Happy birthday Sydney!

A few days ago we celebrated your birth with a fun day of some of your favorite things! You basically led the show and chose what we ate and what we did and first up were pancakes for breakfast. To follow, we headed up to the aquarium at Crown Center, but first enjoyed pizza for lunch (FYI D'Bronx pizza is so very delicious!), some ice cream for us and a cookie for you, and a special trip to the Crown Center toy store. Shortly after, we headed over and enjoyed the aquarium and all of the sea creatures! We thought about driving around the plaza to see the lights like we have done for the past couple of years, but you were very anxious to get back home to play with your new toys, so we made our way back home instead. It was a fun, freezing cold, day that you declared "best day of your life!" :)

Each year when your birthday rolls around, naturally I replay the moments and hours leading up to your arrival. You were actually supposed to be a January baby, January 25th to be more precise. I had just had a doctors appointment the Wednesday before you arrived and the doctor didn't seem to think I'd be having a baby anytime soon. The following Friday was my last day of school before going on winter break (I told myself I would work on my sub plans while I was home on winter break--ha!), Dad and I exchanged our gifts for each other and got our gifts for our families situated for Christmas Day. (Oh and a huge snow storm had just came through and another was about to arrive...) Saturday, December 22nd was spent washing baby clothes and sheets, organizing drawers. I vividly recall thinking about packing my hospital bag, but decided against it and went about doing other things. That night we were watching football and eating chili when I soon found out that you were on your way! A quick visit with the nurse and a doctor confirmed it...she said "you'll have a baby tonight!" She was wrong about one thing though-we were having a baby, but you weren't born until after lunchtime the very next day! Whew it was a long time, but when you arrived I remember saying "she's the most beautiful baby I've ever seen!" We were ecstatic to finally meet you and were overjoyed that you were here and (seemingly) okay. Phone calls were made, hugs were passed around--but you were born with a fever so they had to take you to the nursery to see if they could give you some medicine to help you. While you were in the nursery, you started to have trouble breathing which they called "respiratory distress." Since you were so little and the hospital wasn't equipped to care for a premature baby, the decision was made to have you sent to Stormont Vail about an hour away. They sent for the Life Star helicopter and when you were only about 4 hours old you had your first (and only, thank God) helicopter ride! The nurses and staff assured us that this happens at least once a month, but you were our very first baby and in the moments leading up to you leaving and the moments after, it felt like we were the first and only parents in the world that had to be separated from their baby. The day of your birth went from the very best day of our lives to our very worst in just a matter of a few hours; however, once you arrived at the other hospital, they were quick to get you on the road to better health and I was able to join you that night. Daddy slept in the room with you (there was not a bed-just an awful, uncomfortable reclining/rocking chair) and I stayed at our cousins' house. The next eight days were pretty emotionally taxing on all of us, but we were reassured that you were going to be just fine and "respiratory distress" really is quite common in babies that are born early. We were able to bring you home on New Years Eve day and we got to ring in the new year 2008 together as a family of three, in our very own home. The following six years have flown by and we could not be more proud of the little person you have become. We love you so very much Sydney!
                                    

Letters to our Children: Avery

Happy 8th Month Avery!

You are growing up so quickly and we are having so much fun with you. This last month has been a busy one for you! Toward the end of November I noticed your very first tooth popping through (on the bottom, your left), and it was quickly followed by its neighbor, bottom right. Even just those two teeth already change the look of your sweet smile and you look bigger! Here are some of the cool things you are up to:

• sitting up for longer periods at a time! You do really well, but still occasionally tip over or fall off to your side.
• two teeth! (you chew and gnaw on everything!)
• babbling: you love to "talk" to us and are making lots of sounds! not just consonant sounds (mmmm, ggg, bbbb, ddd) but also "raspberries" and what I like to call "forced crying." ;) Crying without the tears and is pretty easily turned off when you get what you want. :) 
• clapping! You have always loved pat-a-cake and now you can do it on your own!
• rolling and reaching for things, though you are pretty content in staying in one spot so far. 
• You like lift-the-flap books, you lift the flaps, turn the page, and chew on the edges. :)
• You love to sleep on your tummy!
• Sleeping through the night the last three nights....Mom isn't declaring victory over the sleepless nights just yet, but I am encouraged and enjoying the rest. :)
• stick your tongue out!
• feed yourself food! you love bananas, noodles, chicken, pancakes

You bring us so much joy and are such a sweet, sweet baby. 

We love you to pieces!!!

Love you forever, Mom

Letters to our Children: Gavin

Hello my sweet boy...

It is no surprise to anyone who knows you that you thoroughly enjoy, love, and cherish your trains. ("I love trains!" was the first thing that came out of your mouth the other night when Dad said "say anything" as he recorded you---we were testing out our video camera to make sure it was working properly!) You currently have two separate set of trains; one is the larger, plastic, Thomas the Train set of tracks, trains, train cars, bridges, etc. The second set is one that was given to me by a friend when she quit teaching (she taught Kindergarten and kept this smaller, wooden set in her classroom.) You love them both--in fact the Thomas set traveled with us to Florida for Uncle Derrick and Aunt Bailey's wedding. (It entertained you in a not so child-friendly beach house, which was its purpose. :)) However, you most recently have become very attached to your "small" train set. When they were kept at my classroom, each time you came to visit you would head straight for the closet doors and would ask for the four baskets of wooden train tracks, bridges, and train cars. One day you were so upset at leaving the trains, I figured we could just bring them home "for the weekend." That "weekend" turned into weeks, then months, then eventually I ended up bringing all of the other baskets home to stay with us forever! It was the best thing we could have done, as those four plastic baskets have merged into one huge basket that permanently resides in our living room. Every day you build at least one track, sometimes more, and I often don't have the heart to disassemble it at the end of the day, so it may stay for a day or two. I have loved, loved, LOVED, watching you play with your trains. I feel like it gives me a small glimpse of how your precious little mind is working. You take your track building very seriously and have worked so hard at learning how to build them yourself, complete with bridges and criss-crosses. You always try to make a "really huge train" too with all of your train cars attached to the engine, with a caboose on the end. I see you solve the problem of the train cars repelling from one another and you swiftly spin one of them around and continue on throughout the rest of the train, spinning and connecting. I love it!

Now, as much as I love watching you play with your trains and as much as I enjoy playing trains with you--I am certainly not the master train track builder in our family. That role is filled by Dad. He is much better at it than I am (it must be his engineer, problem solving mind!) and when you ask me to make a track, I stick to the basics. I get great ideas of curvy loops and bridges and criss-crosses, but I cannot ever make them come to fruition. However, the other day you wanted me to recreate one of the best train tracks that Dad has ever made with these little wooden tracks (it had 3 loops and used all 3 of the bridges--quite a challenge!) I looked at you and said "oh, that's pretty tricky. I'm not very good at it...Dad is much better at it than I am." You looked right back at me and said "just try. Just try, Mom." Um, how can I argue with that?! (In a flash this total "Mom" thought whipped through my brain: "Aren't I always the one encouraging him to try new things?? (new food, dressing himself, etc., etc.) That certainly isn't going to go away, so what kind of example would I be setting if I did not try to build him this train track. Shouldn't he see that I believe in myself enough to do this for him?" etc. etc. etc.) So, we dove in and tried it. We worked together and we did it! We made a rather awesome train track, if I may be so bold. I was SO proud of it, you loved it....so I took pictures of it. Then I took pictures of the two of us with the train track. Then I looked at you, my sweet boy, and thanked you for encouraging me to try it, even when I didn't think I could do it. You believed in me, even when I didn't believe in myself.  Thank you, my sweet Gavin!

Love you forever and always,
Mom

December. Sydney's birth month!

We are about five days into the month of December and I am reminded that before long our first baby will be six. SIX! Every year I tell myself that age sounds so big and so grown up and I can't believe we have a child that "old." Something about six though is kind of hard to accept. She's reached and passed the "halfway" mark to ten. Now we are halfway through Kindergarten and it is flying by. Before long she'll be on summer vacation and preparing for her first grade year and in December 2014 I will be right back here typing the same words, but with a few changes (and I imagine all other subsequent years to come.) It is a bittersweet time as we watch our children grow and change-so much to be excited for, but a heart aches at how fast it's going and on occasion, I long for them to be their little infant or toddler selves again. I am sure I'll write a separate birthday post for Sydney in a few weeks, so I will try to keep this one at a minimum!

Dearest Sydney,

It's December! You'll be six years old before we know it. We are so proud of the little person you are becoming. Sometimes some of the things you say and do blow me away! In many areas you are wise beyond your years. I miss you when you are at school all day and I find myself checking the clock after lunch, with the hopes it's close to 3:35. Our home just doesn't feel complete until we have picked you up from school and brought you home with us! Since I don't see you most of the day one of my favorite moments of the day is at bedtime. I usually sing you your song "Goodnight my Princess" (which I completely made up, on the fly, one night years ago when you asked me for a princess song at bedtime! The next night you asked for it again and I had to try and remember how it went....you helped me. :)) After I sing your song and rub your back (or scratch it-whichever you prefer that night!) we usually have a little bit of time to chat about your day. I love hearing about your day, your friends, the exciting parts, the challenging moments, the good choices you made and good deeds you performed. I could talk to you, one-on-one, for the rest of the night, so I am sad when I have to cut our chat short because it's time for bed. You are always so sweet and gentle....we exchange hugs, kisses, and "I love yous"...I wish you sweet dreams and you send the same wish back to me. You have such a big heart-caring, thoughtful, and genuine-full of love! I could not be more proud of you!

Love you,
Mom

Letters to our Children: Gavin Joseph

Dear Gavin,

I am thoroughly enjoying our time together here at home! I know you miss Sydney while she's at school and it warms my heart to see you two reunited at the end of the school day. You both take off and play for hours until it's time to eat supper! Some nights, you both play constantly until Dad comes home and even then, you take a short break to greet him and then get right back to playing. Watching you two reminds me of the scene at the end of Toy Story 3--where Andy brings his toys to the little girl named Bonnie and they start playing together. You two can make a story out of anything and with any characters (usually it's barbies and dinosaurs--what a combination!) I love it though and it is so much fun to watch. I try to play as well as Sydney, but it can be a challenge for me to revert to my childhood, imaginative mindset! So we spend our days building train tracks, working on and completing puzzles, building with legos, crashing trains on the train tracks we built, searching for worms (and any other bugs we can find!), reading books, and playing other games (today was Hedbandz!) I feel so blessed to be here with you every single day, you are growing and changing right before my very eyes and I am so proud of the little man you are becoming.

Whenever I let myself sit back and just watch you when you're playing on your own or with others, or if I sit back and watch you get yourself ready, or watch you with Avery...I see glimpses of the kind of person you will be as you grow older. You are thoughtful (you are a great helper and love to have "jobs"), you love to cook! (you always want to help me bake or make your lunch), you are loving (you always talk about how you miss Dad, Syd, or Aunt Bailey), you are adventurous--driving Dad crazy as you constantly flip over the rocks in the front yard in the search for bugs! You are determined and strong-willed. I admire this quality because I know it will take you far in life, however, it can pose quite a challenge for us as well. : ) I am figuring you out though and can generally help us both work through sticky situations so that we are both happy in the end. You are a problem solver! I love watching you build your trains and figure out what to do when they just don't connect...your little hands move so quickly to flip them around and connect them--then you flip around the rest to make it all work together. (this also applies to building train tracks!) Books and puzzles are still a favorite of yours and on occasion, when I cannot hear you somewhere in the house (I must admit, for a brief moment I panic!), I will find you looking through books in your room or putting puzzles together (again-you're a problem solver!) This is another quality that will take you far in life! I cannot wait to see what lies ahead for you, sweet boy. I am honored to be a part of all of the great things you will do. I love you more than you'll ever know!

Love,
Mom

Letters to our Children: Avery Jordann

Dearest Avery (aka: munchkin, sweet pea, sweetest-little-sister-ever, Avery J, Miss A...)

(Apparently being the baby of the family means that you are given dozens of nicknames. No worries-they are all given with love and affection for the littlest member of our family.)

You are now seven months old and I am almost, not completely, in denial of this fact! These months have flown by and I fear that they will continue to do so. We are having so much fun with you. You adore your brother and sister and will smile and laugh at the goofy things they do! You also love your daddy...you love looking at his hair, feeling his whiskers and listening to his deep voice. You love messing with (aka pulling/yanking/tugging!) on my hair while we rock and while you eat. You are *this* close to sitting up on your own-it happens for a few seconds at a time or if you are really focused on something, like the little toy piano. (Maybe you'll be a musician!) Also, I just got you from your nap and you were smacking your lips and when I mimicked you, you did it again! See? You are so much fun! Sometimes when I am trying to help you go to sleep, Dad will come up and tell you goodnight (one more time!) and we'll both end up playing with you more! Sometimes bedtime is hard because we don't want you to go to sleep. : ) However, bedtime can be hard sometimes when you don't want to go to sleep either--that's where we're at right now. : ) I figure you're too busy with the world around you that you don't care to slow down for sleep! A few more things and then you and I are off to snuggle while you eat. I realized this morning how fortunate we are that you are such a laidback, fairly easygoing baby. We had to cut one of your feedings in half so we could go get Gavin from preschool and before that you were carted around on an hour long walk with Mom and her friend. You are constantly on the go with us being shuffled here and there and you just go with the flow. Not only are you sweet and snuggly and fun, but you are such a wonderful blessing to our family. Each one of us loves you to pieces and could not ask for a sweeter baby to have added to our family. We are so thankful God gave us YOU!

Love you more than you'll ever know...
Mom

Letters to our Children: Cinderella

Dear Sydney,

November is here and I am having so much fun watching you admire the trees as their leaves turn to the most beautiful shades of red, orange, yellow, and gold. Some are so bright they almost glow! Within just the last couple of weeks it has turned so much colder that the leaves are shedding and many of our trees are now "naked" as you like to say. We had so much fun playing in the many leaves that fell from our neighbors' tree. You and Gavin raked them up (with my help) and jumped in the pile! A friend raked a "track" in the leaves and you both loved racing on the track and jumping in the pile at the end. Even when you two were helping Dad rake them all up to put in a trash bag, you still had fun. It took a little bit longer than it probably should have, but fun was had and memories were made. The excitement that you and Gavin have shown for this beautiful time of year is enough to make it anyone's favorite season. In fact, just the other day you declared "fall" your most favorite season!

You and I did something pretty special together just a few days ago. The university here in town put on a showing of Cinderella! I'm so glad that my friend brought it to my attention and arranged our tickets/seats, etc. We snuck out Sunday afternoon, just you and me, and enjoyed a couple of magical hours. About twenty minutes in to the show, you turned around and gave me the biggest hug and whispered "I am so glad that you brought me." This was followed up throughout the rest of the show with multiple "thank yous" and "I love it!" along with many gasps of amazement and excitement. It was magical seeing you love it so much and I am so glad we got to have that time together! It isn't often that it's just the two big girls, so hopefully as Avery gets older we can do some of these things more and more.

Cinderella! You loved every minute of it!

Mom and Sydney

You were so excited to meet "Cinderella" and the "Prince"!

What a special afternoon we had. I am so grateful that we got to sneak away and enjoy this together.Every day I am amazed at how you are growing up right before my very eyes! We are so proud of the little person that you are and are becoming. I love you!

Mom