30 Days of Thanks: Day 15

That laugh gets me every.single.time. 

We are so thankful for your playful and fun spirit. Your gut giggle just melts your mommy and daddy to pieces - and that toothy smile, just wow. 

Here's a video of that silly little giggle, taken on this lovely day 15...

30 Days of Thanks: Day 14

Today, we are thankful for monster trucks! Just shy of 2 years old, you are obsessed with everything trucks. You tell us all day every day how BIG the trucks are, you like GWEEN twucks, you count the trucks on the road when we're driving to school. And I'm not talking about a cartoon truck show obsession, I'm talking about a real-life the bigger the better truck obsession. Your daddy could not be more proud.

30 Days of Thanks: Day 13

Toys and trains. I know, it sounds shallow to be thankful for toys, but let me explain...
To see you with an opinion and a preference is one of the coolest things ever - you have a point of view, you're an individual. It makes me so proud. Your most recent toy (and tv show) preferences are Trains (Thomas the Train), Trucks (anything monster trucks or Bob the Builder), and Airplanes. Beyond these, from the time you were born, mommy showered you with stuffed animals, not sure why, it just felt right and I was too pregnant to not buy every cute stuffed animal on the shelf.
But here's where it really gets cool - after an overnighter with your Grandma, you came home Sunday morning with a bitty bear that was new to our home. It looked and felt crazy familiar - I knew in my gut that I had seen this bear before. As it turns out, this bitty bear was your mommy's when she was your age. Without coaxing, this bear has quickly become your favorite "baby" of your entire 1000-army-strong baby battalion. This absolutely melts.my.heart! To look over at you on the couch, cuddling with that bear that I so clearly remember holding close when I was your age, it brings nostalgic tears to my eyes.
So, today I am thankful for the toys that mean more than we remember, or in some cases realize.
Bears and Trains and Trucks and babies rule.

30 Days of Thanks: Day 12

Every day you grow a little bigger - you're talking a ton and you come up with the funniest of words. In this growth spurt, you most certainly outgrew your crib a while ago and have been crawling out of it in the morning for months, without ever a bump or scratch. It was high time we graduated to your first big boy bed. Holy moly, kiddo. Slow down! You of course took to it like a champ, at first so excited, you jumped right in shouting "big boy bed!" Bedtime itself wasn't your brightest hour, but you settled in nicely after we showered you with your babies and after that - not a peep, didn't even get out of bed once! So, we are today super thankul for your patient and accommodating spirit - you are growing at a normal pace and are giving us new parents all the signs we need to know you're ready. Here's to a continued full nights sleep for everyone (you've been letting us sleep through the night since you were 6 weeks old - really, buddy, you are just the best).

30 Days of Thanks: Day 11

Quiet Sunday mornings are bliss. I am so thankful that I can take this day to relax, unwind and play with the best little guy ever. Today I gave thanks for downtime and Sunday morning cartoons with this stud.

30 Days of Thanks: Day 10

Family is a wonderful gift - you have the coolest grandparents around who take such amazing care of you. We are so very blessed and thankful for your Brama and Papa. Angels, these two.

30 Days of Thanks: Day 9

We have loads of laughs around here. From racing through the house to playing train or splashing in the tub. Having a little babe running around reminds us to have fun and enjoy the little things - today we were all thankful for laughter, especially your cute little gut laugh.

30 Days of Thanks: Day 8

Today we are thankful for books!
You wake up most days and come strolling into our room and ask to "read books". We are so happy you love books so very much.
Here is you and daddy this morning, in bed. Just precious.

30 Days of Thanks: Day 7

The best part about business travel is coming home to this little Spider-Man. Today, we were thankful for short and quick trips, an amazing travel dept at WK, and coming home to this sweet family.

30 Days of Thanks: Day 6

Today we are thankful for music and all that it brings to our life. You dance, you sing, and you keep a pretty darn good beat! Every few weeks you'll join your daddy at his Tuesday band practice, and you LOVE to hear the tunes, even though they're quite loud.
You will be raised around all different types of music - we can't wait to see which instruments you pickup.

30 Days of Thanks: Day 5

We are so thankful for cool technology like FaceTime on our iPhones. It brightens all of our days when we need a fix.

30 Days of Thanks: Day 4

Today, we thank that sweet Mother Nature. She's blessed us with a beautiful warm fall day and the colors in the Northwest this time of year more than make up for the 9 months of rain. Today your daddy rakes our entire yard and climbed up on the roof and blew those darn leaves right off, officially making him our hero. As you repeated "Daddy on da roof of da house wake weaves", he worked his butt off cleaning our home out from under the mounds of beautiful leaves. Today we are thankful for nature, and also for scuba, who works so very hard to keep our playground clean. Thanks, papabear.

30 Days of Thanks: Days 1, 2, 3

We have so much to be thankful for this year, I loved the idea of recording our thanks every day of November.

Naturally already behind, but here's to getting caught up...

Day 1 - We are so very thankful for the Internet and technology that allows us to record all of these special tiny memories. Might seem insignificant, but without it, we wouldn't have our precious photos, videos and this blog. So, thanks Al Gore for the internet.

Day 2 - Thanks for special time for just mommy and daddy. Life gets busy and it's good to remind ourselves why we decided to spend this life together - because we have so much fun! On this day, we skipped work and went on a day date that involved wine tasting, a fab dinner at Nick's Italian Cafe, and fancy martinis at Voodoo. We were once again reminded how much we like each other, and how much we adore you and our sweet little family.

Day 3 - Go Ducks! Our awesome U of O Ducks are having such a great season, and boy do I love the Fall for college football, green and yellow, chili in the crockpot and cuddles around the fire as we root on our ducks. You are crazy cute in your new ducks get up, and you clear as day pronounce "GO DUCKS!". Everything you do is adorable, but hearing you root on my alma mater (maybe your future school) just fills me up with pride and joy.

So, here you are: GO DUCKS!

Curing what ails me

Today was an exceptionally trying day. I was feeling challenged, frustrated, I even got that rare glimpse at hopelessness. After the hour-long drive home, I was lost in my head and the distance that typically cures my ailments didn't make a dent.

As I pulled myself out of the car, I looked up to see your tiny frame standing in the door way. “HI MAMA!” – you shouted with an unbridled enthusiasm and a smile that could end all wars. From there, we sat on the front stoop and counted pumpkins…for an hour. Then it was dinner and bath time – “Bubbles!”.  You peed in the potty (yessss), jumped in the tub and started blowing bubbles and laughing your little buns off (Exhibit A below).  You asked for a cookie in the only way you now KNOW is fool proof: “Cookie Pweeeeease, I WIKE COOOKIE!”(exhibit B below). And yeah, you got a cookie in the bath…you were ecstatic mama's defenses were completely down.

From there we got your jammies on, collected all of the babies you could carry and proceeded to read as many books we could cram in before falling asleep.

“Read books, mama!”. You can’t get enough. Colors, Dora, Trains, Dr Seuss, Farm Animals are your favorites.  Adjusting your babies from here to there while reading, to make sure they’re comfortable and as close to you as possible.

Slowly, you sank from a fully alert position to resting comfortably on my chest as I read to you – quietly, you looked up at me and whispered “night night”, and closed your eyes while I kept reading. You clearly didn't want to interrupt my reading. After a few more pages, we decided it was time for real night night. After a juice refill, you ran to your daddy and gave him “big loves”, then walked over to your Grandpa Bill, said clear as day: “Night Night Grandpa!”, proceeded to wish every other inanimate object in the house goodnight (including goose and linc), grabbed your babies and ran to your crib. You gave me loves and kisses, wished me a goodnight, cuddled up to your 1,000 babies and drifted off. No fuss, no problem, happy as a clam...as usual.

As I sat next to you tonight while you were in the bath, I couldn't help but forget every little thing that had haunted me all day. You remind me what this life is all about. Pumpkins, cookies, books, milk, warm fireplaces, doggies, family, kisses and most importantly: unconditional, unbridled, pure and true love. I realized tonight that even my worst days haven’t been that awful, not since you were born. You are my “well, I always have” guy. You raised the bar, giving even the worst in life a new base for context + comparison.

Thanks for being my smiling little dude at the end of the tunnel. You make my world. 

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B: 

20 Months!

1. It just sounds annoying to call you 20 months. I swore I wouldn't be one of those moms who counts their babies age once they're over 12 months. Alas, 20 months IS better than 18 months, is better than 17 months. I guess I'll stop counting months at 2 yrs. Because you, sir, are still my baby. Hear that?
2. It's been 3 months since I last blogged? Bad mommy! As you've come to understand, summers in Oregon must be treasured, coveted and enjoyed - and boy was this one! By far one of the best yet! We boated, camped, went hunting (well, daddy hunted, we hung out in camo by the fire), went to the zoo, the park a thousand times, learned to swim, wore swimming trunks (and at home, no trunks = your fav), and ate tons of ice cream, bbq and grilled veggies. Summers in Oregon are the best!

You are just growing like a weed. It feels like every day I watch you and gasp at how quickly you're growing and talking and moving! The last 3 months have seen you grow leaps and bounds in the vocabulary dept. You're still not making total sense, but you are certainly making sentences and you're pretty darn happy you can finally communicate and have an actual conversation.

A few of your favorite sayings right now:
Daddy drives the boat
Daddy drives the car
(insert anything) drive ; you're obsessed with driving anything
Mas (for "more"; yeah, you know Spanish, at 20 months)
read the book?
socks and shoes
soap in my eyes (oops)
ouch.
Oh Nooooo! (when you intentionally drop something or fall)
Jump Jump!
hot, cold, warm
You know everyones name: lincoln, lucy, papa (grandpa), brama (grandma)
Hey Dude
Hubba Hubba (thanks daddy)
goodnight
I'm sure there's more I'm not thinking of, but we'll leave it at that.

We've also (sort of) started potty training you. Somehow you became super into the potty, so we brought one in, and you pee on it, sometimes. We're not crazy serious about it yet, but we're happy you're taking to it so nicely. Hopefully we'll have a smooth go of it!

You are way too much fun. You are courageous, (still!) fearless (as proven by the constant bumps and cuts on your forehead), sweet, head-strong, determined, busy, class clown, and a social little butterfly. You love to make new friends and share your toys with other kids. You know when people are watching you, and boy do you put on a show.

I was reading some old posts recently, from when you were an infant, to see if the assumptions we made then still held true. Surprisingly enough, most did - as a baby, we described you as "high-input"; you couldn't sit/lay still, you always had to have something to do/look at/entertain yourself with. The same is still definitely true - you are high-input, but thankfully very social, so as long as there's other kids around for you to play with, you are golden.

I really do love you more and more each day. It's almost overwhelming how much I love you; I can't wait to watch you grow up but I'm really trying to enjoy these moments as much as I can. You are such a gem, the light and energy in my life. A tough day has nothing on you, as you run into the kitchen shouting "HI MAMA!!!". You make this mamas heart melt every day. Thanks for making every single day special, bud. you da you da best.