Peanut Smiles

William 20 Months

October 25, 2016November 13, 2016 peanutsmiles

Dear William,

This past month has been so much fun. For October, the weather has been amazing and has allowed us lots of time to play outside, which is your all time fave!

Your language and vocabulary continue to sky-rocket. You’re saying more complicated words like broccoli and medicine and have started to put two word phrases together like nose hurt or poop hurt. Or you see a boat and announce ‘boat’ which is quickly followed by ‘papa’ referring to papa’s boat. You love all things transportation! You stop when you hear an airplane or a helicopter. You announce every bus or boat we pass on the road and will say ‘bye-bye bus’ as they drive away. You love Taxi’s and fire engines and diggers and lawn mowers. They are your favorite toys to play with and you make corresponding noises when you play with them, VRRROOMMM, BEEEEEP, BRAAAHM

You’ve also started to understand and articulate emotions like fun and happy. You’ll be pushing your cozy coupe car down the driveway at lightening speeds, giggling hysterically and say fun! Or we’ll go for a walk and you turn around and say happy. Or I’ll be pushing you in the cart and you say fast, more! So fun to watch that little brain of yours develop these abstract ideas. You witnessed your first fireworks this month as we lit off a couple at Grandma T’s birthday party and you LOVED them. You laughed and shouted with joy and begged for more.

We also went to the cabin with Auntie Sheila and future Uncle Dustin this month and had a lot of fun playing ‘bomb you’ wrestling, playing chase, riding mini-bikes and visiting split rock lighthouse.

You still like to read books, however you prefer to sit on the floor in front of me while I read them. I’m assuming this is because it is how it is done at school. Occasionally, I’ll try and sing to you while you’re falling asleep, however most of the time you tell me no. Most nights we read our books, you help me shut off the light and we recline back in the rocking chair, you nuzzle in and you pass out within 5-10 min. You do a great job of transferring into your crib and rarely make a peep. You typically are sleeping by 8:00 and wake up between 7 and 7:30.

This month, you also had your first bout with strep throat. Lexi got it about a week before you did. On Saturday, you were usually clingy and whiney while we were getting ready to go to the Dustin’s families apple orchard. And as we were about to put your shoes on, you threw up all over me. This was the first time you have thrown up so you were pretty upset about it. We got you all cleaned up and you were running around the house like nothing happened, so we hopped it was a fluke and then headed to the orchard where you had a great time. Then on Monday, Daddy noticed a rash on you and assumed it was an allergic reaction to the cinnamon in apple pie (don’t think I ever wrote about that, one day at Day Care you had some cinnamon on your apples and broke out in hives from it). However the rash didn’t go away and continued to get worse.

On our way into school on Tuesday morning, I called the Dr to check in and they requested to see you right away. So we dropped Lexi off and headed to the Calhoun office. The doctor confirmed it was definitely hives, did a quick strep test give your sister and it came out negative. So we took some Benadryl and went back to school. However the next day, the 24 hour test came back positive to turns out the hives were from strep and not cinnamon (at least this time).

To make this story a little longer, Daddy stayed home with you the next day but forgot to put your refrigerated medicine back into the fridge so I spent 2+ hours calling Drs and Pharmacists back and forth to see if the medicine was bad. Turns out it was and Daddy had to rush to the pharmacy to get a new one before it closed for the night.

I also had conferences with Mrs Essi this month and she talked about how you are such a sweet boy. You are a good listener, you pick up toys, love to play outside, take good naps, participate in group time but are pretty shy. This was a big shocker to me because you do not seem the least bit shy to me, but now that I watch for it, you do get she when people ask you a question or you know you’ve done some wrong. Next month is a fun one with Halloween and Thanksgiving! And before I know it, you’ll be two!

Love, Mama

William 19 Months

September 25, 2016February 7, 2017 peanutsmiles

My Sweet Little Bood!

This month just flew by! I didn’t take one single note so this may be a shorter post.

This month it felt like we turned a big corner in your relationship with Lexi. I think you are starting to learn to play with each other instead of constantly being at each other’s throats. For the first time ever, Lexi requests to stay home and play with you instead of running errands with me, or she only wants to come with me if you’re coming too. Don’t get me wrong, you two still fight like crazy, but you also really love to play with each other too. You love to play legos, ride on the horse, play squinkies, chase each other, play trains, kick balls, play catch and watch Mickey Mouse together. You refer to her as ‘sis-tar’ and ask for her when you wake up or point to her things and say ‘sistar’. When you are both playing outside at school you find each other on the playground and give hugs and high-fives through the fence.

You’re attempting to say many more words and point to objects or actions in books and tell me what is happening–like if you see a someone lying down you point and say sleep. At school this month, the theme was transportation so you have perfected the word bus and point out every single bus, boat, car and truck we pass on the road. When we pass a boat, you’ll call out boat, and quickly follow with ‘papa’ putting together that papa has a boat.

You are turning out to be quite mischievous. I thought I was going to be bald from pulling my hair from three straight days of messy situations. Day 1, you climbed onto the table and got into the stamps Lexi was playing with and smeared blue and pink all of your hands and tummy and feet (which makes purple of course). Then you proceeded to come find all of us upstairs. However, you still crawl up the stairs on your hands and knees, so there were two full blue, pink and purple handprints on every single stair. Day 2, I mistakenly left a full 24 oz smoothie on my nightstand. You got into it and tipped the entire thing over onto the carpet and then proceeded to jump in it like a puddle (which it was) so it splattered everywhere. Then you ran from our bedroom into Lexi’s so again, we had footprint smoothies across the entire upstairs floor. Day 3, you climbed onto Daddy’s desk chair and then onto his desk and reached behind the computer to find some pen type markers. You then proceeded to color with blue, purple and brown marker all over your hands, feet, legs and stomach. Unfortunately, you didn’t stop there, you also drew all over the carpet on the stairs. You are fantastic at drawing straight lines because there were tons of them. Thankfully, your Daddy found some magic carpet cleaning powder (resolve powder) and we were able to scrub everything out. I failed as a mom during these moments as I only took pictures of one incident.

One of my favorite moments of the month was playing outside with you and the cozy coupe car. You bring it into the garage and then stand behind it and run down the driveway while pushing it. This thing gets smoking fast and I have to stop you about 3/4 of the way down the driveway because I don’t think your legs can move fast enough and you’re going to faceplant. But you love this activity and burst into giggles when I stop you and request ‘more’ or ‘again’.

As it has gotten darker in the morning, you are starting to sleep in later. On average you wake up around 7 to 7:30 and even slept past 8 one morning–heaven! You go to bed around 8 or 8:30 and take about a 2 hour nap each day around 12:30ish.

Favorites:

Playing in the bath and blowing bubbles and splashing

Reading ‘Little Blue Truck’–which you call Beep Beep, Goodnight Moon, the animal book, guess who, my first 100 words and any book with peek-a-boo flaps

Playing outside (slides, running, pushing your cozy coupe, bubbles, chalk, throwing/kicking balls)

Going for walks!!

Playing trains, pushing (or riding) the truck, playing in the cozy coupe inside.

Watching Mickey Mouse clubhouse–which you just call mouse

Jumping on the couch

Playing ‘bomb you’

Riding the horse

Puzzles!!

Fruit snacks (as soon as we get in the car after school, you immediatly begin asking me for ‘snacs’

Love,

Mama

Uncategorized

William 18 Months

August 25, 2016February 7, 2017 peanutsmiles

Dear William,

A year and a half old already, or sometimes only a year and a half! You babies of mine sure play tricks on my mind. There are many days were I wonder how it is possible that you will be two in 6 months! You still seem like a little baby in so many ways. Then there are other days where I wonder how it is possible you are only 18 months. I can’t even remember what life was like without you in it so to think that was only 18 months ago is unfathomable.

At 18 months old you are full of emotions usually on extreme spectrums. You are happy and rambunctious, giggly and stubborn, comedic and whiney, cuddly and defiant.

Let’s start with your happy silly side. William, you love to laugh and make others laugh! For as serious as a face you have in most of your pictures, you are a very smiley and happy little boy. You love to play with cars, trucks, trains and busses. You love to push them around the house and make noises with them. You love to find everyday household objects (like a rope or blanket) and make games out of these things with your sister. The end result of every game usually involves you chasing Lexi around the house and you two giggling. You love to play ‘bomb you’ where Daddy takes pillow and throws them at you and you fall over (I know, sounds like a ‘fun’ game) but you break out into giggle fest and request more and more. You love to go down the slide, play catch, ride in the cozy coupe car, ride on the lawn mower with daddy (and wave to mama EVERY time you pass the windows), wrestle, stick your head between mama’s legs and say boo!, take baths (splash and kick the water) play in the sand, go swimming, watch daddy’s trains, pull things out of the cabinets in the kitchen and bathroom, mini-bike rides, climb! and be the center of attention. When any of these things are happening it is impossible to find your face without a huge smile plastered across it, displaying your teeth (and the gaps from the lack of eye teeth) and listening to your sweet little giggle.

However, your good times often lead to tears in one form or another. Often times, it is because I’ll say no to something (like you climbing on the counters or trying to scale the oven) and you immediately go into tantrum mode with big crocodile tears and usually a good foot stomping. You’ll whine an whine for us to give in. In the act of playing, Lexi will often take a toy away from you or pick one up that was sitting next to you, which results in tears and running to mama’s side to rescue you and get your toy back, which probably works about half the time. You love to yell no, mine and push me out of the way if you aren’t happy. If you’re doing something naughty (like splashing in the toilet) and you know it is naughty, you will put your hand up to me and start shaking your head and saying no, no, no! Once you make your mind up, good luck changing it. If you want a fruit snack, you’ll run to the counter and point and say snak, snak. I’ll often try and find something else (crackers, vanilla wafers, applesauce, granola bars, marshmallows) and you yell “NO” and push it out of my hand, and you don’t stop until you get what you want. Lord help me when you turn three and turn into temper tantrum central. Other times when you do something naughty like hit or bite or pull hair and I raise my voice and tell you to stop, you do stop, look me in the eyes start giggling and do it again. You are going to give me a run for my money kiddo, I can just feel it.

Sleeping is pretty normal. You go down around 8:30 each night and wake up around 6:30. There have been a couple of times you’ve even pushed 7:30, 8:00–heaven! For naps, you usually go down around 1:00 and sleep for about an hour and half–even though at school, you sleep for 3 hours! Occasionally, you’ll wake up about 30-45 min and I’ll head into your room, close the door read a couple of books and then put you back down and that will get you another hour or two of sleep. This month you even dropped drinking your milk before bed and nap time. I didn’t do a thing either, you just didn’t want it anymore.

Eating is pretty standard as well. You eat pretty much everything we put in front of you. You love anything sweet (especially fruit snacks) rice, raspberries, popcorn, popsicles, cereal, bagels and noodles. You love to use a fork and spoon and do a pretty good job with it too. You’re also getting much better at using a regular cup, but I rarely gamble with this new skill. A couple of months ago, we officially put your highchair away and now you sit in a booster at the table, but prefer to sit in a chair (as you can climb up on them now, which makes this challenging as we’re running out of places to put things out of your reach).

No major developments on the talking front this month. Although you attempt to say more things, almost everything comes out as ‘ba, ma, da, sa. You have gotten pretty good at your animal sounds (or actions) and will do: dog, cat, bird, wolf, owl, cow, frog, lion, bear, shark, monkey, gorilla, alligator, sheep, duck and snake. You did however put your first two words together ‘poop hurt’ as you were a little constipated.

William, as challenging as I fear you will be, I couldn’t be more excited for each new day. You are going to make me a stronger mommy and I love you to pieces.

Love,

Mama

Uncategorized

Day in the Life Summer 2016

August 8, 2016 peanutsmiles

I’ve seen a few other bloggers do these and they say how much they love looking back on them, so I thought I would give this a shot.

Today is Thursday, July 7, 2016

Bill is 36, Kristin is 30, Lexi is 3.5, William is 16 months

Bill and I are both took vacation for the week and are prepping to head out of town for a cousin’s wedding tomorrow.

6:34- I hear Lexi’s door open and wait for her to come into our room. She slowly enters as her eyes readjust to the darkness, and she comes over to my bed and says, I slept past light turned green and my tummy is hungry. I tell her, it is still early in the morning and light hasn’t turned green yet. She then requests to watch a show on the ipad, I hesitantly agree cause I want another 20 minutes of sleep. She runs back to bed as I try to find the ipad. Can’t find it anywhere and come back to her room to tell her I don’t know where it is and she is going to have to read books or play with her toys instead. Surprisingly, she is OK with this and obliges. I tell her the numbers have to be seven zero zero before she can come out.

6:43-I’m just stepping out of Lexi’s room and William starts rustling, he might fall back asleep so I head back to bed. Two minutes later, he is gently calling, ‘mama, mama’ This is the first time this has ever happened, he usually wakes up and starts crying immediately. I walk into his room, he smiles and giggles a little and hands me his raccoon and turns around to get his blanket. I pick him up and he nuzzles into my shoulder. We sit down in the rocking chair and for the second time I’m surprised whining and crying doesn’t follow. We rock as he is curled up in a ball resting his head on my chest and I rub his back for 15 minutes. Pure Heaven to have him be so content and snuggly.

7:00-Lexi proudly struts into William’s room carrying her green clock. We high-five for waiting to come out of her room until light turns green and then proceeds to tell me she read books and played with giraffee while she was waiting. She climbs onto my other leg and the three of us rock for 10 minutes until both kids become restless.

7:14-We head downstairs and I start to make some muffins as a treat since we are on vacation. The kids argue with each other and push their chairs around the kitchen trying to find a good place to stand up and help me on the counter. William says ‘Mine’ probably 50 times. Lexi finds a spot and helps scoop batter into the muffin tins, William finds some other papers on the counter and begins to play with those. Muffins are cooking and I clean up the kitchen a little bit and run upstairs to put on my workout clothes and brush my teeth.

7:45-Muffins are done. They cool while Lexi sets the table and puts strawberries on everyone’s plates. Kids begin eating and I start my workout video-lower fix. It has been a while since I have done this one and I don’t remember if I like it or not–depends on how hard the exercises are. Eight minutes into the video, William starts yelling Mama, Mama, Mama–he wants milk. Pause workout, get Milk and then continue to finish the video. Periodically throughout the video, Lexi joins me and attempts the exercises with me.

8:15-Workout complete, not too bad. I generally like the strength ones way more than the cardio ones. But my legs are a little jelloish. So happy I was able to finish my workout before the guys installing the fence arrived. I didn’t want to have to close the blinds as it is so much darker, but there was no way I would work out if they could see me. I eat two muffins and drink some water and cool down a little bit.

8:20-William pooped. I change his diaper and Bill questions why I never put another diaper under the dirty one to make sure no debris falls onto the carpet. Ironically, today’s change was an adventure as William was squirming and poop was all over his butt verses the diaper and then he got ahold of the diaper. Thankfully, I was able to get it away from him and it didn’t get on the carpet, but his hands did get into it- gross. Wipe it up and make sure I wash his hands. We wash hands and he waddles back to his toys, he brings his animal book to me. We hold hands and walk into the front room to read as Lexi is watching Mickey Mouse. Mickey Mouse ends and Lexi and Bill both come and start rough-housing with us. 9:00–I get up and start cleaning the kitchen and sweeping the floor for the first of the 10 times I’ll do that today. I unload and re-load the dishwasher and wash some dishes. Bill and the kids play together in the family room with some Amazon boxes and the slide. Bill questions the style of fence we are getting as the team is carrying out dog-eared boards and he thought we got the framed style. We quickly look up the pictures they sent us to ensure we knew what we were getting.

William starts whining about Lexi bothering him so we head upstairs and he gets dressed for the day. Lexi follows us up two minutes later, I ask her to go put some clothes on so she can run errands with me (note this is the 5th time I’ve asked her to get dressed). She goes into her room and puts on an Ariel tee-shirt and a colored polka dot skirt that doesn’t match at all, but comes into William’s room proud as can be and shows off her outfit.
I praise her for getting dressed by herself but suggest we find a shirt that matches a little better. After lots of debate, we select a shirt that is ‘good-enough’. William is playing with her princess castle. Lexi reminds me that I promised we would read a 5 minute princess snuggle story in the morning. We go into our room and read Princess Aurora and the Helpful ragon.
William wants in, climbs onto the chair with us for 2 minutes until he gets annoyed that he can’t hold the pages. Finish the book and I go and get dressed. We’re just running errands today, but may try and stop at a park on the way home so I can wear comfy clothes but still want to look somewhat decent and decide on a pair of athletic shorts with a black tank top and put my hair into a high pony. Debate putting makeup on but decide against it. I head downstairs with William, my little magnet and put a new load of laundry in. Fence team is here and putting the first couple sections up. William and I head outside to check out the landscaping work Bill did yesterday evening. Looks fantastic and make a note to thank him for doing it and let him know how good it looks. I walk over to examine the first part of the fence and ensure the team will be covering up the dog-eared shape with another board to frame it out and they confirm this so we are a-ok. Go to find William as he didn’t follow me–turns out, he found the dirt and had been playing in it and climbing on the mulch bags and having a grand time. We head to the hose to clean off the dirt while before heading back in.

10:00-Chat with Bill quick to confirm the fence process and ask him his plans for the day, which sound pretty minimal and confirms I can leave William with him so I don’t have to have both kids for errands. Bring my returns into the car and continue to ask Lexi to get into the kitchen so we can do her hair before we leave. This includes several threats that if she doesn’t listen I’m going to leave without her. She insists on having a snack while she gets her hair done, I cave and give her a pack of crackers. William sees this and whines to also have a snack. We do a quick pony and put her shoes and socks on while she is eating. Clean the kitchen and sweep from the cracker crumbs.
10:30-Lexi and I are in the car and heading out to the dry cleaner, then get gas and then start driving to Bachmans to look for a shrub for some of the area Bill landscaped. Lexi talks the entire time. Lexi-‘Mom how come you had a sucker of me’ Me- ‘You mean, why did I have a picture of you eating your first sucker?’ Lexi- Yes. Me- ‘Well I thought it was cute’ Lexi-‘Oh, we’re going to need to put the suckers in the garbage’ Me-‘What?’ Lexi- We need to put the suckers in the garbage, right mom? Me- Yes. Lexi-‘Why?’ Me-‘no response’ Lexi-‘I like suckers. We need to get a new bag, right mom? Me-Yes. Lexi- ‘Why Mom? Me-No response Lexi–Suckers are really nummy. I got 4 suckers at the parade. A green one, a white one a red one and a black one. Mom, why did I get suckers at the parade? Me- Well the people in the parade thought the kids would like them. Lexi-Why? Me-Cause it is fun. Lexi-Why mom? [pause] Mom, where did Dad’s sucker go? At cub foods, I got a red one, bood got a purple one and dad got a blue one, but where did it go? Did dad eat it yet? and on and on and on. 11:20-Arrive at Bachmans searching for a shrub or tree that is about 5-6 feet tall but only 3-4 feet wide for a full sun area that is also tolerant to salt in the winter–which learned didn’t exist. After debating a dwarf spruce tree that would need to get wrapped in burlap each winter and a mini limelight hydrangea, we went with the hydrangea. It doesn’t get the height that I was looking for, but it will match the others on the other side of the house. Lexi complained every 3 minutes about how hot she was and how she wanted to go home. Also looked to see if they had some good deals on hostas for other areas that I’ll be planting but they’re still pretty expensive and reaffirmed my decision to split some from mom and aunt Mary this fall. Every time we stepped into the sun, Lexi began to whine about being hot and kept asking to go back into the shade. 11:50-Although whiny, Lexi was a good shopper so we walked over to Arby’s for a quick lunch. Lots of silly faces and eating at the pace of a turtle. Oh and Lemonade, raspberry lemonade is a new favorite for this girl. She nearly drank the whole cup.
12:30-Arrive at Target to return the extra shoes I ordered for Lexi for the wedding and my card wasn’t registering the purchase. Annoying as I didn’t keep all the shipping slips and now I have to print them out. I know first world problems, but I try to go to target as infrequently as because I can never just go in and come out with only the things on my list. For instance, today, after the shoe return didn’t work, Lexi picked out a bag of candy for her and William for the road trip tomorrow and then she needed a new reusable on-the-go cup as her previous one had mold in the cap and then I really needed some new workout clothes and $50 later we’re leaving target on a trip that was supposed to put money back into my wallet. I digress. 1:00-Quick stop to drop a package off at UPS to return and then back home. William about looses his gord when he hears the door open and comes running and yelling mama, mama! He sees the bag of Laughy Taffy that Lexi had opened in the car and immediately begins requesting some, pease, pease. I give in and give him and Lexi each one piece. He also gets the rest of her Arby’s Chicken Finger and french fries while Lexi eats strawberries. Clean the kitchen and sweep the crumbs. 1:45-Lexi and I head outside to check progress on the fence. I push her on the swing a while while Bill puts William down for his nap. I chat with my mom quick about plans for the weekend. Push Lexi on the swing again and then head inside for Bill to put her down for her nap while I head outside to plant the hydrangea.
2:45-I’m planting and chatting with the neighbor, Lexi wanders out the front door to give me a hug and a kiss before nap time. Sometimes it seems impossible for either child to fall asleep without me putting them to bed. There is always some reason or excuse why they need ‘me’ 3:00-Finish planting and bring Lexi up to bed and she goes right down, without any procrastination, deals to be made or fits to be had. Also slightly annoyed as this means she will sleep until 6:00 tonight, which means she won’t go to bed until 10:00 or later. Argh! 3:05-Fold the two loads of laundry that I had done today. Sit down to begin this post. Bill naps. 3:45-William starts crying and think to myself, already? Didn’t he just go down. I go upstairs and get him and he is an angry pill. Not sure what his deal has been, but he is not a happy boy when he wakes from his naps for the past two weeks. He just crys, doesn’t want to be down, doesn’t want to be held, doesn’t want food or milk or toys to go for a walk or be outside–all of my go-to distractors haven’t been working as of late. Today, he calmed down within 10 min or so which is one of the fastest its been and watched some Mickey Mouse and snuggled with me.

4:15-Fence team is done! We go out to take a walk through and make sure it looks a-ok! So excited for this!!!William plays in the dirt again and on the swing set. I spread the mulch out around my plant and take the grill out to get dinner cooked before the rain comes.

5:30-Grill some hamburgers and hot dogs while William plays on the lawn mower. Get the fixings ready. William finishes his Mickey Mouse and eats some chips. Clean the kitchen-sweep the crumbs. Go upstairs and open Lexi’s door and window shade to start to wake her up.

6:00-Food is ready, go wake Lexi up. She is out cold and trys to send me away several times. Finally, convince her to get up by telling her Mickey Mouse is on and she’s going to miss the hot dog dance if she doesn’t hurry. This peaks her attention and she heads downstairs.

6:30-Dinner is complete. Kids get up to play chase. Lots of crying and arguing mixed in with lots of laughter. I try and ignore as much of it as I can to let them figure it out, but 9 times out of 10, Lexi is being a stinker and gets threatened with a time out or loosing her opportunity to watch a show or read books before bed. William poops and him and I head upstairs to change his diaper. I finish packing their bags and putting laundry away. Lexi follows us upstairs. The two play together nicely with separate toys in Lexi’s room.
7:28-Lexi is requesting a treat/snack. We head downstairs and get ice cream cones and begin to chow down. For the first time in the day there is silence when both kids have been awake and in the same room. Feels slightly odd.

7:38-Bill can’t find his softball uniform and summons me to help him find it. William looses his mind when I tell him he can’t have any more ice cream. We wash up and the kids get down to play with their pals and blankets. Lexi trys to take his blanket and raccoon over and over again. William whines and comes crying to me and yells ‘mine’ ‘mine’ ‘mine’ over and over and over again. Bill pulls up the clip from Finding Nemo where the seagulls keep saying Mine over and over again as it is a familiar scene in our household on a daily basis.

7:45 Bill leaves for softball and the kids seem to be playing somewhat well together.

8:00-Start a Mickey Mouse for Lexi while I go put William to sleep. Will and I head upstairs with his raccoon, blanket and milk. We rock in the chair in the dark. He drinks his milk and I sing songs. He joins in and makes up his own words. About 10 minutes later, I lay him down in his crib awake with his blanekt and raccoon, give him a kiss and say good night. He waves, bye-bye and I close the door and he goes to sleep.

8:20-I head back downstairs and let Lexi continue to watch another episode of Mickey and one of Curious George while I work on typing up this post.

9:30-We turn the TV off. Lexi negotiates a book to be read down stairs. She puts her pajamas on and we start finding objects in her princess look and find book.

10:10-Bill arrives back from softball (lost the first but won the second). Lexi jumps out to scare hime when he walks in the door. We head up and she procrastinates eating

10:30-I finally walk out of her room and she begins to fall asleep. I head downstairs to continue prepping to leave town tomorrow and begin writing this post.

12:10-Shut the computer down and go to sleep.

William, William Monthly Updates

William 17 Months

July 25, 2016August 8, 2016 peanutsmiles

Dear William,

Life with you gets better everyday. You have the biggest smile that match your twinkly eyes and I squirm in excitement for how much I love you. This past July has been a fun month filled with lots of activities. We started the month off with Daddy and I on a staycation for 12 whole days, including a trip to Duluth for mama’s cousin, Laura’s wedding! The week was amazing and filled with your favorite things like trips to the beach and lawn mower rides, boating, slides and running around outside. Throughout the rest of the month, we went to new parks, enjoyed our new fenced in yard, saw Choo Choo Bob perform and so much more!

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Favorites:

You love to clean! You love to push the broom or the swifter around and are obsessed with the vacuum. You are a great helper in wiping things up. I’ll catch you getting toilet paper and then wiping the floor or around the toilet like I do when I’m cleaning. You also got ahold of a clorox wipe and started cleaning off your airplane and wiping down the kitchen chairs. I’m glad your observant to all of the cleaning I do and hope your enthusiasm for it doesn’t fad so I can have a good helper when you get older 🙂
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You LOVE to go for walks and insist on it if you ever get a glimpse of the stroller.
Trains, Trains Trains! You are your father’s son. You like to watch Thomas, Choo Choo Bob and Daddy’s real life train videos. You love to play with them and push them around on the tracks (although you break the tracks pretty quickly).
Lawn mowers. You insist that you ride with Daddy while he mows and if you hear someone else mowing their lawn, you run to the door and yell, Dadda, and look to find whomever is mowing. You also love to climb up on the mower in the garage and just sit there, bonus if you have the ear muffs on
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Raspberries! You love to put them on your fingers and wiggle them around.
You love daddy’s tools. Your own tool kit/work bench may be wrapped under the Christmas tree this year!
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Books: Animal book, Vehicle book, Guess Who, The spotted lady bug, Goodnight Thomas
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Songs: Wheels on the Bus
Toys: Trains, your Dusty Crophopper plan (which you just learned how to move forward on it and we can barely get you off it) Cars, Little People Barn, Blue Soccer Ball, Bubbles
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You love to wear hats
You love to make people laugh
You love to snuggle your raccoon and a blanket

Dislikes

You absolutely despise getting your diaper changed and coming inside from playing outside
Getting up from naps have been a bear! You are completely inconsolable. I’m not sure if you’re just waking up before your ready to, but you don’t want to eat, or drink or play or snuggle or read a book or watch a show or be put down on the ground, or be in my arms. You just sit and whine and squirm around for a good 20 minutes, but it happens almost everyday. No fun, Mr. Crank Pants!
Cutting teeth. You’re in the process of cutting some of your eye teeth and these things are no joke. Holy smokes do they make you angry!
When anyone tells you no or Lexi does something you don’t like–you have definitely figured out that by crying and whining that you’ll get your ways. I’m working on not being such a push-over for you, your so darn sweet and cute, it is hard not to be though
Words

Every week, we hear new words come out of your little mouth. Most of them aren’t easily understood by most people, but I can tell what you’re trying to say, particularly with the inflection and syllable break.

Clear words include: Boat, mine, No, Mama, Dadda, Choo Choo, yes, please, Done, papa, nigh-nigh, bye, hi, Beep, Vroom, uh-oh
Attempted words: Wi-um= Willium, Da-Dee=Lexi, ch=chair, Doon= Raccoon, Sheeeew=airplane, mil=milk, wa= water and walk, Duk= stuck, wack wack= quack quack= duck, Dew= Shoe, Sa= sock

Favorite Moments:

Before you get into your Crazy Coupe Car, you’ll run over and give me a hug and a kiss and say Bye-bye before driving off in your car
When you go down slides you yell out Wheeee!
At the beginning of the month, you learned the word ‘mine’ and you would say it over and over and over again. You sounded just like the seagulls in Finding Nemo when they yell ‘mine, mine, mine, mine, mine’
We’ll be going up to bed and you put your finger over my mouth and say ‘Shuush’
I can’t hear you say your name enough–and when you saw Meow for cat, it just comes out as mauw and it is the sweetest thing
Occasionally, when we’re going to bed, we’ll sing a song-specifically Twinkle Twinkle and you make noises along with me at the same pitch/tune
I love watching you push your bus around the house and say beep beep
When you and Lexi make each other laugh–usually while we are eating, you both have the most contagious laughs and it is awesome
When you scrunch up your eyes and nose and laugh at me

Daycare Transition

At the beginning of the month you transitioned from the Older Infants classroom into the Toddler classroom. In your new class, you only take 1 nap, get to go outside, have group time and more structure to your day. You also start drinking from a regular cup and using utencils. I thought it was going to be a difficult transition, but you were a rock star and only cried the first day I dropped you off and have been awesome since. I love when I go and pick you up, you run over to me with your arms up in the air and give me a HUGE hug and then run to your locker to get your raccoon.

We love you so much buddy and can’t wait to see what 18 months brings us!

Love,

Mama

Uncategorized, William, William Monthly Updates

William 16 Months (1 year 4 months)

June 26, 2016 peanutsmiles

My sweet little William,

This past month has been so fun. We are officially into summer and from what we can tell, you love everything about it. You insist on being outside at all times and just stand at the door begging to go out. You giggle when you dump sand through your fingers in the sandbox and stop to analyze the soft grass blades between your toes when running around barefoot. You love chasing balls, being chased, playing with sprinklers and going down slides. In fact, the only way you prefer to go down is head first. For the most part, you do pretty good at catching yourself but have had a couple spills here and there.

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We’ve set up the pool a couple of times; at first you weren’t a fan of the chilly water, but when the sun had warmed it up a bit, you had yourself a grand time splashing, going down the slide into the pool, drinking the water and lowering yourself to waste hight and them jumping up and giggling with delight. Each time, you’ll look to me for a reaction and I’ll give you some kind of surprised look and you burst into laughter, sometimes so much you fall down.

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We also went to the beach which was a big hit. You loved sitting in the sand and splashing and kicking your legs. You loved picking up the wet muddy sand and having it side out. Thankfully, you there were only a few occasions where it ended up in your mouth. Mama is also grateful you have an obsession with hats to protect your sweet skin from the harsh sun–your big sister is very opinionated about when she will and will not wear a hat.

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As much as you love everything outside, I would say your two favorite things are lawn mowers and trains. You insist on sitting on daddy’s lap while you mow the lawn. You help steer and will chat away while you two mow. It really melts my heart to see my two Williams out there together in matching earmuffs just motoring along. Even when you aren’t mowing you love to climb on it and wiggle the steering wheel and even have the ear muffs on. It is the first place you run to when you get in the garage. You also really really like trains. I randomly brought up the train bin from the basement and it has been a big hit. You’ll pull pieces out and run the trains on them, or on the floor or furniture or my legs, really anything that the wheels will move on. You refer to them as ChooChoos and make the noises as your pushing them along. You also really love to carry them around the house wherever you are going–which is awesome to be constantly picking up trains throughout the house at all times.

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Words

Clearly understood words: Baby, Hi, Bye, No, Bubbles, Ball, Mama, Dada, Mine, Uh-Oh, pease (please), ChooChoo
Things only mama understands: Mi= Milk; Ba= Bottle (even though it is a sippy cup), Do=Show, shoe; Da=done, down; Woof=dog; moow=cat; H=hug and hop (meaning bunny), Dat=Hat and hot; Pa=papa; Boo=moo for cow

Favorites:

Books: 100 first words, Vehicles, Little Blue Truck
Playing in the bathtub
Drinking Milk
Food: Marshmallows, popsicles, ice cream, eggs, raspberries, blackberries, crackers, cereal, crasins, watermelon, avocado
Mama
Thomas the train, Choo Choo Bob
Horses
Climbing
Making people laugh

One Saturday, Dada was gone and you just refused to take a nap. So we sat down and played cars and trucks and read books and played with your farm. We played peek-a-boo behind a plate and oh my goodness did we have so much fun and do you make me laugh. It was so good to have some solid one-on-one time with you where I wasn’t distracted to do laundry, clean the house or start making dinner. It was just good solid play time with you and I. You soaked up that time and love to make me (or anyone) laugh. It will be interesting to see if you continue this comedic personality (like your dada) as you get older.

Dislikes

Swinging
Looking at my phone; if you want me to be playing with you and I look at my phone you shake your head and try and take it out of my hands and throw it–clearly we’re too attached to these things and I’ve been working on not looking at it while you are awake
Lexi taking stuff from you; this is understandable to get upset about this, but you will start crying if she comes near you. You know Mama will come rescue you and are using it to your advantage you smart little boy! You’re a little bit of a whiner and cry-baby and we need to work on toughing you up a little bit 🙂

William, every ounce of you oozes with sweetness from your curly baby hair to your pure blue eyes and dimple in your left check to your cuddly-teady-bear hugs, love for trains, tools and machinery. You so much more of everything I had prayed my little boy would be. Your mama, dada and sister love you more than words could ever describe.

Love,

Mama

PS. I think this happened about a month ago, but I don’t think I ever wrote about it. You have really taken an affection to your raccoon stuffed animal and your navy blue blanket. You take them out of the crib with you and when you see it laying in the floor your run to them and nuzzle your face into them.

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William, William Monthly Updates

William 15 months (1 year 3 months)

May 25, 2016June 5, 2016 peanutsmiles

Dear Bood,

This month flew by and I didn’t even take any notes to document so I’m going to have to go by memory.

Eating and sleeping is a pretty consistent story. You wake up between 6:15 and 7:00 each day and go to bed around 8 and have two 1 hour naps around 10 and 2.You guzzle an oz or two of whole milk before naps and want to eat when you wake up. At bedtime, we usually read a book or two in the rocking chair, give you your racoon and blanket and sippy and we snuggle in the rocking chair. Rarely do you actually fall asleep as you’re busy moving around trying to get comfortable and snuggle. This is usually one of my favorite parts of the day. I love how content you are to be in my arms and never try to get down, are just moving to get comfy. You love to curl up in a ball and put your checks on my chest or shoulder. Ahhh, it is so peaceful and relaxing and something I never experienced with Lexi. After about 5-10 minutes, we lay you in your crib put your blanket over you and you conk right out.

I can’t think of anything you regularly refuse to eat. You have days where you prefer some things over others, but for the most part you eat everything. You LOVE all fruit, cooked veggies, bread/crackers and milk. You insist on eating whatever I’m eating or if you’re chewing on something and see something that appears better, you just spit out your food and ask for what I’m eating. We officially cut off bottles this month. As always, I anticipate the transition being more difficult than it was. And I love the snuggle time we have now way more then I enjoyed giving you bottles!

Talking is still few and far between. I feel like this is the first month where you have consistently used ‘Mama’ and ‘Dada’ when you want us (verses just grunting). You make the sound ‘da’ which means done, down, duck, door and hot; ‘do’ is shoe; ‘peas’ is please; bal ‘is ball’; i swear i’ve heard ‘bu-bey’ meaning blueberry; choo is train and ‘tu-tu’ is tootles (from Micky Mouse) Sign language is getting better; you sign: dog, cat, hat, gorilla, wave hi and bye, please and all done.

All four of your molars came in this month, which caused quite a bit of pain for you. New teeth have always been a bit of a bear and all four at one time made you much more whiney and crabby than general. All four are in now and you are back to the happy, smiley little munchkin you always are.

Favorites

You are are little comedian and love to make people laugh and laugh too. You love being tickled, going upside down, going for walks in the stroller, playing peek-a-boo, being chased, chasing Lexi, going down the slide (specifically head first), bubbles, being next to daddy as he is working on projects, tools, mowing the lawn, reading books, watching Micky Mouse, being outside, giving hugs, shoes, playing trains, cars, raccoon and blanket.

Dislikes

Lexi being mean to you (i.e. pushing/kicking you, taking toys away from you, poking you in the eye), coming inside, diaper changes, getting buckled into your car seat, swinging/spinning

My sweet little William, you are growing up so quickly and into the sweetest, snuggly, hilarious little boy and I can’t get enough of you. You have mama just smitten with you and there isn’t anything I can do about it.

Love,
Mama

William, William Monthly Updates

William 14 months (1 year 2 months)

April 25, 2016June 5, 2016 peanutsmiles

Dear William,

Although you are completely unaware, this month has been an emotional one for our family. On Tuesday, April 5th your great grandpa Sampson passed away. Although he had been having a handful of health problems over the past year, he passed pretty quickly, which was great that he wasn’t in a lot of pain suffering but still hard to believe he is actually gone. I’m sure you won’t ever remember him, but he loved you so much. He was so proud to have you carry on the family name, not only from a William standpoint but from a Sampson standpoint. None of great-grandpa’s nephews had any children so the only men to carry on the ‘Sampson’ name is Grandpa Sampson, Daddy and now you. He really was a great man who loved Jesus, his family, flying airplanes, fixing things, staying up to date on technology, growing veggies (he basically was a mini farmer) and sharing his veggies with anyone that would take them. Your Daddy was very close with him and learned so many amazing things from him like how to play tennis, how to take things apart and put them back together, using tools and building things and so much more. So far, it looks like you share similar interests as you are fascinated by tools and Daddy will be able to teach you the many things he learned from Great Grandpa.

On a little more upbeat note, April was pretty raining and a little colder than normal, but on the handful of days that the sun shone, you loved being outside. You were a little unsure of it at first, but when you could run around and play and explore things like dirt and rocks and grass and hear the birds and airplanes, you’ve decided there is no place you would rather be. You cry when we come inside and will go bring your shoes to use on a regular basis and stand by the door and beg to be outside. You love going for walks and will climb up in the stroller and just wait to be pushed. You love bubbles and chalk and the crazy coup. We haven’t made it into the bike trailer yet for a ride, but I have a feeling you’re going to love that too.

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Sleep is pretty status quo. You sleep for about an hour at each nap at day care and drink about an oz of whole milk in a sippy for the first nap and 3-4oz for the second. For bedtime, you have a bottle around 7:30ish and then go to bed around 8. You may cry on the way up to bed, but usually stop within 1-2 min of us walking out the door. In the morning, you’ll usually wake around 6:30 (the 5:30 mornings are dreadful!). About halfway through the month, you stopped taking a bottle in the morning so are really just down to one bottle before bedtime. Giving you a bottle is one of my favorite times of the day as you just snuggle in and sit contently with mom or dad for 20 minutes. However, I am counting down the days until I can put all the bottle parts away. So much extra clutter on the counter.

You love to eat still and insist on feeding yourself. You’ve started to hold forks and spoons while you eat and attempt to use them, but are almost never successful. You love love love Cinnamon Toast Crunch (without milk) all berries, ice cream, avacado, and bread/crackers.

You’re still not talking a whole lot but are starting to make more sounds. Your ‘B’s are very defined for ball and bottle. You’ve also gotten good with your ‘Ds’ for down(stairs), all done, dadda, and Due (for shoe). You’ll also say, mmamama which means you’re hungry. However, your comprehension is pretty good. You follow directions like ‘it’s time to go bye-bye, can you go get me your shoes’ or ‘let’s wash hands’ or ‘go get a book’. Baby sign language has also improved. You consistently sign ‘All done’ ‘dog’ ‘cate’ ‘bird’ ‘duck’ and are getting better about signing ‘please’. You love to roar like a lion and woof like a dog.

You and your sister have a love hate relationship, already. You love to play chase and hide and seek and make each other laugh. However, we need to do a lot of work on sharing with both of you. If you’re playing with a toy and she gets near you, you’ll start crying and whining and you push her. She also likes to randomly hit you and steal things out of your hands and push you too. For me, this constant tension and arguing is the most challenging thing about parenting right now, it runs my patience pretty thin.

With that said, I can never be mad at you. Your little smile just lights my whole world up and think you are the cutest thing ever. You melt my heart with your sweet and random snuggles and kisses. Mrs. Heidy and Mrs. Alba are smitten with you and said you love to give all the teachers snuggles and hugs throughout the day.

We love you little Bood!

Love,
Mama

We love you to pieces William, Love, Mama

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William, William Monthly Updates

William 13 months (1 Year 1 month)

March 25, 2016April 16, 2016 peanutsmiles

Dear little Bood,

You’ve gathered quite the collections of nicknames in your year of life. Your most recent one is Bood, given by your big sister. We’re not sure where it came from but it is all she calls you and its uniqueness has rubbed off on your daddy and I (and even your grandparents and aunts and uncles) as we often find ourselves referring to you as Bood. Other names you respond to: Bud, Budski, Budski Mudski, William, Will and ‘the grump’.

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This past month has been a long one full of sickness for the whole family. You, Lexi and Mama came down with a terrible cold in the beginning of the month. Your cold turned into an eye and ear infection. I don’t think the ear infection you had in February ever went a way so this was more a continuation of it. Then, when we went to get it re-checked at the end of the month, we learned that it still hadn’t gone away and the Dr. threw out the ‘tubes’ word. Daddy had lots of problems with his ears growing up so it may be something we have to look into if your infections continue.

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As far as talking goes, the words and even really noises are few and far between (with the exception of laughter and whining there are lots and lots of those). You have learned how to say ‘uh-oh’ and say it whenever something falls or throw something off the table. You’ve also started to initiate the word ‘done’. I’m the only one that can tell you’re saying this because it really just comes out as the ‘D’ sound, but it is accompanied with you doing the baby sign for ‘all done’. You also make the sounds ‘Mmmamma’ when you’re hungry to mimic ‘Num-num’. This is particularly confusing because it sounds like you’re saying mama, but it is really not about me and it is more about the food.

Speaking of food, you love it. If someone is eating something, you absolutely insist on eating it too. You’ll come over tug and my legs and just whine. If you don’t get it, you dramatically fall to the floor and start crying. If something comes along that you believe is better than what you currently are eating, you just spit it out and reach for the new food. You absolutely refuse to eat anything unless you can put it into your mouth yourself. The one exception to this is ice cream. We’ve started to give you a fork and a spoon while you’re eating; and while you do hold it, you have yet to use it.

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One afternoon, Lexi left most of the apple she started to eat on the table. You were able to reach it and started waddling around the house and eating it. You would take a bit of it, eat the inside part and then spit out the peel. I found little pieces of peel all over the house.

This month, we took away your bottles before nap time, and just give you a sippy of milk to drink before if you want. The first couple naps there were lots of tears and it took you longer than normal to go down, but you adjusted pretty quickly. You still love your bottle in the morning when you wake and the one prior to bed time.

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As far as napping goes, you take two naps a day, usually for about an hour each around 9:30 and then again around 2:00. At home, I will tell you it is nap time and you usually start crying as we walk up the stairs and when I lay you down, but as soon as I put your blanket over you and give you a stuffed animal to snuggle, you calm down and roll over onto your tummy. Then for bedtime, we’ve been giving you your bottle earlier and allowing you to play a little after to help break the association that you need a bottle before bedtime. You usually go down around 8:00 and with very few tears if any at all. We go into your room, give you a kiss, turn your sound machine on, turn the lights off and walk out. Occasionally you’ll cry but for maybe only a minute or two. (However, there were several times this month where you did cry for over an hour!) So hard little guy and I think this is a little foreshadowing into your stubborn and determination.

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This month you also turned a corner in liking books. You frequently go to your shelf and pick out a book and bring it to me and plop yourself down into my lap. Your favorites are the Animal book, Little Blue Truck, the little color board books,

Another amazing accomplishment for you this month was learning how to go down the inside slide all by yourself. You climb up the stairs and have figured out how to get your legs out in front of you and slide down. Throughout the entire process, you have a smile as wide as the Mississippi plastered across your face. You just love it and then get up and go again.

Happy 13 Months William! We are infatuated with everything about you and just love how you are this happy little smilely guy that has made his perfect way into our family. We don’t know what we would do without you.

Love,

Mama

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Birthday Parties, William

Happy 1st Birthday William!

February 25, 2016April 17, 2016 peanutsmiles

Happy 1 sweet boy!!!!! This past year has been a big year of transition for us big guy but you have forced us to grow together, built up our patience and multiplied the love Daddy and I are able to give by at least 10!

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We celebrated your birthday four days ago on the weekend with a theme of ‘A Very Hungry Caterpillar’ and it was so fun! I was searching on Etsy for a cute birthday shirt and randomly came across Eric Carl’s Hungry Caterpillar and knew I had to do it. The theme was too perfect for you as you are a hungry little William and eat just about anything and everything in sight.

The party was held on the Sunday before your actual birthday (it fell on a Thursday this year) from 11-2, right in between your two naps. All four of your Grandparents came and also were joined by Great-Grandma T and Great Grandma and Grandpa Sampson, your Aunts and Uncles: Joe, Sheila, Dustin, Greg, Teresa, Beca, Travis and Raelynn and your cousins Ashley and Coco.

For decorations, I didn’t go too crazy. We had light and dark green balloons going up and down the stairs mimicking the way a caterpillar moves with a red balloon at the foot of the staircase. I made a Happy Birthday William sign, hung some streamers and made a caterpillar birthday collage with a photo of you from each month over the past year.

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I also had the book on display next to all of the food the caterpillar eats in the book. I was able to find everything but a plum and an ice cream cone (as that would melt) but had: Apples, pears, strawberries, oranges, chocolate cake, pickles, swiss cheese, salami, lollipops, cherry pie, sausage, cupcake and a slice of watermelon.

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I also found a cute post on pinterest that had created a caterpillar out of cupcakes and a cake, which I attempted to replicate. I would give myself a B on it–could have been better but could have also been much worse.

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I also decorated your smash cake but decorating it with a little caterpillar, sun and some grass.

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Overall the day was so fun and it was so fun celebrating you sweet guy. Although you have had cake and frosting many many times before, you were pretty tired and didn’t get into the whole ‘smashing’ the cake thing. We took a picture of mama and dada with you and the cake right before we sang and as I put the cake back on the table to put the candle in you about lost your mind that I was taking it away from you.

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However, when I put it in front of you to eat, you very delicately took off little pieces of frosting. Eventually, I cut the cake up to let you know it was in there and you stuck your fingers in a little, but for the most part, just had a few pieces of frosting and then were done.

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For your actual birthday, I went to Cub before you woke up and got you a donut for breakfast before school and then had a fun little celebration at home after dinner with some ice cream and sprinkles.

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William, you are such a sweet little boy and love to give hugs and snuggles to anyone that will take them. You love to laugh, make your sister laugh and have the most magical smile with eyes that twinkle and get to people hearts. There isn’t anyone that doesn’t love you and comment on what a great smile you have and how it rarely disappears from your face. I love you more than words could ever express and am so greatfull to be your mom.

Happy 1 William and can’t wait to see all the fun we’ll have in the next year.

Love,

Mama