Leon's Birthday Photography

The day before I had planned to take Leon's birthday pictures he came inside with a huge red mark on his nose.  He didn't know where it came from and my best guess is that it was a trampoline burn.  I knew it wasn't ideal for pictures so we waited a couple weeks and took them over the weekend.

I never know how pictures are going to go, but these went pretty smoothly.   It was cold outside so I had him run from place to place to keep warm.  He was in a pretty good mood so getting him to smile wasn't hard.  There were a few times he wanted to be done and got grumpy so I just reminded him that if he did nice smiles that we could be done fast.  It only took about a half an hour.  Sometimes when I take pictures of my kids we all come home grumpy, but not this time.

Leon is so sweet and happy.  He is full of personality but is more mild of a child.  In his classes he seems to pay attention and follow the directions, he is pretty quiet but will answer the questions if asked.  I've noticed he isn't as busy and doesn't engage or play with the other kids as much as he does at home.  I think he is a little hesitant with other kids, but not a ton.

At home is not afraid to stand up for himself with the other kids.  I can tell he gets upset sometimes because he can't do everything his older siblings can but he tries hard and I don't think that will hold him back at all.  If anything he will catch up to them in most areas before he knows it.  He is so much taller than both the girls were at this age I'm sure he will be bigger than them before too long.

Occasionally he gets a time out, it rarely ever happens, but when it does it is probably because he is whining at me instead of doing what I asked him to do.  When he does get a time out he is devastated.  You would think sitting on the stairs for three minutes was the end of the world.

Leon is pretty athletic.  He loves to run around and do things that get him moving.  This rainy winter has made things a little hard for him because I can tell he is in a much better mood when he has time to be outside and active.  He loves riding his bike, playing with balls, jumping on the trampoline, or anything people will play with him outside.

Leon is also very good at entertaining himself.  I think it is because he is the fourth child but he is awesome playing alone!  It has been great because while the girls go to school all day and Tucker and I are homeschooling he has no problem playing with his toys or in his room without us.  I love that about him!

Leon gets scared easy.  I'm not sure why but he seems to think movies are more scary than the rest of my kids did.  He will hide his face or just leave the room because shows are too scary that none of my other kids had problems with at his age.  It probably wouldn't come up that often except that he has an older brother who always wants to watch Ninjago and that is scary for Leon.

I love that Leon has blonde hair and blue eyes like me.  The red hair on the other kids is great too, but it is nice to have one child that when I take to the store everyone doesn't ask me about his hair.  Leon knows that he has different hair than the other kids but it doesn't seem to bother him.  Sometimes I wonder, like when we go somewhere and a stranger is talking about the other kids hair, Leon just stands their quietly.  He seems fine about it.

Leon has big hands and feet.  I know that sounds random but when I look at them I'm always amazed at how thick they look.  When he was younger his feet were too tall to fit in many shoes.  I think he is going to grow up to be the biggest of all my children.  Plus he holds hands hard, not nearly as delicately as the girls do.

Leon isn't thrilled about talking to strangers.  If people want to talk to him he will often smile and sometimes hide behind me.  He won't usually respond to people until he is comfortable with them, at that takes a little bit of time.

Sometimes he says things that are just so funny and seem to come out of nowhere.  The other day bob was making cookies and was jokingly saying that he wasn't going to share the cookies.  Leon jokingly told me, "If dad doesn't let me eat cookies then I will... I will... break his window.  hahahaha."  I have no idea what window he was talking about or where he got that idea but it was funny.  He is definitly not the destructive type so we weren't worried about it at all.

I love Leon so much!