Happy FOURTH Birthday, Louis!

And in the blink of an eye, Louis is four.  What an emotional day (for me).  I love not having babies in my house but not having anymore babies in my house kind of makes me want to cry.  What an amazing kid he has become.

Favorite color: Azul.

Favorite show: Octonots and Ninja Turtles (the latter which he watches in three minute clips on my phone).

Favorite movie: Ninja Turtles Kill the Ooze (not sure what the actual title is but it's a sequel from 1995 that was so bad/violent we turned it off in the first 45 seconds).

Favorite friend: Reid and Andrew from school.  And Owen after lunch.  And Norah all the time. And the blue ninja turtle named Leonardo.

Favorite toy: LEGOS and storm trooper.  And the whoopee cushion.

Favorite thing to do: Play legos and ninja turtles and ride motorcycles.

Favorite food: Pizza but cheese only, sometimes that good chicken, the yellow giraffe vitamin.

Favorite joke: Pull my finger.

We love you Lou.  Happiest of birthdays to you, my sweet, funny, daredevil of a boy.

Quickies

I can't actually believe it is the end of February.  I have had all of these lofty ambitions during my work "sabbatical" and very few of them have gotten accomplished.  I am at level 452 of Candy Crush, though, so at least that is something.  

We had a verrrrrrry low key New Year's Eve.  As in everyone was sick and in bed by 9:30.

Sick defined things for the first part of 2015.  It was one thing after another.  Lou had an ear infection, the flu, and a stomach virus.  Norah had a horrible respiratory infection and the same damn stomach virus.  Twice.

We were up many a night with a high fever.  Because Lou has basically 0% body fat when he gets the chills he shakes uncontrollably.  It's actually kind of scary.  More than once we have had to leave the refrigerated section at the grocery store because he can't handle the cold.

He took Tamiflu for the first time (we think he had the flu when we were in California last year but it was too late by the time he got into a doctor), and while I had my concerns about giving it to him because of potential side effects, it was like a miracle drug for him.  He was super sick for two days and then kind of sick for two more and then that was the end of it.  He had these awful looking eyes though--swollen and red rimmed and add popsicle mouth to that and you have full on baby zombie.

The sick hit at the same time the cold weather did and so it was hard to get out of the house, even just to go in the backyard or on a walk.  We all get a little stir crazy in the house so once I felt confident the germs could be contained we ventured out.

There are a couple of very friendly kid restaurants recently relocated near us that are very GF friendly.  The In-n-Out folks will even change their gloves and wipe down a work area to make a cheeseburger protein style.

Speaking of In-n-Out, it is Louis's all time favorite food now.  When he was so sick he barely ate anything for days and all he wanted was burgers so we indulged him more than we would normally. He would eat one every day if we let him (we don't).  He frequently tells me that when he grows up he either wants to be one of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or an In-n-Out worker.

On your fifth day home from school you get to wear pajamas and rain boots to the store.

Norah escaped the flu but got hit hard by a stomach bug (twice within a month).  She barfed at least once every thirty minutes for about 18 hours straight.  It was brutal.  Both times she got sick about 10:00 pm after being fine all day and having a great dinner.  She will likely never have baked salmon and/or refried black beans again.  I will likely never get over what it took to clean her bedroom carpet.

She couldn't even hold her head up enough to watch the ipad.

She recovered in time for our first season selling Girl Scout cookies.  It was a huge success and despite being very nervous at first she actually ended up loving going door to door.

 

One Saturday night in January she begged me to go out to dinner.  BVZ begged me NOT to have to go out to dinner (with Lou).  So we had a date night.  Best date around.  Her hair really has lost so much of its super curl.  There is still a lovely wave but I don't think we can call it curly anymore.

Especially not compared to what it used to be.  Good grief, where does the time go?

 It goes here.  Running after a mad man with a doughnut.

Once the sun came out and everyone stopped barfing we took wagon ride with Camilla.

And went to bounce houses.

And dressed up like Dr. Octopus.

Norah went rock climbing (with Girl Scouts) for the first time and killed it.

And picked out her very own "Big Megan" skirt.  (Little Megan is our cousin and Big Megan is Ruby's mom, the latter of which loves a good maxi skirt).

There was a few days off from school for teacher work days so we went to the Waco zoo with some friends.  Too bad it was on a day that was freezing cold and all the animals (except the stupid birds) were kept inside.

Norah and BVZ made a Sunday backyard picnic.

And GG sent the most gigantic and awesome bears for Valentine's Day.  Norah named hers "Big Heart" and Lou's is "Lemonade."

My funny valentines...

Norah had a low-key ice cream sundae party in her class.

I served ice cream and managed to cover just about everything in the class with a thick layer of chocolate sauce.

Norah made secret valentines for us all (ie, I wasn't allowed to see them until Saturday morning). This was the one she wrote for Louis.

Lou got a desperately needed haircut.  In photos his hair still looks blonde, it is much darker in real life and in the sun it turns strawberry.

These two play superhero/garbage men/exercisers/office workers... (the list is endless)...every moment they are together.  This is them being tough guy exercise guys.

My sister gave me the cookbook Thug Kitchen for Christmas.  I highly recommend it.  It is all vegan and the recipe descriptions have hilarious (and very foul) language.  BVZ and I eat vegan about 85% of the time these days.  I would go all of the way but sometimes my laziness demands easy chicken.  If someone else cooked for me it would be no problem.  This is the five-spice fried rice.  It was awesome.

Norah keeps a journal where she will write and draw pictures whenever she feels like it.  It isn't secret but she usually keeps it to herself.  I was glancing through it before she got home the other day and found this gem.

Girl Scout Thinking Day (where all the girls in the area get together and present information and creative projects on an assigned country) was a huge success.  My little girl isn't so little anymore.