defacing

Christian has discovered, quite on his own, how to draw a person! I never knew i could be so proud. really. it's somewhat of a thrilling thing to watch your child draw a person for the first time. and then a second time, and a third.

today he drew this guy all by himself:

it was a precious moment.

until....

a certain someone began admiring the "man"...

at first he cutely labeled the man's various parts...

then he studied it some more...

perhaps contemplating his next move...

and then...

destruction...

"draw circles on man," was what he claimed to be doing.

but i think he was secretly enjoying the defacing of his brother's masterpiece.

what month is it again?

The past 2 weeks have been uncharacteristically filled with this....

and this ....

and LOTS of this...

we cannot get enough of this...

and even a little of this....

Today however, we're back to a high of 50 degrees, which feels cold!

but that's not stopping us from Kyren's favorite thing in the world right now, to "pay out-siiiiide!", which is what he says upon waking up every morning and after every nap. and virtually all the time that we're not outside.

good thing we're headed toward true spring and summer months. he cannot get enough of this sunshine. and neither can i!!

siiiide

here's one of those things as a mom of boys i have learned to embrace. even though i still cringe every time he does it...

kyren thinks the dirt embankment next to our driveway is a slide.

i can't really tell him it's not.

a.) because it is the safest way for him to get down.

b.) it is the perfect ramp for his truck to slide down. and if the truck can do it, why cant he?

c.) because it brings him true joy every time he does it. sometimes he even says "wheeee!"

here he is, following after the truck he just pushed down the "side":

we now have a routine after playing outside.

we walk in the basement, strip off muddy-bottomed jeans and shoes, and toss them in the washing machine as we walk by.

sometimes multiple times a day.

because, really, what's wrong with getting messy?

absolutely nothing.

catch the moon

(there is sposd to be a video here, that is having trouble uploading.... stay tuned!)

this isn't the best sampling of his language-- but i was trying to recreate the moment right before this, when he came up to me, threw his head back, reached up with his arms and said, "catch the moon!"

i have no idea where he got this phrase. but i like to pretend he conjured it out of his own imagination. the more he communicates, the more aware we're becoming that there's a whole world in there that we never realized was brewing all this time. obviously he's brilliant! :)

First signs of spring

the last few mornings we've woken to the sound of birds singing.

and this morning we looked out the window at breakfast and saw a plump robin sitting on a branch that was sticking out of the ground in our backyard. branches tend to do this in our yard quite frequently b/c they fall from so darn high.

he perched there for a long time, and then hopped down to look for worms.

we then noticed he was hunting alongside MRS. Robin, and it made it official: spring is in the air!

CAN'T believe we have had such a mild winter-- i don't ever remember it being this warm, this frequently, with so little snow or cold. but i will take it!! we've been outside 3 days in a row with only light jackets on!

Here is Kuteness playing peek-a-boo with me after he was done his breakfast. Those eyes melt my heart!

Christian's new trick

After a super fun weekend with the MN relatives, Christian is proud of his new "waverunner" spin. He says, "now i am just like Lance!"

The funniest part about this: we're not sure WHICH Lance he means... :)

All 3 of those Levitans were racing up and down the driveway on the plasmacars all weekend long. It was more fun than a barrel of monkeys-- or just about anything else!

I'm sure dave captured those moments on HIS camera-- but i have yet to review the footage... so for now, here is what young C has taken from the weekend:

Thanks for an unforgettable time, guys!

We love you and miss you already...

engageaversary

As a kid I always thought February was the best month because it was my birthday month.

As an adult it just seemed to be that shortest, yet lonnnngest month between winter and spring, when, aside from my birthday, there was really nothing good about it.

But then I got engaged on February 11th, 2006, and everything changed.

Now, every February for the rest of my married life, I get to look forward to Birthday-Engageaversary-Valentine Week!! Or Birthgageatine, if you'd prefer to shorten it.

The week and a half when we take time to really celebrate the gift that I am to Dave, he is to me, and we are to each other! And let me tell ya, this makes February a WHOLE lot more fun, and go a whole lot faster than it used to.

This past saturday we celebrated our 5th engageaversary at Bistro Romano in Philly, where i'd been once before, years ago, and have been wanting to revisit ever since. some people might think it a little silly to celebrate and make such an occasion out of the anniversary of our engagement. but to us it is something SO worth celebrating. and it was such a beautiful night, we never want to forget it!

I wore the same outfit I wore 6 years ago, when Dave took me out to dinner at a fancy little restaurant in Miami, FL, where we sat on a couch together and ate something lovely (i don't remember what, even tho i took pictures of it... but i do remember the butter sculpture was a little elephant).

We sat in the romantic wine cellar basement of Bistro Romano, recounting the events and our feelings of that fateful night... and once again enjoying some marvelous food...

Dave had some kind of tuna steak.

i had these adorable heart-shaped shrimp and asparagus ravioli:

and for dessert, dave had his favorite--

and i had my official NEW favorite:

CHOCOLATE MOUSSE covered CREAM PUFFS!!!!!!

These alone were worth the $25 parking garage!!

We LOVED this restaurant, and HIGHLY recommend it for anyone who's looking for a romantic evening out with REALLY excellent food -- it is located right near South Street, and Penn's Landing-- so you could make a whole fun day out of it.

It was a fabulous evening, complete with lightly falling snow, dreams of the future, and two fab-o babysitters (gramsy and grampy, who claim to have had more fun than we possibly could have)!