Such an incredibly you I feel eat just to blog just because of how open and sweet you sweet and amazing
post! I love your
Boy or girl, planned or surprise, premature or overdue, all babies are blessings! How fortunate are we to be truly are!
Happy Birthday, Smith!big boy now!
As I've shared with you before…I always get blessed twice over?!Happy birthday, Smith! You're such a blessings:) I just can't believe it's been 3 years since I anxiously awaited logging tears when I read your birth were having a boy or girl. Happy Birthday, Smith.
This is such on to find out if you to start my morning:) happy Birthday, Smith!
Dad
a previously sweet post. A great way heart for your babies ~ they are blessed to have you What a sweet post! I love your
Happy birthday to your sweet, little boy! You seem like such a GREAT as their mommy!! Happiest Birthday Smith ~ have fun celebrating!! =)child and have been trying to have another one mom! I just love reading your blog. I have one encouraging to read your story and know that anything for a long
time. It is so God's blessings. What you wrote about Smith is how I feel is possible.
Happy Birthday Smith!!!!! He is precious. So thankful for Sean, do you think so?
Also..we both have about my Luke!And, Smith looks like is September 9 🙂
Such a beautiful January & September babies! Kate is January 23 and Claire
GEESH GIRL! You made this Mama shed a tear. What's even more post Shay! Happy Birthday to your sweet boy!are molded by you and Andrew. What an amazing testimony, children are the amazing is that those sweet spirits the great work!
P.S. Thanks to Mix & Match Mama I reflection of their parents, so keep up new dinners! My husband is thankful lol!
Happy Birthday to had an entire week of delcious blog post every morning!
I have a Smith! My daughter, Elleanor, turns 8 today, too! January 18th is a great day! Love reading your of your kids, here we go… you didn't know that Smith was going to be a silly question, but since I LOVE the names have picked out?
I was also wondering the demographic boy, so what girl name did you SAHM with 3 little ones and I love your of most of your followers – I am a "norm" or if you got all age groups and males blog! Just wondering if
I was the answers to your questions:
2. I am not and females?Here are some with pregnancy!
3. If Smith had been a girl, she would have reconsidering being pregnant! This mama did not do well
4. I think most of my followers are women between had a British name too, Ashby London.
Thank you for all the love today! This is such the ages of 22 and 52.
How in the world do you look so good a special day for us!two weeks with all the fluids they pumped into after a C-Section? I looked like
a whale for post. happy birthday to your sweet boy and wishing you me!what a lovely
Needed to hear that verse today, thank you!!
Your blog is all the happiest day together!to side track me from work 😉
amazing & totally one of my favorite things
Happy Birthday to your little guy-he is beautiful!
Awww! Happy Birthday Sweet Happy Birthday to your sweet boy!!his mama! Okay…confession…when I read Andrew's post I was thinking it Smith! and such a sweet post from he was in the operating room." Glad to see it was Andrew! 😉
was from YOUR Dad. I thought "Hmmmm…I don't remember that captures exactly how I feel about my little boy. I had a Happy Birthday to your sweet boy! Your heartfelt post world. I prayed for her for three years, she was my baby girl first who was my later with the birth of our son. My heart doubled everything. God then blessed us 27 months was born. What a blessing being the Mommy of both a inside at the very moment he
A little late, but Happy Birthday, Smith! What a beautiful tribute to your precious gift – it brought tears boy and a girl!and girl myself as well, I also know I was meant to my eyes. Having been blessed with a boy see this year's family theme party and sign!!! XOXO
We share a to have a
son. Can't wait to
Dear William,
A few days ago you turned birthday! Happy Birthday handsome!wondering where my baby went. You are talking up a storm, running around, and even making loud (very loud) demands lately. You want to 2. I’m sitting here everything by yourself now, and cuddles are few and far between.
do pretty much you reach, there is a sharp reminder that it is your first for something, and my last. You are my With every milestone time I’ll see my baby learn to talk, learn to walk, learn to sit, learn to roll, etc.
With you I last baby. It’s the last time and hold onto it all. But at the same time, I just LOVE each new milestone. I love how want to stop phase, we get to know you more and more, and your personality just shines through.
with each new through and through. As stereotypical boy as it gets LOL It’s so funny, because Caroline is stereotypical girl (loves princesses, only wears dresses, favorite colors are You are boy it is not due to us. I am not girly and don’t like dresses very much. I never pushed purple and pink, etc). And I swear her, if anything I did the opposite. I never pushed the boy stuff on you. Nature vs nurture girly things on to watch unfold.
You love tractors and trucks. The only toys we’ve ever been sure is interesting you interested in are tractors, trucks, cars, and buses. That’s it. These are your favorite toys right now that you able to get your 2nd birthday:
Garbage/Recycling Truck- you can put things in the bin and pull just got for dump it into the truck. This truck has great sounds and is really fun!
a lever to Bus– This bus has a handle to use as a pull toy, and the handle Little People School you want it out of the way. It comes with a really diverse flips under if in a wheelchair. It is a wonderful little toy with great music and learning.
set of characters, including a child Hayride toy– This is also a cute toy with several different animals. As you place John Deere Animal the tractor, they make noise.
Power Wheels Dune Racer- This was an early birthday present the animals in to William. After a lot of research we landed on this two seater for that we gave enjoy driving.
Grandma and Papa sent you a fire truck for both kids to were in the family room playing, and I was peeking in boxes, seeing what things were and putting your birthday. I thought you correct pile. As I peered into the fire truck box, I suddenly heard “TRUCK!” from right over them in the up behind me and I didn’t even notice!
As an almost 2 year old, I figured I my shoulder. You had snuck you and get you doing something else. Wrong. You cried and screamed… big crocodile tears could easily distract hour wanting that truck. We finally moved on, but it was rough! You were so for almost an
On your birthday, you squealed with excitement to see that truck again. I captured this picture of you excited.put batteries in it as quick as he could. You were ecstatic and just had waiting as Daddy your face.
You also play pretend very well from watching your pure joy on eat, and make us plates of things with the little kitchen toy we sister. You pretend to are back to your trucks. And if the weather was nicer still, you’d be out have. But quickly you dirt box as a close second favorite. Yes it’s a dirt box, not a sand playing in your dirt on your head. Once you dumped a ton of it IN YOUR box haha! You literally dump bubbles and make funny noises.
There’s nothing you love more, though, than wrestling with EAR. You blow spit her and tackle her and she does it right back. Watching the two Caroline. You climb on have pure fun with one another is my favorite thing to do.
of you just to make us laugh. Daddy refrains from laughing when you do the silly You do anything table, but Caroline and I can’t help ourselves. I try so hard since I don’t want you things at the silly at the table, but I can’t hold it in.
The look on screaming and being you wait for a reaction is priceless. Daddy informs everyone that in true your face as doing it so long as it makes the girls laugh”… And why yes, that’s true isn’t it!? LOL
boy style you’re “going to keep pretty much as soon as you’re done, we make silly faces with you. You just love it. You make a At the table your eyebrows up, eyes wide, and mouth open. And then a frown face with your eyebrows in. Back and forth we do it surprised face with and are so good at it. Sometimes when we try to get you to do over and over. You love it picture, you leave us hanging and looking silly while you keep a straight and take a do it on purpose!
You are possibly the pickiest eater face. I swear you away and put your head down on the table in disappointment. Quite possibly this ever. If you don’t like what’s offered, you shove it the fact that we usually cave and get you something different to is due to make sure you are full. We are much less strict with well to Caroline for some reason. Maybe as parents we’ve grown to realize that some things just don’t matter too much.
You’ve been alive for 24 months. 10 of those months have been spent home, away from other people due to the virus. A couple of months before the virus hit, you’d started a parents day out program. It was a small program, and only had a couple of kids. For a few hours, you got to experience life not right by my side. I’ve always thought it was a healthy experience and good to do. Caroline started going when she was 6 months old.
You had a hard time with me leaving you at first, but were settling in a bit after having gone about 4 times. Then the virus came and shut everything down. Over a third of your life has now been in “quarantine mode” here at home. We don’t go to stores. We don’t go to playgrounds. You no longer go to your toddler “school,” and well we have zero interaction with anyone really.
No story times. No zoo trips. No outings. We’ve done a few things here and there, but it’s a stark difference to what I did with Caroline and I notice it so much. When we do go out, you already wear a mask at your young age and do so excitedly so you can be like the rest of the family. You know no different.
With Caroline we went out daily. Always on the go, at a park, at the zoo, with friends, at the store, at story time, at random playgroups at the library or church gyms, at her baby school, or even doing gymnastics from the moment she could walk, and swim school shortly after. You haven’t gotten any of that.
At times I feel so bad about it. I really wanted to do gymnastics with you. I really wanted you to have time socializing and just experiencing other kids and being around other people. Caroline used to love her outings.
Most of it stopped for us after your big sister, April, died. It was hard to get myself back into going out and doing things again. Then we moved and it became even easier to stay home. But I was starting to go out more again and wanted you to have some of those same experiences. I was planning to start gymnastics with you when Caroline started kindergarten. The virus put a hold on those plans though.
Here we are now making a conscious decision to stay home, and well it suits us just fine. We love being home and just together with our family. I am so thankful for our big yard right now. We go outside and you love to run the fence line. It’s pretty adorable. You’ve loved chasing after us when I’m working in the garden, and Caroline is running around playing.
We are all too busy at times to really slow down with you, so a good 75% of the time you are left in the dust as I carry something out to the garden, or Caroline runs off. But you trudge Next Post >through with your tiny legs and make it all the way out to where we are. You are determined and focused. Every once in awhile I realize you’d probably like some company, and I slow
down with you.Poor guy! I guess that’s what happens when you are the youngest. Always left to run after, catch up, etc. But you do it and don’t know any
other way.You are so gentle and kind. ANY time you see that someone is upset or sad, you give them big hugs. And you have such a way of comforting. On occasion, when I’m putting you to bed you could tell I was frustrated with something, or sad. You literally rubbed my back like Daddy would do. You press your face to mine and just hold me with your arms around me. One night I stayed there for a good hour because I felt so good in
your arms.Right now you want Daddy for everything. When Daddy walks in the door, you drop everything, yell “DADDY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” and run towards the door. It is the cutest thing! It’s also frustrating at times because you won’t let me do anything for you- it has to be Daddy right
now.You love going for drives. Quite possibly because they rarely happen for you in this new quarantine lifestyle. Caroline is also loving drives lately, so Daddy and I are in love with this as it’s one of our favorite things to do. When we get to the roundabout by home, you always start saying “more, more, more” as you know we are close to home and
about to stop.You are just barely taking an interest in puzzles, learning colors, and shapes. Again a stark difference to Caroline who knew her alphabet already and had mastered every puzzle we had by now. You just want to run around. And prior to now, you didn’t even want a toy to play with. Where you both are the same at this age and probably all ages, is your love
for being outside. You are very strong with your physical capabilities and fine/gross motor skills. You kick a ball pretty well, and can jump off of the ground and get air now. You understand how things work and move and really watch when we are building things or putting things together. You help put screws in and just seem to have really good awareness of things
like that.You’ve been able to climb the ladder on your bed up and down all by yourself probably since the time you could walk. And on stairs you are already doing one foot on each stair while holding our
hand.You run away from me when I try to get you dressed in the morning and at night. When I finally get you in my arms, it’s like wrestling an alligator and your diaper is rarely on perfectly as I’d like, but it’s on. You listen perfectly though. If she is dressing you, you come right over and even lay down for her. Sometimes I’m so glad that she does it so I don’t have to wrestle you!
You were stubborn with potty training too. So stubborn! You asked to start. You had it down in a few days and did so well. Then, you rebelled against it. I stuck it out for a solid month, but you rebelled harder and harder until I just couldn’t do it anymore and stopped. LOL I was so disappointed because you were ready and did it. You were peeing and pooping in the potty and knew just what to do. We’ll try again soon…once you get through this stubborn phase!
You, of course, want to do everything Caroline does. Two of your favorite words right now are “MINE”, and “ME, ME, ME, ME, ME!”... as you want a turn and to do everything you can that she does.
You also love helping me in the kitchen. You stand with me on your stool as I make bread, pizza dough, and even your birthday cupcakes (that turned out dense, rock hard, and well horrible). Apparently desserts are not my thing. You help knead the bread and you play in the flour. You even wheel out my big bin of flour for me and put it back when I’m done. I love the company.
Your speech has just exploded in the last month or so. You say so many things and I’m to the point where I can tell what most of your words are even out of context. You say hi and bye, and do lots of waving. You call all of the paw patrol characters by their names. You can say your color names, but don’t quite have the names matched up yet with the correct color but you’re close. You say tractor and truck, and bus. You LOVE saying ow sounds: out, around, down. If I say up, you say down. You tell us all done, and more. You say please and thank you.
After eating cereal or anything that has juice left in the bowl, you always look at us and say “please?” to get our approval before lifting your bowl to your face and drinking the rest all gone.
You’ve said your first sentences recently, and love practicing your words before bed. I lay in there and practice with you, and you make sure I have my head on your pillow…nothing else will do. We practice as many words as we can come up with before you sleep.
You are even starting to tell stories. You talk about our trip to the beach. You say “beach”, “boots” because you wore boots in the cold wintery water, “big” for the big waves, and “water” while doing a motion with your hand for the big waves.
You are so may great things. You are helpful, kind, so incredibly sweet, loving, and smart. You feel so right in my arms and your kisses and hugs are the kind I never want to let go of. When you ask for hugs I drop everything to give them to you.
As you both grow older I realize how little time I have left playing on the floor, being able to carry you guys, you each wanting snuggles in bed, and all of the extra little things you both ask for. Soon you’ll both be old enough that I can’t carry you, and you might not want extra mama time.
To this day you make me feel strength. I felt it the moment I held you. I felt strong for the first time in a long time. That feeling has never left. I can hold you, close my eyes and really take it in. It’s like you breathe it into me.
I am so lucky to be your mom. You are already such an incredible person. I hope you always know how loved you are. Thank you for making us laugh so hard, and for loving us all so much.
I love you.
-Mama