Landon's 4th Birthday

Landon Boy is 4 years old! His birthday was much anticipated; it's always hard for him to be patient for his birthday when he has Daddy's to celebrate first. But his special day finally arrived and he was so happy. He came down for breakfast with a big smile on his face. 

 

We celebrated with a pan-pake breakfast and a morning present so he could open up his Ninja Turtle shirt. He was so proud of this shirt he ran around showing me his ninja moves for a good 3 minutes, though there was a slight pause to wonder why in the world it was snowing on his birthday since we'd told him it was springtime.

 

 

Most of his day was spent chilling with me and being super patient while I made his Ninja Turtle cake. I erroneously thought this cake would be my easiest, and my poor time management skills of late meant I didn't make the cake the day before. Nora was at the beginning of a cold, which meant she wanted to be held when she was awake and only took 40 minute naps. That is not enough time to make a cake, make breadsticks, and make homemade pizza! So, Landon's requested pizza dinner became take out. I got two out of the three made, so we'll call it a win. And Landon was so so so happy with his cake, which made all the effort worth it, even if it was only a finished masterpiece for about 2.5 hours before we then cut into it!

 

 Grandparents came over for the dinner and to celebrate what an awesome kid Landon is. 

Like I mentioned, we had pizza and breadsticks and vegetables with Ranch. 

Then it was present time! All Landon asked for was Legos. Grandparents fulfilled that wish and many more with all the cool super hero stuff and Lego sets. Landon was over the moon with everything and really grateful for it all. He was just super methodical about it all, examining everything and opening his presents deliberately.

 

 

And not to take away from Landon on his big day, but it was adorable to see the tired Nora snuggling with Grandma Downing, who got her to take a much-needed nap! 

 

After presents was cake time. Clearly we need to go over the rules of birthday cakes because Devin forgot to make a wish on his birthday, and Landon blew out the candles before we'd finished singing to him! The cake ended up being delicious, thanks to Aunt Christy's way to doctor up a boxed cake mix!

 

Landon sure had a fabulous day and spent the next day building every single Lego set (with Mom's and Devin's help). Happy Birthday Landon!!

Landon's Birthday Questionnaire

How old are you? 4

What makes you happy? Playing

What is your favorite animal? Lion

What is your favorite thing to eat? Pizza

What is your least favorite thing to eat? Soup

What is your favorite thing to do? Play with Legos

What is your favorite TV show? Wild Kratts

What are you really good at? Riding my scooter

What is your favorite movie? Big Hero 6 and Minions

What is your favorite color? Blue

What is your favorite song? "I am a Child of God"

Who is your best friend? Max

What do you and your mom do together? Play games

What do you and your dad do together? Work together

What is your favorite sport? Soccer

Where is your favorite place to go? iHOP and Idaho

What is your favorite book? Superhero Squad

What do you want to be when you grow up? Fire hydrant (firefighter!)

Nora 5 Months

Time is flying by, and this girl is already 5 months old! Nora continues to be the sweetest little thing, and we are so lucky to get to be a part of her life. 

Her smile just lights up her face (and mine) and makes me so happy. When I sneak into her room it brightens my whole day to see her get so happy to see me.

She has discovered her tongue and loves to chew on it and roll it around in her mouth. She's also discovered the joy of blowing raspberries and bubbles. She's a drooly baby and has had to wear the bib of shame every once in awhile, and her favorite thing to chew on are her shirts. She get frustrated when her shirts aren't loose enough to get up to her mouth. Chewing on her fingers and hands is still a favorite past time, but she has started grasping toys and her hand control has gotten really good.

It still amazes me how quiet she can be, but when she does feel like talking it continues to be the highest-pitched little birdie squeals, and I can't get enough of them. Nora isn't very ticklish yet, though I can get a little giggle every once in awhile--other than this, she doesn't seem to laugh much. She's just a quiet thing! 

She still loves the attention to be on her and coughs or fake cries to get me or the boys to come over, but even with this need for the spotlight, she's content to roll around and roam the rug for good amounts of time. She rolls really quickly both ways and will put up her arms out (like she's flying) when she's ready for your to pick her up. The stinker has even started purposely trying to move herself forward or toward an object she wants. She'll reach out her arms as far as she can, and if that doesn't work, she'll put her toes up and try to push herself forward, sometimes doing a side roll at the same time. I was shocked the first time I saw her do this! She's definitely growing up. I've also caught her a few times with her knees up under her; thank goodness her forearms are still on the ground, but she is getting stronger and working up to crawling, for sure.

Her sleeping hasn't improved a ton, but she did sleep one whole magical night all the way through on March 16th. I fed her around 7:30 and then for some reason didn't dreamfeed her, and then I awoke at 7:25 the next morning in a confused daze, wondering "Did I feed Nora in the night!?" She then took a 3-hour nap that day, but it was all a fluke and the next night continued her trend of waking at least once a night, sometimes more. The silver lining is that since she's exhausted at bedtime because of all the horrible napping/night sleep she's falling asleep while eating, which means I can get some super sweet sleeping baby pics.

She's starting to lengthen out her days and will go 3.5-4 hours between feedings sometimes, and is napping better some days too. But our routine is still all over the place, and I'm just trying to take it in stride because she really is the best baby. She's just chill and happy and a sweetheart. 

 

She's also so patient with all the other things I'm doing with the boys, and though she hates the car seat, she's pretty good about getting schlepped all over! She is starting to get more interested in food and will now kick her feet or even reach for the cup, etc. when we're eating. We gave her a tiny bit of green bean and a peach, but nothing else so far. I'm thinking we'll start that sometime soon.

She still loves her brothers and reserves her brightest smiles for them, though she continues to love Mommy the most (because I feed her). She is lucky to be a little sister to two awesome brothers.

What I love, however, is when Rich comes home at night and Nora just stares at him till he'll look at her, then her face just beams. It's like she's flirting with him. Adorable. She still isn't loving the bottle, even though we bought a special, expensive one, so we're hoping that improves too. Rich was pretty sad when I left her one night and she just refused to take the bottle. She did take the bottle a little better for Grandma Millett, but still not awesome.

She likes to listen to books before bed and nap time, and "Once I was a Baby" still brings big smiles. She also loves nursery rhymes. We got out the toys and she's been able to hold onto them and sucks on them to her heart's content. We got out the exersaucer about 4.5 months, but it took an extra week for her to really like it and not get too overwhelmed. 

We sure love Nora and can't believe 5 months have come and gone! We're so looking forward to the next 5 months!! Love you Baby Girl!