Levi, in case you couldn’t tell by the title of this post, gets into everything.  He’s been crawling since Christmas.  He’s been pulling himself up ever since he was able to crawl over to a worthy piece of furniture.  Or pant leg.  Or unworthy piece of furniture which collapses, falls, or flips under his 20 pounds.

He is very inquisitive and desires very strongly to explore every possible thing.  With his mouth.

Just today, I found him with dried kidney beans in his mouth.  After investigating further, I found a bag of kidney beans in the kitchen that he had stolen from the pantry and ripped open with his teeth*.

Right now is a rare quiet time where the older two are sitting on top of their desk with their books, reading.  They have to sit on top of furniture to keep their precious paper products away from the papervore.  (Papervore. Noun. A child with a diet of mostly paper.)  Levi,  having not realized what the other two are up to, is pulling all his baby toys out of their basket one by one and sucking on each before reaching for another.  This is rare because he normally does not want to have anything to do with baby toys, usually preferring, well, paper.

Perhaps he’s finally pulled down and digested all the paper within arm’s reach.  Gone are the art project on the fridge.  Torn are the achievements hanging from the walls.  Hidden are the bills I mean to pay yet keep forgetting about because I don’t think to look behind the picture frames…

Uh oh.  He’s pulled himself up to the desk.  This could be bad.

I’ve had to tape two separate library books back together in the past week because of this little boy.

At least he’s not trying to pull all the keys off the laptop.  Which is his usual habit as soon as I pull it out.

I spend most of my day holding him because he has to be where the action is and the action is constantly moving. He gets so frustrated when I go from room to room collecting laundry or putting away the random toys I find.  He crawls as fast as he can to catch me, just to have me pass him by to complete another task in yet another room.  He turns and follows only to have the pattern repeat.  I run from task to task as quickly as I can, then scoop him up in my arms when I’m done and apologize for playing hard-to-get.

It can be frustrating.  But then Josh comes home, sees his antics, and declares this age to be the absolute best.  And then I sit and watch Levi walk himself around the coffee table over to the exercise ball, and gleefully laugh while repeatedly bouncing his head off the ball and I have to admit it.  He’s right.

*Levi has spent the past month or so sprouting four top teeth.  At the same time.  They are all officially in.  Not all the way, but the “cutting” stage is FINALLY complete.  So his grand total is six when you add the two on the bottom.  He’s looking more like a toddler everyday. Sigh.