11 MONTHS!!!

Where do I start? I don't even know. Aside from his pretty severe stranger anxiety / separation anxiety, he has been so fun this month. He is looking more and more like a little boy and less and less like a baby (although I think it'll be a long time before he loses that baby face, those cheeks aren't going anywhere for a while!)

His separation anxiety breaks my heart - just kills me. I knew it would be hard to leave a crying baby, but I never imagined it would be this hard. I think part of it has to do with I'm just not used to hearing him cry. Maybe if he would have cried as a young infant, I would be desensitized to it a bit more? Maybe not. Probably not. He won't cry for me as I drop him off at Junior High, so I just need to have faith that this will pass - but it feels like it never will.

On the lighter side - Levi is a HOOT! The boy is just hilarious. He has a personality about 1,000 miles wide. He makes the funniest faces and sounds. He loves attention and will just about anything for you to clap for him. He's discovered that he can get attention for his adorable head tilt (and he uses this one A LOT), and his weird grunt sounds (we prefer the head tilt :-)).

He LOVES to play pattycake. Once you start he won't let you stop. He just keeps clapping and he'll even crawl over to me and clap my hands together for me if I stop.

His favorite things are still: Airplanes, the moon, the tuba, any food (but especially goldfish), baby Einstein, his "home computer" (toy laptop),and Phoebe. Whenever he plays with something, whether he's pushing a car, or feeling something, or pushing a button - he always uses his first two fingers. (you can see this in his video when he's touching his book and when he's pushing his car.) He LOVES to operate the light switches!

He hasn't added any words to his vocabulary, in fact I think he's dropped some (which makes me wonder if he ever had them to begin with). When he's really excited about something, he says "dah." This word happens mostly when Daddy comes home, when a light gets turned on, or when the tuba comes out.

He FINALLY has teeth. His two bottom front ones are in, and you can see his top ones making their way down.

He is a very obedient boy. He knows what things are off limits. He will test us though. He will get as close as he can to the outlet, or dog bowl and look at it then look back at me, then look at it, then look back at me. He'll even reach his hand out and get as close as he can to touching it without actually touching it. One time he accidentally threw his ball and it landed in the Phoebe's bowl. I let him fish it out and not get in trouble - bad idea. Now instead of touching the bowl (which he knows is a "no no") he will bring a toy over and put it in the bowl and then get the toy out. Little smarty pants!

He knows that he's not allowed to put acorns in his mouth. So this is what he does and it drives me nuts. He will pick up an acorn and act like he is putting in his mouth, but put the back of his hand up to his lips instead. Or sometimes he'll look at me and act like he's putting something in his mouth and his pincer grasp will be empty. That boy!

He loves to eat! (as if you couldn't tell by looking at him) He's feeding himself now, and most of the time he won't look up from his tray. He has his head down and those fingers going until everything is gone - then he'll look up and want more. I have not put anything in front of him that he will not eat.

He is a studious boy. He would much rather study a toy or a leaf or something than be tickled. He examines things and analyzes them and moves on to the next thing. He loves to problem solve. I think we're going to have a smart boy on our hands.

I love him. I am proud of him. I miss him when he's asleep (except when I'm trying to sleep). I want to keep him a baby forever. I want to hurry up and watch him grow up. Please let me know when you've figured out how to do that one!

Enjoy his second to last slideshow of his first year! I just can't believe it.

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