Little Monkey

Ahhhh, my little monkey.  You are 14 months.  Every night when I put you to bed, I literally feel like I am trying to coax down a chimpanzee.  You make me laugh on the inside.  Sitting there in the dark, I know I have to put on a calm exterior to help you get to sleep, but sometimes I slip.

Tonight I nursed you in the rocking chair as I always do and you were groggy.  You rubbed your eyes and snuggled and happily nursed, then in a split second you were standing in my lap jumping up and down and laughing while clapping your hands.  You are such a funny little guy.

So charming too.  Everywhere we go, people are sucked into your charm.  You have the sweetest smile, the most engaging eyes.  Sweet, sweet boy.

At home we hang on your every word.  You have so many of them now..I love you, Indi, Where's Indi, read book, bath, water, baby, Mommy, Daddy, thank you, bye, hello, yellow, and probably more than that.  I can never seem to remember them all.

Today we went to Gymboree and you had so much fun finally getting to be with other babies your age.  I feel terrible that I neglected your budding social life this long.  It's hard being the second child in this way....just kind of drifting along and getting tangled into your brother's activities instead of having your own.  We are changing that now though.  Gymboree!  We will be guaranteed some special time without your brother.  You love your brother and he loves you, but it sure is nice to get special one on one time.

I love you with all my heart little one.

Love, love, love,

Mommy

Sweet Pie

To my Sweet Pie...You know who you are.  You are four years old now.  I am doing my best to be your mother, but somedays I am not so proud of who I am as your mom.  Today was one of those hard days.  You are being four and sometimes being four can be exhasperating for those of us who aren't.  It isn't a bad thing.  You are growing and changing and finding your way.  In the mean time, Daddy and I have only caught up to who you had grown into through the last phase.  We never seem to be completely caught up.

There are things I know you love...being outside, hiking, looking for butterfly eggs, rescuing beetles out of the pool, riding your bike, reading story after story after story.  I absolutely know what you love and doing the things you love with you brings me a lot of joy and I hope with this blog, to document doing all of those things you love so we can remember them forever. 

You can read.  You are such a bright boy.  And although you can read, lately you don't seem to want to do it.  You want to be read to, but not to read.  I have really wanted you to practice this gift.  However trying to get you to practice today brought us a lot of strife and I don't think I will go there again until you ask.  It simply isn't worth it for either of us.

Tomorrow we will go back to doing all those things you love because childhood is short and you most definitely should be loving as much of it as you possibly can.  I love you.

Love, love, love,

Momma