Letter at Two

Happy Birthday to my sweet, sweet boy!

When I think about "knowing" you for the past two years, my heart swells. You made me a mother and for that I will always be grateful. I often worry that I don't know your personality well enough, but what I do know is that you are mine. Forever. And I do know that you are very much your father and your mother and your own little self all rolled into one.

You tease like your father. You are inquisitive and like to problem solve like your father. You are into tactile building or playing like your father. And you are serious like your father. You are drama like your mother. You love books like your mother. You enunciate the word "button" like your mother. And you love to eat loaves of bread like your mother.

But you are you.

You love nursery and we frequently must pray for every member of your nursery class by name. You love to wear ties so you can be like your daddy. You love cars and playing basketball. You are a puzzle-doing machine and will work out the pieces all on your own. You "read" to yourself and your animals and can always spot the right letters. You like to count things in "one, two" and when playing hide and seek with your daddy you cover yours eyes and count to twenty, skipping five, and after reaching twelve move right on to sixteen. And oh how serious you take your job of finding daddy's hiding places, and how much joy you have when you find him.

Going to the library is a favorite thing, and you are sure to tell me you won't "run around." You very much enjoy handing your new books to the librarian and telling him thank you. Your favorite part, however, is getting to "sit a chair, read a book" at a table just your size while I peruse the shelves. You are very discerning when it comes to books and know immediately if a new book is one you'll actually let me read to you, and all books then have a nickname by which to identify it. You can sing the ABCs (and several other songs--your sweet voice singing always makes me grin) and know the letter sounds and several items that each letter starts with. You constantly surprise me with your smart comments.

You do have a temper and are stubborn--we must always pray for the things you want to pray for, or the whole prayer is you repeating that one thing we must be thankful for--but you are also one sweet boy. You tell me that you are a nice boy and are quick to say thank you. You are drama and joy and love all rolled into one tiny little body. And your little voice is happiness to my ears.

This is you at two

Love,

Mother

Favorite Things

Memory to file away: Devin loved picking the item for the nightly advent calendar. As the choices became fewer, Devin would hover over the box, saying, "Hmmm. Let's see. Alright. Hmmm." Making the right decision is a VERY big deal.

Happy Holidays 2011

Video for the Grandparents

Hope it's not too hard to hear his sweet, sick voice (yes, loving this wintertime with a toddler sick every other week!). 

Devin sure loves his Christmas music. In all his sickness drama he just wanted to snuggle for hours, and Daddy was able to get in on the action when he got home from work.

As previously noted, Devin is awesome at being sick.

Santa 2011

We had a great ward Christmas party on Saturday. We'd been talking up sitting on Santa's lap for several days in hopes Devin would conquer his fear of going to new people, or really his fear of leaving Mama. (He's having attachment issues at the moment.) 

He was super excited to see "Santa Claus"--this is how Devin refers to Santa at all times--to tell him he wanted a car for Christmas, and he really wanted a candy cane. In the end, I wasn't super surprised when Devin started repeating "Mama" at the moment of hand-off. I don't think he would have freaked completely if Santa hadn't made Devin touch his beard--even though I told Santa he wouldn't want to touch the beard--but it's all good, because now we have this gem of a picture to remember the great Santa times.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Family Night

This week Rich planned a super cute family home evening about Christmas trees. Devin was excited to have his hand traced to make the leaves and loved putting on the ornaments. 

He took the "pushing" down on the glue very seriously and grunted several times. We hung the creation on his bedroom door and he gets so excited every time he sees it.

Of course, having treats is one of the best parts of family night. 

All it was was SweetTarts, but he was thrilled, and kindly shared with Meow, Meow.

Light Parade

We hit up the Kelseyville light parade as part of our welcome to Christmas. We loved it last year, and were not disappointed this year, though it did seem a little shorter. Devin was excited to wave to Santa, and loved the lights and all the semis and trucks until the noise got just a little too much for him and he just turned his head and either peeked out the corner of his eye or shut his eyes altogether! Still, this was a great winter family night, and the parade is definitely a favorite Christmas tradition.

25 Weeks

The pregnancy with baby #2 is going great, and I can't believe I'm almost done with my second trimester. Only 15 more weeks to go! I still feel like I'm looking smaller this time around, which is certainly a welcome development.

One fun part of pregnancy this week was having my glucose test, which apparently, since being pregnant with Devin, has turned into a 2-hour test. Julie my wonderful friend and visiting teacher watched Devin for me, and I will say it was amazing to be able to just sit for 2.5 hours and read. And the car ride to the lab was noticeably quieter. I think Devin had the most fun, though, as he has repeatedly told me about Julie's dogs, toys, and cars. Throwing the ball to the dogs really made an impression on him!

Welcome, December

We started our countdown to Christmas with our Advent calendar, and Devin was very excited to ring in the season with us. 

Every night after picking out a piece for the calendar he immediately wants to do another (and you can tell a toddler has picked out the subsequent pieces for the calendar as they are car, drum, drum, drum).

He was very into shuttling ornaments back and forth while decorating the tree, loved getting his first (ornament) presents, and has been repeating "Jingle Bells" since I sang it to him. 

 

 

 

 After reading just a few Christmas books he recognizes Santa Clause and gets excited when we find him when out and about. 

 

Discussing Baby Jesus was a bit harder, and though we have read books about this most important part of Christmas, he thought we were telling him that Baby Jesus was coming this year.

 This kid is definitely going to enjoy Christmas a lot more this second time around. He's even helping Rich not be such a Grinch :) This is the look he gives me when he's about to do something he's not supposed to. Like touch the Christmas tree. Wish the red-eye could be removed, but it's still cute.

Thankfulness

Last year I blogged every day in November about the things I was grateful for. I knew I wouldn't be able to keep to the regimen this year with some of the things I had going on, but I have still been thinking a lot about how blessed our family is. Obviously November is not the only time to be grateful for things, but the "theme" of the month has definitely helped me as I've been busier than normal lately. And on this last day of November, I'm documenting my thankful thoughts.

I've had more frequent freelance work lately (another thing to be grateful for) and I copied down a quote from a job that really "said" November to me: "I can choose to be happy and deal with [life/trials], or I can choose to be unhappy and end up not reaching my potential." To me, that's what being grateful means. Remembering my blessings and focusing on all the wonderful things that I have helps me to be happy and to reach my potential each day. In those moments where I self-pity or complain, at the end of the day I know I've missed the mark because I forgot to pay attention to all the happy things that came my way.

 

I would be remiss if I didn't take the time to at least list how grateful I am for the 2.5 people that make life great every day. I truly am thankful for a life worth living.
1-Rich. This would go without saying, but sometimes the saying needs to be done. He's such a great husband and father, and I am grateful for our marriage, where I feel safe, loved, and happy.
2-Devin. Even when he's being sassy pants and thinks he's hilarious for making me use my exasperated voice, I love him more and more with each passing day.
2.5-Our new baby. Grateful to be feeling him twist and turn all the time and am looking forward to being a mother a second time.

Thanksgiving 2011

Surprise! We ate turkey on Thanksgiving. 

This is a recap of the entire Thanksgiving weekend. Lots of pictures follow.

We were fortunate to be able to celebrate the day of giving thanks with my entire family. 

 

 

 

It was a noisy affair, but tons of fun. Devin was really excited to see Grandma and Grandpa and all the cousins we've been talking about for the past few weeks (we arrived at about midnight on Thanksgiving morning). We'd been talking about the trip for a bit, so a lot of Devin's trip excitement was to "ride a plane, see grandma grandpa," but he showed off his memory skills by remembering the names of most of the family members.

 

 

Devin got right into the fray of things and, as I'm an awesome mother, I didn't really pay attention to him for most of the weekend as he had many cousins to keep him occupied and entertained.

He's asked repeatedly for his cousins since they left and since we got home. 

Saturday night we got to attend the Britton family Christmas party, where Devin was entranced by the singing and ran around a lot. 

 

 

  Megan was the lucky cousin who got to chase him around!

 

Sunday night was a get together with Grandma and Grandpa Britton and "more cousins." 

We celebrated Blanche's birthday, and Devin played with semis most of the night and showed off his speech skills by mimicking me when I told him he was being "sassy pants."

Originally we weren't planning on a trip to Utah for Thanksgiving, but we're glad we were able to go and see family. The flights were great and on time, meaning it was a pretty relaxing weekend with lots of football, food, and family!

This isn't a great shot, but Devin was looking out the airplane window and suddenly asked for his kitty to let "Meow, Meow look at planes too." Then he just held up his kitty to the window and told her there were "one, two planes outside."

This kid makes me laugh a lot.