Jay Bird, Two- two, you are two today!! Holy- Moly guacamole, I am in disbelief. Every day I stumble over the reality that you are mine… you light up my life and make each day better than the last. You are a constant joy to be around little one and when I say constant I mean it! You talk constantly, you move constantly- you are ALWAYS on the go. Most frequently you are either playing cars or finding more cars to play with. To say that you like cars right now would quite possibly be the understatement of the century, my sweet little boy you are obsessed! Cars are you world; they are literally the first thing that you talk about in the morning and the last thing you think about before closing your eyes. They watch you eat breakfast, lunch and dinner. You ask to get down from the table to play with them, we must have at least one of them with us at all times and they clutter every corner of your bed as you sleep. You play with them nonstop, making them go fast, flip, crash, jump, fly- you name it, they do it. I love watching you while you play; your imagination is immeasurable and man that is so, so wonderful! This is not to say that you don’t enjoy other things aside from cars, you do. You love to color, use stickers, work puzzles, play with your duplos and read stories. Your attention span is honestly quite amazing, you can sit through stories that some third graders would loose patience with- it’s a fact that constantly amazes your Daddy and me. It also makes your Daddy very proud…he LOVES to read with you and will read any story that you put in front of him, he even reads them multiple times in a row (which you do ask him to do). Hugs and kisses are plentiful in our house, which I love. I am pretty sure that you are the sweetest boy that there is; sure, I know I am biased but it isn’t far from the truth. You greet everyone that walks through our door with a shy smile and usually by the time they leave you are hugging, kissing them and telling them that you will “see them tomorrow”. Frequently, for no reason you will walk up to me and plant a big wet (yup- they are usually wet) one on me and follow it will an “I love you, Mommy”- melt.my.heart kiddo, melt my heart! Just yesterday I was playing with Charlie on the floor while you played with your cars and for no reason at all you stopped what you were doing walked over to Charlie kissed him on the head and told him you loved him. And you do, you love your little brother in such a way it makes me burst at the seams with pride. You are always wanting to know what he is doing, you frequently bring him your blanket to use and not just any blanket your favorite I-can’t-sleep-without-this-blanket and when he is crying you will look at me and say “Charlie isn’t very happy” then look at him and tell him it will be okay. I can’t wait to see your relationship grow as the two of you grow.. how wonderful it will be. This isn’t to say that our time together is all rainbows and roses kiddo, we have our moments. You drive me up the wall, I threaten to sell you to the highest bidder before your Dad gets home and when he does get home I say- “take him, he’s your son tonight”. But honestly, those moments and those bad days are far out-numbered by the good. I frequently have a hard time believing that two years has already passed since you made me a Mama. My sweet little Jay Bird, it feels as though you were just born yesterday and yet have always been a part of my life- and maybe you have been, you just resided in my heart until two years ago today. And what a wonderful day that was- I fell in love with you the very moment I saw you and that love continues to grow with each passing day. Every night when we put you to bed I stand in awe of you kiddo… amazed that you are mine, grateful for all the time we get together and looking forward to all that is to come. I love you sweet boy, happy birthday- here’s to many, many more. Love, Mommy and since we aren’t heading out to take your two year photos until Sunday and because every post is better with a photo here is recent one of you and Dad driving that makes me smile 
1. my favorite time of the day 2. stretch! 3. toes 4. silly faces 5. cars 6. cheese! 7. raising the crib mattress (I did this all by myself- go me!) 8. sweet big boy 9. sucking his thumb 10. avocado bagel- yummo 11. serious face 12. blueberry thief… he ate half of the bowl before the muffins were even made :) 13. daddy and charlie 14. smiles 15. “frosty no-men” lunch for jay 16. stickers by jay 17. more smiles 18. snoozin’ in the crib 19. “color whales mommy, color whales” 20. self portrait with sleeping squishy 21. “fix cars tires” 22. mommy’s “fip fops” 23. bath time smiles from charlie Frequently these days I snap a photo on my phone (it is usually around and handy) and since some of them turn out to be simply adorable I thought that I might start sharing a few of them here… I can not take credit for the post title, I saw it on a few other blogs that I read, but it is indeed catchy ;) 
1. hanging out with Daddy
2. me and the boys- our first day on our own
3. playtime reading with Mommy
4. coloring- “dot, dots” creatures
5. brothers
6. “what??”
7. bean sensory box- to occupy Jay Bird while Mommy makes dinner
8. sanity walk- one in the stroller, one in the carrier
9. playing on “his” iPod Touch while Mom and Dad finish dinner
10. making faces at his brother
11. snoozin’ (this boy loves his tummy)
12. snacks AND cars ;)
13. cheeks!!
14. car ride The holidays this year were filled with many different things… Time to relax and enjoy playing with the boys, time to start “new” traditions and to introduce the boys to old ones. Time to cherish with family that we don’t get to see very often and time to hang out with friends that live far away. Honestly we got to spend a whole bunch of time appreciating what is really important and spending time surrounded by people that we love; to say that we are blessed would be an understatement.  goofing around with mom  jamie relaxing  festive playtime with duplo- and no I did not make him wear the Christmas tree headband. he would frequently put them on and wear them around the house :) 
 Jay Bird at the sing a long playing frosty the snowman with Mary Beth  decorating cookies for the neighbors 
 quality control  christmas eve photo  "santa" setting up Jay's duplo table 
 the boys' stockings after santa came :)  holiday jammies  bed head and new toys  helping charlie with his books  jeepie! 
 jay getting michael to draw for him 
 mary beth and charlie 
 crashed!  mom, ed and the boys  group shot of my family  snuggling with auntie frannie  frosty! January We visited Lou Gardens, played outside at the park a lot and celebrated our sweet little Jay Bird’s 1st Birthday. 
Februrary We decorated a bunch of cookies, reorganized the kitchen and we harvested a large crop of carets and beets from the garden. 
March Jay really started walking on his own, we picked a ton of Strawberries and made Jam, hosted the crawfish boil and found out we were expecting our second kiddo! 
April We frequented the zoo, picked and ate a ton of strawberries, we played outside with the water table frequently, hunted for Easter Eggs, finger painted for the first time and got to tell our family that we were expecting again. 
May Jay started coloring a lot, we played outside in the hose frequently, we celebrated Mother’s Day by playing outside in the kiddie pool, picked and ate peaches off of our tree in the backyard, Jay started swim lessons and he had his first haircut. 
June We played outside in the rain, I hosted a bridal shower for Nicole and we spent a week at the Beach with Jamie’s family. 
July We went to cow appreciation day at Chick-fil-a, we visited Mom and Ed at their condo in south Florida, we celebrated our 5th Anniversary, Jay discovered cars, we celebrated my 29 birthday and announced that we were having another little boy! 
August We took our first trip to the splash pad, Jay’s obsession with cars grew, he began using utensils on his own and Jay completed his Infant Survival Swimming Course. 
September We flew to Canada to celebrate my Grandma’s 85th birthday, Jamie and I survived a very long plane ride with a toddler who wouldn’t nap, we made considerable progress with putting together Jay’s big boy room and Dolce got really sick and had to have major surgery. 
October Jamie celebrated his 31st birthday, we took a rode trip to North Carolina to celebrate Jamie’s sisters wedding, we carved pumpkins, Jay took his first pony ride, went trick-or-treating and Jay decorated cookies for the first time. 
November We finished up a few projects around the house in preparation for our second little one to arrive and we welcomed Charlie into our family 10 days earlier than we had expected!! 
December We adjusted to being a family of four, Jay slept in a big boy bed for the first time, we decorated our house for Christmas (which included a tree with only lights on it), and celebrated the holidays with lots of family and friends. 
Life has been busy lately and honestly there are a ton of photos of our little family of four that I would like to post; however, until I can find a spare second here is a glimpse of what the really good moments look like at our place. 
As each year comes to a close, I usually end up regretting the the things I didn’t get to finish, wondering where the time went and making grand plans regarding the new year. Not today, not this year. This year I won’t make promises I can’t keep or “resolutions” because it is what you do at new years. Instead, I will take a more gentle approach and create a list (it wouldn’t be me if it wasn’t a list) of hopes, hopes for the new year… I hope to cherish the present and to not worry about what has yet to come.
I hope to trust more in God’s plan.
I hope to be good to my family, and to be the kind of friend my friends are to me.
I hope to enjoy the small moments with my small children who won’t be that way for long.
I hope to appreciate the moments I get with my husband and to constantly remind myself how lucky I am to have found him.  a self portrait of me and the three most important people in my life Happy New Year everyone, here’s to a wonderful 2012! | |
