3 years old

Oh my Colterman,

3 years old. This has been quite the year my little man. You've stretched me in ways I didn't know possible, you've humbled me in countless areas, you've filled my heart with joy to the point of tears, and you've made me cry in worry. It's been a year full of ups and downs and I wouldn't want it any other way. Having you as my little man every day is a priceless gift. Even through the challenges and the times where I hide behind the counter eating chocolate, I would not trade any minute of it away. You are an absolute special gift to me my sweet boy.

                                                  

                                                  
The amount of growth this year is absolutely incredible. I can't really remember what you were doing at 2, but I know you have changed so much. You are so smart. I'll read you a book 2 or 3 times and then you can pretty much recite it. You often act out books during play, or will start singing an except from a book. You know most of your letters, quite a few sounds, a lot of shapes and numbers too. You have an incredible memory and can remember days later something that you were frustrated about, a certain train you liked at the children's museum, or when mom wouldn't let you borrow the dump truck from Jack & Avery's house. You often ask me what the words are in a song we are listening to and I can tell you are committing them to memory. I'll often be in conversation with someone and if I say something that perks your ear like Edmonds or rockets you immediately say the word with a cute grin. You're. always. listening.

                                                      
                                          

You love to play imagination games. We very rarely sit down and play something like cars or blocks. There always has to be a story behind it- a big car race going on, a building that needs to be demolished by the construction crew. You've taken on all sorts of different personas ...Fireman Mark or Barry, worker man, conductor, etc. You also have a pair of pants that is assigned to each character so when you wake up, you decide if who you're going to be, and that's what pants you'll wear. It is devastating when you want to wear the same "worker" pants (which are navy church slacks) 3 days in a row and I tell you we have to wash them. Speaking of pants, you can put them on by yourself, but you prefer to wear them backwards... which makes buttoning and unbuttoning very interesting. Anyway, back to play. One of your favorite places to act out stories is your closet. It has been a digger, train engine, package truck, rocket ship and fire engine. You like to use dad's amp as your "stool" to step on to whatever the closet is. You will usually say something like "we're just waiting on the conductor.. hmm where is he? Oh! Here he is!" Then you'll step on the stool and climb up on the bins of clothes. You always want someone to come in the closet with you, which makes it very interesting trying to wrangle your sister at the same time. But I wouldn't trade these moments for anything. I will always cherish delivering packages to 123 sycamore street, rescuing a sick cat from the tree again, and visiting mom at the hospital who just had 30 babies with you. Throughout the day, if we're talking about something, you'll all of sudden want to play what we're talking about. "Want to play pillow pets? Want to play snails? Want to play underwear shop?" We have played some of the most bizarre things.

                                           

                                         

Another thing I love is your thirst for knowledge. Some of your favorite books to check out from the library are non fiction books about different things like rockets, trains, and construction equipment. You have all sorts of questions all the time like where yard waste goes, or where a rocket booster goes after it drops off, or why the bottom of the space shuttle got really hot during reentry. I love to learn with you because most of the time, I have no idea how to answer your questions. It's so fun learning that the boosters fall into the ocean and a boat and scuba divers retrieve them, or learning about the composting process at the yard waste plant. Your mind is always swimming with different thoughts, and I love it when you share them with me.

                                    
                                     

At your well check, you weighed in at 32.5 lb You are a fairly picky eater, and you definitely aren't a fan of veggies and meat, so we often have to bribe you with carbs, or trick you with green smoothies or hiding veggies in food. We switched you to almond milk instead of dairy in hopes of boosting your iron because you were basically drinking a huge cup of milk for dinner. You are still taking naps pretty much every day for about 2 hours. We have to wake you up if you sleep past 3 because it makes for a horrendous bedtime. Speaking of bedtime, it is not a super fun time. You still like to read books, and most of the time instead of songs, you want me to tell you stories. This goes smoothly, but it is quite the party once we leave. It's a back and forth routine of you turning on the light, and us having to take away things or discipline you. It is not uncommon for one of us to go into your room to find you with a totally different outfit on.. just last night you were in a full on swim suit and shirt.  You will go through every pair of pants or underwear and even get into your clothes  bins in your closet and try to put on size 12 mo. clothes. Oh deary me.. it is exhausting. You will take around 1-2 hours to fall asleep. You're usually asleep by 9 and awake by 6:30/7. We kept holding off on potty training because life has been so busy and I wasn't sure how it would go. I really didn't want to get into a battle with you. Boy was I surprised. We started a week ago and you haven't had one accident. You're still in pull ups at night, but during the day you rock the undies so well!! I seriously can't believe it. We're so proud of you.

                                                    

You have a fairly serious and reserved personality, but every now and then you bust out these cute little things like saying  "I love _____________" out of the blue about the most random things. "I love green beads. I love smoke stacks." It's hilarious. I need to be better about writing things down, because the silliest things come out of your mouth. A lot of times you'll look at Maddie while she's eating and you'll say "you're a mess lady!" Yesterday I was driving the car and asked where Wilson (your train) was. You said "He's just chillin' in my hand." Another silly thing you do is go up to me (or stuffed animals) and hold them super tight and jump up and down saying "huggy tuggy" over and over. You also love me to give you different kinds of hugs & kisses "package man hug" "Maglev slipping on a banana hug" "Nana bear kiss." In the last couple of months you have started giggling a lot more and finding lots of things funny. I love to hear you crack up. A lot of times books make you laugh like a mail delivery for Mrs. Pickens who ordered chickens, or things other kids do like Owen stealing the bag of pirates booty and hiding in a tube at the park. You will say what happened over and over and let out the sweetest giggle.

                                     

                                                    

Some of your favorite things are rockets/space shuttles, trains, legos, diggers/construction sites/demolition, the moon, smokestacks & water towers, crosswalk buttons, drums, fire trucks, UPS/fedex, Edmonds, James, gymnastics class, books, spinning around, galloping/hopping, dessert, Chipotle, digging in the front yard, wheels at playgrounds, playing in dad's toolbox, Mighty Machines, stuffed animals, helping to cook, and being with mom. Some of your dislikes are loud noises/parties, taking a shower, going to bed, socks, when we run out of strawberry yogurt, when Maddie gets into something you're really concentrating on, you don't get to borrow things from people's houses, and when we run out of lightening or "model train" pull ups.

                                   

                                   

We're working on a few really challenging areas .. mainly around the areas of transitioning from one activity to the next when you're not ready, adjusting to things out of the routine like when dad is home on the weekend or a friend stops by unexpectedly, and learning how to play better with friends. We've seen great strides in lots of areas in the past month, which is exciting, but we will continue to pray all the time for you, and continue to seek help to learn how to help you the best.

                                                 
There have been many days these past three years that I have looked forward to the time when you would be in preschool and I would have a little more time to myself. However, now that the time is coming when you could be in school, I feel myself holding on tighter to you because I can't believe how quick this time has gone. Soon enough, you wont be spending the majority of your days with me. Oh my sweet boy, I hope you know just how much I love you. There is something indescribable about a parent's love.

                                 

Happy 3 years.

1 year old

Dear Madison,

I really can't believe that I am writing your one year old birthday letter. This year has gone by so tremendously fast that I really have a hard time realizing your baby days are pretty much gone.

                                           

You entered this world with a sweet, easy going presence, and you maintain those same qualities today. You starting to smile at 3 weeks old, was pretty much a dead give away for your personality. Although you are definitely starting to assert your opinion much more through very loud screeches, for the most part, you offer a lot of smiles, giggles, and silliness. 

                                               

I know we're going to have a lot of fun together. I can tell already you are going to appreciate a good prank/joke, and that you will like to make people laugh. It's fun to start playing little games with you like peek a boo, putting your favorite toys in a dump truck, going under a sheet together, etc. and watch you shriek with delight. A lot of times when you are really excited, you start shaking your full head of hair back and forth and offer up a HUGE grin that shows off your three bottom teeth.

                                     

                                  

You're not walking yet, but are constantly pulling up on things, crawling at lightening speed and climbing all the time. I don't remember Colter getting into stuff as much as you..I have to watch you with a hawk eye! I've caught you in the shower, swishing your hand around in the toilet bowl, unrolling toilet paper, up on the chairs at the little tables, jumping on the trampoline (i'm not even kidding), and standing on the chair in colters room. Believe it or not- I do watch you constantly- you are just sneaky!

                                    

                                         
Some of your favorite things to do are stand on the windowsill and look outside, stand at the little table and color with crayons, dig through the Legos bin and scatter them everywhere, roll balls back and forth, drive cars around, knock down towers of blocks, sing into the microphone, drive cars around, crawl around outside, swing, take a bath, knock over towers, wreck whatever brother is doing (trains, puzzles, etc), climb up the stairs, play with your yellow bus and Ernie, open the mailbox on the house, set up your picnic basket, and be held by mom.

                                         
You are in a phase of only wanting mom and will scream and cry if anyone tries to take you away from me if I'm busy. It's pretty much impossible to cook or clean without you chasing after me or standing up on the back of my legs. You are strong and let people know what you want :)


                                            

                                                        

3 teeth just poked through on the top, and you still have 3 on the bottom. You eat pretty well, but only last in the high chair for 5-10 minutes max before you start screeching and shaking the chair/tray really hard. I barely get to sit down and eat because by the time I get everyone what they need, you are pretty much done eating. You are a pretty good eater.. you do let quite a bit roll out of your mouth, but you will try almost anything. You love peas, broccoli, lunch meat, sweet potatoes, bread, cheese, and pretty much any sort of carb (pizza, muffins, etc.) You have always only nursed on one side at a time except for right before your afternoon nap & bed time. You're going through some sort of nursing strike right now, but when I tried to give you cow's milk, you spit it all out.. so who knows. You love to drink water, but make the craziest mess.. about 3/4 of it lands on your shirt so you are always soaking. At your 1 year appointment, you weighed 21 lbs.


                                                     
You are not the best sleeper. You still get up 1-2 times a night and nurse. You are just about ready to drop to one nap. Your afternoon nap is usually about 2 hours long.

                                    

You say "uh oh", "doggie", "kitty", "hi", "daddy" and "mama."  You are very close to saying a lot of different words like banana and ball. You mimic me and other people, especially if people are doing funny things. You comb your hair, rock and pat your baby, talk on the phone, clean if i'm cleaning, and roll balls back and forth. You point to things all the time- especially pictures of other kids and animals. You are really getting into books and will lean back and sit still through 5-6 books.

                                                

What a blessing this year has been. You are a joy. I thank God that He made me your mama.

                                              

                                  

February phone dump

February was an absolutely crazy month. It felt like a race through the whole month and when we finally hit the finish line on March 1st, I was wiped out! We had such a fun this month celebrating, celebrating and more celebrating, but we are all enjoying the slowness that March has brought so far.

Here's what we were up to last month!

Our Seattle Seahwaks made it to the superbowl! Here's Maddie and I getting our beast mode on! We found some of the last Skittles at Target!

Colter found a new favorite thing at Costco. Please don't find this interesting in 15 years.

                                       

Superbowl Sunday! We had the Heavilands and Wornicks over for superbowl fun. The Seahawks won and we had such a fun time celebrating!

A visit out to my friend Adelle's house in Arlington

                                         
                                                      

Ben stood outside in the freeeeeeeeeeeeeezing cold for 2 hours to watch the Seahwaks victory parade.

Miss Harper turned 2 years old and had a rock and roll birthday party. Crowl cake creations busted out a guitar cake

We had another snowfall and luckily it was on a Sunday so Ben could play with us this time! Maddie was definitely a fan of the sled, and Colter loved chasing after us in his "fireman Mark" persona. We also made "snow cream" for the first time and it was honestly AMAZING.

Probably one of the best ways to spend $5 with a toddler is going to the toddler jump time at skymania.

                                   
Gigi and Grandpa came into town for both of the parties. I'm so thankful that they are able to be such a special part of our kids lives.

This little lady turned 1 (more on her in another post). We went to Barnes & Noble and played with the train table, read books, and stacked legos.

I organized a surprise dinner for my sister with her closest friends.

Chocolati at greenlake is seriously amazing!

For Colter's birthday we gave him Ben's first bike. It was really cool to see Ben & his dad work together on this project.

Colter was super helpful in helping me bake a red velvet cake.

                                           
Maddie was having some trouble with taking long naps, so we had some quality time being quiet in my room so we wouldn't wake up Colter.

                                           
Ben got a raise at work so the kids and I picked up some decorations and some celebratory root beer.

                                            

Visiting dad downtown for lunch.

                                             

We went with the Wornicks to Pentatonix and it was such an incredible concert! It's amazing what they can do with just their voices! The fans were absolutely hilarious. Many of them were die hard choir people and just over the top in love with PDX. One boy next to Aus was in tears after one song. SOmetimes I was focusing too much on the people in the crowd. Oh how I love people watching.

The long awaited day of the twins arrival was finally here. Mary & Greg watched the older kids during the day, and I went with the Wornicks and Heaviland kids to the hospital. I was on pins and needles all day until I saw these two little ones and fell in love with little Miss Paige and Mr. Preston. We are so thrilled to have more cousins to love.

We went to the heritage collection flight museum and it was really neat. We've been wanting to go there for a while. Everything was so beautifully maintained and apparently almost all the aircrfats are still able to be flown. Colter's favorite part by far was the rocket they had there.

We've been having lots of fun playing with all the new birthday toys.

One of my favorite things about finally having a smart phone is facetime. We call Ben at work often and Colter always requests to see Ben's phone, and for him to "do the funniest things." (in case you're wondering- the funniest thing EVER is to see Ben's mouth. HA)

One of Colter's favorite gifts was his fireman outfit. We met a fireman named Barry at Whole Foods, so ever since he has switched between being fireman Barry or fireman Mark. One day he insisted on wearing his full on ensemble to Edmonds. It was such a gorgeous day to put out fires.

On Colter's actualy birthday (more on his party later), we started off the day with a raspberry steamer, then went to the zoo with friends. It was another gorgeous day and it was just one of those magical days.... the kids were all listening well, staying together, and having fun. It was absolutely blissful. We finished off the night with Chipotle- the twins first outing other than a doctor appointment!

Colter's band inside his firehat fell off. It's easily fixable, but he insists on wearing it just like this now. It makes me crack up every time I see him. Its a cross between head gear and a wrestling helmet.

                                               

Whew, what a month! A beautiful, but full one!