Picture time!!

 

We got some pictures back from our favorite photographer and I just had to share them.  We did birthday shoots with everybody's favorite things.  So, for Delaney, it was SHOES of course, and for Justus, we focused on the sport de jour--soccer, and his new found love for LSU.  Meanwhile, I had yet to do an Aggie shoot with the kiddos, so it was a prime opportunity to fit it in too.

 

 

 

 

I think I shared some of the shoe pictures of Delaney already in her birthday post, but I just can't get enough!!  This girl LOVES shoes and I love these little legs and feet.

 

And isn't this one of the cutest little Aggies you have ever seen??? 

 

Brother is a little confused.  He likes the Aggies but is currently leaning more toward LSU for college.  I can't wait to see how many times he changes his mind on this issue.

 

Why does he have to look so grown up?? 

 This one....we are in so much trouble!

My heart in two little bodies.  I could not love them more, and am so thankful to Sarah Giles, Butterfly Chaser Photography, for capturing their smiles, silly faces, and amazing spirits in pictures.  Thanks also to the King Family and Ms. Shanon for prop assistance.

How have SIX years gone by???

Dear Justus,

Six years ago today, about this time (lunchtime, the day before my due date), I had a strange-yet-inappropriate-to-describe-in-a-G-Rated-blog feeling, and told my secretary I was going to head to the doctor's to get checked out, but assured her I would be back shortly because I was sure it wasn't labor.  It was twelve of my most life altering weeks before I would return to the office to work.  The night before, you had been attempting Olympic style gymnastics in my belly and sprung a leak.  Not so much to send me into labor, but enough to make me wonder what was going on.  I learned then that mother's intuition is a real thing and I shouldn't ignore it.  Although you seemed to want out, you were in no hurry.  Again, for the sake of everyone else reading, I will spare you the details of the hours of hard labor amidst an epidural that didn't work, the nasty wintry weather that almost kept your dad from making it to the hospital in time (this was the only time I was really happy you were taking what seemed like forever to do something), what became serious concerns about your safety, and all the other "fun" details of your special day.  At 11:48 that night, Dr. Smith finally drug you out, literally kicking and screaming and a little blue in the face.  You changed our lives forever, in that moment.

Day 1

1st birthday

 

2nd birthday

3rd birthday 

4th birthday

5th birthday

 

 



6TH BIRTHDAY!!!

 

In keeping with our traditional milestone blogposts, your stats:

 

Weight: 49 lbs. (69th percentile)

 

Height: 48 inches (90th percentile)

 

Clothes Size: 6.  As has been the case your whole life, you are long and lean.  Size 6 pants are too baggy on you, but you have to have them for the lenght.  Some thing with the tops.  The 5/6 tops are usually long enough, but a plain 5 is definitely not ok.  I'm pretty sure you'll still be wearing your size 5 shorts this summer.

 

Shoe Size:  1W.  You are officially a big kid in the foot department, and I think you can ALMOST tie your shoes.  We all got lazy with this one, thanks to the fabulousness that is velcro, but we must conquer the tying.  I refuse to send you to high school and college in velcro shoes.

 

Loves:  Your Sister!!  You also love Angry Birds (all three varieties--regular, space, and Star Wars), Ninjago, Skylanders, your Leap Pad 2 (which you call your "iPad for kids"), your new taekwondo class, talking, pretend play, KidsKlub after school program

 

Food:  You still love blueberries the most, hands down.  I'm pretty sure you could eat them at every meal.  You definitely still prefer fruits over veggies, but will eat broccoli and peas.  Sometimes you eat what we eat for dinner and sometimes you don't.  It varies, but is getting better.  You are still pretty leary of anything that looks like a "plant." (i.e.--is green and is not aforementioned broccoli or peas).

 

You are an amazing kiddo and we love you more than words can describe.  We hope you have the best 6th birthday ever.  We are looking forward to celebrating with you tonight and this weekend!

 

I LOVE YOU, BIG KID!!

Wednesday's Winning Words

I swear, after this week is over (and I get pictures from Shanon, *ahem*) I will do a post recapping Princess's birthday party.  But, for today, this will have to suffice.

Last night, we had soup for dinner and I am trying to use up plastic wear that we had left over from the party, so I pulled down the bag with the utensils from Saturday.  Delaney was standing there and as I pulled out the pink spoons, she pointed to them and started saying singing:

"Happy Day to Me!" 

"Happy Day to Me!" 

"Happy Day to Me!"

"Happy Day to Me!"

"Happy Day to Me!"

"Happy Day to Me!"

 

 

 

I guess she liked her party. 

She's TWO!!

Can this be real?

 

Can this child really already be TWO YEARS OLD?

 

We go to see the good Dr. H. tomorrow, so we will have official stats then.  You are still a bit on the petite side though, I think.  You are mostly wearing a size 6 shoe, although you can still wear some of your 5s. You  wear a 2T top (to fit around that belly!), but still need an 18-24 month bottom for the most part .  I bought you several winter wear items in a 2T, and I don't know when you will get to wear them.  My luck--you'll fit into them around March or April.  Yikes!

 

Your vocabulary is exploding, which is so much fun.  You love to parrot what we say (note to self--watch the language!), and most recently, you have started "HO HO HO"ing every time you see a Santa Clause.  Super cute.  You even added the "Meerrry Christmas" to it yesterday. 

 

It's a good thing your vocabulary is really coming along because, girl, those temper tantrums....already....just wow.  You get very upset.  And you get angry.  And you throw things and hit.  Hard.  You do a good job of fooling people with that precious face and those beautiful curls, but when you get mad...watch out!  Right now, the fits take the shape of throwing yourself on the floor face down or going to a wall and putting your face into it and crying.  We let you work it out and come around, but when we are doing something with you (changing clothes, diaper, picking you up to move), you really let loose.  In the vein of having fits, you seem to have a love/hate relationship with "No."  You love to say it, but hate to hear it.  Typical, but we must work on that.

 

Your eating habits have changed.  First, you have rejected your high chair completely, at least until we took the tray off and started pulling you up to the table like the rest of us.  You can live with it for now.  No worries, a booster seat literally in the mail and on its way.  You also don't seem to be interested in eating many of the foods you once loved.  This is a bit of a challenge because I never know what you are going to eat and what you aren't.  I can pretty much count on you eating blueberries, grapes, broccoli, cheese and pasta.  Everything else is just the luck of the draw.  I worry sometimes that you don't get enough to eat at a meal, but all evidence to the contrary.  I'm not sure why, but you have decided you want a grown up to put the food on the fork and then you would like to get the fork to your mouth.  If you don't have success with this, you go straight to using your hands again.   I don't know what is up with this process, but I hope you get it worked out soon because, frankly, I would like to eat too.  Bite for Delaney, Bite for Mommy gets tiresome. 

 

You are such a loving child (despite aforementioned tantrums), and I adore that you still let me rock you and snuggle with you so often.  I just can't get enough of all that preciousness.  My heart smiles (and also breaks a little) when I notice all your growth and how very much you want to do everything your big brother does.  I know in your head, you are certain you two are the same age.  You adore everything about him, except when he doesn't let you play with a certain toy you have your eye on or takes away the one you are playing with, even if just to "show" you something. 

You have an inner light that is so beautiful and felt by all around you.  You are more reserved than your brother and I (which will probably serve you well in the future), but still warm and friendly.  You are one very tough little girl! We joke that you are kind of the bull in the china closet of life because you approach everything with a bit of reckless charge, but we see that as a strength that wil serve you well as you are faced with the many challenges that life has to offer.  As a careful planner, it makes me nervous to think of parenting this trait, since it's so opposite of me, but we will figure it out together.  Delaney, when you came into this world two years ago, we could never have imagined how much you would bring to our lives, although we were quite excited to find out.  Children test the boundaries of our heart-- and, you my dear, make mine swell every day with love and happiness, beyond what I ever knew I had the capacity to have.  We are so blessed by you and honored that we were chosen to be your parents.  We love you more than you will ever know.

 

ONE DAY OLD

 

ONE YEAR OLD

TWO YEAR OLD

L.O.V.E.

 

More birthday madness

Another new tradition in our family is that the birthday honoree gets to pick the evening meal location.  Not surprising, we ended up at Chuck E. Cheese.  Now, I don't know if it's just me that thinks this place is mediocre at best, but I adored it when I was a kid.  Like, REALLY loved it.  So, I'm pretty sure either 1) it's gone downhill in a HUGE way over the last 25 years, or 2) my parents were saints for spending as much time there with me as we did.  Probably a little of both, right?

Somewhere, I have a picture of a 2 or 3 year old Justus doing this same thing.  I need to get the pics together to compare them.  It'll just make me cry.  Never mind.

Delaney wanted in on the game action, and headed for the one with the steering wheel.  Can't say I blame her.

This must have been a very serious shoot-em-up game going on here. 

Delaney mostly wanted to just wave at the mechanical mouse the whole time.

Justus thanking Delaney for coming to his birthday dinner. 

She is clearly more interested in getting to and putting out a fire.

Happy Birthday, Big Kid!

On Saturday, we had Justus' birthday party with all of his friends.  He picked out a Star Wars theme this year. A good time was had by all, I hope.

Balloons and little sister are here.

Let's get this party started...

Friends pausing from pizza for a smile.

Off to attack the GattiTown employees with balloon swords

(or lightsabers, depending on who you ask)

Listening to the Limbo directions. 
Sadly, most of these kids had never played it before.  I'm so old. 

Can you tell who is not going to do well because he's not listening??

Awesome cake, by Tiffany, of course.

Family picture time

Ready for a song, a wish, and some cake.

Ready to open presents.  Heaven help us.

Parents--seriously, I know the kids love watching their friend open what they gave him/her, but save yourself and open the gifts at home.  The kids would really rather play, anyway.  It takes a long time and there's a lot of "I can't see!!!"  Injuries happen, it gets ugly.  Just sayin...

Two of the cutest guys in town, dressed for the occassion.

Justus had a wonderful time and we are so appreciative for everyone who came to celebrate him.  He spent the rest of the day playing with all his new stuff while the rest of us rested...or tried to, at least.

Five. An Open Letter to Justus

Five. Years. Old.

I can't believe that five years ago today, I began this unbelievable and inexplicable journey known as motherhood.  What is it about "five" that makes him seem like such a big kid?  Is it because he will be going to Kindergarten this year?  Is it because he doesn't need us to do almost any major life skills for him anymore?  Is it because he'd rather play with his friends (real or imaginary) than with me?  Is it because he says the funniest things, that sometimes make him sound so grown up?

Whatever it is, I'm still not sure how I feel about it.  It's kind of a love/hate sort of thing.  My little man is five, and I somehow feel like I couldn't think of him as a "little" kid anymore even if I wanted to, forget "baby."

Justus--

*You, my child, are ALL boy.  Your favorite things right now are anything superhero, Star Wars, John Wayne, Cars 2, Hot Wheels...

*I love that you spend a good bit of time talking about what kind of "community helper" you want to be when you grow up.  That lesson at school particularly resonated with you.  We've heard policeman, fireman, oil well firefigher (thank you Daddy and John Wayne), and Interpol agent (you know, so you can catch bad guys all over the world). 

*You are my chatterbox.  I'm not quite certain how that could have happened, it's not like anyone in our house is long-winded (ahem!).   I love discussing things with you, but you presently have this tendency to repeat yourself, and repeat yourself, and repeat yourself, and repeat...  Let's just say your dad and I have looked for the "off" button.  It's not there.  Sleep is only a slight interruption.

*You play by yourself better than any kiddo I've seen.  You can turn any situation into a dream world of fun stuff to do.  You seem to prefer to play by yourself quite a bit too--mostly because not everyone else wants to play by your rules....and you do like your rules.   Apparantly, the dogs do ok with your rules, so you play with them quite a bit.

*You are a bit bossy with your friends, and we are working on that.  It is tough for you to understand that not everyone wants to do it the same way you do.  I get it. I feel the same way to a lot of the time, but compromise is a skill we must continue to develop. 

*You are a good eater, when you get something you want to eat in front of you.  Still working on eating what we are eating, but you are much better about it.  I'm certain that your propensity to sustain solely on hotdogs and blueberries is entirely my fault.  You must be going through a growth spurt because you have been eating A LOT lately.  It frankly terrifies me a little to consider your consumption as a teenager. 

*You are "long and lean" according to Dr. H., just as you always have been.  We'll get your official stats tomorrow when we see him, but you wear size 5 pants, solely for the length.  You could still wear a 4 (or possibly even 3) around the waist, I'm sure.  Depending on where I get them, you wear a 5 or 6 in shirts.  Many size 5 shirts are too short for you to wear, but some 6s are too big.  So, sorry you look a bit sloppy right now in a lot of your clothes, but you are at a weird size.  You wear a size 13 shoe...we may start calling you bigfoot.  I love it though, I hope you grow to be 6 foot 5.  I kind of like the idea of my "little boy" towering over me some day.  And you'd have to be about that tall for that to happen. 

*I cannot emphasize enough how much you love your little sister.  You are a phenomenal big brother-- better than I could have ever hoped for.  You ocassionally get a little rough with her, but it's obviously never intentional.  You want to help her around the house, be silly to make her laugh when she is upset, and hug and kiss her every night before bed.  You play very well with her and her toys (which you sometimes forger are HER toys).  The two of you laughing together is about my favorite sound in the world.

You are a kind soul, which I just love.  Your silliness is unparallelled--may you never lose that.  You love to dance and sing and be happy.  You want everyone around you to be happy too.

You were our first miracle, and I thank God every single day for the blessing of getting to be with you as you experience all that life has to offer.  I thank you for the new and different perspective you have brought to my life--it is a gift for an adult to ocassionally see things through the eyes of a child.  You have truly amazed me since day one and it has been an honor and a pleasure watching you develop into the very special young man you are.  Each day is an adventure with you.  I look forward to all that this year has in store.  I love you so much more than you will ever, ever know.

January 17, 2007

 1st Birthday

2nd Birthday

3rd Birthday

4th Birthday

Happy Birthday Justus!  Love, Mommy, Daddy and Delaney