Levi and the belly

Levi's been more interested in crafts lately. I'm trying to supply him with more these days because he's getting old enough to need to be stimulated and entertained more than just with toys. It's a new world for both of us. So, we bought a few wooden trains at Wal-mart and some paint. He was pretty excited to get to it.

He did really well, I thought. He asked me a few times to help him, but for the most part I tried to really get him to do it all himself. He really enjoys painting much more than coloring.

This is my favorite shot of them all. He concentrated so intently on his art. And now he has a train to play with that is all his own. It stands apart from all his other trains when he's playing with the track.

Just a random cute photo of Levi from this week. There are oh so many that go unpublished.

Yesterday Levi and I went with Papa to get his hair cut. We decided however to just stay in the car rather than sit in hard chairs inside. Levi loves to get up in the driver's seat...just like all kids do. Opening up the sun roof and climbing up high used to be his favorite thing to do in Hawaii parking lots. But he hasn't been able to do it near as much here in the chilly northwest. I let us endure the cold for a few minutes in order for him to get his fill.

These next few pictures are ones that Levi orchestrated himself. He's gotten pretty into posing for my new camera. He comes up with some good ones, I must say. He also helped me put this blog post together, so I had to include his favorites as well.

This is his favorite one. He wanted me to capture Rocket flying. Now he's asleep on the couch next to me, exhausted from looking through so many pictures. All for his public though.

We took a few portraits of ourselves. I am his girl after all. Again, he was the pose director in these. He kept climbing over my shoulder, positioning my head on his shoulder and touching my cheek like that. After I would snap the picture he would ask to see it and then set up for the next one.

And the baby girl belly. We are 8 months now. We have about 7 weeks left. At my last doctor's appointment I discussed the upcoming scheduling of our c-section. At our next appointment we'll actually set a date. But he said to count on it being sometime in the last week of December. That's oh so very close, really. If I think about it for too long I start to get nervous about all the hospital stuff. It is a little unsettling coming into a new hospital with only a few months to get to know the people who are going to handle such an important procedure. I'm just trying to saturate the whole experience in prayer. That the doctors would be professional and devoted to doing their best for us. That the right time would be set, that everything would go smoothly, obviously. And millions of other things too. I'm getting pretty excited about having her in my arms soon though. We all know she's going to be so very precious. I'm getting close to finishing her nursery. As soon as I feel like it's done or at least nearly done I'll post pictures.

I feel pretty darn huge. Nathan says I'm smaller than last time, but I don't know. I just know I feel uncomfortable, massive, awkward....did I mention huge? Yep. That's the way it goes I guess.

Levi watched me set up the tripod and set the timer on the camera to take these photos of myself. After my running back and forth a few times he wanted to stick his head in and make sure he was also recorded. The Belly and the Levi.