Dear Xavier - One Year

Dear Xavier,

Happy birthday!

As I've been preparing for your big day, I've been reminiscing a lot about last summer: your crazy birth story, your NICU stay, your ups and your downs.

You've definitely managed to keep me on my toes this past year, both with your health issues and your spunky attitude. And I just can't quite grasp the fact that you are now ONE. Looking through the beautiful scrapbooks that your Lola has made to chronicle your first year, I can hardly believe that you - my so-close-to-walking, giggly, such-a-boy you - are the same teensy-weensy three pound fragile baby that I see in those pictures.

Oh, Xavier. This past year has been exhausting, trying, exhilarating, and amazing. You're still not quite sleeping through the night (we're ready for this milestone whenever you are) and ever since you've been on the move, I spend the majority of my time diverting you from trouble. You seem to love spending time at the doctor, always giving us excuses to keep going back to one specialist or another. You may have gained a whopping seventeen pounds since your birth day, but I think you will forever be my delicate little preemie.

Without a doubt, you have grown - literally, figuratively, emotionally, developmentally, physically - so much since June 26, 2012. And it is with mixed emotions that I acknowledge the fact that you're inching evermore closer to toddlerdom than babyhood. Because while I am so excited to see what the future holds for you, I would also be more than okay with slowing down time just a little bit to cherish these sweet, sweet days with my baby.

I love you, little peanut.

Stay forever healthy, happy, and mine.

Love,

Mommy

P.S. As far as celebrations, we had a fabulous first birthday party last weekend. Today, on your actual birthday day, we went to Mass, played at Monkey's Treehouse, opened gifts, and just enjoyed family time.

P.P.S. As far as this past month goes, we discovered two front teeth, a hatred for splashpads, an indifference to pools, and a pure love for crawling, cruising, and food. Here are a few of our favorite pics.

Road Trip!

My youngest cousin on my dad's side got married over the weekend, and Lissie was asked to be a flower girl. What does this mean? Our first family (of four) road trip!



Luckily my parents came with us, which helped out tremendously. We hauled pretty much everything we owned into a rented minivan (in the pouring rain, to boot) and were en route to Grand Haven, MI with a stop in Indianapolis to visit Lissie's godmother on the way.



The drive up wasn't so bad. The kids were intrigued by their new digs, the excitement of something new was enough to entertain them, and five hours (with the necessary potty stops, of course) was a decent amount of time in the car to keep everyone happy.



We enjoyed seeing Auntie Amy, Uncle Brad, and their newest sweetest baby boy. And we were able to get our rest before chugging on for another five hours to Grand Haven.




It was such a whirlwind of a weekend, as are all wedding weekends - filled with rehearsals, pictures, the ceremony, reception, and other family gatherings. The kids met all sorts of aunties and uncles and cousins and lolos and lolas and were enjoying being passed off to another doting relative throughout the course of the trip.



And the flower girl? We spent a lot of time before the trip practicing what to do - we picked flowers and walked down our made-up aisle and we watched youTube videos galore. The rehearsal went great, but my shy little lady had a bit of performance anxiety the day of the wedding. She woke up crabby from her nap and just wanted to eat, eat, eat. Pictures were taken before the ceremony, and she had quite a freak-out session when her dear Uncle Tim picked her up for a pose. The only thing that could calm her down was good 'ole Daniel Tiger streaming from my phone. And apples. And, of course, she wanted to put neither of them down when the ceremony started. I was starting to think that she wasn't going to be able to do her flower girl duties at all, but she pulled through in the end. She grabbed her basket of petals and just stood there until she spotted me in the front. And it was then that she bolted to the front of the aisle and tossed a bunch of petals in my face. The End. Ehh....I'll take it.



Of course, by Sunday, we were all exhausted and ready to be home. And that made the 8-hour drive turn into a 10-hour one, with crabby kids galore. New books, DVDs, stickers, and quiet activities can only do so much when you're two years old and just need to expend that energy. But we trudged on, and we did it.

All in all, it wasn't too terrible. In fact, we're thinking about taking a few more mini trips before summer's end!

Here are a few more of my favorite family pics in and around Grand Haven:

Quarterly Lissie Update

Lissie is now just over two and a quarter years old. A perfect time for a brief update.

She is just the sweetest, silliest, craziest little munchkin, and I'm so blessed to be her mommy. The twos thus far have been mostly terrific, with a few tinges of terrible. The tantrums can be quite the sight, but generally they can still be easily squelched. (Where's the wood to knock?)



She's a whiz at all of her uppercase (and most lowercase) letters and/or their sounds, she's got the colors, counting (mostly), and common animals/sounds down pat. She's predominately daytime potty trained (with random accidents when she's having too much fun), She's working on writing her letters and drawing her shapes now, as well as continuing her favorite lessons in Jesus and church. She loves it when Xavier naps because that means one-on-one "Tot School" time with mommy or, if nothing else is on the agenda, a good dose of Elmo.

I don't think I'll ever stop being amazed with how quickly she is growing up and how her personality continually blossoms.

Likes:
* Food, Food, Food. Especially the dip-able kind. Apparently anything is especially tasty with a little dab of ketchup or a dollop of yogurt.
* Water. Baths, water table, the pool, the splash pad. Anything and everything water is awesome in her book.



* Talking. Nonstop. At least to people she knows. She is otherwise the shyest person you'll meet.
* Costco (to "try") and Harris Teeter (for the cookies). I guess this really goes back to the food thing.



* "School" (really Mother's Day Out).


* Elmo, Cookie, and Abby Cadabby. Dora and Boots.
* All things artsy and craftsy.


* Baking and cooking.
* Pretend play. Either pretending to be at church or the grocery store or playing mommy or cooking in her kitchen. In this video, I found her pretending that a little puddle of water collected on the storm sewer top is holy water, and she was making the sign of the cross like at church:




Dislikes:
* Being in the car too long. But then again, who does?
* Sharing with Xavier. Most of the time.
* Most strange men. (Daddy hopes this one lasts.)
* Being hot. (Sorry, peanut, but summer's just begun.)
* Being stuck in a shopping cart. She has since become my little helper, much to the chagrin of all the other shoppers.

Aaaaahhhhhh! Love that girl! So much.