levi turns 3

My parents have now been in Germany for about 2 weeks on their mission. I'm hoping to post a bit more regularly to keep them updated on our lives.

On March 25, Levi turned 3! He is in the 91st %ile for height and 67th for weight. He is our long, skinny boy. Being 3 is not without its challenges, but we absolutely adore our snuggly little boy.

Levi is starting to ask "why" questions, which I think is coming a little bit earlier than when Anna started. It keeps me on my toes.

He still loves anything to do with actual cars, trucks, and trains, and the movie Cars. Grandma Ruth sent Levi a Cars backpack filled with Cars clothes, toys, and books. Grandma Becky sent a car and truck quilt and pillowcase. Levi wraps up in his blanket (he won't sleep with anything else anymore) and opens up every single Cars book and is happy for hours. I don't think there's ever been a happier birthday boy.

Levi plays alone amazingly well. He is content to lay on the floor and roll his cars around for as long as we give him to do it. He has several excellent sound effects under his belt. He loves to play basketball in our little hoop and loves to wrestle and get tickles.

He is still very affectionate, though it comes in shorter bursts these days. It melts my heart when he runs to me with arms wide open yelling, "Mama!"

Levi naps a few times a week, and goes to bed easily on days he doesn't nap. He loves his friends and is always excited to see them on the playground.

I made Levi a racetrack cake for his birthday and we invited his friends to come eat it with us. I bought a checkered flag banner from the dollar store and Levi was so excited by it. I love how easily pleased children are.

We love our Levi and are excited to see how his personality grows and develops this year. Happy Birthday Buddy!

march in pictures

Anna and Bitty had lunch on the porch one afternoon.

St. Patrick's Day. Anna is dressed in green and "gold" 

We hosted toddler time. We were learning about the letter L and the number 10. Lucky the little leprechaun left 10 pictures of things around the house that started with L that led to this treat in the fridge. 

 A silly photo shoot on the bed.

 I am still so in love with her hair. Who knows if we'll ever cut it.

 Great-great-Aunt Shirley sent $5 for each kid for Valentine's Day and we finally went shopping. Anna chose this purse that she colored herself. Levi chose a car from Cars 2, Jeff Gorvette, who has been hiding somewhere in the house for weeks. Levi asks if he can have him periodically and it makes me so sad to have to say no, since we don't know where he is.

We went with our friends the Reuels and the Cutlers to Parker's Maple Barn in New Hampshire and ate breakfast for lunch and watched maple syrup being made.

During the last week of March which was MIT's spring break, we went to Washington D.C., but that's a post for another day.

art time

Here are some recent art projects we worked on in February when we needed something to tame our raging stir-craziness. You know, because record-breaking Nemo happened. And then two more winter storms the following two weekends. And Saturn coming tonight. Sheesh.

 This is the best photo to see how high the snow really got. It was very drifty inside our courtyard, so some places were bare, but most was very deep. That balcony that the snow reaches is at least 4 ft off the ground. The kids could just step from snow bank to snowbank over the fence into the playground. Once the wind died down we had lots of fun playing in the snow and one family even built a huge igloo that could fit 7 or 8 little kids inside it.

Now on to the art. I've been wanted to try this with Levi for a while considering his love of cars. He did the paint rolling for a while, but mostly ended up painting his cars and then giving them a long car wash in the sink. It all added up to fun in my book.

Here's Levi with some of his car collection lined up and ready to race on the Radiator Springs playmat I made him for Christmas.

I got a book for Anna at the library called Artist to Artist in which famous childrens book illustrators write to children about their art. Most of the artists have some piece of artwork from their childhood included, which I really enjoyed. Eric Carle's portion included a little step-by-step instruction for how he makes his collage illustrations. Anna looked at it and said, "I want to do that. Right now." So we did. (I actually looked online and found this which was more helpful than the tiny photos in the book).

We started by drawing the caterpillar. Anna made the head and attempted the bumps but couldn't figure out how to get them right, so I made the first two bumps and she finished it.

  

Then you paint the tissue paper. I showed her how to use a big brush and thick paint to make interesting brush strokes to show up in the picture. She liked making lots of designs.

To speed things up, I used a blow-drier to dry the paint, though it didn't need much. Then we traced the shapes we'd drawn onto the painted tissue paper, cut it out (with a little of my help), and glued it down (with quite a bit of help- she kept tearing the paper as she tried to glue)

Here's the finished product! Isn't he cute?

Anna drew his legs that evening and took markers to him the next morning. She gave him a hat, a tutu, and a smile. She also named him Ahcu Mone Cran (pronounced Ach-ah Moan-ee Crown)

And here's a little looser interpretation of art. Anna saw these groundhog day treats in Family Fun magazine and begged to make them. So we did.

 And I had this vision for Valentines Day decorations that worked out beautifully. I cut out all the hearts from construction paper. I let the kids decorate a few of them with smaller hearts, pom poms, and stickers. Then I strung them all together on pink yarn. The heat from the radiator mixing with the cold air from the window kept them constantly moving and we had lovely heart shadows all through February.

It's been a fun month, but I am OH SO READY for spring!

boston book fest

Yet another successful year! Levi kept climbing out of the stroller and walking away to go see Curious George again. He said hello, gave high fives, and just kept going up next to him and talking. It was pretty darn cute. 

We got these two books free this year. Both are well-loved, though I like Tree Ring Circus better.

Trainstop by Barbara Lehman

Tree Ring Circus by Adam Rex

arnold arboretum in october

These pictures are the wind rustling the maples, the bite to the breeze, the smell of the carpet of leaves, the crackle of a crushed leaf and the giggle of a child, the swishing of your sweeping feet, the silence when you all lay down and look up, a golden ceiling above you.