Uriah at FIVE

Uriah. Where do I start? Five years with Uriah has been wonderful. Exhausting, no doubt, but wonderful. He is intelligent beyond his years, inquisitive, very thoughtful and aware of situations, silly, always moving, quirky and so tender-hearted. He weighs a whopping 48 pounds and is just shy of 4 feet tall (the 88th and 93%tile). He is attached at the hip to his blankey and his baby sister, though he'd be hesitant to admit the latter, he would be bored to tears without Ezra to spend his days with. He sings, all. the. time. Mostly about what it is he's doing or worshiping Jesus and it's absolutely one of my favorite things about him. He adores Judah to no end. His brain is always creating and though I despise the yarn and tape left all over the floor of our house, I love seeing his creations and listening to him describe them. He is stubborn. He loves Star Wars, "boy time", getting any kind of treat for any reason whatsoever, has an outrageous imagination, takes f o r e v e rrr to explain things, says "like" far too often and can officially run faster than me. He is learning to read and could listen to us read books all day long. For as much as he loves being outside and playing with his friends, he's a major homebody. He rhymes - all the things, all the time - makes up silly names and sounds and does everything in a volume two octaves too high. He loves to explore and adventure and some of my favorite memories from our fifth year together have occurred outside. He is passionate - in the sweetest, most loving way - but throws just as much passion into his disobedience. He is a force to reckon with and I pray thanks to God every day for giving me such a boy.  

What is your favorite color? Purple (said with a laugh because that is something that will never change and something everyone knows about him)

What is your favorite food? Pizza! and chocolate cake for dessert (three years running now his birthday dinner request has been pepperoni pizza with chocolate cake with purple frosting for dessert!) 

What is your favorite TV show? Wild Kratts (He doesn't watch much TV, outside of our Friday Pizza Movie Night he maybe watches one tv show every two weeks...? Wild Kratts and Planet Earth are usually what I will let him choose from)

What is your favorite game? The matching game (We've had a Noah's Ark matching game for years and he and Ezra have just recently gotten it out again and it's become our pre-bedtime game as of late!)

What is your favorite animal? A cheetah, or all the big cats (I genuinely didn't know what he would say for this - he loves all animals and learning about them and imitating them. It seems there is a new favorite every week!)

What is your favorite song? "My song" (Also known as, 'You'll be in my Heart' from Tarzan. I've been singing it to him since he was born!)

Who is your best friend? Paxton (I hope he always remembers Paxton as his first best friend! These two are so cute together and I hate to think about moving away in June! Uriah celebrated his fifth birthday with his first sleepover with Paxton!)

What is your favorite thing to do outside? Play with you guys like at a park (Oh thanks, Uriah! Haha! He loves being outside - running, hiking, playing on a playground, playing soccer, exploring the woods... You name it!)

What is your favorite holiday? Christmas and Halloween (Because of the presents and candy, of course!)

Who is your favorite stuffed animal? Finn and Cougar Kitty (Finn is a great white shark he got for Christmas and Cougar Kitty was passed down from Nana to me to Uriah. I hate that he didn't say Wink, his stuffed penguin that he used to drag everywhere, but at least he still needs his blankey!)

What do you want to be when you grow up? Maybe a doctor or a fireman (Honestly I think Uriah would make a great engineer or architect. We shall see!) 

What is your favorite thing to do with daddy? Fight on the bed (Always!)

What is your favorite thing to do with mommy? Read books (Clearly, I'm not as fun as dad ;))

What is your favorite thing to do with Ezra? Play with her. Maybe fighting on the bed with her. (He is so sweet when it comes to "fighting" with Ezra. He lets her take him down and acts like her punches carry more weight than they really do. One of these days she's really going to be able to take him - he better watch out!) 

What is your favorite movie? Star Wars. The one with the four legged walkers. Episode five. (Star Wars is a pretty big thing right now in this house! He is currently playing out a scene with his Legos as I type this!)

Who is your favorite superhero? I think, Batman (He has sort of phased out of superheros when Star Wars was introduced, but he'll still gravitate toward those books at the library and occasionally don a costume around the house) 

What is your favorite book? Star Wars, but we don't own one so my favorite book that we own is The Book with no Pictures. (We went on a date while I was pregnant with Judah, just a week before my due date, to get in some one on one time before baby showed up. We went to Barnes and Noble with Jamba Juice in hand and sat and read ALL the books. I told him at the end of our date that he could pick out one book to take home. He debated between a Star Wars book and The Book with no Pictures before choosing the latter. I like to think that maybe that day plays a role in choosing it as his favorite book.)

What is your favorite thing to play with? Legos (This kid is insanely talented and creative when it comes to building Legos! I'm always so impressed with what he comes up with!)

What do you do really well? Build with Legos. So maybe just all creating. (He is good at building with Legos, but he is also really good at creating in general. He is always coming up with different "projects" - things he creates out of art supplies or out on the porch with sticks, rocks and mud. He can explain it all and has very intricate plans. He has quite the brain, that one!)

What do you like to learn about? Rocks and the Earth and all nature so animals and plants too. (So true! He is always wanted to check out books from the library about dirt and rocks and volcanoes and every kind of animal... He is crazy inquisitive and crazy smart!)

What makes you happy? When someone laughs. I like making people laugh. Or when Ezra says something silly and I laugh. (And he's got the best laugh! His current sense of humor is typical little boy humor, and I find myself rolling my eyes a lot at the things he thinks are funny, but I will never tire of hearing his laugh!)

What makes you sad? When I get hurt (No surprise with this answer - Uriah is as sensitive as they come, physically and emotionally. Really though, I think it is a strength of his and I pray that he continues to have a sensitive heart as he grows.)

month three

Size: Judah is wearing size 2 diapers, surprisingly just so!, and is wearing mostly 0-3 clothes but transitioning into size 3-6. He's not as round as my others were but he is taking after his daddy and is long.

Eat: Nursing like a champ and takes a bottle! Breast milk, not formula, but neither of my others ever took a bottle so it feels like a little victory! I've been able to leave him with Stephen and enjoy a birthday celebration with friends and with my mom and friend Nicki to enjoy a couple date nights without our little sidekick. It's taken us a while to get into a nursing groove - my supply seems to takes a dive every couple weeks and I have to pump to get it back up - a little three day struggle we cycle through every time. I haven't quite figured out why, yet, but he's gaining weight and moving up the growth charts so I try not to worry. 

Sleep: Still our rockstar sleeper and sleeping through the night. We're slowly trying to transition him from his rock and play to his crib, but it's been a slow process. He usually wakes up once or twice in his crib and doesn't need to be nursed back to sleep, but it still means me getting up to give him his binki or snuggle him for a bit and after a few nights I just want sleep so we go back to the rock and play until I get brave enough to try the crib again ;) He's pretty consistently taking three good long naps a day with some cat naps thrown in there. Honestly, I'm not too worried about getting him on a set schedule just yet. He's so good about sleeping on the go - in the car or the carrier, my arms or his bed, even the playmat on the living room floor...! - that I'm just trying to take advantage of this "sleep everywhere" stage. I think I've only got another month or so of it left! 

Milestones: Smiling and "talking" all the time! He has almost rolled over (back to front) but gets stuck on his shoulder every time. Soon! He has giggled a few times but it seems to almost catch him off guard, that the laughing is coming from him, and he stops, so it hasn't been a good consistent laugh yet but we're close! And I can't wait! He's significantly more aware of his hands and can intentionally grab his toys, though it admittedly still takes a lot of effort and attempts. And, as you can tell in these pictures, he's found his tongue! The kids think it's hilarious ;) 

Likes: Judah Budah, as he is affectionately called in this house, loves attention! He is such a happy, smiley, content baby - he loves having people up in his face smiling and talking to him. He loves being outside, in the carrier, taking a bath, his rock and play, his binki, his big brother, his changing pad and tummy time! 

Dislikes: He would rather be held vertical than horizontal, gets frustrated when he gets stuck rolling over aannndd that's all I got. You guys, world's happiest baby. 

Things I want to remember: His fuzzy blonde hair. His big, gummy smile - he is always smiling! His constant clenched fists. His ridiculously awful smelling toots. His turtle face when waking up. How he looks like baby Uriah when he purses his lips and kicks his legs. He is just so dang sweet and so dang happy and brings so much JOY into our lives. He is the absolute perfect addition to our family and we are so grateful God has entrusted us with raising this sweet boy.