Adah Pascale! My sister!

Hey! I have a new baby sister! She was born yesterday and her name is Adah. I chose it.

A Man, A Plan

The other day we were in a parking lot and Levi, pointing to a sign said, "Mom, that word, L-E-V-E-L, is a palindrome! What does it say?" Awesome. He may not be reading yet, but I think his vocabulary is good.

More News!

Oh yeah! I almost forgot! I have a new baby sister! Kind of...

Very Occasional Update Pt IV

Hi again everybody! Here are some more things that I do.

I played soccer. Our team was the DRAGONS!!! We were really good. I kicked the ball sometimes.




Also, I had a birthday party! It was really fun and I got so many presents I STILL haven't opened some of them.

Very Occasional Update Pt III

Hi everybody. I've been up to some stuff. I went camping with Kieran, see!



I also played t-ball with my friend Jacob, which was pretty fun. Sometimes it was boring though. Especially playing right field.

My Internet

At the beach I shoveled sand.

At Disneyland, I went on rides like Big Thunder Mountain, Soarin' Over California, and Buzz Lightyear Astro-Blasters.

I liked playing in the fountain at California Adventure. I liked playing at the playgrounds (the one with the black slides and the 'nother one with the ship).

I liked swimming in the swimming pool and I liked it when daddy acted like a whale and went "pfffffffft" and spit water everywhere.

I liked playing at Toontown. I liked pressing the glass factory button and breaking the glass (for pretend). The door went "Bzzt bzzzzzzzt bzt."





I shoveled sand next to the world famous Santa Monica Pier.



I am really good at flying rockets.




Chip Chip Chip Chip and Dale! And me.





I liked breaking the glass at the glass factory.




And that's about enough of this Disneyland stuff.

Brighton Early

June 8-10 marked our first camping expedition of the year. There are literally dozens of nice, rustic campgrounds within a couple hours of our house. This weekend, we went to the Murray Lake Rustic Campground at Brighton Recreation Area. It was pretty awesome. We had some fires, got some mosquito bites, lit some fireworks and ate some vegan indian food for lunch.

Oh yeah, we also went on a two-mile hike through the woods. Levi walked every step of it and had a blast. We had been planning to carry him most of the way. Now that we know he's such a trooper, we're going to make him do it every weekend!

Also, animals ate our food. Ziploc bags do not count as "sealing" food. They got all of our buns and our muffins Friday night. Really, all that changed was that we ate more bacon for breakfast instead of muffins. Bummer.

Future Ring Bearers of America

So, a new post every other month? I mean, every third month? That is a keepable schedule!

In a couple months (exactly, from today, actually), Levi's uncle Zach is getting married in Eugene, Oregon. It should be a fun wedding and a good trip. Levi is especially excited at the prospect of getting to carry some rings on a little pillow. He's already been practicing. Here are a couple of pictures of him in his wedding suit just in case you wanted to see some pictures.

Oops

Well, it's been a long time since this blog got an update. It almost doesn't make sense to talk about what happened between the last post and now. Suffice to say that it was a wild, sad, joyful, exciting, scary, stressful, crazy six months.

So, now Levi lives in Michigan. He seems to be very fond of it so far. I think he might think that all states are about the size of DC though, because every time we drive more than 15 minutes he asks, "is this Michigan," as though he thinks we might have left the state all together. As for how Michigan actually is, well, it's dang cold. The town of Rochester is pretty nice though for a typical suburb. On the whole, things are going well. We'd post some pictures but we don't have a working digital camera anymore. The camera and battery have parted ways, it seems. Sorry.

In His Own Words

Levi wants to write on his blog today, so I'm going to let him. Here goes:

xmxknkcxnskdckcnjkdnczkcdljhccknjc
mkmlmnlncknsdcndkjcjkjkssfjkckdfjdhfkdhfffffffjkfjhfjdhfhjdjddgdggfgfgfgfgfgfgfgfrrfgfggdfgregeyg ge

Now he is going to dictate:
I love Daddy. I want to go see I love Daddy. I want to climb up. How about.... how about..... how about... I want to climb up. I want that one. tookatookatookatookatooka. That one, I want that one. Pens. So, that's a big picture. What did I said? What did I said Mommy? You say, so that's a little picture, I say big picture. So that's another picture. uh, cups. I want cups to say those. Hi Grampa and Gramma. Mommery, mommery, mommery. I want to talk to Grampa and Gramma. Where's Grampa and Gramma live? Uh, pens. How about...toast.

Poke A Nose

Okay everybody! Here's a few pictures from my awesome weeks with my family!

Me and Mom and Dad

Two words for you: Light. Chaser.

Me and my cousin Xandra saying goodbye.

Do you like my moose hat?

Me and Grampa and Gramma

Awwww, just look at me! Ain't I cute?

Me and Gramma

Just me again.

Me and Gramma again. Those are some great falls, alright.

Mmm, Coffee

So, the other night, a few people were at our house drinking some coffee. Levi loves to smell coffee. He has been smelling it for a while. That night, he kept asking for some coffee to drink. We kept saying "No, coffee is for grownups." He kept asking and our dear friend, Sonja, suggested that we let him try it. He would most certainly hate it and never ask for it again. Daddy concurred saying that he would surely spit it out all over the floor. So, the plan was enacted. Us brilliant grownups decided to teach the naive child a hilarious lesson. Well, turns out that we are not as smart as we think. The boy likes coffee. He took several drinks and then cried as Mommy took that coffee away. Great.

Life in the Breadbasket

Hey, guess what everybody? I eat bread now! Yep. That's right. Little ol' me likes to chew and swallow wheat hot dog buns. Don't believe me? Check the picture. Check. It.




Okay, you may be wondering why in the world our dining room table is behind me in that picture. And on its side. Well, that's because it was raining really hard and our house flooded so we moved the table. Only kidding! It's because it was raining really hard so we didn't go camping in the forest. Instead, we went camping at home!

See?


I eat hot dog buns in the tent, too.

Intellectuals Meet with Intellectuals

Is this my future? Am I destined to be a lonely intellectual given to pondering the great questions of mankind? I sure hope not. Mommy and Daddy are counting on me to be a professional athlete. For the money, you know?

Easter Inland

Hey everybody, sorry that I'm so late with this. It's just been really busy around here lately. We had Easter, and then springtime, and then daddy went to Japan and me and mommy went to Pennsylvania for a wedding. So, to make a long story short, I'm just now getting around to putting up the pictures from Easter. I hope you like them!

Yay! We did it! We painted some eggs!



Everybody knows that painting eggs and tickling daddies goes hand in hand.




Wow, look at that Easter spread!




Check out my new bike! I think it's really cool.





All hail King Chocolate!

Update on Levi's Medical Stuff

Sorry no cute pics this time. I just wanted to bring everyone up to date on what's going on with Levi's eating issues. First, he's doing well, happy and developing as he should.

At his last pediatrician's appointment, he was bigger than the previous one, so he is continuing to grow. At that appointment, our doctor referred us to Lynn Balzer-Martin. She lives in our area and is a contributer to The Out of Sync Child, which is the best book available on sensory integration dysfunction. Check it out at your library if you want to know more about where Levi's coming from.

We met with Dr. Balzer-Martin and she gave us two contacts. One a nutritionist in North Potomac to meet with two or three times to help cover ground that Levi is not getting nutritionally. Second, a speech language therapist in Bethesda that specializes in young children with sensory-related eating problems.

We met with the nutritionist. She was very kind and helpful. She looked at some blood tests we had done earlier. She checked off on a list the problems Levi has. She checked:
Anemia (iron)
Constipation
Feeding Problems
Malnutrition (mild)
It was hard to see that malnutrition diagnosis written down like that, but the good news is that she will be able to help us fix these things. She prescribed a custom multi-vitamin that she designed, as well as additional iron. She also advised us to order an essential fat supplement that includes omega-3s. She also suggested juice plus fiber which is a fruit juice with added fiber. We've already started all the supplements except the fat, which hasn't come yet.

Today, Levi had his first session with Mandy, the therapist. They got on great and Levi had fun there. She observed him and asked me questions about him. They had a little snack time during which she handed him a piece of cereal (like a cornflake). He put it in his mouth, chewed it up and swallowed it. It was like some kind of miracle! It was all I could do to keep from crying or cheering or hugging him. She hadn't even done any therapy yet, she just told him that she was going to help him learn to eat. He tried another one and spit it out, but he still ate that one. That is the very first time that I have ever seen him eat that way. So I have very high hopes for the therapy. She also observed that she believes that much of his problem is due to oral-motor problems, and that his sensory issues are not as strong as we've been thinking. Which is good news, in that it is easier to work on. So, we are going to be doing tongue exercises and blowing on things and generally working to make those muscles stronger.

Levi continues to suffer from chronic constipation. I'm trying to get ahold of his pediatrician to come up with a better long term plan for treating it. I've found some information online. You can read about chronic constipation in kids due to withholding bowel movements here.

So, if you are a praying person, please pray that we will be able to relieve Levi's stress and pain due to bowel movements, that we will be able to provide the nutrients essential for energy and growth and that we will make steady progress with food at therapy.

Auntie Peter and Uncle Claire!

Wow! My Auntie Claire and my Uncle Peter just came to visit me from Seattle! I am pretty sure that any airplane I see in the sky is flying to Seattle.

Anyway, it was lots of fun. We did all sorts of things, like go to museums and see dinosaurs and airplanes, go to the park. Auntie Claire and Uncle Peter even went to some concerts while they were here. I'm too little to go, but they said they had fun. Here's a bunch of pictures we took while they were here.

I miss you already Auntie Claire and Uncle Peter!