luke is three!

Luke Elliott.  You are three years old!!

You are the sweetest little boy, buddy.  You weigh 30 pounds and you're 39 inches tall.  You have the best smile and you still have a toddler belly.

You are still shy and introverted.  You are compliant and calm.  You are sensitive and affectionate.  You talk all the time and love to tell us stories and ask a zillion questions every ten minutes and sing at the top of your lungs.  You love to dance and even though you do it all the time, it still makes me laugh.

You've had a crazy year.  In the last 10 months you've become a big brother, potty trained, moved, moved again, started sleeping in a big boy bed, and started sleeping without your paci.  You're doing great little man.

You go to "school" twice a week and you absolutely love school.  You know the days of the week and know that Tuesdays and Thursdays are school days.

You love your daddy.  You love your Honey.  (You still call her "A-ha."  Will that stick?)  You love fruit and pizza and almond milk.  You love fire trucks.  You love Annie.   (You still call her "EE."  Will that stick?)

You're a great big brother.  You love to "play with EE" and help me feed EE and crawl into bed with EE every morning.  

Since we took the paci away, you've had a hard time falling asleep.  But you still sleep well every night and take a 2-3 hour nap every afternoon.

You wear an AFO during the day and it doesn't seem to bother you a bit.  You run, jump, skip, climb, swing and slide with your friends.

Every time someone is leaving the house, you make them "beep beep."  You insist that they honk the horn on the car as they drive away.  It's sweet, and a little quirky.

You love to play "fire station" and cars and "haircut" and trains and tractors.  Somehow you ended up with a baby doll and you like to play with her some, too.  You throw her or your stuffed animals up on high places and then drag the step ladder around (making a siren noise, as if you were a fire truck) and set it up and "rescue" your baby or your animals.  You do not care much for painting or coloring.  You love to read books, as long as they are about firetrucks or trains or tractors.

We are so proud of you, buddy.  You are so wonderful and so much fun.  Happy third birthday sweet boy.

annie elise: 9 months

Annie girl!  Happy nine months to you!

There is something so precious about the way you look at me, oh sweet daughter of mine.  And when I look back at you I am filled with joy.

You are adorable.  You are happy and content and curious and easily excited.
Your whole face lights up when you see your brother.  You are pretty attached to me.

You have just started crawling on all-fours yesterday and today, though you've been scooting on your belly for several weeks.  You still don't go far, only a few feet at a time, and you're frustrated that you can't go further.

You babble and talk occasionally and make sounds like da-da, ma-ma, and ga-ga.  You love peek-a-boo and bath time and the knobs on the kitchen cabinets.  You reach for everything, and this makes you hard to hold sometimes.  You hate to get dressed.

You are a good eater and you love just about everything.  You can take down an entire grilled cheese sandwich, you love the grilled nuggets from Chick-fil-A, and you drink well from a sippy cup.  You are still breast feeding, too.

You are a great sleeper.  You go down at 7, wake up between 7 and 8, and take 2 good naps almost every day.

If all this is making you sound like a pretty perfect baby, it's because you are.  Your daddy says he'd have ten more if we could guarantee they'd be just like you.  ;)

I'm not sure how much you weigh, but you seem to be growing just fine.  I think you have your daddy's long legs because all your pants are too short.  Your hair sticks straight up!  You crinkle your nose when you laugh.  You have 3 bottom teeth.  You are beautiful.

We love you like crazy and can't picture our lives without your crinkle-nosed grin.