Henry is 4.

My cute little baby turns 4 today. He really was the best baby. Loved to sleep. I'm sure I didn't appreciate it enough at the time. From early in his life he taught us that he likes to do things his own way, and that there are just people in the world who really don't care what any one else is doing or what they think. He's really does things at his own pace and in his own way.
He's been begging me to measure how tall he is, so we finally do this morning.
He is 41 3/4 inches tall and 40 lbs. He's grown almost 2 inches in six months.

He's always been a ball of brute strength, though finally now he has found the ability to control his own strength and isn't quite the Destroyer that he once was.

A few months ago he came up to me and asked, "Mom, What does 'dimple' mean?" I laughed out loud, all his life people have been talking to him about his dimples and he had no idea what they were talking about.

He is such a great big brother to Wyatt. He loves him so much he can hardly keep from touching him and pulling on him and kissing him constantly. He recently said to Wyatt, "Wyatt, you are gross. But we love you because we love gross people." Then he gave him a kiss.
When people tells me that Wyatt looks like Henry all I can say is- Yes, but without all of the things that make Henry look so naughty. Like 5 cowlicks and giant dimples. He's a little daredevil and fun-loving maniac. And he is the most cuddly kid who loves to snuggle up and give hugs and kisses.

He really makes me laugh everyday. He is such a fun guy and I love the time that we get to spend together before he heads off to school. Happy Birthday Henry!

I will survive

Somedays I wonder if we will survive Wyatt as a baby. We still live in a 2 bedroom duplex and have decided that 2 parents and 1 baby being woken up in the night is better than 2 parents and 3 children awake, so Wyatt still sleeps in our room or the living room when we think to move his crib out there. I know some of you are thinking, "Why is he still getting up in the night when he is almost 8 months old?" And the really annoying part is, he isn't really getting up. He just reaches this partially asleep state while he moves around, or searches out his pacifier and he talks to himself during this time. Loudly. Like the kind of loud baby babbling that we all find cute and funny during the daytime hours, or when you can hear him settling in for a nap. But not so cute at 4am. Seldom do we even have to get up and do anything for him, but yet, one or both of us is always awake for it. For all of our poor blog readers who attend church with us on Sunday, you know exactly what I am referring to. He's not sad, just really loud and talkative.
He also seems to be going through a serious growth spurt. It does wonders for his naps, but is not as wonderful when he wakes up at 5:30 or 6 starving and super angry that we have not immediately provided him with some kind of nourishment at that hour. He then proceeds to suck down a bottle and pass out cold for about 2 more hours, with a 2 fisted grip on the shirt of whichever parent got the pleasure of feeding him... just daring us to leave him to sleep alone.
The other fun thing is that he has been teething since he was 3 months old, and while he has 6 teeth and many more partially on the way, he can sometimes become incredibly annoyed with us when his poor mouth hurts. All I can think in those times- "Curse you Highlands teething tablets for being taken off the market!"
This morning as I left all of the boys in the living room and went to move laundry to the dryer, I walked in and found that Wyatt was missing (I was gone like 2 minutes tops). Gavin and Henry were both looking at books and hadn't notice. I turned around to look in their room and found him on the floor with a mouthful of legos. Luckily for me, they were big ones, one in each cheek.

You may wonder why I am blogging about the craziness of this baby, but sometimes, I think it needs to be said. Raising kids, especially babies, is not all sunshine and flowers (especially not the flowers part in my house full of boys). Sometimes things get really exhausting and hard. There... I said it.

All of these fun experiences really just make me realize, it is only the beginning. We are on the wild ride that is our crazy lives right now, and I had better just get used to it and stop thinking it will change in the next phase of Wyatt's developement. All that is coming next is that he will be able to reach even higher and move faster than he does now. And really, when you look at that super cute chubby face, with his little blonde hair starting to come in, how can you not smile. And when he sees me come into the room and he smiles really big and reaches up for me to pick him up, of course I do it. How can I not? even if my arms ache from holding him all morning. I guess I just have to think past all of the really stressful moments of the third child, and remember... Caleb and I are both the third child too. Perhaps he just wants to be heard and included and an individual and, oh yeah, kind of a pain-in-the-rear like we both are.

Happy Valentine's Day

That's right, you guessed it... Heart-shaped pizza night at the Cardons. The tradition lives on, and was even passed down to another Cardon male for his first Valentine's day. While Wyatt only ate some little pieces of crust, he was instantly a fan of the Valentine pizza loving tradition. Gavin and I had the idea to dress him up as Cupid today, but when we discovered that we no longer had a bow and arrows in the dress up box it didn't sound like as much fun. He sure is a cute little chub though. Maybe next year.Gavin went to school today wishing us a Happy Valentine's, but not giving it much thought beyond that. After school, however was a different story. He and Henry had a great time sorting through all the cards and treats and laughing it up over the school valentines. While shopping for the festive food this year, Gavin said he really didn't want any red 7up and just wanted a Mountain Dew. I know they make a red one, but we can't be spoiled enough to find every kind of soda caffeine free in Utah. We made an exception for him and let him have a non-yellow drink in order to avoid the caffeine. And he always insists on drinking from the can.Henry and I had a rushed and crazy day. He has had a cold for 2.5 weeks, so I finally dragged him into the doctor for the diagnosis of sinus infection and at least one ear infection. Hopefully now that he will be drugged up morning and night for 10 days he will start to feel 100% again. Amazingly enough, you would hardly know from his energy level that he was even sick, just his voice and sniffing were giving him away. He enjoyed a day of checking out Valentine's and trying to sneak dough from the kitchen while we were making pizzas.Occasionally between school, work, home, family, sickness, fun and dinner my days don't go quite like I intended when I started out in the morning. Today was no exception, but I still managed to team up with Caleb and create a night that we enjoy sharing with our family every year. I even came up with these cute little heart-shaped brownies for dessert (I know they aren't red, but no one here eats jello, so heart shaped may be the new dessert of choice). Oh yeah- remember this guy? My valentine was here too, and I'm pretty happy about that fact.

Porch Picnic in February

For some strange reason temps in the greater Salt Lake area neared 60 degrees today. The boys and I celebrated by having a porch picnic after church. We even wore our flip-flops and they wore shorts. It was fabulous to sit in the sun in our little windless paradise. We even got to chat a bit with a few neighbors, just like spring time. The grass was still wet and the shady areas still have snow, but we'll take what we can get around here. A day like today might just help me keep my sanity for a little longer... maybe.

We spent a little time making some great things out of play-doh (thanks Julie Issacson!). Henry is sporting his "Paris hat." And Gavin was working hard on his duck-billed platypus.

Wyatt and Dad missed out on our picnic fun, but they enjoyed plenty of harassing when they woke up and got home.

Not a stolen toy after all

So you may be thinking... Is Henry flipping the bird at us?... No. No, he is not. But this was how his finger looked for at least an hour today. Apparently while playing with his friend, Josh, this afternoon, Henry stuck this handy telescope onto his finger and then could not get it off. Instead of telling me or Caryn, he hid his hand behind his back and walked almost all the way home before Gavin ratted him out for taking a toy from Josh. I told him that we would have to return it tomorrow, and he got a panicked look while trying to pull it off.
We got home and I told him we needed to get it off. All he said was, "Not today." After much soap, water, and even butter, it was apparent that he had tried to pull it off enough that his finger had swollen inside. Though I know that I shouldn't laugh at my kids' predicaments, I could not help going in the other room and cracking up.
I made the executive decision that we needed Dad's help on this one, but the minute Caleb walked in Henry started backing up towards the kitchen with his hand hidden behind his back. He was in tears before Caleb even made it in the room, and I do think it had to have hurt. Luckily, he likes Caleb more than he likes me (though I was the one who laughed, it's no wonder) and he let him take a look at it and start to pry the thing apart.

It only took a pair of tin snips and some muscle to break the thing into pieces and free the finger. He did agree to tell someone next time he gets into a tight situation, hopefully the swollen finger is helpful in making that point.

Just because it is a funny moment- sometimes the jeans get tucked into the socks, and the best part is that he doesn't seem to actually know the difference when it happens. It's pretty cute to be clueless.