12 Months for Brother Bear

YIKES! It's already been a year! How can that happen?

Your one year check up was on March 20th. {Even when I called to schedule the appointment, the gal said, "How can it already be a year? It seems like you just brought him in yesterday as a baby." Believe me, Lisa, I know. It has gone so fast!} You weighed 19.4 pounds and are in the 10th%ile and were 28.5 inches tall putting you in the 5-10%ile. Your head was18 cm. On March 5th, I sat you on the scale at home and it said 20 pounds!
*percentiles were done on a child growth calculator at home so they may not be totally accurate but you are in the 100th%ile for cuteness!

You are wearing size three diapers, size two shoes and your clothes ranges from 6-12 months. We recently bought you some 12 month jammies that you just look too big in! Most of your

You are still a great sleeper! Some nights you wake yourself and most times put yourself back to sleep. There are times that you wake up mad because you have thrown your animals out of your bed. You seem to like having those little guys to snuggle.

This last month of your 'baby year' you worked hard at getting two teeth at once, one on either side of your top front teeth. Though those last two aren't fully in yet, it puts your tooth count up to six. While working on those bad boys, you kind of regressed on eating big people food. You are finicky on when you eat it but sure enjoy that baby food that you don't have to work at mashing up on your gums. We recently discovered how much you like broccoli. You will eat quite a few pieces in one setting.

You aren't much of a snuggler unless you are sleepy but even then you still fight the snuggles. You love to be all in your sister's business and she is not a fan of that. You have been clapping when someone says 'yay' or when you see other people clapping, like at church. When you really want something, you stare it down saying, "uh, uh, uh.". Sometimes you will sign milk when you see your cup, other times we get the "uh" and stare. This month you have also started waving at people or when you hear us say bye bye.

On your actual birthday, Kinley, Mommy and Daddy woke you up with a rousing rendition of Happy Birthday. Daddy took off to spend the day with you so you didn't have to get dressed right away. He didn't tell me much about your "Boys Day" but I'm sure it consisted of lots of manly things as well as coming to have lunch with Mom at school and picking your sister up. Grandpa O came over to hang with you as well. We all did our regular Friday night at Chick-Fil-A and then took a trip to Hobby Lobby to get some supplies for your party.

We celebrated your birthday on March 14th. Family and friends came over to celebrate you at 10:30 on a lovely Saturday morning. We went with a transportation theme to match your bedroom. 

homemade cupcakes to serve our guests
the little construction scene, complete with chocolate rocks, just tied the cupcake display together!

grape and apple cars and blueberry and orange cars
we also served sweet and unsweet "motor oil" and green "anti-freeze" to drink
thanks to pinterest for giving everyday drinks suck a catchy transportation name!

You were ready to do cake until you stuck your cute little hand in the flame of the candle. I think you did, Dad thinks you just got scared when people were shouting about your finger. 

Either way, you were not really having any it after that so we moved on to presents. It looks like there is a boy in the house now.... trucks, robot stacking blocks, a push mower,books and books about trucks, a wheel barrow, cars, gears, did I mention cars and trucks? Your favorite present was a giant bottle of bubbles and we didn't even have to blow the bubbles. You loved watching the bubble juice swish around and knocking it over.

Since you didn't do cake at your party, we tried again before bed time. Knowing how you like to play in your food at the dinner table I thought you would destroy it but you surprised me. You played a little in it and then were finished. Kinley loved "helping" you by tasting the frosting and trying to feed it to you.

I still can't believe that you are one! You will always be my sweet baby, Brother Bear!!!

Here's to 9 Years

Before we found out if two Snowflakes were alike....

Before there was a little Snowflake in July....

Before there was a sweet, little, white pup to love....

There were two teenagers that met briefly in junior high and then crossed paths again in high school. Unknowing at the time, December 4th was a date that changed my life.

winter formal 1998

lunch date on a school day in the park

high school graduation

What babies we were, right?! 

What started with a basket of stolen suckers from Grandy's and a first date to our High School basketball game has turned into a life full of happiness, love and laughter. You can tell he is a true romantic at heart... stolen basket of suckers and a basketball game. It's a good thing I was so young and naive to fall for such a romantic, trouble maker. :)

Even today, I say, "Would you have believed you would have ___ (married/traveled to cool places/had 2 babies with/made a great life with)" you high school sweet heart?"

 This time, when I said yes, I knew I was in for something good. I had no idea how good March 18, 2006 would change my life. It's hard to believe it has been 9 years of wedded bliss! It seems like yesterday that I married my friend; the one I laugh with, live for, dream with, Love. 

You make every day better! You make my world a better place!

Thanks for loving me a little more each day! There is no one I would rather do life with!

I love you!

One Year for Brother Bear

I can't believe my little Brother Bear is already one!

Sweet Wyatt,
It seems like yesterday you were just a sweet little baby in my arms. Now you are an always on the go little boy!

I remember being a little nervous for you joining our family just because I didn't know how we would all react. But you just made yourself at home and it feels like you have always been part of our family! There was definitely plenty of love for you all around.

Your sister took a few days to warm up to you but has not stopped loving you since then. She may even love you a little too much for your likings some time. I pray that you two have a caring relationship. Where you have each other's backs no matter what. Where you are each others best friend. This is one of the greatest things I wish for you. You are off to a great start because she loves you pretty hard. She loves to take care of you and always checks on you, whether you are at school together or in different rooms at church.

You are a lucky fella to have your Daddy to show you the way. He loves to hang with you and have "boy time". As you grow up, he will be a great example of what kind of guy you should grow up to be. Some qualities I hope you learn from him are his work ethic, how to treat other people, his laid back personality, his love to be outside, and his passion to be with his babies. If you only learn a little bit of each of those, you will turn into a fine young man. (but don't go doing that too fast, you hear me?) Your Great Grandma O once told me that he was handier than a pocket on a shirt and I believe it.

I hope that you find a passion in life and go for it. Don't settle for anything less than the best. Stand up for what you think is the right thing. Be assertive without being aggressive. Try to learn something new every day. Follow through with your words. Be kind with your words. Be thoughtful in all you do.

You are my wild little boy. By wild, I mean that you seem to already have your way of doing things. I can't wait to see what the world has in store for you!

You are all because two people fell in love.

I'll always be here,

Love,

Mom

11 months

Well Brother, another month has flown by! It is still hard to believe that you are going to be one in just a short month!

Your favorite game is to see just how fast you can take a shoe and sock off after it is put on. You play this game at home, in the car and at school. You also like to see how fast you can alligator roll on the changing pad {which you're pretty fast!}. Another favorite is swatting at the spoon while eating. When you are successful, it knocks food right out of the spoon.

You love food! You start and end your days with a big ol' bottle of Mommy Milk. At school, you have another bottle in the middle of the day but on the weekends, you tend to just have food. On Sundays after church, we have been frequenting McAlister's. We have started getting you the kids macaroni and applesauce. Some days you have been known to eat more than your sister does! When eating baby food, if a drop falls onto the tray, you love to slap your hand into it and smear it around.

You are still wearing size 3 diapers, much to my disliking, we are venturing in to 12 month clothing (where is my baby going?!?) and you are finally wearing your cute little size 2 Converse shoes since your foot is a little bigger making it harder to take it right off.

You are always busy and on the move! Whether you grab the walker, are trying to 'help' your sister play or trying to get a handful of dog food or Tobie's hair, you are always going. And you are fast!

You are a good little nighttime sleeper. Some days your nap cycle is questionable but 95% of the time you are good napper too. You are still having a morning and afternoon nap. Guess all that playing just wears you out.

Wyatt Bear, you are so precious! Your eyes light up when you see Kinley, Mommy, or Daddy walk into the room. Tobie even gets a little sparkle from you! Shortly after that sparkle comes the adorable smile that just melts my heart. I can't believe you are almost one!

You are all because two people fell in love,
Love,
Mommy

Friendship Company

When I was little, I was a member of the Sandi Patti Friendship Company. I'm sure we paid a small fee to join but the main part of it was receiving a pen pal. My pen pal was from Newfoundland, Canada. I don't remember how many years we wrote back and forth or how many letters were involved. Tabitha and I sent packages. There was the occasional phone call (since back then it was a big deal to call long distance let alone to another country). She was there when my mom was sick and even passed away. As we got older, we lost touch but she would always cross my mind.

Fast forward to 2007, when a gal from church sent me a facebook message asking if I knew a Tabitha. She said she had randomly been messaged asking if Liz knew me. I told her yes and then we were back in touch... only in a whole new light. Our messages were sent (and could be received) right away. We spent a few days catching up on life and now can use facebook to stay in touch. Sharing details of your life probably couldn't get any easier. Technology is so amazing!

All of that background story to get to a picture Tabitha shared with me the other day...

A couple things that I thought about when I saw this picture...

**we used to use a typewriter to type letters. if you were one of the lucky, your typewriter had whiteout, otherwise you crossed it out or started over.

**"vcr tape"? we used to have to share things via recorded messages. no skype. no facetime. no facebook. also, i didn't know too many families with a video recorder. i think that goes in to the "lucky" category.

Most importantly what set with me was a reminder of how much faith my Mom had. This letter was written six months before she passed away so she knew her time on Earth was not forever but she still felt inclined to tell my pen pal, who none of us had ever actually met, how thankful she was for the thoughts and prayers. 

I love the sweet reminder, I just wish I could have a little bit of that unquestionable faith.

{enter metal note to work on...}