{Levi Daniel - 18 Months}

Levi Daniel, you are 18 months old!

These last few months have been full of tremendous growth! Just before you turned 17 months you, with prompting you started taking your first steps. At first, mama or papa would set you a foot away from us and you would take 2-3 steps to give us a hug. Then you started to build up to 7-10 steps to walk between us. A few days after you turned 17 months you just started getting up and walking. Now you are all over the place. You have started running and you are very interested in trying to jump like Elijah. It has been so much fun for mama and papa to see your persistence and hard work pay off.

Your vocabulary is growing each day. You have the words that you use all the time like "Up Please", "Help Please", "Mama", "Ball","Book" "Mickey", "Milk", "doggy", "bath", "Ow", and "Eliyah". You are also trying out new words and phrases from us all the time. You adamantly refuse to call Papa anything other than "Mama". Sometimes Papa tries to coax you into saying papa but you always look him square in the eye and say "Mama!"

Levi, you love listening to music. You appreciate any type of music. When the music starts up, you start wiggling your whole body and your face lights up. You also really love your stuffed Baby Mickey. Mickey often goes everywhere with you, and if you get somewhere and you don't have Mickey - you get pretty upset. It's so cute hearing you say Mickey. Sometimes when you're having a bad day you'll be comforted by snuggling Mickey.

You love imitating whatever Elijah is doing. You have become quite the climber, just the other day mama looked over and you were sitting on the dining room table. You love taking baths with Elijah! As soon as we say bath you are trying to climb into the tub. Your favorite part seems to be kicking, splashing, and making as much of a mess as possible! When we are at the park you loving being pushed in the swings or climbing up and going down slides. You are brave and go straight for the biggest slide!

Your sleep has been great. Typically you go down in the 7pm hour and are asleep by 8pm. You often get up sometime between 6am-7am. Some mornings you play quietly in your crib and other mornings you wake Elijah up. If we are home during the day, you will go down for two solid naps at 9:30am and 2pm. However, many mornings we are out and about and you will take a quick car nap in the morning and then a longer nap at 1pm.

Levi, you are less interested in food these days. Some meals it seems like you eat very little, unless it is in fruit form or milk in your sippy cup. The foods you seem to enjoy regularly are: blueberry oatmeal, cheerios, mini pancakes, cheese, blueberries, raspberries and grapes.

Your personality has grown quite a bit these last few months. Your tantrums are usually around Elijah having something that you want. You have actually gotten more physical with Elijah. You are not afraid to pull on him, grab his hair, or climb on him. You get pretty jealous if Elijah is getting special time with mama or papa and you definitely want to insert yourself. You will scream or cry if you see Elijah getting something before you such as another helping of dinner - even if your plate is still full. 

During the week, you are often busy playing in different classroom settings such as at church, mama's workout classes, MOPS, or at Bible study. You love when we have friends over for play dates. You enjoy special time with grandparents, like when we celebrated grandpa's birthday or when grandma came for a visit for Halloween. You also recently took a trip to Boston!

These next few months we think you are looking forward to celebrating New Years at the beach with the Kaetzels, grow your vocabulary, enjoy visits from friends and celebrate your 2nd Birthday!

Here are few photos and videos from the last six months.

{Levi Daniel - 1 Year Old}

Levi Daniel, you are one year old!

It is hard to believe you are already a year old. When mama and papa were planning your birthday party, we easily came up with the theme of "One Happy Camper". Your disposition has been such a delight and enjoyment in our family. You are always full of smiles and giggles.

Once we arrived home from visiting Europe you transitioned well with getting back into our rhythm and routines. You love crawling all around to explore new places and the house. Your curiosity even had you starting to climb the stairs, much to papa's chagrin. The one nice part is that you will wait for mama and papa to help you.... for now.

Levi you are such an adventurous eater these days. You are willing to try any type of food we put in front of you from roasted Brussels sprouts to smoothies. You seem to really enjoy trying new tastes and new textures. We know this won't last for long, but we are really enjoying watching you explore in this phase.

Levi, you enjoy playing with Elijah if he can find a way to incorporate you into the play. Just recently mama heard Elijah pulling things out from the pantry, when I turned the corner you and Elijah were sitting on a yoga mat having a picnic. Papa and I pray for this budding friendship. Our hope is that no matter what happens in life you boys will always know you have each other and will be there for each other. So far, you are off to a great start!

For your first birthday celebration we had a party at our church! It was a great day celebrating with our community of friends and family. We had a breakfast taco bar, a photo booth, crafts for bigger kids, delicious cookies, and a fun Smores cake! You loved having your Poppy in town to visit and enjoyed being the center of attention. You really tore into your birthday cake. I'm not sure how much cake you actually ate, but you sure did have fun smashing it and throwing it around.

Levi in the next 6 months we're excited to see you learning to walk, getting to enjoy the summer and playing in the water, learning your first set of words, and going on many adventures with mama, papa, and Elijah.

Here are a few photos and a video from your 12th month of life.

{Levi Daniel - 11 Months}

Levi Daniel, you are 11 months old!

You have really mastered crawling! You are consistently up on all fours and move quickly to get where you want. We weren't sure if you'd ever switch from army crawling to crawling on your hands and knees, but you've adapted quickly and have become a pro in no time. You sure are a curious little fellow. If you see an opportunity to explore, you take it! You love to explore the world around you and seem to find all the places or things you shouldn't. We have to keep a particularly keen eye on you nowadays as you've been trying to get in dangerous spaces or even trying to chew on cords. 

You cut another tooth in your 11th month, which gives you a grand total of four teeth! You sure have put them to work. You are such a diligent eater. You seem to be happy with whatever we put in front of you and there has not been much food wise that you have turned away.

Levi, in your 11th month, you had been sharing a room with your brother at night for just over two months. The transition has got better with time. You still tend to wake up in the middle of the night to babble loudly, but your big brother has gotten used to tuning you out. You also have gotten very adept at falling asleep while your brother is still talking out loud at bedtime. You are usually asleep withing 5-10 minutes of being put into your crib. Mama and papa think that both of you are comforted by having the other person in the room with you. Elijah will ask almost every night if you're going to be sleeping in "his room."

Speaking of babbling, you are an incredibly vocal little guy. You seem to be very comfortable expressing yourself vocally. If you are not pleased, you let us know but you also love to just babble away while sitting at the dinner table or sitting on the floor. You also love chatting away at toys or Charlie or just calling out "Mama".

Levi, your 11th month was extra exciting because you took your first international trip. As a family we spent 9 days exploring Ireland. You did an amazing job, even though this trip was not geared towards you. The flights were long, but you had a seat on each flight which made it easier. You usually did big chunks of sleep on the long flights. While we trekked around, you were on a carrier with papa. You definitely wanted to be crawling around, but you loved giggling at Elijah while he was on a carrier on mama's back.  Our first night in Dublin, our AirBNB forgot to provide us with a crib. You either were sleeping while mama or papa wore you or you slept in your carseat. You were so incredibly flexible! Every night after that first one you shared a room with Elijah. It seemed to keep you both calm when sleeping in a different place. Neither of you was any trouble going down at night, which made the transitions easier on mama and papa. We moved around every day or two - so we think it was very helpful to have a familiar face in the room.

If we had to sum up your 11th month in 3 words they would be curious, flexible, and joyful. We're loving getting to know you and seeing your personality shine!

Here are some photos from you 11th month.