May 31 2007

Back to work for me. I sure miss my little guy. Tonight Lara came over for dinner and a movie. As she was leaving Levi waved goodbye to her. That is the first time he has waved to someone with ONE arm. He is saying dada and daddy more frequently now and mama once in a while. Ba! Is still his favorite expression. He says Ba or Hey when he is excited or happy or wants something.

May 30 2007

Awakened approx. 3 AM we gathered our things and readied ourselves for the flight home. Our plane left Baltimore about 6:30 AM. We had a short layover in Cincinnati and then on to Portland. Levi did not want anything to do with his bottle this time but he again took a very long nap and would suck his thumb when he felt the pressure. I am thankful he was not in pain. He enjoyed watching the kid in the seat behind us, he would lean over and peek through the space between the seats. He was acting a little more antsy this time so I decided to put him on the floor with some toys. He would sit and stand and sit and stand and it was good for him to not be confined to my lap. However we did have a pretty big scare, at one point he started gagging and we discovered he had found a small piece of plastic and had it in his mouth...we were able to quickly sweep it out but that almost gave me a heart attack. It scared me to death! He didn't sit on the floor anymore after that and fell asleep for the rest of the flight. We landed about 11 am in Portland and Carol picked us up from the airport. When we got into our car at Carols and tried to start it up...nothing. The battery was DEAD. We had to call a tow company to come and give us a jump. We went and met my brother at the Mercedes dealership and walked with him and his fiance Joanie to a neat place for a late lunch. They had all kinds of things buffet-style and sold by the pound. It was quite good. After that we headed home. The dogs were sure glad to see us and Levi was thrilled to see them. I gave the munchkin a bath and fed him and he drifted off to sleep about 9:30 pm.

May 29 2007

Last day of vacation...it goes by so fast! We had planned to go to Roadside America, thinking Levi would like it, but knowing we all would enjoy it. What a place. It was really a neat experience and Levi was in AWE. After that we went and visited Mountain Spring Farm - where my horse Sinwaan was bred. That was nice getting to meet Lesley and getting hands on with the Arab foals. Levi was asleep at this point so we just let him be with Matt attending him in the car. This evening we went over to Linda and Kens again to see more of the grandparents and that was lovely. Levi thought their house was pretty great. They have a sunken living room with two low steps and Levi went up and down and up and down those steps to his little hearts content. Then he made his way to the kitchen and started opening drawers and pulling out gadgets. He has become a real pro at opening drawers and cabinets lately. We finished off the night with a rousing game of Rummy, gramps, dad and I. Good times. Gramps and Levi are so cute together, Gramps will flail his arms about to mimick Levi and of course Levi just thinks that is great and will copy him and continue their odd game. Waving and clapping.

May 28 2007

Memorial Day! Family gathering at Kims. Got up about 11 am to the smell of fresh baked bread...aahhh! I got to see Uncle Jack and Karen, Grandpop Patton and Lynne and Melody, Todd and Lisa and kids, Great Aunt Sara and Gordon, Kim and Alison, etc. I hope I am not leaving anyone out. It was neat seeing everyone and having them see Levi. We feasted until we were stuffed on roasted corn ears, greek salad, lasagna, lamb, fruit platters, home made mint lemonade, home made bread, etc....so much food! Then the desert...eclair pie, cheesecake, fresh apple cake. Wow. We got a ride home with grandpop Patton and were entertained by his stories the 2 hr ride home.

May 27 2007

Started our day about 9 am and had breakfast at the hotel. Got on the road headed towards auntie Kimbas. Got lucky and met uncle Lee at a truck stop! Levi got to sit up in his Little Debbie truck and loved all the levers. He turned on the windshield wipers. Stopped briefly at the Virginia Horse Park and that was sure cool. Dad dropped us off at Kims and he headed on home. We had some eggsalad sandwiches from fresh farm eggs and I stayed up talking to Kim until midnight.

May 26 2007

Saturday we drove out to dad's property in West Virginia to see his cabin. It is not as far along as he had hoped but there is promise. We ate dinner at Doug's cabin, took a walking tour of the property and saw the pond as well as some little frogs and fishes. This was a 4 1/2 hr drive from Hagerstown. Levi did pretty well, slept half the time, but was sure glad to be out of the car! It was so peaceful to sit on the porch and hear and see nothing but nature. Genia and I had a nice chat while the guys tried to figure out the pump. Afterwards we went to Sandstone Falls and had a Blizzard at the only DQ in town. Tonight we got a hotel since the cabin is not livable yet. I felt spoiled with the king size bed. Levi went to sleep at midnight.

May 25 2007

Today we had a nice luncheon visit with auntie Wendy. We got the grand tour of her house and barn, met the horses, saw the garden and played with Jock. Dad and I stopped by Hoffman Chevrolet and I got to say hi to cousin Chad. In the evening dad had Linda and Ken and the Grandparents over to his house for pizza. We made 1/2 with Thai toppings and 1/2 with "normal" toppings. Dad was convinced that this Thai pizza was just weird and no one would eat it. Well it actually turned out to be a big hit. I played some cards with Gramps and we watched video of dads property (and progress on the cabin). We also bought Levi some Gerber Graduates today, peach flavored puff finger foods and he surprised me by how well he could eat them. I wasn't sure he was ready for them yet but I guess he is! He got to sit in a highchair this evening that my dad made and that my brother and I both used when we were his age. Wow!

May 24 2007

This morning we laid around some more and watched some TV, got online, and played with Levi. In the afternoon we went over to aunt Linda and Ken's house and saw my dads folks. They had never seen Levi so it was nice to have this opportunity. We sat outside and talked and laughed at Levi's antics (he wasn't crazy about the grass) and it was very enjoyable. They had a fountain which Levi really enjoyed splashing in.

May 23 2007

First day of our vacation. Levi had stayed up until about 1 AM but slept well all night in his playpen that my dad & Genia had ready for us. He woke up at his usual time of 9:30 am EST (which would have been 6:30 am at home) I nursed him and gave him a bath and we had a nice relaxing morning watching the Waltons LOL He took a nap and so did I and then Genia got home for her lunch hour and gave us the car. After we took her back to work we went to the west end of Hagerstown and ate at Panera's. We had some super panini sandwiches and Levi had a little bit too. Then we went to Wal-Mart and got him some baby food, diapers and a toy for the MD house. After that Matt went to Circuit City to browse and I took Levi into PetSmart. We had a great time watching a very comical Robo Hamster and also a mouse running on his wheel. He saw fish and birds too but didn't care as much about them. Then we came home and laid around some more and then when Genia got off work we went to Subway for a quick bite and then we went to visit my uncle Todd and his wife Lisa and kids. We had a nice visit and came back to the house by 11 pm and my dad had just gotten home so we talked to him for a short while but he was pretty tired and retired after about 20 min. Levi was awake another hour and then went to sleep without much fuss. One exciting thing about today is that Matt noticed Levi has cut another tooth, a bottom one so his count is now 7.

May 22 2007

Today was our flight from Portland, OR to Baltimore, MD. Carol was kind enough to put us up for the night and drive us to the airport. We stood in line only about 10 minutes and then a cranky old employee checked our bags. We had two suitcases and the carseat to check. We took with us the diaper bag, a backpack, my purse and an umbrella stroller. This seemed to work out great. At the advice of a few friends I also took along a bottle. As soon as we boarded I asked the flight attendant for some juice and water. We put about an ounce of cranapple juice with 2-3 oz of water in his bottle so we would have it ready for take off. We had the aisle and middle seat but when our neighbor passenger showed up he said the aisle would be fine with him so we traded seats for the window. Levi was such a good boy. He was not really fussy at all, just his usual tired behavior. He really enjoyed the diluted juice, that was a real treat for him. After about an hour he fell asleep and slept quite soundly for most of the flight. The first flight from Portland to Atlanta was about five house and Levi probably slept at least three hours. He awoke in time for the landing and seemed just awed by the sights out of the window. He was standing in my lap bracing on the window of the plane, staring out with a smile and wide eyes. When the flight was over and the passengers stood up many of them commented on what a good baby he had been, they didn't even know he was there. I was so relieved. At Atlanta we had about a two hour layover and our next flight was just a few blocks up the terminal. We found it and walked back the other way to get some food. We found a great little place called le Petite Bistro. I was delighted to see good ol' southern Sweet Tea on the menu. :) I had some sauteed vegetables and a cold spinach linguine with feta, and Matt had rice with two types of chicken dishes. We finished off the meal with a triple chocolate cheesecake. It was so tasty, really a good find for airport food and under $20! Levi was acting ambitious so I thought it would be a good idea to give him an opportunity to let off some steam before our next flight. He crawled all around our seats and was pulling up on many of the chairs and trying to communicate with the other travelers. He had a blast. Well it paid off, as he fell fast asleep once we were boarded and settled in on the new flight. We took off from Portland at 11:38 am and landed in Baltimore about 11:30 pm and it was really not a big deal to travel with THIS baby at all.

May 15 2007

Levi is weighed in at 19 lbs 10 oz. We just can't seem to get to 20 lbs! :)

May 13 3007

Mother's Day! We had a nice breakfast and then got to work on the yard. We mowed and rotatilled and started a garden with 'mater plants and herbs and a flower so far. Then we cleaned the inside of the house and had Rick and Patti over for Survivor Finale and ate Thai pizza. It was a great day.

May 9 2007

Today Levi and I were photographed by Larry for CCI. It was a lot of fun and we got some great shots. Levi does not seem to be teething at this point.

May 3 2007

We suspect that Levi is teething again. He has not been able to kick this runny nose, and the past two days has been very clingy again. I enjoy the extra cuddle time as I know it won't last forever.