Wait, an update? No way!

Yes folks, here it is, a long-awaited blog update. I know its been a while, but we've been kind of busy. Doing what you ask? Well, let me tell you.

Grad School is back again
Last May Courtney took a year off from her grad school program at Spring Arbor so our first year of being parents would not be so stressful. That year passed quickly and a couple of weeks ago she joined up with another cohort class and is off and running with school again. The class is quite a bit of work so she's trying to fit in the homework when she can. That means that there are a few more "Daddy and Levi" nights, which is ok by Dad (because that means not only do I get to spend time with my son, but I get to watch the Tigers too...).

Enjoying some quality time while Levi goes to town on his "chewy".

Warmer weather = more fun...and more work
We love the warmer weather. The winter weather...not so much. So when it starts to get warm out we love taking long walks, playing with Prince in the yard, and just being outdoors enjoying our big backyard. The flipside to the big backyard is that it takes a lot of work to maintain it. I come from a family with a lot of "yard pride" (so much so that every time my dad comes to visit he comments on the state of the yard), so I like to make sure everything looks good outside. So that means in the spring and summer there is a lot of mowing (we only have a push mower so it takes 2 hours to mow) weed whacking and pulling, edging, plant watering, and bug killing that goes on. Needless to say it takes a lot of time. But Levi really seems to love being outside, so hopefully next summer he'll really be able to enjoy the backyard.

Trying to figure out what all the green stuff is.

I think Prince got up and ran away immediately after this picture was taken.

Keeping an eye on Levi.

Best friends...at least Levi thinks so. Prince is still making up his mind.

Keeping up with Levi
When college football players are being scouted for the NFL, sometimes the scouts will say that "he has a great motor". I feel the same way about Levi. The kid has a great motor, and it almost never stops. He is crawling all over the place, trying to climb up on everything, making lots of noise (including "dada" and "mama"), and pretty much going non-stop from morning until bedtime. He is generally a very happy baby and a lot of fun for Mom and Dad. We've had a lot of fun lately with family and friends, and Levi has been great with all of them.

At a photoshoot with cousin Maya.

Apparently Levi doesn't like our music selection because threw a lot of these CDs on the floor.

Riding his new favorite "garage sale find" toy.

Trying to awe me with his cuteness before pulling the cable cord out of the wall.

Family photo.

That's all for now. I'll leave you with a video of our fast moving son and proof of him saying "dad" (and "mom" too).

Fun Weekend @ G & G Chapin's

This past Friday we traveled to Battle Creek to spend the night at my parent's house. Thankfully Levi was in a great mood on Saturday so we had a great day with my family. Enjoy the pictures!!

Enjoying a swing for the first time.

Rockin' out with my sister's shades.

Picking on my sister....just like I taught him. Good job kid!

Once Joey realized Levi was dropping food, he was Levi's new best friend.

Acting silly for Grandpa Chapin.

Keeping up with the Crawler

It's been a couple of weeks since our last update, and in that time Levi has gone from a novice crawler to an expert. You put him on the floor and he's gone in a flash, often on his way to something that hasn't been "baby-proofed" yet. We're finding that the most effective method of baby-proofing is never having babies to begin with. On to the updates...

Babies change real fast.
Its hard to believe that just a few weeks ago Levi couldn't crawl. I think parents are always excited for their child to get to the next major "milestone", but then when they get there we realize there is no going back. We used to set him on the floor while we both worked out. Now one of us can work out while the other one has to watch him and make sure he doesn't hurt himself....and the downstairs is our most "baby-proof" area! In addition to crawling, Levi also loves going on walks. He sits facing forward now and just loves it, which is great for Mom, Dad, and especially Prince. He is a little daredevil. He tries to pull himself up on everything...his crib, kitchen cabinets & chairs, furniture, the wall...you name it. I don't know if this is the case, but tonight it looked like he was trying to climb the movie shelf (basically a bookshelf with all our movies on it). Courtney wants to buy him a helmet and I'm opposed to the idea, but if he keeps up his Evil Knievel act I might change my mind.

At least we'll be burning calories trying to keep up with him.

Levi showing he's more skilled with a cell phone than my parents.

Getting ready for a walk.

Just chillin' in the stroller.

Rockin' the new dinosaur pj's Mom got him.

Trying to become the first baby to scale Marnie and Ryan's staircase.

On top of all that, Levi has a tooth.
Yep, that's right. Levi is officially teething. We noticed that a little tooth is popping though on the bottom. He's not acting as crazy as I thought, although I guess since he already acts crazy we might not be able to tell the difference. Either way he is really enjoying his teething rings, keys, and homemade "chewies" (frozen washcloths).

There's nothing quite as refreshing as a frozen ring when you're teething.

Happy 3rd Birthday Prince!
Prince officially turned 3 years old last week. According to this graph on wikipedia, Prince is about 25 years old in human years. He'll pass us at some point this year. Its a lot of fun having a dog, but really makes you realize how quickly life can go when you see them aging at an advanced rate compared to us humans. Unfortunately for Prince, he didn't get to go out for ice cream on his birthday. He did get some rawhides and almost empty peanut butter jars. Prince is still pretty apprehensive of Levi. Now that Levi is crawling Prince often stays out of the way. If he decides to join us, he'll hide behind us when Levi starts crawling towards him. We hope that someday they're the best of friends, but they're not quite there yet.

RIP, Detroit Pistons dynasty, 2002-2009.
All good things must come to an end. After an unprecedented run of 6 straight conference finals, the Detroit Pistons finally ran out of gas and were swept in the first round of the playoffs by the Cleveland Cavaliers. It was not a very pretty season. A rookie coach, their franchise player (and my favorite Piston, Chauncey Billups) getting traded after two games for a well-known selfish player (AI), constantly changing rotations, injuries, and old age contributed to the worst Pistons season in almost 10 years. Even though they have plenty of cap space next year, I don't see things turning around anytime soon. I've been known to complain about the Pistons (or even "accidentally" throw TV remotes against the wall and break them), but let's stop and appreciate this team for what they did. I'll never forget Chauncey sinking that halfcourt 3 pointer in 04 to tie the Nets. Or Tayshaun's block on Reggie Miller in Game 2 of the '04 Eastern Conference finals. Or completely dominating a fractured '04 Lakers team to win the championship. Or Rasheed's bonehead play in Game 5 of the '05 finals, leaving Robert Horry wide open for a 3 pointer which turned the series around. I could go on for a while, so I'll spare you and stop here. Regardless, I am truly thankful for the memories. Now if only we had drafted Carmelo or Wade or Bosh instead of Darko...

Don't worry buddy, the Pistons will be good again someday.

Fun with Baby Maya!
I've only had the pleasure of seeing my niece once since she was born, but Courtney and Levi have been able to make some more trips to visit. She is doing well by all accounts and Marnie and Ryan are adjusting to life as parents (and life without much sleep). Its amazing to think that we were in their shoes just a few months ago. Kids really do grow up fast.

Levi and Baby Maya.

If you've made it through that entire post I applaud you. I'll try not to be so long-winded next time.

So Many Updates, So Little Time...

So, it has been a while since I've made an update. Sorry about that. It's been difficult to find the time with everything going on. I'll try to cover all the major events from the last few weeks.

Baby Maya is here!!!
Courtney's sister Marnie was due on April 18th, but apparently Baby Maya wanted to join us a little early. Baby Maya was born today (Monday the 13th) at 3:06 PM, and weighed in at 7 pounds 2 ounces. Levi is very excited to meet his baby cousin!!

We now have a very mobile infant.
Levi started crawling about a week ago, and our lives as we know it have changed forever. Gone are the days of putting Levi on the floor and knowing he won't move. Now as soon as we put him down, he's on the move, usually on his way to something he shouldn't be getting into. The day after he started crawling he also started pulling himself up on tables, chairs, his crib, etc. Operation Baby Proof the House is in full force, but it certainly feels like we're fighting a losing battle.

Sleepless nights are back.
Apparently learning to crawl is also setting Levi back in his sleeping habits. The fun new adventure is that Levi will wake up, start crawling around his crib (screaming the entire time), and then he'll get a limb stuck in between the crib slats and he'll start screaming even louder. Fun times for Mom and Dad.

Someone get me out of here!!!

You wouldn't think his chunky legs would fit through the sides of the crib.

Levi celebrated his first Easter.
I guess that pretty much sums it up. We went to church in the morning, and then over to Grandpa and Grandma Freed's in the afternoon. Levi impressed everyone with his rockin' outfit and new crawling abilities.

Levi enjoyed his Easter gifts from G&G Freed.

Hanging out with Grandma Carla.

Trying to crawl over to Grandpa Terry.

Levi's last moment of being the only grandkid.

Baseball season is underway.
This is the real reason I haven't written in a while. I love baseball. When I was a kid, I memorized the back of my baseball cards, played baseball by myself and even kept statistics (yeah I know, I was a bit of a loser), and watched almost every Tigers game. I even had a radio in my room that my parents would let me use to listen to Tigers games after I was supposed to go to bed. For whatever reason my interest waned as I entered high school and college (maybe because they were just plain awful for so long), but I'm back on board now. I have a much better feeling about this year's team than I did last year. Its still real early, but I'm very excited for another season of Tigers' baseball.

Levi and Mom are pretty excited about the Tigers too.

Fighting the battle of the rake...and winning.
I don't like raking. It's hard work. And even though we have a big back yard, we only have 2 trees that have leaves. That's it. Unfortunately, we have a grove of rather large trees on the other side of our fence that hang over our property and dump tons of leaves on our yard every fall. I didn't get around to raking last fall, so I started a few weeks ago when the weather started warming up. Well, about 6 weeks and 20+ yard waste bags later, the raking is finally done. I can't wait until Levi is old enough to help.

Miscellaneous fun.
Marnie's baby shower was a few weeks ago, and Levi went and met a lot of family members. All reports indicated that he behaved pretty well and didn't freak out even with all the "strangers". He was also able to spend some quality time with his friend Olivia a few weeks ago, as we were finally able to get together with our friends Chad and Lisa Borodychuk.

Courtney and Marnie with some of their cousins.

Now Aunt Marnie has her own baby to hold!

Levi trying to impress Olivia with all his cool toys.

I get the feeling this kid is going to get into a lot of trouble.

He already likes to make faces at us.

This is a sight we haven't seen enough of lately.
And speaking of sleep, I better head to bed before Levi wakes up again.
Until next time...

Why dads shouldn't dress their kids

There is a perfectly good reason why Levi has both his legs in the same pant leg: Dad dressed him. So I was changing him a couple of weeks ago, and was putting his pants back on. Levi is a bit chunky, so his pants are usually a tight fit. Not paying much attention, I stood him up and started pulling his pants up. They didn't seem to be going on very well, and I even remarked "Levi you're getting so big!". After I had his pants all the way up, I looked down and saw the real reason why I was having such a hard time pulling up his pants. So the lesson to be learned is: If Dad can't dress himself without supervision, he really shouldn't be allowed to dress his kids.

NCAA Tournament Time

I love sports, but I'm not a huge college basketball fan. Until the NCAA tournament, that is. I love watching the tournament. Every year I watch as many games as I possibly can. I don't think there is a more exciting sporting event. Every year we do a NCAA tournament bracket contest on Yahoo with friends and family, and every year I (the sports "expert") lose to Courtney, my mom, and my sister even though aside from my mom their sports knowledge isn't at the same level as mine. I'm excited to try and beat them this year, but it will probably end up like most other years...them finishing ahead of me and reminding me about it the rest of the year.

The weekend before last we made the trip to Battle Creek to spend the night with my parents. Levi had a little "stranger anxiety" at first, but after a bit he settled down and was fine again. Grandma and Grandpa were happy to see him, and we had a great time visiting my family.

Levi rocking my Tigers hat.

Levi liked Joey. Joey didn't like Levi.

Grandma enjoyed spending some quality time with her grandson.

This past weekend we made a trip up to Sumner with Marnie and Ryan to visit Courtney and Marnie's Grandma Betty. Levi was amazing on the trip. He was happy for the car ride there and back (over an hour one-way), and seemed to really enjoy being around everyone. It was a very nice visit.

Group photo.

Levi enjoyed sitting with Grandma Betty...

...so much that he fell asleep. Grandma still has the touch.

Night time has been a little better. Last week we decided to start "Operation Tough Love", where we would put him in his crib at bedtime and let him cry until he fell asleep. Then, if he woke up at night, we'd let him cry for a while before we went in there to see if he'd learn to soothe himself and fall back asleep on his own. The first couple of nights were absolutely awful...he SCREAMED at the top of his lungs for an hour and a half before finally falling asleep. Before you think we are heartless people please know this was really hard for us....we had to fight every urge to go in there and "rescue" him. But after the first couple of nights he started falling asleep faster, and started falling asleep on his own when he woke up at night. Now he's doing both pretty consistently, and its only been a week since the beginning of "Operation Tough Love". Mom and Dad are a lot happier...somehow getting a more complete night of sleep will do that. Who knew?

We had to take Levi to the doctor last week because he's had a nasty cough for about 3 weeks now. Turns out he could have bronchitis and the doctor heard some wheezing while he was breathing. He's taking some antibiotics now and hopefully that will clear everything up. We also had to take Prince to the vet because he had a real bad ear infection. He'd been shaking his head a lot so I looked in his ear yesterday and it was all black and full of gross junk. It smelled awful. He got some ear drops so hopefully that will get him better soon.

I've already written a million things, so I'll close with a short list of new things Levi likes or is doing.

• Finding his pacifier at night when he wakes himself up and putting it back in his mouth.
• Pulling himself on his side in his crib using the railing, and falling asleep like this.
• Squealing when he sees Prince. Trying to "pet" (aka grab and pull) Prince. Watching with sadness as Prince runs away and hides.
• Playing with his big stuffed Nemo fish.
• Making LOUD noises.
• Going for walks with Mom, Dad, and Prince.
• Trying to crawl, getting ever-so-close, and then falling back into a sitting position.
• Trying to catch falling water drops when getting a bath. The motor skills aren't quite there for this one yet.
• Pulling all of his toys out of his basket, one-by-one, until they are all out. Then trying to get in the basket.
• Eating. Doesn't matter what it is: pears, bananas, peas, green beans, carrots, squash, stuffed animals, books, daddy's hat....you name it, he tries to eat it.

I'll leave you with some more pictures of Levi. I'll try to update more frequently so I don't have to write a novel next time!

In the process of pulling all his toys out of his basket.

Working on his hand-eye coordination.

Each smile brings joy to our hearts.

It's really hard to pick just a few with so many cute pictures.

Our cute little man.

I don't think it'll be too much longer before he's trying to pull himself over the top.

What a cute family I have.