First bath

One of the things I love about having a baby is that Dave always takes a week off work to help out so I can just focus on recovering and enjoying the baby. Yesterday after he made breakfast, got everyone off to school and went grocery shopping, he gave Chloe her first bath at home.

Look at all that dark hair!

She didn't like it, of course.

Levi loves having Dave home too. I've been a bit of a bump on a log the past few weeks, so he likes having dad around to play with. I'm impressed with how well he's adjusting to Chloe. Sometimes he's too rough near her, and that makes me nervous, but he absolutely adores her and loves to hold her and give her hugs and kisses.

All done! That feels much better.

Fuzzy after-bath hair!

The bath wiped her out for a few hours, so I dressed her up and took pictures. What a doll!

First haircut, finally!

I finally got around to cutting Levi's hair last week. He was SO excited. Every time I gave someone else a haircut, he'd ask for one too. But I just loved his cute curly locks and kept putting it off. I decided to do it on Saturday, when Dave could be here to help and take pictures; but his day was so busy that he suggested I have Spencer take the pictures instead. Wow! He did a fabulous job. I especially love all the different angles and focal points.

We put a movie on to distract Levi, and he did really well holding still.

I love this one! I think Spencer has such an artistic eye.

At least Levi doesn't have a double cowlick, like Dave and three of the boys.

Almost done!



What a handsome big boy!




I bribed him towards the end, when he was ready to be done but I wasn't quite yet. Now whenever anyone mentions the word haircut, he says, "Haircut, lollipop!"


He looks instantly older, but I do miss that curly blond hair.

What a character

The older he gets, the more of a character this kid has become. He is cute, stubborn, funny and oh, so very entertaining for the whole family. Funny story: this week we went to Cold Stone for the middle school fundraiser. There was a long line (which was actually fun because we knew so many people there), and Levi kept escaping. The embarrassing thing was that I wouldn't know he was gone until someone would yell, "There's a little boy leaving!" One lady said, "I put my hand up to stop him, but he just gave me a high-five and kept on going."

Breakfast is still his favorite meal of the day. He especially likes to eat steel cut oatmeal and grapefruit with Dave. In fact he'll have 3 breakfasts a day - one with each group in the morning.


Unfortunately we're trying to cut dairy out of his diet because his doctor said he may have a milk allergy or lactose intolerance. This is much harder than it was with Brennan, who was so easy-going and didn't know any different. Levi asks for "milt" all day, and soy just isn't cutting it for him.


Levi is my first thumb-sucker. Others tried, but I was always able to convince them to take a binky instead. He is also attached to his "D," which is what he calls this quilt my friend made for Dallin over 7 years ago. I have no idea why he calls it that. He sleeps with it, of course, and wants it whenever he's sad, hurt or tired. He also has to take it with him whenever we go anywhere (it's getting a bit rediculous), but I'm usually able to convince him to leave it in the car.

He loves his SHOES! And he loves to DANCE! So naturally I had to take pictures of him while he was getting down in just his diaper and shoes one day. Whenever we're in a store that plays music, he yells, "Dance!" and starts to boogie in the cart. Another funny/frustrating story: this week I went to Spencer's school to watch and videotape his group perform their singing science song. I took Levi (oops), and he started to cry loudly right before it started that he wanted to go home. I had to take him out of the classroom because it was very disruptive. I begged him to be quiet, but he refused and tried to run to the car. I tried bribing him with gum (he loves it, but I never give it to him because he just swallows it and wants more and more) and a donut afterwards if he'd be quiet. Finally he agreed and sat quietly eating gum during the whole song. As soon as it was over, he yelled, "All done?" The class all laughed. Then he danced happily all the way to the car, saying, "Spencer dance, quiet, gum, donut!!" I couldn't believe it - I was actually able to reason with and bribe a 2 year old. And yes, we went out for donuts.

Fun with bath foam and ISO

Brennan had a blast finger-painting with shaving cream at school a few weeks ago. And that reminded me how much fun bath foam is, so we gave some to Levi for his birthday. Brennan and Levi have loved taking baths with it the past couple weeks! They looked so funny covered in foam that of course I had to take pictures; but there wasn't quite enough light in the bathroom, and the pictures all turned out blurry.

So I resorted to turning on the flash. But I just don't like the look of flash - too fake looking with unnatural colors. I really had to fix this one on Photoshop, but I loved Levi's expression.

Careful camera angles and cropping keep bath pictures modest.

If they held perfectly still then it could be clear, but how often does that happen? I played around with the exposure, speed and f-stop, but nothing was working.

Finally I remembered the ISO. I bumped it up almost as high as it would go, and the pictures suddenly became clear and perfectly exposed. I gotta remember that trick. Some are a little grainy if you zoom in, but I'll take grainy over blurry any day.

So if you are looking for a fun bath toy for a 2-4 year old, I recommend bath foam. Just make sure you wash it all off the tub when you're done or else it will be almost impossible to get off later. I remember that from last time.

There are many things you can fix on Photoshop - color, exposure, noise. But there's nothing you can do about blurriness. Look how clear - yay!

Two!

Two is Levi's favorite number. In fact he's been telling people he's 2 for quite awhile now. Whenever I say 1, he says 2. When I ask him how many he wants of something, he always answers "2!" When we went shopping for his presents, Brennan was telling everyone they were for his birthday, at which point Levi piped in, "I'm two!"

We went with a truck theme, since he LOVES trucks. Whenever we're driving somewhere, he points out all the trucks along the way. Even if they're actually golf carts or vans. He loves to play with trucks and push them all around the house making diesel sounds. I couldn't find any truck wrapping paper, so I bought generic striped brown paper, cut out pictures of trucks from the internet and taped them on. How cute is that?

The cake was totally easy - three layers of cake with chocolate icing and oreo crumb dirt and construction trucks on top. I baked the cakes the night before, and when I had my back turned, Levi took a big handful out of the middle layer as they were cooling. But that's okay. It's a construction site, so I put a truck there as if it was digging that part out. I decorated the cake after he went to bed, and when he woke up the next morning, he was SO excited about it. He ran into our bedroom, yelling, "Cake! Cake! Trucks! Cake!" Yeah, we chose the right theme.

My parents and Kristen's family came over for dinner and such Sunday after conference. It was so hard for my kids to wait that long. Perhaps we should have a lunch birthday party next time.

We had spaghetti - one of his favorite foods.

We got trick candles, so he got to blow them out a few times. After cake he opened presents and played happily 'till bedtime. My parents gave him a remote control fire truck. He was afraid of it at first because it kept following him around. But as long as I was holding him safely out of harm's way, he was fine. It's not scary any more, and it's so cute to watch him push the buttons on the remote. His cousins gave him a Sit & Spin, which he loves to dramatically fall off of. We got him a big truck with buttons and sounds (he loves it) and a stuffed lion. He's loved lions ever since we saw them at the zoo. He says, "Wion!" followed by a very throaty roar. Then he hugs it and kisses it. OH, how I love this kid!!

Doot and Wee-why

Luke came over to play a couple of mornings last week while Kristen was out of town. She said he didn't even mind her leaving, since he knew he got to come play at "Wee-why's house." When I told Levi that Luke was coming over, he yelled "Doot, yay!" They really like each other. Their names are just a bit tricky to say at this age.

They are 9 months apart; when Levi was a baby, Luke couldn't wait for him to grow up so they could play together. He just knew they were meant to be friends.

Now that they're both talking (sort of), they can even have little conversations with each other. They really crack each other up.

Cousins make the best kind of friends!