternoon to just morning takes a shift in thinking for the day.  (How in the world do I keep a 16-month-old occupied for several hours in a row???)  So, anyways, today we had to make a rather swift and chaotic exit from my parent's.  :)

It's a good thing Levi is so stinkin' cute, because he has been EXHAUSTING me lately!  :)  Wanting to climb on everything, push buttons on the tv, get into the bathroom, etc., etc., etc....  Really, how did I do this with two the same age??  I know it's terrible, but I kinda can't wait until he'll sit and watch tv...

Mike and I had a nice weekend away at a marriage retreat!  Of course it was a little hectic on Friday trying to get ready to go (with my three "helpers" running around), but that made the time away that much better.  :)  We were with about 8-9 other couples from our church, at a camp north a little ways.  The weather was great!  Mike and I were able to do some canoeing Saturday afternoon.  Saturday night we played volleyball for a couple hours and had so much fun!  And paid for it the next day.  I was a tad sore.  :)

Mike's last day of celery harvest is TOMORROW!!!!

Logan and the world

The other day at lunchtime Logan was praying before the meal and his prayer was something along the lines of, "Dear God, thank you for Mommy, Daddy, Caleb, Logan, and Levi, Grady and Alyssa, Boden and Heidi, Ashley, Hannah, China, Russia, the beach, Africa, Florida, outer space, and earth."  :)  Lately he'll stop during his prayer, look at the map on the wall, and say, "What else?"  I'll tell him that he can just say, "the whole world", but he wants to be more specific!

Last night was Parent's Night at Gopher's (our church's Wednesday night program for the kids).  Mike and I were so excited to go!  When talking about it with the boys the night before, Caleb didn't want us to go, but Logan was excited about it.  Caleb did end up being happy we were there.  :)  On the way there we were talking about the different aspects of the evening, and Mike said something about how there should be coffee at snack time...so, guess what Logan said to his teacher as soon as we walked into his room??  "We should have coffee for my daddy!"  :)  Neither Caleb or Logan wanted to practice their verse - hoping it was just because we were there (they don't like to do it at home either), and that they do better the rest of the time.  We were so proud at song/story time - Logan's name was drawn first to hold the American flag for the pledge.  Loved the look on his face!  A girl in the group held a sign for the pledge to the Bible, and then they stayed up to hold up some letters, and Caleb's name was drawn to hold a letter, too.  :)  It was interesting to see Caleb and Logan in this environment.  During song/story time they stayed separate, but then during games they were kind of together (and fighting at the beginning...).  We really had fun getting to see what our kids do on Wednesday nights, and we are so thankful they have the opportunity to do it.

Logan went into Levi's room and woke him up during naptime today.  :(  Not cool!  It wasn't that far into naptime, but he just didn't nap good after that.  I'm actually kind of surprised it took this long for it to happen!  Logan's been a little worse lately about staying put during quiet time, he's been doing some "sneaking out" - not that sneaky since I can pretty much hear most of it...

Logan's big number that he's been throwing out lately is "40".  This is thanks to talking about Noah and the Flood for a few weeks in Sunday School.  :)  He loves to use it like it's this super huge number - for example, "Or how about this?  I'll eat 20, no, 40 chicken nuggets!"  Or during story time tonight he was saying something about 40 rattlesnakes.  Such a boy!  :)

switch

Well, it's happened.  Daddy is now Levi's favorite person.  :)  He hasn't completely forgotten about me, but I hear alot about Daddy all day long, he gets VERY excited to see Mike (when visiting him at work, or when he gets home from work), and he is pretty attached to him (crying at the bathroom door when he's in there, etc.).  The last couple days he's been calling out for "Daddy" all day long - he doesn't even say "Mama" anymore!

Levi doesn't have a problem making his feelings known when something makes him upset.  :)  He loves when Mike gives him a piggy-back ride, or as we call it, a doggy ride.  The other day he had a turn, then it was Caleb's turn - guess who was NOT a happy camper??  He got pretty mad and was trying to push Caleb off.

Levi is still good about saying and signing "please" ("beeee").  He's finally saying and signing "more" ("mo"), and "all done" (he only does the sign for that one).  He gets very excited to see Sadie, and his word for her is kind of like "yay-yay".  He loves throwing her ball for her, and thankfully she's patient enough to go the short distance he can throw.  :)  Levi is super good at blowing kisses, and does nice big ones.  He likes to play "peek-a-boo" when sitting in his high chair.

He's still pretty bad about throwing things down from his high chair, and a swat on the hand apparently means nothing to him.  Oh boy.

I wish I could just soak it all up and remember everything that the kids do and what they are like!  Or have a camera rolling 24/7...

out

Yesterday Levi got out of his crib and started coming downstairs!  It was during his morning nap - he hadn't been settling down, and I heard a noise that made me think I should go check on him.  No huge thump like he fell, and he wasn't crying.  I get to the bottom of the stairs, look up, and who's at the top making his way down with a big grin on his face??  That certainly was not what I expected to see!  I put him back in his crib and he settled down and took a nap.  At bedtime I checked on him a couple times because I thought I heard something, but he didn't get out at all.  Phew!

We've been a little bit sick here since last week.  It really snuck up on me!  I guess it's because everyone else has gone back to school and started sharing germs - how nice of them to share them at church, too, since I have no one in school.  :)  Levi had a croupy cough for a couple days, now he's just kinda congested with a little bit of a runny nose, and drooling like CRAZY - I think it might be the congestion combined with some teething.  Caleb and Logan have been coughing, but nothing else really.  I've had a sore throat and some congestion.  So far Mike is in the clear.  Hope it stays that way!

Celery harvest is ALMOST done.  Probably 2-3 weeks to go.  Mike is really ready to be done.  Lots of employee issues, and he's pretty worn out from getting up at 3:30am every day (even earlier on Friday's when he has two trucks to load).

Caleb and Logan can both sing the ABC song really well!  There's just a couple spots where the don't say the letters quite right, but they've pretty much got it down.  They both can memorize their verse for Gopher's pretty well, too, except Caleb is rarely willing to say it.  Logan does, though.  I've had mixed success doing their daily "quiet times" for Gopher's.  Sometimes Caleb wants to do it, sometimes he doesn't, and it's not something I want to force at this point.  Logan usually wants to do it, but then gets VERY easily frustrated that he can't do something (e.g.: draw a square around something).  Even with me helping him, he just wants to give up and not try because he can't do it right.  Hmmmmm......sound familiar, Mom?  Mike says he was the same way, too.  So, I know how he feels, but I don't know what to say/do to encourage him to keep trying!  Working on this stuff with them has really reinforced to me that I would not do well as a preschool teacher.  :)

I did some of my own canning last week!  Feeling so domesticated.  :)

A couple Friday's ago we went to a family from church's house.  They have 8 kids (6 boys, 2 girls), but they're pretty much all grown, so there was only one there for part of the time we were there.  Anyways, the boys just love Mrs. Burkey, and she loves them, too.  :)  We all had a great time there - roasting hot dogs and marshmallows (I'm not sure how many s'mores Vonita gave Caleb....), and then inside they played with blocks and their dogs.  Oh, I almost have to mention, I took family portraits for them last spring, and when we did the photo session, Vonita had a project in mind.  She put a family tree up on the wall in her living room with the photos, and it looks really cool!

The next night Mike went to a Tiger's game with my dad, brother, and nephew.  It was a great game - went to 12 innings and the Tiger's won.  Made for a late night, though - I think he got home at 3:30am!

Last Tuesday we had a greater Steenwyk family party at my parent's.  My cousin from CA was in town with her three girls (two-yr-old, and 9-month-old twins).  My other cousin with 6-month-old twin girls was able to be there as well, babies, babies, everywhere!  Levi acted a little jealous when I was holding another baby, but not too bad.  :)