Fun pictures

Rebekah's "100 Day" hat for the 100th day of school. The Pre-K classes marched around the whole school in a hat parade. It was so cute, and the little ones were so proud to be showing their hats to all the big kids at school.

Playing at the park as a whole family (a rarity, so it was extra nice to have daddy there):


Feeding ducks at Hermann Park:

Levi's new thing: he loves to cook. Here he is making a chocolate something or other. (The stove is, of course, off).

Belated Valentine's Day

Levi and his Valentine's day mailbox at our playgroup V-day party:

"Icing" a cookie:
Grilling the delicious shrimp for our family Valentine's dinner:

Enjoying the chocolate covered strawberries the kids and I dipped as part of our surprise Valentine's dinner for daddy:

Rebekah loved this rose from her daddy. She carried it around with her everywhere, and even had me put it in her room while she was sleeping:
Visiting Rebekah's class to do V-day activities:
Yum, candy for breakfast!!!

Valentine's morning on the table were little treats and presents for the family:

Rebekah's Princess Castle Valentine's Mailbox (I love how this turned out!):
Levi's truck mailbox, after he'd ripped off the windshield wipers and hubcaps. Still pretty cute:

A box is a box is a box. But what's in the box?

Yesterday I was going through some of Levi's clothes, trying to see what he needs for the spring. I kept having this nagging thought at the back of my mind in regards to this box of boy clothes up in the closet. I had convinced myself that there was nothing in there for him now, so I just ignored it. Yesterday I finally decided to get down said box and what do ya know, it was full of clothes for right now. Are you kidding me. This little guy has been recycling the same shirts for months now, some days spilling on so many that the pickings were pretty slim! It had finally got to the point were I went and bought a couple at the store. How silly of me. He apparently had a whole wardrobe in that box of things that I had bought for him myself! This wasn't some mystery hand me down box, it was one of my own making! And to make matters even more ridiculous there were several sweaters and long sleave shirts in there too, ones that I had been waiting almost a year for him to be able to wear. Well, now it's almost spring like outside, so too bad for that.
Lesson to learn: label my boxes properly!!! Putting the sizes on the outside of the box would save me some trouble.
And this isn't the first time I've done this, either...

Oh what a week

Last week ended up being quite a week for us, especially for Levi.

• Monday was a fun Valentine's day. Besides doing a few things at home, Levi and I went to Rebekah's school to do some activities with her class. It was a good, busy day.
• Tuesday Levi went to the Dr. to see what's been going on with his little GI track. (So far no results, but hopefully nothing big.)
• Wednesday morning, early early, Levi and I head off the the Children's Hospital for a minor surgery. He got tubes in his ears. He did well and the surgery was quick, so that was nice. Levi had a fever afterward that lasted a few days and didn't feel well, not necessarily good.
• Thursday morning rolls along and the nurse from the pediatrician's office calls to tell me that Levi's Strep throat test from Tuesday has come back positive.
• Friday morning we go back to the same pediatrician to get Rebekah checked and she has strep throat too! Levi also isn't doing well so the Dr. checks him out again and tests him for the flu, and sure enough he has influenza A too. The poor kid.

I wish that he hadn't had surgery this week on top of everything else. It took him until yesterday (Monday) to finally feel better from all of this. Rebekah had a fever for a couple of days, but wasn't hurting so that was nice.
On top of it all I got sick too so we were all sick, aside from Nelson.

6 months Pregnant

I am finally 6 months pregnant! Let me tell you, this past month seemed to take forever, but I am finally in my third trimester. I was very sick for the first 14 weeks, but after that I had more energy and didn't feel so horribly nauseous all of the time. I still feel pretty well, though I am not sleeping great which makes me tired. I also have aches and pains and my lower back has started to hurt more this past week. Lovely. Sweet Rebekah is fine with me not picking her up, usually, but of course I still hold Levi all of the time. He really is such a snugly guy and loves to be held.
I have been getting bigger and gaining weight faster with this pregnancy. My sister reminded me that you just get bigger faster the more pregnancies you've had. That was comforting, but I'm still not pleased with this. At least things finally seem to be slowing down now.
Rebekah is so excited for the baby to be here, and of course Levi has no clue what is going on. The only thing he knows is that he doesn't like laying on me anymore because my belly sticking out is uncomfortable for him!

Rebekita ballerina

Here's what Rebekah has been up to lately!
Rebekah loves Pre-K. Her teacher is a wonderful, caring woman and she is an excellent teacher. Rebekah has been learning so much. She counts and writes words and letters all of the time. She sings the songs from class, and loves her little friends from school. She even thinks one of the boys is cute and talks about him often. (Oh dear, I know.)
Rebekah still loves the color pink and is a girly-girl. She likes to wear lip-gloss from her Tia, dress up in dresses and "look fancy", and wear stick on earrings (no ear-piercing yet, thank you very much).
Rebekah has been begging me to start a ballet class for about a year and a half and finally I listened to the girl and signed her up! She started a month ago and immediately got right into it. It is nothing like soccer last fall. Rebekah is so excited to go to ballet class each week, and at her first lesson she got right in and did everything. She listens very well and follows instructions. I am so pleased with how she is doing, and am happy to have found an activity that she loves.

Little Levi

I haven't posted anything for a few months about either of my kiddos, so here's an update!

Levi is 20 months old and is quite a chatty little guy, though most of it is babbling still. He does say some words.
Agua/gagua - water
Hola - hi
Dedeta - Rebekah
Leli - Levi
Dadda
Mamma
Jesu - Jesus
go
du - duck/dog
cak - quack
mow - meow
mo- moo
Abuelo
Abuela
Weta - Weston (a cousin)
bye/buh-bye
bubu - baby
ca - car
anen - amen

Levi also has certain phrases that he kind of says, like his own a version of "here you go mamma", "there it is", and "all done". He also knows a few signs - eat, all done, more, etc. that have proved very helpful.

It is so fun to see how well Levi understands us and how he can follow instructions (when he wants to). One of our favorite things is that when we say that it's time to pray Levi immediately bows his head and folds his arms. He really loves prayers and sometimes folds his arms for prayer several times through one meal. Yesterday he was fussing about something and finally I realized that he wanted to say a family prayer. Seriously. He went to the rug in the family room and kneeled down, folded his arms and bowed his head. How sweet and tender.

Some of Levi's favorite things are climbing onto everything, playing with cars, digging in the mud, being outside, following mommy around to be held, looking at dog books, playing/wrestling with Rebekah. He is such a curious, affectionate, happy little guy. I love his little personality and am so glad that it has begun to show!