He Did It!
He did it! Levi rolled over from his back to his tummy last night for the first time! OK, he did it during the day yesterday too but that one doesn’t count. He was on a slightly downward slope. Gravity helped him. Last night I put him down on his play gym on his back so he could stare at his toys hanging above him. He doesn’t swat at the toys yet, at least on purpose but he does like to look at them. He immediately rolled on to his right side like he always does. And he kicked his leg over and kept rocking back and forth, trying to get all the way over. Annika was sitting on the floor next to me cheering him on and I made sure Kris was watching from the recliner behind me. And then he did it, he rolled over! I think he was pretty surprised because he ended on his tummy with his arms tucked under him, propping his torso up a little bit and his eyes were wide open, looking around. I got down on the floor, eye level to his, and cheered him on. It didn’t take too long for him to start crabbing that he didn’t want to be on the floor on his belly anymore. I flipped him back over but he was tired of being on the floor entirely. So I scooped him up and brought him upstairs and put him to bed. He’d had a big night and needed his rest. Hee. You can bet I’ll be putting him down on the floor again tonight though so he can practice his new trick. Oh, and I gave everyone strict instructions that Levi is not to be placed on the couch, bed, etc. anymore and then left unattended. We can’t have him rolling off anything!
Saturday we went to my cousin Matt’s wedding. The kids had a great time as usual. Cupcakes, dancing and unlimited attention from aunts, uncles and grandparents? What could be better!? James is so cute sometimes. He makes me want to just scoop him up and kiss him all over. And sometimes I do just that. Friday night we were getting his clothes picked out for the wedding (all his 3T dress pants are too small – he’s in 4T’s now!!!) and he asked me if he should bring his ring pillow and ring too. Isn’t he precious!?! I told him that no, he didn’t need to bring it. That was just for Auntie Krystle’s wedding and is his to keep now. He was OK with that. Annika and James and I danced for a while together. Annika didn’t like it that James was trying to dance with Mommy because she wanted Mommy all to herself at that moment. Maybe she misses me while I’m at work? Either way, I made sure that she got a good long turn. My sweet girl. Annika was also upset that James was spending so much time with Uncle Dale. She wanted her turn but every time she looked there was James on Uncle Dale’s lap. Jealous much Annika May? She got her turn though, as she did with Grandpa and Uncle Mathias. She had to know where Uncle Mathias was almost every possible moment. She’s a little attached to that awesome guy. I sure wished he lived closer. She is so lucky though because each of those adults plus all other aunts, uncles, grandmas and grandpas love her and James and Levi so much and indulge them their every desire…sometimes a little too much! But if they want to sit by one of them or have one of them help them or dance with them or play with them they always, always make time for them. My children could not ask for a better family!
Yesterday was another fun day. We went to Grandpa and Marcia’s house for lunch and played out in the back yard. I won the bean bag toss game for my team (Uncle Mathias and myself) against the opposing team (Kris and Uncle Pierce) right after Mathias was teasing me about my play. I’ll show you how to get points, Mister! Then we packed up and went to the beach and played on the boat and in the sand for a few hours. We couldn’t fit everyone on Grandpa and Marcia’s boat at the same time so we took turns. First out on the boat was Grandpa, Marcia, Mathias, Kris, Pierce and Annika. Time for tubing! I’m told Annika absolutely loved it and squealed with delight the whole time again, even when she’d get tossed from the tube into the water. That girl doesn’t have much fear when she has her life jacket on in the water. I’m glad she had fun. Next on board was Kris, James myself, Grandpa and Marcia. James was a little nervous on the boat so first we just cruised around the lake for a little bit. James sat right next to me and held my hand during that. Then we stopped the boat, even turning it off so James could see that we float, no problem. Then Marcia sat on the back of the boat and had James sit by her, which he did very carefully. He let her hold him down a bit so his toes touched the water. Then we put the tube in the water and had Kris climb on that, showing James that Kris was floating and it was OK. A few minutes after that James joined Kris, floating on the tube. And then we asked if he’d like to go for a ride on the tube. At first he was scared but he said OK. So Grandpa started the boat and he led Kris and James on a slow tube ride. They were having fun until the tube caught a wave and the nose went under and Kris and James were tossed off. James went underwater for a second (his life jacket brought him right back up of course) but that was enough to scare him and he started crying pretty hard. I didn’t want to scare him further so I started calling him silly and saying “whoopsy!” “You silly boy! You and Daddy fell in the water! Whoopsies!!” You know, sing-song-it’s-OK-voice. And then he was fine. He wanted back in the boat but he was smiling again about his fall off the tube. Next Kris and I went tubing together (despite my ever so ungraceful climb onto the tube). We fell off once after a particularly violent collision with a wave and James got really concerned again. He said it was time for us to get back in the boat but we assured him we were fine, we were having fun and we were going to go for another ride. And we did, and we didn’t fall off and when we got back in the boat James was no longer as scared. Whew! Annika went out again with another crew and again had a great time. James was content to play in the water and sand near shore though. And Levi had his first water experience too. I brought him to the edge and had him stand with his feet in the water. He didn’t mind that at all, even when a little wave would come and the water would go higher up his legs. Later Kris had him stand so that his feet were in the sand. He was OK with that but didn’t like it so much when Kris was brushing the sand off his feet. For the most part though Levi enjoyed the outdoors with little snoozes, lots of cuddling and big eyes taking it all in.














