More Birthday Fun

Did I mention that April is a busy month? Last Saturday we continued the theme of birthdays as we celebrated Zander turning 4. He is getting so big! He has been pretty unlucky with weather on his birthdays in the past, but this year was finally a mild spring day. Meg planned a soccer-themed party, complete with table decorations, a cake, and a mini-soccer goal and blow-up balls. Zander plays soccer while he is at school [daycare], and right now it is his favorite sport. He is getting pretty good at kicking the ball (left-footed!), and it is a great activity for an energetic little boy! After Zander's party that morning, I got together with some of my girlfriends to celebrate Katie's and my birthdays. Our birthdays are two days apart, and we have celebrated together many times in the past while in high school and on into adulthood. Katie's little boy Grant is about 7 weeks old, and it was a sweet moment to blow out the candles with both of us holding our babies!

 A few other updates, we are continuing to practice eating from a spoon. Em is doing a great job with opening her mouth and swallowing. I can't take too much credit for the progress; Grammy is the one that has been working with Em each day that they are together. We are still using rice cereal for now, but we plan to introduce fruits and vegetables soon. She still makes funny faces as she moves the rice cereal around in her mouth, so I am curious to see her reaction to sweet potatoes, pears, apples, and carrots! Given the early struggles we had with nursing, I have been nervous about this next stage of eating, but Em seems to have caught on pretty quickly. We are noticing that she is filling out a bit, and it is almost time to move into size 2 diapers. We will probably make the switch in the next few days. Thanks to our wonderful friends and family, we have yet to buy any diapers. My stockpile goes all the way to size 4; what a blessing!

The week has included more jumping in her exersaucer, pants-less walks with Grammy [correction: pants for Grammy, but no pants for Em!], and scooting and rolling around during play time. For the first time this week, Em rolled onto her belly during nap time. I had just put Em in her crib, and I was surprised to look at the monitor and see her on her tummy. Since I usually put her down when she is still somewhat awake, I suppose it was her way of telling me that she wasn't quite ready to nap. Just like a turtle turned on its shell, she didn't seem to know what to do. I quietly snuck back in to her room and gently turned her over; I snuck back out again before she could figure out what had happened. I haven't caught her actually sleeping on her belly yet; her favorite pose is on her back with one hand resting up by her face. She looks so precious while she is sleeping. As I write this, she has been asleep for about 30 minutes. Daddy is at school this evening for baseball, softball, and soccer games, and hopefully he will be home soon. I also had a later evening after an event we had on campus today for high school juniors. It has been a busy week, so I am hoping that we all catch some zzz's this weekend!