May Day

my life. heavenly (usually)

On May 1st, Levi took his first steps. I was SHOCKED. I say that because he just didn't seem like he was going to and didn't share thaaaat much interest. Usually babies like to hold onto your fingers and walk along with you- well not Levi. I would force him to do it once or twice. He had been standing on his own for quite some time now, like a month or so. What he would normally do was stand about 5 feet in front of me. I'd hold my hands out to try and encourage him to walk to my hands. Instead he would fall to the floor, crawl to me, and then stand up. Well, 4:50 pm on Thursday, May 1st, Levi did not fall right to the floor and crawl to me. Nope. He took 4 steps. Straight up. I about flipped. I was thinking maybe it was just a fluke and tried it again. He did it, again. I immediately text Scott something like, "LEVI JUST TOOK STEPS WHAAAAT" at the same time I'm telling Levi he did it a half hour too soon! Dad wasn't here yet!! Do you understand my shock?

FLIRT

As for other news.... I had my first experience with dealing with a major crime incident with Addi. It was morning. I was in the kitchen with Levi getting him situated to eat- you know strapped in with cheerios and cup of milk to occupy himself until I could assist feed him real food. I had told Addilyn to go use the bathroom before she came out to the kitchen. She was quiet for a while, which honestly, is not unusual. I also had told her to change out of her jammies and she's usually pretty quiet doing that. After a while I asked her what she was doing. She said she was cleaning. Ok...well, maybe when I told her earlier that we were going to clean her room she decided to get a head start??? I told her good job and left it at that. A few moments later I finally got in there and saw this...

Addilyn in the past has helped me spot clean the carpet. Unfortunately, she decided to spot clean the carpet with cream medicine (an expensive kind....). Her well intentions were there. Ugh. I just took a breath and went over to Addi with a baby wipe and wiped her down. I noticed some blue on her foot and didn't think much of it. Until later. I went into the bathroom and on the white floor was blue permanent marker. I have never never had a problem with Addilyn coloring on anything but paper. I think she's too scared to do it. Then I realized, Oh! That must be where the blue on her foot came from! Yup. There were a few more lovely incidents that happened during the day. I was so confused as to what happened to my perfect child...then I realized she didn't sleep well the night before.

perfection

 Levi has some of the most entertaining expressions. Here we are at the library. He's a go-getter-not-afraid-of-crowds kind of kid. He also appears to know when to shake his shakers during the songs.

These girls are twins, 2 months younger than Levi. Levi had fun with them...but them not so much with him. He was a little handsy.

LOVE this picture

I walk!

He still only does a few steps at a time and is getting better and better. I'll let you know when he's a full fledge walker.

Ok, I couldn't resist putting this photo in. Don't worry- he did NOT get kicked! I know, it totally looks like it. Right after I took the picture I had to double check with him that he was okay. But he didn't get wacked at all!

The title of this post "May Day" is for two purposes. One, he walked on that day. And two, I was practically crying mayday on the inside when I saw the mess on the floor from Addilyn.

Lily

Friends of ours went on a cruise this past week. They were going to take their dog to a kennel...Really??! Scott offered my services and our yard for her. She's a 3 year old miniature poodle. But, Levi got more use out of Cabo's dog house than Lily did. She is a crate dog at an apartment so I didn't torture her to sleep outside. We would bring her into our basement.

Levi helping dad out

Levi was not scared at all of Lily. In fact, he would squeal with excitement and attack her with love. She was sweet enough that she didn't fight back. Addilyn adored her and loved doing her tricks. She would sit and "Put 'em up!" (putting her paws up in the air). Too bad Lily doesn't understand 3 year old toddlers because I had to help Addilyn with doing the tricks.

"I'm working hard mom"

Lily was great helping us in the yard. We gardened in the evening and she stayed right by us. When Scott was out mowing and doing other things, she was his little companion.

Shh don't tell dad...

We went to the park near our house and Lily thought she'd try and get a free ride...Don't worry. It didn't last the second I started push the stroller.

We adopted another dog, his name is Levi. He plays fetch by himself and will crawl into a crate if you let him. He also drools like a large breed dog for such a small guy. He came with shots and loves to cuddle.

Contrary to his face, he was giggling

No, she did not ride like this

Playgroup was at Miller Park and Lily loved the attention. She hopped right up on Addie (below) and took a ride on her car. Very entertaining.

We lounged in the backyard a lot this week. Mostly because of the beautiful weather and Lily. She does cuddle! Her owner had told us she did, but I didn't believe it until it happened. Addilyn was so great at helping feed her. All I did was open the container of food. Addi brought it in and out of the basement and would feed her. I only took care of her water.

Lily hopped up onto my lap while I was on the swing with Levi. I recruited Addilyn to take a picture of this funny moment. Levi didn't mind at all sharing my lap with her! And BTW, that is a bark collar on her. She only wore it on the needed occasions...

The month of April

Okay, so tomorrow is May. And my only post this month was from when my mom came. Can you blame me? So busy! I could separate this post into lots of different ones, but I'm just going to use sub-headers to differentiate the events that happened this month.

Playgroup

I may have mentioned before, but I self appointed myself to be in charge of our playgroup at church. I send out an email once a month with the thing we are planning to do and include other local events that may be happening around. These are pictures from our first playgroup at Fourth of July Park. There were a few girls there who had asked me about geocaching and there just so happened to be one 400 feet from the playground. So we all went over to find it! My friend Sarah found it. She was willing to dive under the trees to search for it! It was her first time :)

the gang walking to the cache

This picture below doesn't really go anywhere. But it was Addilyn after helping me with the dishes. She has resolved to always taking her shirt off when she does them because it gets wet. Well, now she does it in just her panties because her pants got wet too. If you couldn't tell, her hair is soaking wet. I had been wiping down the counters and table while she was still playing in the sink. I turned and saw her shivering saying, "All done!" She basically took a bath.

Geocaching

We did our 200th cache! Woo!! We waited to do this "Missile Command" cache for our 200th. It's an old missile container. It had some AWESOME things to trade. Unfortunately we were lame and didn't bring anything good enough to trade. There were unopened toys, kites, gadgets, etc.

Levi is in fact here, he's in the backpack

photo by Addi

Easter

They had an Easter egg hunt at the church building the Saturday before Easter. Addilyn got pretty intense at hoarding her goods. But really she's good at sharing if you ask.

I'm outside taking a picture of the front door. They are inside.

Our Easter Eve was spent dying our eggs. We tried this method of swirling food coloring into a pan of cream (shaving or whipped). It worked really well! I forgot to take a picture of the end product...

We were invited to our friend's house for Easter dinner. Emily likes to cook and it's mostly things her husband doesn't eat. So she invited us to help eat it all. We were happy to oblige! Addi loves Chloe.

I almost think that we the parents were more intense with this Easter egg hunt. We were being "that" parent who yells on the sidelines of the game to get your kid to do things right. We're just a wee bit competitive.

(this is right before the hunt)

Levi and Eli are a few months apart. But these boys sure love to climb on everything!

Baseball Season

For those of you who know me, you know that I love baseball. Everything about it. The meticulously cut grass, the superstitions of stepping on the white chalk, the fake throw to first to get the runner to get back, the foul balls, the good and bad calls, the traditional must stand and sing "take me out to the ball game" during the 7th inning stretch, the cheesy games they play on the big monitor in between innings... I really could go on. I can add to this list though- the intensity at which my daughter watches this game. She gets so into it. She screams "Where'd the ball go?" When it flies out of the stadium. Or "Run! Run! Run! Ball!!!!"

Did I mention how much I love that we get free tickets when Scott's work doesn't have them to give to?! And this last time one of the ladies who is the keeper of these tickets was there. As we were leaving she quietly whispered that whenever she has extra tickets that she'll make sure to ask Scott first. I'm SPOILED!

This girl...