Christmas present

Today is Christmas Eve. I was given the best Christmas present ever. Levi walked up to me and gave me a hug and said, "I love you mom"!

He has NEVER done that before!

I'm on cloud nine today!!!!

Sniffle

Well.........I wasn't prepared for this! Brian and I were upstairs wrapping Christmas presents and as we were comparing some of the gifts I realized that we have once again hit another milestone. A lot of Jadon's gifts are older than Levi's..............Jadon is receiving gifts that are beyond Levi. Levi wouldn't be able to figure them out.

Then again, Levi's gifts aren't typical. He doesn't really play with toys but loves things like caribeners.....containers to carry things around in.........rope and string........

Brian found him the cutest lunch box that is from the movie "Cars" that has two compartments in it so Levi can carry all sorts of goodies around in it.

Anytime we can't find things we know to go and look in Levi's "stashes" like missing car keys.........packages of Top Ramen noodles..........anything he isn't supposed to have. ;o)

No grey. Just black and white.

On Sunday's we have the rule no t.v. Before Levi the rule was no regular t.v. or movies on Sunday. The kids could watch church video's or educational video's like DK video's on Sunday but that was all. Levi for the longest time wouldn't look at the t.v. screen. He couldn't watch a movie. I'm not sure when he started to watch the t.v. screen. He still has a hard time sitting through an entire movie. Well........most. He loves the movie, "Cars" but even then he bops around the room taking it in in fragments. Anyway, all of a sudden he has become obsessed with movies. Certain ones that he plays over and over and over again. Part of his autism coming out I guess. A lot of repetition. Every Sunday we go through the same thing. He runs down and turns on the t.v. and I have to tell him, "Levi, no t.v. It is Sunday" and he yells and says, "it is NOT Sunday" and then he eventually turns off the t.v. The other kids have said, "but mom he can watch DK movies". I have had to explain to them that Levi doesn't understand which movies are appropriate for Sunday and which ones are not so for him there is absolutely no t.v. on Sunday. It is too confusing for him.

I got to thinking about that this morning as Levi once again tried to turn on the t.v. and we went through the usual ritual. I think the "black and white" applies for all of our kids. So many times we make it harder for them because we allow shades of grey. Obviously some things present themselves as grey on their own and have to be taken into consideration but for the most part I think things can fall under the black or white category and we make things harder on ourselves and our kids by allowing or presenting grey.

A great big hug!

I can't remember how many hugs a day "they" say a child needs a day but with seven children I know my kids aren't reaching their quota's. Especially when you have a child like Levi who won't look you in the eye longer than a second let alone let you hug him. That is........didn't used to..........The most amazing thing has happened in the last couple of weeks. About two weeks ago I had been out somewhere and came home. As I walked in the door Levi came running up to me, gave me a hug, and said, "you're back"! I was so shocked! I tried to grab him and hug him back but he was off and running and I thought what an amazing and wonderful gift he'd just given me. Since then he has continued when ever I come back in the front door even if I've just gotten the mail.

He'll come running up to me and wrap his arms around my legs and rest his head against me for a second and then he is off and running around again. As I said at the beginning of this post, I'm not sure how many hugs a day you're supposed to give your kids but I can tell you my Levi can't give me enough hugs. I feel as if I'm a dry sponge soaking up every drop of his hugs that I can get. I pray he continues and that this blessing I've been given will last forever!

Snips......snails.......and puppy dog tails.........

This morning Levi, Kirsten, and Jadon were playing. Kirsten and Jadon were down on hands and knees and Kirsten said, "we're puppy dogs"! Levi was standing next to me and said, "I'm a hot dog"! :o)

Later we went to church and Levi as always carried a bag of sorts with him. This time it was his brother's school lunch bag. We got to church and Levi held the bag on his lap. He looked at me and said, "I'm hungry". (First clue) I asked him what was in his bag and he guarding it said, "nothin". (Second clue) I unzipped and looked in the bag..........it was full of bologna and hot dogs............."

Levi's Halloween costume...and Julie's

I realize this is a little late but I'm just now figuring out this photo thing-a-ma-jigger. Brennan had the idea of Levi dressing as Scooby and Julie as Shaggy..........Julie was a good sport and aren't they just the danged cutest things ya ever saw???

Poor Julie looks like she is looking at Brennan saying, "please save meeeeeee". And of course Levi has a rope in his hands. Always a string or a rope. :o)

I added photo's!!!!

How cool is this? I can add photo's. Okay, so I'm not very good at it with the obvious double picture of Levi up top and some that are sideways but hey, I'm learning here! Which is amazing considering how NOT technical I am.......

The first two photo's are Levi "helping" carry the Christmas tree, the rest are of him playing in the snow with his sister Kirsten. He cracked me up with his hat down over his eyes. To see he'd have to tip his head up.

It Snowed!!

Yesterday morning we all awoke to SNOW! Finally! As soon as Levi saw the snow he asked if he could go out and play in it. Have you ever seen the Normal Rockwell paintings of the little boys with the freckles across their noses, a few missing teeth, rosy cheek's, and the look of absolute joy on their faces? That is what Levi looked like yesterday. He had a ball. He and his sister and her friends had a snowball fight. He came in after looking even rosier saying, "I fight snow mom"! It was adorable.