FOUR YEARS OLD!!! AND THEN SOME...

Hey There Little Love,

You turned FOUR years old!  You are FOUR YEARS OLD!  How did time fly by so quickly?

You are so much fun, fairly easy to reason with, you handle disappointment really well, you are just an absolute JOY!  Even days when I am tired and frustrated, it is still a complete joy!  I can't say that enough.  I know that sounds like I am making it sound better than it is, but I'm not... even on the rough days, which are few and far between, I am content and proud and happy and thankful!

You are philosophical... you love to talk about deep things.  You LOVE Star Wars, so we watched the first one... in May.  You LOVED it... I am so proud!

I am just going to document 4 years, and 4 years and one month in pictures!  I LOVE YOU SO FREAKING MUCH, my love!

Your mom (AKA Izzy with her pixie dust!)

You called this your skull rock cake - you loved it! 

The pirate cupcakes!

Jake and the Neverland Pirates

Cubby, Captain Jake, Izzy and Skully!

Captain Jake

Looking for Captain Hook... that codfish!

Keeping watch

Jake swings to take out Captain Hook!

On the treasure hunt!

On the treasure hunt!

Getting ready to blow out the candles!

Happy Jake!

I love you, goofy!

I'm doing cake with Skully attached to me... pretty impressive!

This is before RL's birthday party in February!  You dressed up, and Aunt Jess put on your makeup!

You and Hazel at RL's birthday party.  We saw Cinderella at NCT!

My girl....

My princess...

You and the Birthday Princess!

More Princesses!

More Princesses!

All the princesses!

This is before Sarah's Wedding... I'm going to laugh if I did all this in another blog post!

Shaunee's birthday party!

Charlotte's Birthday Party!

Charlotte's Birthday Party!

You show off your sliding skills at Charlotte's party!

Static Electricity!

The Rehearsal!

You and Ms. Sarah!

You adore her!

I love this pic...

And this one...

Be Still My Heart...

Mollie, the Bride and both ring bearers...

Gosh I love you, sweet girl!

We got the rare chance to just hang out with you... it was really special!

Daddy/Daughter dance to Butterfly Kisses!

Ms. Emily spent four days with us, and she got you birthday presents!

You LOVE Ms. Emily!

Birthday Sleepover with Will and Keenan!

Pre-Birthday Eve with Will and Keenan!

Happy Kiddos!

Getting ready to watch a movie!

Books!

Morning Lego time!

Rainbow Waffles... It's tradition

Will's waffle!

Keenan's Waffle!

Captain Jake!

Easter Egg Hunt at the Zoo!

Trial at the Hermitage Dance Academy... checking out ballet... we are starting ballet in June!

On the monitor!

Evan Miller's Birthday Party at Bounce U

Me and your little Bro at EM's birthday party.  

Haha!

You are SO SWEET with your brother!

Wearing Red to support our sweet friend, Will!

Shaunee's house... play date!

A cute story from Daddy May 7, 2016: 

From outside... I saw Mollie dash from the kitchen back to the living room.  I called to her and asked her to come see me.  She did and asked if she could have ice cream.  Then asked if she could have cake AND ice cream.  She said she already had ice cream.  When I came in, she was sitting on the couch eating ice cream.  I looked for the ice cream container on the counter, but she had put it back in the freezer.  

A funny story from Mommy on May 9, 2016: 

While lying down with Mollie tonight... Listen to this.  I was putting Mollie to bed and she said "Mom, dad told me I could go outside and play in the street.  I told myself that I could not do that, because it wasn't safe."  I said "that was very smart of you."  She said, "I know, I was looking out for myself." I said, "I'm going to have a talk with your daddy."  She said "I think that is a good idea."

A cute story from Mommy on May 11, 2016: 

Mommy, for Christmas I want a small purple spinning chair, purple earphones, and a purple computer with pink buttons, so I can do "tation" - your word for dictation.  

Well... what a few months it has been!  Fast, furious, and never stopping!  I love it and I love you!  

Mommy

7 Months, 8 Months, 9 Months, OH MY!

Hey Little Guy,

It has take me forever to post this, because I was waiting to load pictures.  Then all the sudden 7 months turned to 8 months, which turned into 9 months... Sorry!


7 Months: 

You are CRAWLING, and you are fast.  Army-style, my little man.  You are trying to pull yourself up, you LOVE to stand, but you need us to hold your little hands.  You are so proud of yourself when you do it, too!

You still LOVE your big sister.  She makes you so happy, and you just light up when you see her.  Nothing makes a mother's heart sing like her two babies connect like that!  You are the sweetest little guy, so fun, happy, and snuggly!

You bite me with your 6 teeth when we try to nurse, which makes me sad because I want to nurse you until you are a year old, but I'll pump and keep trying.

You have had a rough month... thrush, a double ear infection, sleepless nights.  It has been crazy, but you are happy even still.  You are our little sunshine!

You were Skully (from Jake and the Neverland Pirates) for your sister's birthday party.  

It was really cold, but I loved how much of a sport you were!

Daddy was the coolest Cubby ever!  And... he Skully-wore you! 

At the park with sis... You are a little more timid when you are swinging. 

Bath time with sis!

8 Months: 

You are pulling yourself up and you just love to be standing.  You are very opinionated, and you fight with your friend Nolie at school over toys.  It is really funny.  You will barrel over anyone to get to me, and you just light up when you see me.  I can't even tell you how my heart bursts when I see that.

I pump.  You won't nurse.  You are too distracted... even when I am in a dark room with your sound on.  You don't bite me anymore, but you don't want to nurse.  I thought for one moment that you might still be interested, but that was one weekend only.  My supply is dropping quickly.  SAD FACE!

You still don't sleep great, but I can't seem to figure out why.  Momma is just really tired.  

Using your walker... It still frustrates you.  

You would rather crawl!

You LOVE clapping and standing!

Be still my heart...

Oh, that smile!!!

You think you can do everything... including driving!

Easter Egg hunt at the Zoo... we didn't have a hat, so we put Daddy's on you... HAHA!

Where am I???

Pump it Up for one of Mollie's friend's birthdays... you are very happy with yourself!

Standing again!

Awwww!  I love how sweet your sis is with you... You light up when you see her!

9 Months: 

You are using your walker a lot!  You love to walk up and down the hallways.  You said your first real word, besides da-da.  You said "di-dat," which was Mollie's way of saying Kitty Cat, and I believe yours as well!  You say it after I say kitty cat when Kramer and Cosmo are near.

I think when you clap for more food - you are saying "more" in sign language.  You are just very dramatic.  You love to eat!  You LOVE to eat.  You eat basically everything we do.  You are not interested in baby food.  You decided after 9 1/2 months that you weren't interested in nursing still... my supply was almost gone, and all I was doing was pumping, so I decided to stop nursing... well pumping.  I was really sad - you don't care.  Haha!  I think all you care about is eating real food all the time.  

You don't sleep through the night, still, but you go back to sleep quickly after you eat.  I think I have just figured out that you really are hungry.  You wake up, I give you a bottle, and while you suck that down at the speed of light - I change your dipe.  Then you are back to sleep.  So... I'm not up for long periods of time.  You do still interrupt our REM sleep, though, so still tired... but NO COMPLAINING ;-)

I get accident reports from school all the time, because you think you can walk, you like to try and bust through everything with your head. You are a force to be reckoned with.  Haha!  I think it is funny... and I laugh every time I sign one of those reports.

You are happy all the time, but happiest when you are eating!

You really wanted to be outside helping Daddy and Mollie paint the deck, but you would have eaten the paint!  What kind of mom would I be if...

Happy Elf boy ready to go to the REN Fair!

Bubbles and chalk with Sis!

REN Fair!  

Looking outside!  I love you little man!

I love you so much, my sweet boy!

Mommy

3 Years, 11 Months

This was done a month ago, but pictures weren't added yet, so... I still haven't added photos, but I will!

Oh My Sweet Girl!

You are one month from being four years old, and I am not quite sure how I come to grips with that.   You are smart, hilarious, joyful, frustrating, fantastic, loving, kind, stubborn, independent, strong, and an amazing big sister.  It is going by too fast for me.  Too fast and busy for me to document it all.  Too crazy to remember all the amazing things you say, and get them down on paper.  I don't want to ever forget them, but I know I will forget most of them.  That makes me sad, but then I remember that I have taken a picture of the feeling.  I know and will remember how I feel being your mom, how you keep me laughing, how innocent and how grown up you are.  I hold onto those feelings and pictures of moments in time, and know that I will always have that... and these little notes that get written far too rarely.  Only once a month!


You love Jake and the Neverland Pirates, like a really intense love.  You kind of think it is real even though we talk about how it is pretend. You asked me if you could have pixie dust for your birthday, and if you would really be able to fly.  When I told you it was pretend, so please don't jump off the deck, you looked up at me with these big doe eyes, and said "No it isn't"  You absolutely believed it. While the magical and imaginative part of me wanted you to continue to believe that, the mom and safety first addict part of me said "You have to convince her it isn't real!"

Your birthday party is going to be Jake and the Neverland Pirates.  You are so excited!  I will look forward to sharing all the festivities.  Right now, we are in birthday mode for all of your friends. Parties every Saturday and Sunday.  It can be exhausting and expensive, but we love celebrating our friends, and you love going to everyone else's parties knowing that yours is coming up.  You are being very patient.

You continue to be an amazing big sister; patient, kind, thoughtful, helpful.  You take such good care of your brother, you help with him, you make him laugh and he loves you so much.  It is the most heartbreakingly sweet things I have ever experienced.  You read to him, sing to him, hug him (a little too tightly sometimes... haha!).

You are so creative; you love to sing, make up songs, dance, pretend, and everything else you can think of.  You have us follow your creative lead, and we make up stories with you, sing songs and do dances... among other things.  It is the coolest thing to see.  I still have to remind myself of your age... you are only THREE!  You act so much older that we forget that you still process things many times like a three year old... uncertain of why you feel the way you do, that you might be tired and unable to process, just breaking down.  While that can be frustrating, I often remind myself, out loud to you, that mommy and daddy have moments like that too, and it is pretty amazing that you can identify what you are feeling most of the time, and we can help you through it.  Sometimes you can't, and that can be frustrating, but we do the same thing!!!  Most adults aren't as in tune with their emotions as you are... and that, my darling girl, is incredible... in every sense of the word.

You LOVE your daddy... so much!  You miss him so much when he is gone, and just want to be near him when he is home.  You want him to help you do everything, and to be with you to help do things you are perfectly capable of doing on your own.  I forget sometimes that this is just because you miss him and want to be near him.  I love the relationship you have.  It is incredible!

Keep being you.  Keep being awesome.  Color outside the lines sometimes.  March to the beat of your own drum.  You are an amazing, and fantastic human, and I love knowing you.  Being your mom is an honor, but knowing you as a human is a gold mine.

There is so much I want to say, but being a mommy of two and working full time makes me super tired, so that is all my brain can handle right now.  I need to write more often, but to be honest I am happy I get this much done.  Haha!  You keep me laughing, you keep me young, you keep me living in sunshine.  I am stunned that you are mine.  I am the lucky one.

Favorite Words:  Graime Lynn, Glankie, Tempshapure, Isoslation, Gyna (haha) - (what is really funny is that spell check really wants me to fix these words).

You started saying: Orange correctly- Sad Face.

I love you to the moon and back, as far as Jupiter and back to Mars...

Mommy