Noah in March and April

It's been a busy couple of months for Noah.  They grow so fast when they are so little!  Biggest news - Noah is on the move and has two new teeth.

Noah is still fat, surprise surprise.  He seems to have really chunked up the last couple weeks, so I think he will get taller soon.  He went to the doctor a few weeks ago when  he had roseola (of course, we didn't know it was roseola, or I wouldn't have taken him in) and he was a good 22 lbs.  I am sure he weighs more now.  He is growing out of some of his 12 months clothes, depending on the outfit, but isn't really tall enough for 18 month clothes.  Kind of an awkward stage.  His hair is long and growing - kind of with a curl to it, especially when it is wet.  His hair keeps getting in his eyes, so he is really due for a hair cut again.

Noah has cut down on nursing the most of any of my kids.  He still gets distracted during the day and also never asks to nurse.  I usually forget about it until he gets pretty fussy.  He will sometimes go 4 or 5 hours without nursing.  He still wakes up to nurse once at night and I doubt that is going anywhere.  But he is a little demanding when it comes to nursing.  If I pump, he knows.  And when he wakes up at night, even if it has been a couple hours, he is MAD (he also has an anger problem compared to the other kids at this age ...).  He will nurse a bit and then get mad that there isn't as much in there as he thinks there should be.

But boy, can he eat.  Yeah, he only did spoon food for probably a month.  Now, he just eats anything and everything he can get his hands on.  He can eat a cheese stick almost as fast as Logan!  He eats cereal or eggs or fruit or whatever he gets for breakfast.  He eats cheese sticks and crackers and fruits (really loves grapes and strawberries) and sandwiches and hot dogs and pasta and whatever he can get for lunch.  He eats pretty much what we do for dinner - pizza, turkey burgers, fish, beans, pasta, etc.  He makes a royal mess, but loves to eat.  We have to plan on 6 for meals now!

Moving - for most of the last couple months, he has been kind of rolling and swiveling to get what he wanted, then he added in some scooting.  But the last week, he has really gotten the army crawl to work.  He can get around now and he does.  He will try to crawl after us and will crawl as soon as he spots his favorite toy (TRIO blocks - long ones - he would prefer to have one or two in his fist all day and night to chew on as desired.  He also loves Lego blocks (though those come in second place), especially little guns, helmets, and heads that he likes to hold in his chipmunk cheeks.  I swear - I will think they are all picked up and he will find one!  He has no interest in baby toys, but loves to chew on whatever his brothers play with.  He likes to crawl around in the playroom, but he still likes to be held a good chunk of the time.  He doesn't like to contentedly sit though - he wiggles around and tries for you to hold him or tries to plunge to the ground.  Anything but sit still.  Let me tell you - between the four of them and Katsu on the stand, sacrament meeting is non-stop movement and chaos in our row.

Noah has two teeth on the bottom.  He seems like he's been teething the last few days, but I don't know if he is ready to get more teeth yet.  He doesn't suck on his thumb as much, but he does when he goes to sleep.  It's like a reflex - give him his gray blanket, he sticks in his thumb, and he closes his eyes.  So cute.

He sleeps ... differently than the other boys.  He is becoming more resistant to sleep (more fun things to do) and also seems to need his naps a little less.  As long as he is sleepy and it's reasonably quiet, you can lay him in his bed and he'll go to sleep, though it will often take 15 minutes or more for him to fall asleep.  As long as he has his blankie, he is good to go.  He resists more going to bed at night now.  He'll fuss and not sleep and eventually I'll go back in, maybe nurse him again since he didn't nurse well before, and maybe repeat again before he will finally go to sleep.  He will not fall asleep in your arms unless under duress (i.e. church and he is finally so tired he can't resist), so I can't rock him to sleep, so I don't really have any tools up my sleeve, except his crib and his blankie.  He has been waking up really early the last week or two - like 5 am.  Some days I am successful at getting him back to sleep, sometimes not.  I am hoping it is just a very short phase.  He takes two naps almost every day.  Usually one is a good one - like 1.5-2 hours, and the second one is somewhat shorter.

Noah is not super cuddly.  He likes me to be around and will check in, but he wants to face out and see the world.

Fun Things

• Neighborhood easter egg hunt - Noah was cold, but got a cute picture with easter bunny
• Katsu was out of town a couple times, so extra time with mom.
• A sort of abbreviated Easter celebration week - we talked about Palm Sunday, watched some of the church Easter videos, did a Jesus dinner on Thursday and had hot cross buns, but Katsu was out of town most of the week and then he was home for a day and then we were out of town, so it was kind of crazy.
• SPRING BREAK!!!  On Friday morning, we drove to Williamsburg and then we went straight to Busch Gardens.  We bought season passes and were able to get free ones for Seth and Logan.  The first day, we went to the first Sesame Street place and did all the rides and ended up waiting in line for awhile.  Once, we got outside of that part of the park, we were able to see lots of other things.  There were rides for the kids everywhere and lots of fun ones.  Seth went on everything he was tall enough for.  He even went on a water ride (Pompeii) that I think was a little scary for him.  We even got to see animals and watch a couple shows - Irish Dancing and a wild animal encounter show.  After we were all thoroughly worn out, we checked into our hotel.  We were staying in a vacation rental and had two big bedrooms and a full kitchen and a patio.  The boys LOVED it.  We went to Trader Joes and got all of our favorite foods and ate like kings over the weekend.  The second day, we had breakfast and then went to Busch Gardens again.  This time, we had a better idea where to go and we didn't wait in as many lines.  We got to ride everything and it was really fun.  The boys all had a blast.  Once we were worn out and had done everything, we went back to the resort.  The boys all went to mini golf and the pool while Noah took a nap.  They LOVED it, especially the mini golf.  Then, they came home and all slept in one of the bedrooms and got to watch Nick and all the cable shows.  They were in paradise.  And even better - on Sunday morning, they woke up and the Easter bunny had come.  They ran all over searching for eggs.  We packed up, checked out, and drove to Great Wolf Lodge and bought a wand and the boys worked together and did MagiQuest, for like 5 hours!  By then, we beat the first dragon and were SO worn out!!!  So, we drove back to NC to enjoy the rest of the spring break.  Of course, the whole thing was a little crazy for Noah, but he did great.  It's only a 3 hr drive and he slept most of the time.  And we just put his pack and play in our bedroom and he did just fine sleeping at night.
• Basically living on the sidelines of soccer games and baseball practices.

Seth in March and April 2015

This has been a very busy two months for everyone, but Seth especially.  Soccer started the first week in March and Seth has had a game every week and the last couple weeks, two a week.  Seth LOVES soccer.  It is his true love.  He is always trying to get anyone he can to play with him.  He is very serious about it and wants everyone to play exactly by the rules, which can sometimes turn the neighbor kids off from it.  Poor kid - he would just be happiest playing soccer games every day all day long.  He is doing well on his team.  His coach is not the best, but Seth is still loving it and making anywhere from 2-8 goals per game.  He is a little jumping bean, jumping up and down in excitement but always seems to be in the right place, anticipating everything, good about getting in and turning the ball around and making lots of goals.  He is a great goalie, too, and has made some really nice saves this year.  After a game is over, Seth doesn't want to leave the soccer field and wants to keep playing soccer.  When we finally realized he should have a soccer birthday party for his party this year, he can't stop thinking about his party either.  Seth's dream in life is to be a professional soccer player and he talks about it often.

Besides soccer, Seth just started playing baseball.  He has had a few practices and seems to be doing well.  Right now, he has two practices a week.  After three weeks of practices, the games will start so we will see how those go.  I find it a little stressful trying to manage four boys at all this games and practices.  But Seth would be happy to just play sports all day every day.

Otherwise, Seth is busy with school.  Kindergarten is still going well.  He reads well (well above grade level), but when it comes to testing he hasn't shown any improvement this year because you have to read and answer questions in writing, which is tough for a Kindergartener.  His teacher says that his writing has become a lot more focused and clearer, so he is making improvement!  He likes to read the leveled reader books - like levels 2 and 3.  The short "chapter" books that have about 4 chapters.  He is not quite ready for books like Magic Tree House, though he can read them.  They are still a little long for him.  He still really loves Ricky Ricotta books the best.  He has continued to do really well with math and has learned addition with carrying and subtraction with borrowing.  His teacher has also started to teach him money and measurement.  He and another boy get extra math lessons from the assistant teacher because they are so far ahead.

Seth went on his first field trip in April.  They went to the Nuese Riverway Nature Center (or something like that) in Kinston and got to see animals and nature stuff.  But what I mostly heard about was how they got to go get pizza at Pizza Inn afterwards and how they got to ride the school bus.  It sounds like he had a lot of fun.  He also had field day last Friday and I think he had a lot of fun.  I saw some pictures and it looked like fun, and boy, his clothes sure got dirty to prove it!  Too bad they couldn't come in play clothes instead of uniforms.  In March, they had Jump Rope for Heart, which was fun.  Seth's class also won for the kindergarten classes in the Box Top drive, so they got free snow cones from the Kona Ice truck at school.

Seth has been doing really well with piano.  He is very diligent at getting his practicing done each week, but he also just seems to enjoy it and will sit down and play at other times.  He finished the 1A books and is now on level 1B.  He really enjoys playing the duets with me.  He is very good at counting and getting the beats alright and is really starting to learn his notes well.

Seth is also good at remembering to do his chores.  He is in charge of gathering all the trash each Monday and remembers to do it without asking.  He always wants to do what is right and gets really stressed out when he thinks he can't get it done.

Overall, things have seemed to go well for Seth this month.  He is pretty mellow most of the time except when he freaks out about certain things (like having to clean the upstairs or not getting to play video games when he wants).

Fun Things in March and April

• Jump Rope for Heart (he got enough donations to get a couple ducks and a free jump rope)
• Starting soccer
• Friend's birthday party at Jump Fit.
• Ward Chili cookoff and talent show - Seth was so upset we didn't tell him about this beforehand so he could get a talent right.  Like fuming upset.  I guess we'll have to prepare better next year and he can play the piano.
• Corned Beef and Cabbage for St. Patrick's Day - I also made a little treasure hunt with clues for the boys to find some candy leprachaun hats that I had made.  The boys loved it and had a lot of fun finding it hiding in Katsu's closet.
• Little Princess musical - I went with Seth and Andrew.  The boys were perplexed at the beginning by all the singing and kept asking me when it was going to be done.  The first act did start out pretty slow, but I think they enjoyed it.  They kept asking me when "half time" was - i.e., intermission.  They fell fast asleep on the drive home, all tangled on top of each other.  Pretty cute.
• Neighborhood easter egg hunt - boys rode their bikes over and grabbed tons of eggs.  A cold day, but a lot of fun.  Seth and Andrew were too cool to take a picture with the easter bunny, silly boys.
• Went to feed the homeless with Katsu.
• Katsu was out of town a couple times, so extra time with mom (and more TV time than usual).
• Watching the play of Treasure Island with Katsu.  We had tried listening to the book on tape on a trip earlier, so I think Seth sort of knew the story.  The story was pretty well done and Seth enjoyed it.
• A sort of abbreviated Easter celebration week - we talked about Palm Sunday, watched some of the church Easter videos, did a Jesus dinner on Thursday and had hot cross buns, but Katsu was out of town most of the week and then he was home for a day and then we were out of town, so it was kind of crazy.
• Easter egg hunts at school - they all came home with tons of candy and toys and eggs.  Craziness!
• SPRING BREAK!!!  On Friday morning, we drove to Williamsburg and then we went straight to Busch Gardens.  We bought season passes and were able to get free ones for Seth and Logan.  The first day, we went to the first Sesame Street place and did all the rides and ended up waiting in line for awhile.  Once, we got outside of that part of the park, we were able to see lots of other things.  There were rides for the kids everywhere and lots of fun ones.  Seth went on everything he was tall enough for.  He even went on a water ride (Pompeii) that I think was a little scary for him.  We even got to see animals and watch a couple shows - Irish Dancing and a wild animal encounter show.  After we were all thoroughly worn out, we checked into our hotel.  We were staying in a vacation rental and had two big bedrooms and a full kitchen and a patio.  The boys LOVED it.  We went to Trader Joes and got all of our favorite foods and ate like kings over the weekend.  The second day, we had breakfast and then went to Busch Gardens again.  This time, we had a better idea where to go and we didn't wait in as many lines.  We got to ride everything and it was really fun.  The boys all had a blast.  Once we were worn out and had done everything, we went back to the resort.  The boys all went to mini golf and the pool while Noah took a nap.  They LOVED it, especially the mini golf.  Then, they came home and all slept in one of the bedrooms and got to watch Nick and all the cable shows.  They were in paradise.  And even better - on Sunday morning, they woke up and the Easter bunny had come.  They ran all over searching for eggs.  We packed up, checked out, and drove to Great Wolf Lodge and bought a wand and the boys worked together and did MagiQuest, for like 5 hours!  By then, we beat the first dragon and were SO worn out!!!  So, we drove back to NC to enjoy the rest of the spring break.
• The rest of the spring break, we just relaxed.
• One day of spring break, I took the boys to an Andean and South American music concert.  Seth was so tired.  He seemed to enjoy it, but his eyes were drooping and he feel asleep.  But I think he really enjoyed going to a concert.
• Seth and I went to go see Curious George (along with Logan).  It was a musical, a lot like the TV show.  I think Seth really enjoyed it and the story line.  It was pretty cute and surprisingly well done.
• Pirate Fest - the boys got to see a BMX show while chowing on free chips and drinks.  Seth was walking in his cleats the whole time from soccer which was a little tiring, but it's always fun to see the whole town dressed up as pirates and we even saw a live mermaid this year!  The boys played games and earned candy along the river and then we cooled off with some ice cream.  It was a lot of fun, even after two tiring soccer games!
• Camping with Dad and Andrew and Logan for a ward campout.  The boys had a blast - smores, foil dinners, playing with friends, in the water, etc.  
• Field day at school