5 Months and Holding His Own

Levi is now five months old, but seems to hold his own while wrestling with Noah. It's really hard to believe that five months have flown by already. He's rolling over, eating oatmeal, squash and sweet potatoes - such a big boy!





Yes, it looks like Noah is biting Levi, but he never actually clamped down (thank goodness!). I took a bunch of photos while Noah was "playing" with Levi and in every one Levi is looking straight at me - maybe he was quietly seeking my help. I have to admit, I think Levi's going to need to learn to defend himself against big brother Noah and it's never too early to start learning.



In these last two pictures, Noah is attempting to wipe drool off Levi's face. Noah's intentions were so good, but his willingness to be gentle needs some encouragement.

Breathing Treatments

Our family is very familiar with breathing treatments. Levi just got done with his treatments from having pneumonia and now Noah is starting. Noah battled a fever most of the weekend and finally on Tuesday morning I took him to the doctor. She gave us a regimen for antibiotics and breathing treatments and Noah hates them. It's a total pain to get him to sit still long enough for a treatment, but they seem to be helping. He's finally started to regain his appetite and his fever is completely gone. Maybe by the end of the week we'll have our normal Noah back.

Playing with friends

We invited a couple families over for supper on Sunday evening - the Flaming's and the Brouillette's. Thankfully, the storms and rain stayed away until our fun had come to an end.





Mike and Brant playing football with Jake trying to get in on the action.



Pat, Ben, Noah, Jake and Brant playing football.



Mandi and Brooklyn playing with Levi.

It was great to host - we'll have to do it again sometime!

Levi just doin' his thing

Levi is growing and growing and doing new stuff every day. Last week he started rolling over! He jabbers and jabbers and wiggles and rolls. I hope to get a video or two of him in action, but our timing has been terrible so far.


Hanging out in the morning waiting to eat breakfast. He's not nearly as chunky as Noah was at this age and Levi still seems chunky!







He just LOVES to play in his saucer. He drools all the time these days - as his shirt can prove.

The Zoo

We went to the zoo a couple weekends ago. Thankfully, the weather was perfect and we got there early so the crowds were thin. Noah loved the animals, with a few exceptions.

On our final trip to the zoo last summer, Noah had an incident with the orangutans that scared him (one attacked the glass right in front of Noah - it was an alarming experience for all of us). I wondered if he would remember it and apparently he did. As soon as we got to the spot where last year's "attack" took place, Noah got scared and started to throw a fit. When Ben picked him, he just closed his eyes and looked away from the animals. He begged us to leave, so we quickly moved on. Thankfully, this reaction was saved for only the orangutans, monkeys and gorillas - the rest of the animals were deemed safe.


Lots of "fishies"!


Me and the boys in the jungle - it was unofficially wear orange day in our family.


Ben and Noah enjoying a snack.


Squinty-eyed Noah checking out the giraffes.

We're getting closer...maybe

Noah, on occasion, will announce to us that he would like to use his potty chair. We usually jump at the opportunity to make some progress in potty training him - although he rarely actually goes potty in the chair.

We usually leave Noah in his room to play quietly before he goes to bed. The other night, when Ben went to go tuck Noah in bed after letting him play for a while this is what he found.



Noah had taken off his pajama bottoms, taken off his cloth diaper and placed it with his other dirty clothes, had actually gone potty in his potty chair and was trying to put a diaper on. After we stopped laughing in the hallway, we rewarded Noah with some M&M's and helped him get his diaper back on. He seems to be catching on...maybe.

Grandpa and Grandma Schrag's Visit

Grandpa and Grandma Schrag came to visit over Mother's Day weekend. There were many fun times and Noah loved all the extra attention he got. It is such a treat when they come to visit and because of our busy schedules it doesn't happen as often as we would like. Noah's still talking about making coffee with Grandpa and Grandma! I'm sure that someday Levi will enjoy visits from them as much as Noah does now.

Marbles

On a recent visit to Great Grandpa Schrag's house, Noah was introduced to playing with marbles. He seemed more interested in pouring them from one container to the other, but still had fun watching them rattle down the wooden ramps. Great Grandpa Schrag has some really cool looking marbles and I'm sure on our next visit Noah will ask to play with marbles again.

Turtles and Fish

The other evening we went to Dyck Arboretum, prepared with old bread to feed the turtles and fish. Noah LOVES to throw bread into the water and watch the fish and turtles race for it. On this particular evening though, Noah seemed more interested in eating the stale bread himself, rather than sharing it with our reptile friends. It's strange how Noah won't eat a warm delicious supper, but he'll chow down on a stale hamburger bun...

Great Grandparents

Noah and Levi are blessed to have two great grandpa's and two great grandma's alive and well. We are also lucky that they all live within 15 from our house!

Below Grandpa Schrag (Ben's dad), Great Grandpa Schrag (Ben's grandpa), Ben and Levi and Noah pose for a 4 generation photo.



Below is Levi with Great Grandpa Hertzler and Grandma Schrag in the background.

Pneumonia

Poor little Levi was diagnosed with pneumonia earlier this week. What we had thought was a cold that was making Levi very cranky turned out to be much more. Thankfully, Dr. Patron caught it and gave Levi some strong antibiotics and put him on a strict regimen of breathing treatments. Almost a week later, Levi seems to be back to his normal self.

Bedtime

Noah was almost beside himself with excitement when Ben put Levi in his bed. Noah couldn't climb in fast enough to "go night night" with Levi. Here are a few photos of our happy little boys.