It's been so nice out lately, I just couldn't stay couped up inside. On Friday, my mom came over and we took Levi to the park in our neighborhood. He loved the swing! Here are some pictures...
On Saturday me and Johnny took him back to the park and we walked around the pond, swang and went down the slide!
My cousin Beverly is an amazing photographer. She took some pics of Levi after Christmas and she just sent them to me. Here they are...
Well, I must apologize to my one follower for not keeping up with my postings. haha love ya jen :-)I have a lot of catching up to do! This week was a VERY busy week for Levi. He has been getting over an ear infection but that didn't see to stop him! Let's see, he waved bye-bye for the first time...and not on accident! He can now pull himself up to standing and he likes to stand up in his crib and hold onto the rail. This afternoon I caught him trying to CLIMB up onto his playpen! Johnny was a big climber as a kid and I think Levi is following in his daddy's footsteps :-) He's also now crawling on his knees instead of doing the "gimp leg" thing and he's getting ALOT more mobile, therefore keeping us VERY busy.
Levi is keeping us VERY busy these days...hence the lack of blogging. He is crawling everywhere and getting into everything! He is also teething (he has 4 on the top and 2 on the bottom) so he's been a little fussy, but who can blame him. He loves to knock blocks over after we stack them and he loves shoes, keys and remotes...all of which he's not aloud to have. Why is it that babies always want what they can't have, anyways? We've been giving him "big boy" foods like cheerios and crackers and he loves to bite into them. We're still working on some sign language and saying "bye bye."
Levi is on a ROLL! Today he sat up from laying down on his tummy AND pulled himself up on the coffee table. However, as soon as he stood up he fell straight back. hehe. But he is definitely getting more mobile and independent. It was so much fun staying home with him the past two days because of being iced in :-)
For the longest time, every time we would put Levi on his tummy he would just start crying and looking at me like "why aren't you picking me up?" He LOVES to walk with us holding his hands, and I was beginning to wonder if he was ever going to crawl! Yesterday we put his little reindeer that he loves just out of reach to see if he would crawl to it and he DID! It's so funny to watch him. He uses his arms to army crawl and just kind of drags his legs. It's hilarious!
Yesterday Levi reached for me for the first time. I went to go pick him up at the church nursery and he broke out into a huge grin and held out his arms to me. I almost melted :-)
After we had Christmas with my family, we loaded up the car and headed over to Johnny's parents house to have Christmas with Nana and Grandpa, Aunt Rissie and Aunt Jamie, Uncle Bennett and Levi's cousins, Elisa, James and John. Johnny's mom fixed an amazing Christmas dinner (as usual!)and Levi's relatives got to meet him and spend some time with him. Then we opened our presents and Levi got even more spoiled! (if that's possible) haha. He had so much fun playing with all of his new toys (and the boxes and bows).
When I was little I used to ask my parents why they didn't get more presents from Santa and they would always tell me it was because their present was watching me open my gifts. I never understood that until now. It was so much fun watching Levi experience everything for the first time. Watching him open all of his gifts on Christmas day was the best present that I could've ever gotten.
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One of the things that I loved about growing up was all of the traditions that I shared with my family. Starting with the annual McCallon family Christmas party on Christmas Eve, with my cousin Lori's famous sweet potato casserole, my aunt Kaye in her festive Christmas outfits, the dreaded speeches, and the hysterical "balloon game" where we tie balloons around our ankles and everyone frantically tries to pop each others balloons with newspapers. Then going back home and putting on a pot of coffee so we could keep ourselves awake to open presents until 3 in the morning. Then getting three hours of sleep, and waking up to "Jingle Bell Rock" blaring through the speakers on Christmas morning beckoning us to get out of bed and open more presents. I'll never forget my sister and I walking into the living room giddy with sleepy excitement only to open more presents from Santa, while my dad was video taping everything (which has since been embarrisingly shown to Johnny).
It is these memories that I would look forward to every year and even to this day, it isn't Christmas without waking up to Jingle Bell Rock on Christmas morning. One of the things that I look forward to is sharing these traditions with Levi as well as, starting new ones. This year made me realize just how important traditions are to me and how amazing it is to be able to share them with Levi for the first time. It was probably a little bit overwhelming to him for the first time, but he will get used to it and grow to love it too. After all, I did.
To me, the cool thing about raising a child is that Johnny and I can each take our favorite family traditions, as well as, create our own, instill them into Levi and in turn, he becomes a blend of the two of us. I love how Johnny's dad reads the Christmas story out of the Bible on Christmas day before we open presents. It's a reminder to me of why we celebrate Christmas, in the midst of all the frenzy and excitement of the holidays. I also love how Johnny's mom makes her famous 3 layer salad every year for Christmas dinner. Who would have thought that pineapples, jello, marshmallows and cheese would all be good together? And then going to see a movie on Christmas night every year.
I hope that Levi learns to love these traditions just like Johnny and I do and that when he thinks of Christmas, this is what comes to mind...
Gigi was holding Levi this morning and spotted a surprise...another tooth! His 2 middle bottom teeth have been in for about a month and now his upper left tooth is making an appearance! And Levi has not been too happy about it's entrance. He has been a little fussy the past couple days, but who can blame him? I would be hacked off too if foreign objects were forcing their way through my gums.
He has pretty much mastered the whole sitting up thing and enjoys getting a different view of the world instead of staring at the ceiling all day. He is now holding his own bottle and feeding it to himself and still trying to walk. He loves to walk while we hold onto his hands! He is going to keep us busy for sure when he starts walking:-)
Next up...Christmas pics
On Sunday we went to Bass Pro Shops for John's birthday (Johnny's dad). It was levi's first (of many i'm sure) experience there. Here are some pics. I am so tired, so I will post the rest of them tomorrow.
