Twelve months

The time has come…  last year at this time we were welcoming a precious baby girl into our family!! A whole year has flown by and Belle just celebrated her first birthday! Holy buckets.



Dear Belle,

Over the past twelve months, you have changed our lives (beyond the sleepless nights and the amount of pink that has invaded our house). You have wrapped Daddy around your finger, melted my heart, and become besties with your big brother. I am so grateful for the precious little girl that God has blessed us with—YOU!!

You are quite the little walker these days… and you definitely don’t need my help. If I try to hold your hand, you go crazy.  You’re still a little bit wobbly, but you do okay when you fall down. You can even get up by yourself in the middle of the floor instead of crawling to a piece of furniture and grabbing it to pull yourself up!

Girl, you love to make noise. You like to scream, squeal, babble—anything that makes a noise. And it’s generally loud. You say “dada” a lot. You’re first word that you always use in context is “Uh oh” and it is soooo cute! Sometimes you don’t even open your mouth to say it! Daddy taught you how to say “Hi” this week and that is super sweet as well!

And while on the topic of speaking, you started signing this week too! You can sign “more” when you want another bite. We haven’t worked on other words very much, but I expect you to pick up on them soon.
You’ve gotten another tooth on bottom, so you’re up to five teeth total. You eat whatever we eat for dinner. You’re favorite food is—well, it’s not a certain food. It’s just anything that comes out of a chip bag. I am so not kidding. Even if I hand you a chip off my plate, if it didn’t come out of the bag it is worthless to you! I have even put fruits and veggies in a chip bag so you would be excited to eat! We’ve made the switch to milk instead of formula and we’re exploring different milk options to make sure we avoid lactose.

Needless to say, I feel I must mention that you are pretty strong-willed, opinionated, determined… whatever word you’d like to choose. Please refer to the above pictures: the one with the drill—yeah, you wouldn’t cooperate without the drill. The one with the scowl, that’s your “I’m not happy with you” face. Do you see the attitude!? You are rather sensitive and a bit dramatic at times. I know you’re one, but I am amazed at how little girls are so different from little boys.

You love stuffed animals and you sleep with certain ones every night. Your favorite is pink ruff-ruff {a gift from friends}, but it’s looking a bit dingy and because it has a music box in it, I can’t wash it. So we are transitioning to a sock monkey you got for Christmas. You have started sleeping through the night more consistently. Only once or twice a week do you wake up in the middle of the night. You totally prefer to sleep in your own bed {me too, I can’t blame you} but you are quite ridiculous about when it comes to sleeping in a pack and play at my parents house.

But even so, you are still such a happy baby. Totally cute and super sweet!! You give the best kisses, even when they are wet and sloppy or if it’s just your forehead making it’s way to my lips. I love it all! We love you more than we can ever express into words and it is so much fun to watch your personality bloom!

The messy eater phase—but you’re just so darn cute! Look at that smile! {and the little ponytail that sticks up on top!}

You love the water, both at the pool or in the bath! It’s a great
cure for a cranky baby.

Last week at Jackson’s doctor appointment, you walked right over to the sucker basket and helped yourself! I let you have it after you worked so hard at pulling that off! You were definitely proud of yourself.

I love this picture from the park. You totally love to walk around and climb and play! When did you get so big!?

Belle, you bring so much joy into our lives and into the lives of everyone you meet. I pray that you never lose your radiant smile and positive energy. Sometimes I wonder how I am going to keep up with you, but I would never, ever want to change you! I am so blessed to be your mommy and I hope you will always know that. You make the world a better place; we love you. –Mom and Dad

{First birthday party pictures coming soon!}

One Year Stats:
Weight: 20 pounds - 29 percentile

Height: 28.5 inches - 27 percentile

Dude, Babe, Jackson

It's due time for a Jackson update. He is just becoming just such a big kid. When kids are little, their growth is obvious and their milestones are major! But as they get older, it kind of sneaks up on you. Then one day, you're just hanging out with the little dude-- laughing, playing, talking-- and you realize, he's not a toddler anymore!!

I love this picture because 1) he's super cute 2) you can see the blue patch in his left eye

Jackson is three years and three months. This three-year-old year has been a little difficult {definite power struggles and getting him to pay attention to follow instructions}, but yet so nice at the same time. He can entertain himself, Belle too, and is super helpful around the house! He even has chores. He can get himself some breakfast if I'm still in bed in the shower. {Most days it's yogurt, applesauce, or fruit. While other times he moved a chair to the kitchen, climbed on a chair, to climb on the counter, to reach the candy bowl on the top shelf, climbed down all to bring me a hersery bar to open for breakfast. I let him eat it after going to all that trouble} and he can get himself mostly dressed, once I convince him to get dressed at all. The kid loves to be naked.

He has started going to some classes at the community center {munity center} while I do exercise classes. Aside from nursery at church, it's the first time he's ever been in a class. I sometimes walk around the track just to watch. I just can't believe he's big enough to learn relay races and duck, duck, goose.

Jackson loves to read. We get new books almost weekly from the library. I've been picking up Cars, Toy Story, and superhero early reader books and he has them memorized. He really likes non-fiction, informative books--like the parts of trains, different trucks, and construction tools. The craziest part about it all is that he remembers it and will bring it up in conversation at appropriate times. We're starting to work on learning sight words.

Jackson is way observant and very detail-oriented. He hates when his socks are crooked {the seam doesn't line up perfectly on his toes} and you cannot skip a part of his bedtime routine without a meltdown. He also picks up a lot more of the things Derek and I do. At times is very humorous {when he rubbed in nose in the super annoying way that Derek does}, other times it's humbling {when he yells at other cars in traffic}. He is exploring new phrases like, "holy buckets!" and he always tells me "thank you for cooking" because Derek always does too! He told me that something was his "favoritest-everest" the other day. I clearly picked up on his enthusiasm! But one time, Jackson decided to tell Derek to "chill out" and that didn't go over so well... Humorous for me to watch, not so funny for Jackson.

Jackson likes to shave like Papa

As always, Jackson is very funny. I think this age is just funny overall, but he has a great sense of humor. A few recent Jackson-isms:

• When we have pork something for dinner, Jackson always calls it Evil Dr. Pork Chop
• After telling him that carrots are good for his eyes, he things that when he eats carrots they go up to his eyes unlike the rest of the food that goes down into his belly.
• He is still very aware of his manhood. We went through every single character to decide if they had a penis or not {even if toys/cars/trains don't actually have gender parts}
• He is also very proud. The other day at Walmart, Derek and I split up to get a few items. I went to the Shampoo aisle and Derek asked Jackson if he wanted to join him to pick out some car oil. Jackson was excited and I heard a few aisles over, "We'll get the car stuff because we have pensis!!" {followed by the loudest "ssshhhhhh!!" I've ever heard}
• He can't wait to "grow up tall so that he can be the boss"
• He calls his stuffed animals his "kids" and likes me to count all the kids when I tuck him in at bedtime... and I have to include him. I've tried to get him to name his animals, but they are all just Puppy, Soldier Bear, Monkey, etc.
• And lastly, Jackson is just soooooo picky about his name. His name is Jackson. Other acceptable names are strictly Dude and Babe. Nothing else. One little friend of his came over to play the other day and she called him "Jack". Not pretty. One day I even overheard him screaming at Belle, "MY NAME IS NOT GAGA!!!"... which is HALIROUS because of course, Belle just babbles! He takes his name very, very seriuosly. If this keeps up, I might have to legally change his name to Dude, Babe, Jackson so that he doesn't have major issues once he enters kindergarten.

Today's soundtrack

This, my friends, is the soundtrack from our car ride earlier today.

{yes I was driving. BUT I had set up the video function before I took off and all I did was hit record and hold the phone, which is why you only get to view the dashboard and not the kids themselves, even though I would love to have it on tape for blackmail use someday}.

Oh yes, be very jealous.

We were on our way home from a friends house. Now, maybe you think that Jackson is upset because he had to leave his friend. However, we actually left because Jackson started his crying, screaming fit while we were there and so we had no choice but to evacuate leave and come home.

And because he was crying/screaming in the car, it upset Belle who joined in on the fun. Both kids are now in bed, asleep. In fact, today is the very first time that Jackson got sent to nap without any lunch. I feel mean and awful. I talked to him kindly saying that I can't wait to play with him when he takes a nap and wakes up happy. {He will wake up happy, won't he!?}

I seriously have no idea where this fit came from and I am definitely hoping it never happens again. It's so unlike him! At least we weren't in the grocery store. Speaking of which, I needed to stop on the way home but decided it wouldn't really be a great idea. But now I don't have hamburger buns for dinner. Anyone want to pick some up for me??

I'm off to enjoy the quiet. And maybe catch up on this week's episode of Glee.

Edit: Jackson woke up in a great mood. A completely different kid. We're gonna have a good afternoon.

NyQuil Party

Jackson was so kind as to share his nasty cold with the rest of us in this house. The kids are over at the in-laws so that we can rest up and kick this thing! It starts out with a sore throat. Then comes the stuffy nose and sinus headaches followed by the never ending running nose! Julie has just started the sore throat phase. Derek's at the headache stage and I've been fighting it all for a couple days now. It's possible that if I blow my nose one more time, my brains might actually fall out.

After taking some meds last night, I was still pretty groggy today. I was looking forward to napping myself after I got both kids down for naps and got a few chores completed. I guess I was a bit anxious to get things done because after I put Jackson down for his nap, I didn't kiss his forehead and whisper "I love you" as I typically do! As I was walking out of his room, he cried, "Love me!!" And I felt like the crummiest mommy ever. I walked over and knelt down, kissed him, and told him I loved him sooo much. Even though it was just a tiny moment in our day, it really caught my attention. I never want to rush around to get things done that I forget to tell my kids that I love them!

Okay, I'm off to get some sleep! I can't wait to post about my super-exciting (to me, anyway!) Saturday- hopefully tomorrow!

Just call him Ansel Adams

We have a budding photographer in our house. His appointments are booking fast, so if you'd like to hire him to capture some of your family photos this summer, you better call asap! There is a good chance, however, that all of your photos will end up looking a lot like this:

Because no matter how much we try to teach him to use the camera correctly, he simply insists on using it backwards and super-up-close.

I don't know how he stands the bright flash in his eyes over and over, but it doesn't stop him one bit. I ended up deleting over 35 images of his eye/nose/forehead! And I have to keep a q-tip handy for when I actually want to use the camera because he gets the lens oily and my pictures turn out foggy!

Even though you can't see his smile in the shots, he is definitely smiling because he say's "Cheese!!" with every photo he takes!

Where'd this kid come from?

This is the outfit Jackson insisted* on wearing today.

*as in, threw a complete tantrum about the khaki shorts I was attempting to put him in because they weren't red. I am not making that up. I didn't have any red bottoms to put him in so I let him go pants-less, which prompted a second breakdown. When he willingly brought me the Mizzou shorts, I agreed simply because he can take his diaper off if he's not wearing pants.

I will avoid taking him out in public as I cannot even tell people that Daddy dressed him because it really was me who put this outfit on him! Oh well, this wasn't a hill I was willing to die on. Maybe he is just super proud of the great start of the season from both of "his" teams!

In other breakdown news, Jackson was very upset at the fact that I left one of the sections of his divided plate empty at lunch time. He just couldn't eat anything on his plate until I had something in there. I found some fruit and then he ate his lunch just perfectly. Today's lunch menu: leftover roast, potatoes, green beans, and the added side of mixed berries!

When did my easy going child become so opinionated!? I'm not sure I like it.