Turkey...Shoot!

I have an adorable one-year-old. And with Thanksgiving in mind, I thought he'd look even more adorable in the turkey suit I made.

He must not have agreed. This is how our little photo shoot went...

"Okay, Levi. Sit here."

"No, I'll hand you the pumpkin. You keep sitting."

"All right, now, let me arrange your feathers...ready, Rob?"

"Shoot! He got away!"

"Okay, let's try again, but this time, we'll stand".

"Okay, here's your pumpkin, Levi...ready, Rob?"

"No, baby! Remember how much you love to stand now?"

"Shoot! He's gone."

Rob never had a chance. Levi wouldn't sit or stand still for two seconds straight. Thank goodness for the 'cropping' tool. It allows me this picture, and the illusion that our turkey shoot didn't turn into, "Turkey...shoot!"

Happy Thanksgiving

from

the Luttrull Family

Of Birthdays and Missing Socks

Levi's first birthday was fun for us, and underwhelming for him. We started the day with a birthday song for him while he waited in his crib...rather miserably, I must say.

"Birth-what? I don't care. Pick me up!"

"Why are you still singing? Please pick me up!"

"MAMA AND DADDY, I HATE YOUR SONG! QUIT SINGING AND PICK ME UP!"

YiaYia, Sandy and Sophia came to help us celebrate. Sophia tried to tell Levi about all the other things to see in his picture book, but he's still stuck on "cat!".

Sandy tried to make some headway, too, but in vain. "Cat!"

It's fun to see Sophia in Colorado because she loves snow so much. On her first day here, she made a snowman with Uncle Rob. Sophia might love Uncle Rob more than snow, but it's a close race.

This is the birthday boy at his party, a bit distracted, and in spite of all the friends, balloons, and presents, underwhelmed.

He liked pizza...

...but did not like his cake. It appears that he doesn't care for sticky hands, but it was also an hour past his naptime.


Sophia enjoyed the party in its entirety, especially her short lecture to the guys in on all things related to the Disney princesses.

It was a good first birthday weekend, and I'm thankful for friends and family who came to celebrate with us.

In closing, I want to share one of Levi's emerging quirks...it appears that he loves to 'hide' or put items in odd places. Straightening his room recently, I found three missing socks in a shopping bag. What gets me is the purposeful placement of these socks...they were all worn on different days, and he evidently had a ritual of discarding one of the pair in the shopping bag at some point during the day. A few days ago, Rob spied some puzzle pieces in the crock pot that was waiting to be stowed in the living room storage space, and last night as we talked to Rob's parents on the phone, Levi was putting Cheerios in his daddy's shoe. Rob has learned to shake out his shoes before putting them on, to avoid the odd sock or random toy that Levi has stowed there. Anyway, it's just a funny little thing Levi does. With dogs' propensity for carrying off its family's personal items, it raises the question we've asked ourselves before: "Are we raising a puppy, or a boy?"

Lynda

One Year!

Levi is one year old! He is very different from the tiny baby I brought home last November. He was born with lots of dark brown hair, but he now has wisps of blonde hair. On the day he was born, he looked like a mixture of Pop Howell and Pop Luttrull, with a bit of Uncle Steven thrown in, but over the months, his face has morphed into a baby version of Rob's, with a bit of me around the eyes. He can crawl almost as fast as I can walk, and he's talking to us all the time, though not in words we always understand. He stands on his own, and eats almost everything we put in front of him. He has a laugh that makes us laugh in return, and he's learning new things every day. He's grown so much. I put all of his Tex pictures below so that you can see the progression:

We went on his birthday to have his picture taken. He did so well! Look at my big one-year-old!

Levi's YiaYia, Aunt Sandy, and cousin Sophia came up from Texas to help us celebrate his first birthday. I'll soon post pictures of our visit, along with pictures from his birthday party.

Lynda

Halloween 2009

Deciding Levi's Halloween costume didn't really take any consideration. Early on, I knew I wanted to dress him as a sock monkey, but I was disappointed with the costume options I found online. They didn't look exactly like the socks used to make real sock monkeys, and accuracy is very important to me. So...I decided to make one.

I ordered about eight pairs of extra-large Rockford red-heeled socks, and when they arrived, I thought, "Now what? I can't sew!" I visited websites looking for ideas, and one clever mom suggested sewing a costume over a sleeper, for added warmth. Well, it's quite cold here by Halloween, so I knew this was the solution, and hoped I could pull it off.

Here's an early shot of the construction...

And here's the finished costume. I'm really pleased with how it turned out.

He'll wish someday I'd never taken this picture...but I did. And I love it.

And a bonus shot. After the costume, we tried on Levi's new hat and mittens. This picture makes us so happy!

Lynda