November Pictures

November was a busy but fun month... we celebrated Cara's birthday, planned and/ or attended several really fun playgroups, spent lots of time getting ready for Christmas (making gifts, helping to plan the ward Christmas party which I was in charge of decorations for), and had a wonderful Thanksgiving with BJ's family.

Happy 3rd Birthday Gabriel!

Dear Gabriel,

It has been a long time since I could say you were a baby, and the other day I realized I can't even call you a toddler anymore.  You are a big boy; a bona fide preschooler now.  Have I really been your mother for three years?  It has truly been a privilege.  You have such a sweet temperament; you genuinely care about what the people around you are feeling.  When someone is hurt, it warms my heart to see you put your hand on their shoulder and say "You-a-ok? You have-a-owie? I-a-kiss-it better."

You are helping me learn, Gabe.  Sometimes you get sent to time out after being told that you can come back when you can be happy, or obedient, or nice or whatever the issue.  Sometimes after a minute or two I open the door and ask if you are ready to obey, and through your tears you say no.  After a while we realized that we needed a slightly different approach.  Now when I open the door and I ask if you need a hug, you almost always run to me immediately for some love, and then when we talk about obedience you are very cooperative.  I am glad you could help me learn that love needs to be first and foremost in any discipline.

You are becoming more opinionated and independent.  You love to pedal your tricycle without too much help, and you are quick to let me know you'd rather walk than ride in the stroller.  Sticks, rocks, and bugs are fascinating subjects, and nothing can distract you when you want to go exploring in the dirt.  Most days you don't care too much about what you wear, but some days, like yesterday, you were insistent that you wanted to wear your orange puffer vest, even though it is 90 degrees outside, and only the tie-dyed shirt from your aunt Rhonda was tempting enough to wear instead. 

You are just becoming such a big boy with a big personality.  Sometimes I miss the times when you were so little, but only a little, because watching your grow and develop is so much fun.  I love how well you can communicate and I love all the quirky little phrases that come out of your mouth ("Mom!  I want to sing Old McFarmer had a Farm, ok?").  You run off to your class at nursery and at daycare one morning a week usually with no trouble at all, and you are happy to see all your friends and teachers.  Sometimes it pains me to think of how your parents are already diminishing in your eyes- I mean, when you were a baby, we were all you knew, and now there are lots of people way more fun and exciting than us!  But I know you, you always come back for hugs and kisses and love from your mommy and daddy, and I think (and hope) that is how it will always be.

One thing I love about your three year old self is how keenly you feel things.  You play hard, you are delighted and even ecstatic when you love something, and you cry tears that seem like they are coming from a broken heart over things that make you sad.  You love music, and singing and dancing are great pastimes.  You love your trains, cars, balls, airplanes, playing outside, and water in the bathtub (as long as I'm not trying to wash you).  You are a great eater.  Although there are a few things you don't like too much (spinach), you will eat just about everything else.  I am happy that you love fruits and veggies (including broccoli- cooked or raw).  You love your cousins and your aunts and uncles, and your grandparents- dearly.

I am glad that I get to watch you live life the fullest that you know how.  I treasure the things I am learning from raising you.  I am glad that I could become your mommy three years ago.  You are so precious to me, I will keep trying to be the best mother I can be for you.

Letter to Luke on his 1st birthday

My Sweet Luke,
Today you are one year old.  I cannot believe how fast that year went by, and yet how long ago it seems that you were born.  Oh, it has been quite a year!  You have brought so much sweetness, energy, curiosity and laughter into our home!  Your older brother loves you dearly, and I love to see the wonder and adoration in your eyes as you watch and follow him around, wanting to take part in whatever he is doing.  I love that you are happy by nature, in spite of rough days and nights from earaches, teething, and your desire to not miss anything exciting for something so trivial as sleep!  This birthday marks some happy milestones for you.  Today you took your first steps alone.  You were holding some stacking cups and you thought I was holding on to you, so you walked and were surprised to realize you had done it without help.  This month you have started communicating better with us.  It warms my heart to hear you say "mama" and "dada", "up", and even "woof".  I am delighted when you sign "more" and your daddy and I were giddy when you mimicked the way we signed "I love you".  I don't know how much you understand, but we can feel love just exuding from you.  You have so much love to give.  I smile every time you reach for me to pick you up and you rest your head on my shoulder for a moment.  I love those open mouth "kisses" you bestow, and the morning cuddles that never last long enough!  I'm just tickled to see you asleep under your blanket, holding tightly to your stuffed animal when I come to check on you.  There are so many things you do to give us great joy, and having you in our family means more to us than I can express.  I am still learning what it means to be a mother- a mother of two.  I am so grateful for the things you have taught me about patience, forgiveness, optimism, and God's love.  I am learning more about these things because of you and because of my opportunity to be your mother.  Luke, I love you dearly!  Happy birthday, Lukey- pie.
Love,
Your Momma

Happy Birthday BJ!

So happy to celebrate this day with you!  You are a wonderful husband and a great dad!

Happy Birthday #2 Gabriel!

We had a fun little celebration for Gabe's 2nd birthday this week (we had one a week or so ago with my family in CA as well, but I wasn't really prepared to do a party while we were on vacation).  We didn't do anything particularly exciting in the afternoon, other than Gabe got to eat goldfish crackers in the living room while he watched some clips from 40 Years of Sunny Days (best of Sesame Street).  In the evening, we met BJ's parents for dinner at Cracker Barrel and had a nice visit, then we all came back to our place and watched Gabe open his presents.  I guess we all chose well, because once he figured out that opening presents got him new toys, he was jumping up and down and squealing with each one.  He is crazy about vehicles of any kind, so he loved his tricycle, cars, and train set that he got.  Since he is always standing up and making his cars go across the entertainment center, we thought it would be good to get him a little table and chairs that were just his size.  He loved it.  Kind of a lot of big-ish gifts this year, but he was ready for some big-boy toys, and all our kids will benefit from this stuff, I guess.  Anyway, I think BJ and I had at least as much fun as Gabriel watching him unwrap all his stuff.  We had planned it for quite a while and we were pretty excited!



Gabe just cracks me up.  When I give him a stern look after he does something slightly naughty, he tells me to be "bappy"- which is funny since we tell him to be happy when he is throwing a tantrum (or have timeout).  I can't help laughing.  Lately his favorite word to say is "no" (welcome to the twos)- even when he doesn't actually want to decline something.  So he will say no first, then what he really means.  Example: "Gabe, it's lunch-time.  Do you want to eat a sandwich?" "NO! Sess..." (Sess= Yes)  "Do you want a drink of milk?" "NO! Guk..."  "Can I have a kiss?" "NO!..."- he gives me a kiss.

Gabe wants to know what everything is.  He brings me an object and says "uhtsiss?" until I tell him what the object is named, then he repeats it several times.  He has names for most things he comes in contact with.  They don't always sound much like their real name, but he sure tries!  He has been really fascinated with letters of the alphabet, and of his own motivation has learned the letters X, O, F, B, T, V, and Y, and identifies them correctly almost all the time.  We often hear him singing or humming the tune of the ABC song/ Twinkle Twinkle Little Star- occasionally singing a phrase, then going back to humming.  Recently, we wondered if he knew the words to any other songs that we often sing him, so we made up a little game where we sing a song, omitting the last word of a phrase, to see if he would sing the word- and most of the time he does!  It was so fun because after doing that for a while, he started singing even more words of the songs along with us.

Gabe continues to love on Luke.  He rocks the baby in the baby seat, he pats his head and tummy, puts a pacifier in his mouth (sometimes after tasting it himself), sings the baby songs (usually Baby Beluga- we're not sure, but he may think Baby Beluga is Luke), and occasionally tries to share his toys with Luke.  For a while he was calling Luke "Eeeee", then "Lllll", then it was "Doot", and now it is "Guke".  Gabriel still refers to himself as "iyel"- sounds like the last part of his name. 

The changes I notice in Gabriel's development seem to be coming more and more quickly.  Sometimes I feel like time is passing way too fast.  Then again, it's fun to see what comes next.  I look forward to what the next year brings.

Time to blog again

Rochelle has been asking me to contribute to the blog again. I remember a time when I was doing much if not most of the writing, and I was the one trying to get Rochelle to write. My, times have changed. But I should be doing more of this. I should be recording history better, and journalling better. We've had a good month. My birthday came and went, and it was fun. We had a couple of different little get-togethers with people, and that's kinda the way I think I prefer it. I enjoy small groups instead of large crowds. I can focus more on the people I'm with instead of trying to say 'hi' to everyone, and bouncing from conversation to conversation. We went to Sam Hawk with Richard, Marissa, Charles, and Annette. I always thoroughly enjoy myself there. The food is great. And the company was splendid. And my parents treated us to a dinner at Teppanyaki. Eating there reminded Rochelle and I of a chance meeting we had had there before we started dating years ago. It's a funny story. I'm not going to take the time to post it here though. At least not right now. ;-) And Rochelle and I celebrated on our own some too. Rochelle decided that for my birthday that we could get a grill. I've always wanted one, but it hadn't always been feasible until recently. So now I'm 30, I have a wife, and son, and a grill. Isn't life grand? I tried it out, and promptly burnt the first thing I cooked on it. It seemed fitting and proper that I did. Traditional. Men around the country burn their meet on the grill and somehow love it all the same. I can now join in their ranks. Well... I could go on, but I've learned that if I blog too much in one post, the post won't get read, and I'm afraid I'm nearing or past that point already. But I will try to post again soon. I like to hear myself talk, and this seems as good of a forum for that as any.

BJ