Wednesday, June 24, 2020

8 Months

Easton is 11 months today, so it's about time I post about his 8th month. I didn't write down any notes, but I can at least record what I posted on Instagram. And the pictures and videos from the month fill in a lot of the gaps.

Easton at 8 months:

*Is crawling.
*Pulls himself up to standing.
*Was clapping for a few days. He didn't continue doing this skill for long, but (spoiler alert) has picked it back up and loves clapping at 11 months. 
*Does a little wrist wave that people think is a wave, but it was just something he did for awhile and wasn't actually in response to people waving at him. 
*Has been to Disneyland twice! (The other kids hadn't even been once by this age.)

Easton's 8th month in pictures:

Nothing better than snuggling a baby after nursing him to sleep. Asking for a friend: How many of these pictures is too many?! 😂


My sweet neighbor/friend, Erin, was so sweet to watch Easton and Logan for me one morning while I went running. (Rog had early morning meetings this week, so I couldn't go before he left for work.) Easton freaked out soon after I left and she finally got him calmed down and to sleep right before I got back. (I was only gone about 25 minutes.) 


The Yates had better luck watching him for us while we went to the temple one Saturday afternoon.


At the airport bright and early to catch a flight for his second Disneyland trip. It was a super quick trip for my birthday and he was the only kid that got to come along.


The cutest giggles in line for "it's a small world."


Corbyn fell asleep on "it's a small world" when he was a baby too.


Stroller nap champ!


Hanging out with dad while mom rode Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.


Best third wheel we could have asked for!


He got to meet so many characters on our second day and they just loved him!



We were exploring the Disneyland Hotel and one of the cast members gave him this Mickey for free because she thought he was so cute!


Applesauce (especially cinnamon applesauce) was his favorite food when he started solids. 


Woody riding Jessie's Critter Carousel.


And then meeting the whole Toy Story gang (including another Woody)!


Bath time at the Howard Johnson Hotel. It's kind of hiding in this picture, but they always have a rubber ducky in your room that you get to take home.


The Yates gave us the cute Mickey moccasins he's rocking in this picture when I was pregnant with him.


😍😍😍


Where's Easton? Under the couch! This happened all the time.


He would roll and roll and roll until he got stuck somewhere. I don't remember any of my other kids doing this!


Getting up in crawling position...


Chubby baby rolls for days!


Finally figured out how to crawl - March 16th. He just needed some motivation (a Lego minifigure).


First St. Patrick's Day.


Hanging out on the trampoline (long, but cute video). He does his little wrist wave at the end.


First time riding in the hiking backpack. We got this for Corbyn and have used it for every kid.


This was on a hike on Logan's birthday.


We found this hat in the backpack. It was Logan's when he was about a year old. It's too big for Easton now, but I'm sure it will fit him before we know it.


First time visiting the Cherry Blossoms at the Tom McCall Riverfront Park.




😴


First visit to the coast.


He was being fussy this day and all he wanted was a wet washcloth. They are one of his favorite things and he's always reaching for the gross ones that have been used to wipe down the counters.


Happy 8 months little man!



Realized this toy was up in my closet and got it down for the occasion. Grandma Dixie got it for Corbyn for his first Christmas and all the kids have enjoyed it.

Thursday, June 4, 2020

5 Years

I haven't done any blogging other than Easton's monthly posts since he was born, but at least I was all caught up on those and then COVID-19 hit and I haven't blogged since! 😲 Now I have 3 months of Easton updates to do as well as Logan and Peyton's yearly blogs (and soon enough Corbyn's). GAH! Let's see if I can get blogging back into my schedule and pound some of these out since I do want to at least have these monthly and yearly updates for my kids. 

I don't have Logan's 5 year stats because his 5 year well child visit was cancelled due to COVID-19. Hopefully it will be rescheduled soon. I will come back and update when/if that ever happens.

Logan at 5 years:

*Is still incredibly competitive. He hates to lose when we play games as a family and will throw a fit whenever that happens. This is something we're working on.
*Will eat food on buns and in tortillas now. This is HUGE for him!
*Is very good at playing video games on the Switch and other gaming systems. He was spending way too much of his time on screens during the day, but since COVID-19 hit and the big kids have been home all day, he's gotten out of that habit and only asks to watch/play during times we have designated as free time. (One good thing that has come from the Coronavirus!)
*Gets himself dressed, but isn't careful and often ends up with his shirt on backyards (especially if it's a shirt that doesn't have a design on the front) and always has one sock inside out.
*Loves the colors orange and yellow and pepperoni pizza.
*Asks lots of questions.
*Says he is tired when he is bored. I was a little worried about him (and would think, why is he always tired?!) until I figured that out. 😂
*Doesn't like nicknames and gets mad anytime we try to call him anything other than Logan.
*Is quick to say thank you and I love you.
*Loves pointing out the letters in his name and is learning the other 21 letters.
*Can count to 20+.
*As I wrote last year, he still has a long way to go with his speech, but he has made great progress over the last year. His current struggle is with switching the k and t sounds at the front and ends of words. He also has been adding re to the front of lots of words.
*Is much more willing to participate at preschool than he was last year. His teacher told us that last year he would stand back and watch, but this year he'd actually jump in and participate! I think it helped that he had 3 friends in his class that he knew from church while last year he didn't know anyone, but also I think he was just more comfortable with school in general and has become more confident with himself as his speech has progressed.
*Has transitioned from being the baby of the family to the middle boy.
*Is constantly at war with Peyton, but gets along well with Corbyn and Easton for the most part.
*Hates looking at the camera and smiling. This is a constant struggle because I love taking pictures of my kids. 😂

Some of my favorite Logan pictures from the last year:



This is his school picture from last year. His preschool does school pictures in the spring and I'm so sad he won't have one from his 2nd year of preschool since they hadn't taken them yet when school got cancelled for COVID-19.



Sweet memories of our walks together when I was pregnant with Easton.


He had a thing for mailboxes for a long time and would always point them out.


His cousin Skyler is less than a year older than him. They are both very competitive and often are in competition with each other.







The day he was no longer the baby of the family.




He wasn't very impressed with the baby at first and wouldn't ask to hold him on his own. (That has changed as Easton has gotten older.) 











He loved taking pictures with this frog at the park where Corbyn had his running practices.




An ice cream date at Salt and Straw while the big kids were at school. I asked if he wanted his own or if he wanted to share with me and he chose to share. 💙









A little nervous before the big drop on Splash Mountain. Who can blame him?!



He was tall enough for all the big rides at Disneyland (other than Indiana Jones and the Incredicoaster), but didn't really care or want to ride them.


This was after Guardians of the Galaxy, but his reaction was pretty much the same after all the big rides. 😂




His speech therapist that worked with him once a month at his preschool was concerned his fine motor skills weren't where they should be, so we started doing mom school most days after lunch and we would practice things like beading, cutting, and writing.


We spent a lot of time driving to and from his speech group that was 20 minutes away each Thursday afternoon.




I wanted him to practice riding his bike more, so I got him in the habit of riding his bike to the bus stop most afternoons.



Gingerbread houses are most definitely not my favorite Christmas thing. He had a gingerbread building activity at his school where the parents were supposed to come help. He was not very impressed with my building skills, but I was just happy I built something that was able to stand on its own!


He got a pretty bad cold right before Christmas that he shared with almost the whole family. He never naps and he didn't actually fall asleep, but it just showed how sick he was that he would lay down for a few minutes and try to fall asleep.









Painting a snowman at a preschool field trip to an art stuido.


He did this before we said prayers for months. One of my favorite Logan things. 




He was on a Jake and the Never Land Pirates kick before his birthday, so I made him a Jake 5 cake. His birthday was right at the very start of COVID-19. We ended up canceling his friend birthday party, but we had the Hobbs over for dinner and cake the Sunday before his birthday before everything was locked down.


I don't know where he got this or if he made it up himself, but it's another one of my favorite Logan things.


Logan has had his struggles (mostly related to his speech), but he also has so many good qualities. One time my dad witnessed him in competition with Skyler and told us after that Logan was going to be just fine because anyone with that competitive nature is going to go places! We love our competitive Logan!