Sunday, October 23, 2016

Letter to our ONE year old

Dear Lucy,

You haven't received the same treatment when it comes to letters.  But let me tell you how amazing we think you are.

In the past year, we have found ourselves completely taken aback at the amount of love one child could bring our family.  It was a complete surprise when we found out we were expecting.  Not to Luke of course, he KNEW he was getting a baby.  And when we found out you were a girl, we were completely shocked and had the ultrasound tech double check.  Luke of course was not surprised...not only did he know we were pregnant, he knew you were a girl.

When you were born we couldn't believe that you were the biggest baby yet!  At over 9 pounds, we just were in awe at how big you were!  And your cry!  Oh my gosh!  Best cry ever.  And talk about being laid back, you really were easy going.  I think you knew you were a third child and was just going to have to wait your turn.  And your cheeks - I think they were the chubbiest cheeks I've ever laid eyes on.

We put you in daycare much sooner than your brothers, at only 6 weeks.  I came every day at lunch to check on you and nurse you and cuddle you.  You didn't mind being left and actually became excited every time we'd walk in to school and even more excited when you saw your teachers.  You've really come to love them and we trust them with you.

You finally started crawling right at a year old. Every time we tried to put you on your belly for tummy time you'd lay your head down and just cry.  And when we finally came to pick you up, you growled at us to express your hatred for tummy time.  You definitely have a stubborn streak...I hope it serves you well over the years to come.

You love love love your brothers.  And the feeling is reciprocated.  Luke is awesome at walking you around the house, Owen loves to help feed you your yogurt in the morning for breakfast and you just love any attention they're willing to give.

And you love Baxter.  You constantly say 'Bax' and go off looking for him.  I'm not sure if it's because you want to pull his hair or make sure you keep track of everyone in the family, but it's really sweet.  And he takes it because you constantly drop food from your high chair for him to eat.

You love your bath time.  Splashing and playing with your bath toys can take you from cranky to happy in milliseconds.  Some days it's really hard to get you out because of the great time you're having and your unwillingness to get out.

We are so excited to see you grow this next year, but not to fast sweetie.

We love you!
Mom and Dad

Thursday, August 6, 2015

Letter to my 3 year old

Dear O,

You are fantastically crazy.  All.the.time.  Your little body holds so much personality there's not enough time in the day to let you get it all out.   It's really a sight in and of itself.

We celebrated your birthday at a church here in town that has some tubes to play in.  We had Luke's birthday at the same place and then you were a little scared to climb into any of the tubes and really just played on the baby toys.  It's amazing how six months made you so brave!  For your birthday you climbed right in and followed Luke around to get the feel for everything and then there was no stopping you.  Your birthday was a Bubble Guppy theme.  Your cake (which you requested) was all done up so cute, and then you wouldn't eat a bite.  I knew we should've just gotten a big bowl of ice cream for you :)

We are a few short days away from welcoming your new baby sister into our family and you did have a little breakdown about her arrival.  While we were in the car one morning you started crying because the baby wasn't going to be a boy like you.  You were distraught and I'm sorry, but I thought it was hilarious.  And you insist that her name is going to be 'daddy'.  We'll see how you really feel when she comes home and doesn't leave.

You have this really terrible habit of putting your hand down your pants.  It's constantly a fight with you.  You go to sleep that way, wake up that way, walk around that way.  It's ridiculous, but apparently it's natural for little boys.  I've had enough of it though.

I think your favorite activity (other than the pre mentioned habit) is wrestling with your brother.  You and he can wrestle until someone gets hurt and then start right back again.  I'm so glad you and Luke are so close, it's really sweet to watch you hold hands across the parking lot, give hugs and kisses before you go your separate way at school and at night before bedtime.  I love the way y'all come up with games to play, work together to do puzzles and 'cook' and just enjoy each other's company.  Most of the time.

You're a great eater and typically try new things without too much of a fight.  You really aren't a bread fan, but you can definitely put away some Red Lobster biscuits.  You like egg rolls, lo mien, hot dogs, hamburgers, peas, green beans, mexican rice, quesadillas, chips, grapes, bananas and the list just keeps going.  We really love that you're so willing to eat!

We love you our little 3 year old maniac.  To the moon and back.
Mom and Dad

Thursday, February 26, 2015

Letter to my 5 year old

Dear Luke,

We celebrated your fifth birthday and you had such a fun time!  We had your party at the 1st Nazarene Church play land.  It's a big area with tubes and slides and you and your friends had a great time playing for almost two hours straight!  You got lots of Transformers and your birthday was Transformers theme.  You liked to tell people it was a grown-up transformers party because we couldn't find any Rescue Bot transformer party things.  On your actual birthday you decided you wanted to eat at iHop.  M, Pa and Grandma came, too.  You loved all the attention.

On the morning of your birthday you woke up and told me you were ready for Kindergarten.  You were pretty disappointed when I explained that you had to wait for the new school year to start.

You are so incredibly smart.  You're learning to sound out words.  You know your address, my phone number, everyone's first and last names, you know how to add and match and draw and all sorts of things!  You love school and your teacher in your pre-K program, Mrs. Amanda, says that you always know the answers.  We are all seriously impressed with how much you know.

You love playing games.  For Christmas you got a Zingo! game that you love playing with me and Owen.  You love playing Disney Twister and matching games.  You also love Tic Tac Toe and puzzles.  Every time you win, you say 'Wow!  I'm lucky!'.  I love it.  You love wrestling with your dad.  It amazes me at how rough you and Owen are with your dad, but he loves it.  He jumps on the trampoline with you and bounces you all over.  You laugh and laugh and ask to do it over and over.  You have such fun in whatever it is you're doing.

We take you and Owen to the library every Tuesday night.  They have bedtime stories with cookies and milk afterwards.  The librarian always reads the funniest books and you love it.  Reading books is one of your favorite things.  Before we go to the library we go eat at Chik fil A or iHop.  You and Owen love it.  On Wednesday nights you go to gymnastics.  I pick you up from school, but before I come get you I stop and pick up a Sprite and tater tots from Sonic.  You also love gymnastics.  You bounce from spot to spot, love jumping in the foam pit and whatever else they do to work with you.  We thought about putting you in t-ball, but there was a chance it would interfere with gymnastics and you just love it too much to risk missing it.

You're going to be a big brother again!  You are adamant that the baby is a girl.  Whenever we mention boy names you say, 'It's a not boy!  He's a girl!'  If this baby turns out to be a boy I know you'll be very disappointed.  But I know that you'll be a terrific big brother to this baby, just like you are with Owen.

Your favorite colors are now red and green.  You recently changed your mind from blue and orange.  Also, you recently told me that your favorite days are Christmas and beach days.  I have to say, I agree.

We moved a few months ago and it's taken a while for you to really adjust.  The first little bit you were scared to sleep in your new room.  This house is bigger than where we did live and it took a little time for you to get accustomed to your new room.  You had an even harder time adjusting to our new church.  I felt so bad dropping you off in Primary with tears streaming down your cheeks.  I know it was hard, it was hard on me.  We both sat outside on the steps one Sunday and cried together.  But now we're adjusting and you're getting used to church it's becoming a lot easier.

I love to see how you grow each day.  You just have the best personality and love to play.  You make friends easily and are really becoming independent.  I can't believe you are already FIVE!

We love you…to infinity and beyond.
Mom and Dad

Thursday, October 16, 2014

Miss me yet?

So it's been a while, so here's a little update.

Owen is still attached to his pacifier.

Luke has started gymnastics and LOVES every minute of it.

We bought a new house.

We moved.

We sold our old house.

We are all working and living in the same city for the first time in 4.5 years.

We work.  We play.  We rest.

Now you're caught up!

Sunday, August 24, 2014

Letter to a TWO year old

Owen dear,

You are two years old!  And you know what they say about the terrible two's?  Yeah, it's all true with you.  Sweet one minute, crazy the next.  Kind and lovable one day, meaner than snot the next.

You are a brick.  You've jumped from being around the 75th percentile for weight to 95%.  You are a whopping 32.6 pounds (and to put that in perspective, that's 10 pounds less than your brother).  Your teachers at school (Ms. Heather and Mrs. Ony) say they worry when you come running at them full speed for fear you'll knock them over.  Almost everyone we see, whether we know them or not, comment on you being a future football player.

You are constantly saying 'mommy'.  You yell it from across the house, you say it from the backseat.  Anytime, anywhere.  Over and over and over again.  I've thought about changing my name, but I'm sure you'd just repeat that over and over again like you do 'mommy'.  It makes me crazy, but I know you just need a little extra attention.

We still haven't conquered the pacifier.  It seriously is going to be the fight of our lives to get rid of them.  We thought you were making headway when you threw two pacifiers in the trash, but then you got sick and we were forced to get you another because we were traveling.  There's no sense in all of us being miserable.  Sometimes, just to make your point you aren't relenting in the war against the pacifiers, you'll walk around with two pacifiers in your mouth.  It's quite the sight.

You really like to be held, touched, carried, loved on, played with, etc.  Since day one of your life, you have always longed to be next to us.  It's not enough to be sitting next to us on the couch, you need to be on our laps or crawling all over us.  It's a little exhausting, but without that, you wouldn't be you.

You love to play and fight with Luke.  You worry if Luke's not with us and ask about where he is.  He gets you into a lot of trouble.  A lot.  I hope that your conscience will guide you as you get older so that you know when he's trying to rope you into doing something that will lead you to trouble.  He's good about getting y'all to the edge and then letting you do the dirty work so you get into trouble when he's looking nice and innocent.  Don't worry, we know he's not innocent.

We didn't throw a party for this birthday.  We just moved to the new house and had a ton of unpacking to do.  We did get a cake for you and we celebrated in Fort Smith with Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Jon, Aunt Emily and Baby Brooke.

You love to go to the pool.  Your favorite thing to do is jumping in from the side.  You get up and say 'ready, jump!' and jump into our arms.  I don't know where we'll go swimming now, there's really not a pool around here.  I guess it's time you learn to swim in the lake.  I can't wait to take you on the boat and go tubing and teach you and Luke how to ski!

You're so fantastic and we love you dearly.
Happy two years old, mister!
Mom and Dad

Sunday, June 29, 2014

Letter to Baby

Dear Owen,

You know, we now affectionately call you b-rat.  It's half true, you really can be a b-rat, but part of it is learning, growing, exploring, and not having the vocabulary to communicate your thoughts and feelings appropriately.  But today, I'm the b-rat because I let you 22 month letter pass by and the 23 month letter sneak up on me.  So, we're just going to combine them.  Ok?  Ok.

You're doing great without your paci at school.  You know you have to leave it in the car and willingly do so when we pull into the parking lot.  But it is one of the first things you ask for when we get back in the car when I pick you up in the afternoons.  We've even started running errands without it.  We're all getting brave :)  And when we get to school you run as fast as you can to push the button on the elevator, so I have to stop you so we can take Luke to class first.  After we drop Luke off then you run again to the elevator, and I have to follow close behind, because I know if you got on that elevator by yourself, you're perfectly capable of hitting the correct button to the first floor and riding that elevator down.  You'd probably be pretty proud of yourself and meanwhile I'd be flipping out.

You are becoming such a little water baby!  Just the last couple of weeks you have gone from sitting at the edge of the pool and jumping into our arms to standing and taking a flying jump into our arms.  Sometimes you don't even wait for us to get close enough to catch you so you go under until your floaties bring you back up and you have this wide eyed expression that says 'let's do it again!'.  You even tried jumping off the diving board, except you didn't so much jump as you did fall.  I was there to catch you but you didn't want to do it again.  You thought it was hilarious when your dad jumped in.  You are so good to get out of the pool when it's time for adult swim and you go with dad and Luke to pick out a treat from the concession stand.

We went to the zoo again yesterday.  We have a season pass so we go quite often.  You love to get some fish food and throw it in and watch the fish fight over the food.  You love to see the monkeys and elephants and you make the best elephant noise.  We also love to see the lions and tigers.  Right now there are 4 baby tigers at the zoo that are so fun to watch.  You crack up watching them pounce on their mom.  The zoo has a new playground by the cafe and you and Luke love to play after we make our rounds seeing the animals.  You climb all over it and go down the slide all by yourself.  It's always fun being able to go and enjoy ourselves!

You are still such a great eater.  And surprisingly, you love egg rolls!  We totally expected you to spit it out, but you devoured the entire egg roll.  We're lucky you like to try different things, you're pretty good to at least try something.  You are not a fan of grilled cheese sandwiches and you don't really care for macaroni and cheese.

I can't believe you're going to be two.  You are my baby.  Not my big boy.  I just don't know if I can cope…but then again, I guess there's not much choice.

We love you goose.
Mom and Dad


Thursday, May 15, 2014

Letter to Baby

Dear Owie Kazoie,

Somehow we let the month fly by…I'm pretty sure I told you to SLOW it down a bit.  But I guess we'll blame it on the fact that you can't read yet that you didn't get the memo.  Either way, you're a whopping 21 months old.

The fact of the matter is, you're going to be 2 in a blink of an eye, so now would be a good time to discuss how we're going to handle this terrible 2 stage.  I'm afraid we're already starting to show signs of what a terror you're going to be, so maybe we need to nip this in the bud now.  Here's how mommy and daddy think you should behave in let's just say a pretend situation.
                Luke takes your toy.
                You hit Luke.
                We discipline Luke.
                We discipline you for hitting and put you in time out.
                 You listen carefully and sit in time out for you two minutes nicely.
                You get up when you're told and the rest of play time is awesome.

But here's how the scenario really goes:
               Luke takes your toy.
               You hit Luke.
               We discipline Luke
               We discipline you for hitting and sit you in time out.
               You get up.
                We put you back.
               You hit us after getting out of time out once again.
               We get mad and put you back in time out.
               You get mad.
               We put you back.
               Finally we realize that this is not working and you continue to terrorize your brother.

You see?  You're uncooperative and stubborn.  And strong willed.  And hard headed.  And sweet.  And kind.  And amazing.  And so no matter how many times we put you in time out, you still win with your cuteness.

Now lets talk about nap time.  I don't know why, but we cannot get you out of the car asleep and put you in your crib.  You cry.  You pitch fits.  You throw your blanket and pacifiers out of the crib.  You get you're legs stuck in the slats of the crib.  You're exhausted.  We're exhausted.  Just take your nap for the love of pete!  We all need a little break and nap time is there just for that reason.

Now on to vocabulary.  It's growing…sort of.  You have final consonant deletion on every word, but that's probably because you're still stuck to the pacifier.  You're doing better without it during the day, especially at school, but at home it's a little harder…or maybe mommy is just more dependent on it than your teacher at school is.  Either way, you can say 'back', 'cat', 'go', 'amen', 'me', 'bubble', 'bubba', 'no', 'eat', 'more', 'yay', 'fish', 'dog', and probably several more, they just aren't coming to mind right now.

You love playing outside and 'driving' the jeep that you and Luke have, or getting in the front seat of the car and turning all the knobs and pushing all the buttons.  You love singing and know a few signs to 'I Stand All Amazed' and some of the dances to 'Fruit of the Spirit'.  You love playing 'Ring Around the Rosie' and your favorite part is falling down with Luke.  You still are my little ball boy, you love to play with balls and people are amazed at how well you dribble.  You love books and get so excited to read your favorites.  Right now those favorite books include 'Good Dog Carl' and 'Pajama Time'.

We love watching you explore and learn new things.  You've started going down the slide by yourself! You love going to the zoo, especially when you get to play on the playground.  You can climb up on the couch by yourself and you can get down from mom and dad's big bed by yourself.  You're learning so many things I just can't keep track!

We love you little one.
Mom and Dad