Nora 4 Months Old

       Nora was 4 months old yesterday and had her 4 month well check today.  It is a beautiful warm day for February 22 and the flowers are getting confused, I saw some tulips about 4 inches out of the ground at McFarland Pediatric. 
      Nora is growing fast and is developmentally on track. She can lift her head and use her hands to push up, she is really strong.  She is very responsive when being talked to and likes to talk back to me although I don't know what she is saying yet. She loves her play mat and swing and can reach out and grab the toys with more focus. 
      Nora's pediatrician recommended giving her a small amount of peanut butter every 3 days to help prevent a peanut allergy because August has one. I may also try some solid food soon to see if she is ready or likes it. She is still nursing really well but starting to get more distracted now because of how social she is.
      I got lots of good smiles at this photo shoot. She smiled every time I said her name so maybe its my imagination but there may be a little name recognition going on too!
    

Height: 24.5 inches 61%

Weight: 14 lb 1 oz 61%

Head: 16.22 inches 58%

Valentines and Other Things

 Nora and Riley January 27

 These pictures are about a month old now but I thought they were cute so I wanted to post them anyway!  Riley likes getting in all my Nora photo shoots. I think August is usually napping when I get around to getting some pictures of Nora. She is growing so fast I just want to freeze time!

Riley Art

Riley spends the majority of her time at her little table creating. She cuts, colors, glues and comes up with some fun things that I wouldn't have thought of. It has been a joy to watch the progression of her art and what she is interested in.  I thought It was funny that she made a drawing that was wearing the same clothes as her.

We had fun making a minion out of model magic one day and the other drawing is of some cars she had been drawing a lot of at the time. 

Visiting Ottumwa for Grandma Nancy's Birthday

 We had a fun visit to Ottumwa for my Mom's birthday.  The cousins got to play a little, they hadn't gotten to see each other since Christmas so they loved it!  Liam likes having another boy around, the fact that August is 5 years younger doesn't seem to bother him which is really sweet. This is a picture of Liam reading some books to August.

 Instead of a cake I made some birthday cinnamon rolls, Diane came down for the day too!  I took a Valentine fox craft for the kids so they could all make something together. It was fun to see how they each put it together differently.  Liam turned his into an owl.

Valentines Day Cookies

 This year the kids had so much fun making Christmas cookies that I thought we would make some Valentines ones too.  Riley had fun decorating, she liked mixing the colors on the cookies then adding sprinkles. August ate the first two cookies I gave him then took to eating huge globs of purple frosting so I decided the little sugar fiend could be done. He had fun while it lasted!

 February 14, AKA Valentines Day

Every year on Valentines Day Keenan and I stay in, watch movies, and make a giant heart shaped cookie and a heart shaped pizza. We decided that restaurants are too packed on this day and it was more fun to stay home.  This was our ninth year of upholding the tradition and now with kids a lot has changed. Riley (my personal decorator) likes to get the house all fancied up. She can't reach yet so I put it up and she helps make decorations and decide where they go, we also need more than one pizza! Kyla got a pink candle for the celebration. 

        Riley had a party at preschool, the kids exchanged Valentines and she got to wear her heart pajamas. She had fun making some valentines for all of the kids in her class. She wrote every students name on the front and her name on the inside and added some hearts and stickers for flair. 

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