Happy 5th Birthday, Laine!

Christine: Here's our Laine when she was a newborn baby. I wish I had a picture of me pregnant with her, but I don't. It was the best pregnancy ever! I was super busy and it flew by. I started having early labor a couple of days before Laine was born. At my baby shower that the Bradley aunts threw for me, I was telling everyone how I was so sure I was going to deliver long after my due date and how I thought I was just having some Braxton-Hicks. Well it shows how much I know, because Laine arrived the next day. She was the cutest baby ever, but she yelled an awful lot!

Christian: Yup, she yelled pretty much non-stop for about the first year of her life. As I recall she did take a break at about three months to catch her breath, and another one about six months after that for a graham cracker snack, but it was pretty much perma-yell for a year or so. Fortunately, all that lung power she developed didn't go to waste, she now uses it for her non-stop stream of questions and conversation




Here's our big five year old girl getting ready to blow out candles. She opted for cupcakes rather than a traditional birthday cake and Christine whipped up a great big batch. Christian contributed to the festivities by going to the store for sprinkles.

We went to the Smithsonian National Zoo for Laine's birthday outing. James is usually really good in the sling, but today, he wanted to walk like everyone else. This is a picture of one of the orangutans we saw there.

We saw lots of small mammals, birds, reptiles, tigers, lions, elephants, pandas, you name it!

When we got home, Eve helped Laine open some more presents. She already has a ton of fun presents from our friends and family in Salt Lake, but she got a few more today including a cool set of Lincoln Logs. Christian almost got legos for her instead, but Lincoln Logs hurt your feet less when you step on them and we haven't quite figured out how to get the twin tornadoes to put stuff back in the box when they're through with it.

We ended up bringing home the orangutan from the zoo. Here he is saying, "Oooh oooh ah ah, please take me back to the zoo!"

Happy Birthday, Lainey girl. You're the sweetest five year old ever. You're a wonderful big sister and you're so smart and responsible. We are so lucky to have you in our family. We love you!