Lil' Growler

Levi is the cutest little baby doll, and then he opens his mouth and he turns into a growling creature! He has always been a pretty vocal babbler, but he makes the funniest growling sound sometimes--it has been known to turn heads in public. He was feeling very talkative this evening, so I managed to catch a few of his many varied sounds. Watch for a quick cameo by Parker :)

Firsts

Alert! Levi is finally getting his first tooth--one of his bottom front ones. And he has started clapping!

We're On a Boat

Some of our fun times on Prudence this weekend.

First Day Sailing

Today was our first time taking Prudence out for a sail. We were hoping for light winds so as to not feel too overwhelmed our first time--besides the fact that sailing with two small children can be tricky, we're still getting acquainted with Prudence. So we wanted to feel safe and to just have fun. We actually could have used a little more wind than we had, but the sun was out and we found ourselves surrounded by a "pile" of dolphins (Jared's word)! It was really exciting and felt like the best luck for our first day out. We were hoping that Parker would like the boat and the sailing experience, so a close encounter with a hundred or so dolphins certainly didn't hurt! The video is a little hectic, but that's to be expected in these circumstances :)

Introducing...Prudence

Believe it or not (sometimes it's hard to believe it ourselves), we are the new owners of a 1980 Cal 2-27 sailboat--named Prudence! We are always looking at boats big and small, and the Cal 2-27 is one that we've had our eye on in the past; Jared found this one listed for sale right here in the Oceanside Harbor, and it looked like it was in really nice condition. It's always been a dream of ours to have a boat at a slip in a harbor, and we've also dreamt about moving up to a bigger sailboat to get more experience and to learn more. We also have fantasies of having family fun on the boat with both boys--Catalina trips? The weather has been beautiful, and the beginning of summer feels like a great time to be outside and to be on the water. We are still figuring out the boat and getting comfortable with everything, but so far so good. I think Jared has been on the boat the last seven days out of seven :)

Almost Crawling

Levi is right on the verge of becoming a bona fide crawler. He is figuring out ways of voyaging around the room without doing a perfect "crawl," but I'm sure that is just a matter of days away at this point. He is doing a great job of pointing out all of our childproofing weaknesses for us! There are lots of times during the day now when he is content to just explore--he has a real knack for going right for the things you sure wish he wouldn't!

Here Comes Trouble

And so it begins.

Father's Day Weekend 2011

We spent a super fun two days at the Hilton in Mission Bay celebrating Father's Day with lots of Krutops, Prindles, and extended family. I must have been either really busy or really relaxed (busy relaxing?), because somehow I only came home with these two photos from the entire weekend! Parker had a wonderful time playing with his cousins and a whole bunch of other kids that were also staying at the hotel; he wanted to spend most of his time in the pool having "water wars." When the kids finally tired of the pool, they spent hours and hours playing games (involving lots of running) on the huge grassy area in front of our rooms. I have never seen Parker run so much and so fast in my life. He is so much more comfortable playing with other kids now that he really made the most of the opportunity to play nonstop. Life at home must seem especially boring now :)


The second photo is of Levi gnawing on a piece of crusty bread at lunch--he loved it! He has taken to the strangest foods--garlicky hummus, a green onion from the garden, Cuban black beans, bread sticks. But, of course, I realized after the fact that wheat bread tends to be sweetened with honey, and you're not supposed to feed honey to babies under one year old because they can get infant botulism from it! So then I worried that I was going to give Levi botulism. You just can't win...

Planet Parker

Everyone needs their own planet.

Avocado Painting

A couple of days ago, I tried giving Levi some mashed up avocado, thinking that maybe he would like the mild flavor and that maybe he would like to feed himself. I don't think that he ever put any of it in his mouth, but he sure did enjoy painting his tray and himself with avocado for about twenty minutes while I ate my lunch!

Making Tortillas With Chef Parker

Parker is always eager to help out in the kitchen, so one evening Jared taught him how to make tortillas. Warm, fresh, homemade tortillas are one of Jared's favorite things in the whole world (I will be so bold to say), so Parker is becoming a part of an important tradition! Parker learned fast and makes perfect tortillas--I love that he handles the food and equipment so confidently. Hopefully he will continue to enjoy learning how to cook--Jared sets a good example for him that way!

Downtown Atlanta

The hotel I had in Atlanta had a pretty good view of the downtown so I took many photos with the thought to do some post HDR trickery in Photoshop. It's beyond realistic of course but I like it as an artsy piece.

Preschool Treasures

I must admit that one of my favorite things about Preschool is all of the cute crafts that Parker brings home nearly every day. Some of them are intricate paintings or collages covered in yarn and colored pasta and glitter, while some of them seem more like reckless scribbles and lonely stickers. But they are all treasures to me. His teachers made him an awesome book as an end-of-the-year gift, filled with drawings that he did throughout the year and photos of him on special school days. He was so excited to get this book last week; we brought it home and sat right down on the front lawn and looked through the whole thing together. He told me stories about every drawing and photo, and then did the same thing for Jared that night. It felt so special. I just added this book, along with the rest of his end-of-the-year crafts, to a big plastic box that is full of basically every thing he ever created this year, which I will happily save forever. I hope that he has fun looking back through these treasures some day--I know I will. 

Last Day of School

Parker finished his first year of Preschool! Here he was on September 10, 2010--his first day of school--and June 9, 2011--his last day of school. I am so ridiculously proud of him for all of the growing he has done this year. I love his school, and think it has been such a positive influence on him. I'm thankful that he will be able to attend the same school again next year, his last year of Preschool before he starts Kindergarten--what??!!

Levi is learning to stand

Ok so he's still a long way from walking but this was pretty cool for us to see.

Swim Class

Parker had his first swim class at the YMCA today. I wasn't sure how it would go, since we took a swim class together at the Y when he was about two years old, and it was pretty much a bust. He hasn't been super comfortable in the water in the past, but he's made huge progress in the last nine months or so (especially since our last trip to Lake Powell). It turned out that he did great in his class today--we haven't been giving him enough credit for all of the growing up that he has done this last year! I think preschool has made a huge difference for him. He totally participated in class today, and I'm so excited thinking that he will finally learn how to swim this summer. I've signed him up for two sessions of classes this month, so he'll have a total of eight classes by the end of June. We're also going to get lots of practice in this summer, seeing as how the weather has been beautiful and sunny almost every day so far--no May Gray to speak of, and no June Gloom so far, either! So we'll be doing plenty of swimming in Grammy and Grampy's pool, at the beach, and at Mission Bay. 

Starting Solids

We started introducing Levi to solids a little bit before he turned six months old. I of course started off with rice cereal, and he was less than enthused about it. Figuring that he'd be more excited about sweet, yummy fruits, I moved on to pears...but surprisingly, he didn't squeal with delight and reach eagerly for the spoon after his first taste like I imagined he would! After a few days, and mainly unenthusiastic responses, I moved on to bananas, then sweet potatoes, apples, and carrots. He really hasn't taken to any of them yet; in fact, you'd pretty much have to hold his hands down and pry his mouth open to get any food in there! He has perfected this ninja defense move any time he senses food getting too close to his mouth.

Biker Baby

We finally broke down and bought a new iBert bike seat to replace our old Bell that we used for Parker. We had been planning on trying to wait a few more months to get Levi out on the bike with us, but we miss bike riding so much and the days have been so long and sunny that we just couldn't wait anymore. He is a big, strong baby, and has great head/neck control, and Parker's old helmet fits him just fine. He is also plenty happy to sit on the bike all buckled in to his seat. Jared takes it super easy with him on his bike, riding slow and being extra conscious not to romp over too many bumps. Levi's head really doesn't seem to bob around much at all, so I feel confident that nice gentle rides on sidewalks are fine with him now. We took our first family ride down at the harbor a few evenings ago, with Parker on his own bike with training wheels. He rides plenty fast, in fact sometimes he gets too far away from us and we have to make sure he waits up and is being safe and alert. Levi just sits perfectly still and content in his seat on the front of Jared's bike, holding on and watching the world go by. Can't wait to go for a family ride down along Mission Bay soon--probably this weekend.