The Kiddos

This page is devoted to:
Benjamin Ray
&
Adalynn Grace

 
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Mr. Benjamin...                                                  7/13/11


Wow, I knew you would be a great big brother... but you are so fantastic!! Addy just giggles and coohs whenever you play with her. She even cries sometimes when you walk away. Sometimes I tell you to go talk to her if she's fussing, and you do with a big grin on your face! You always say, "Aww.... Baby Addy. She's sweet!" It so cute! You came up with this game a couple of months ago. You say, "Oh yeah?!" over and over with me repeating you, then you say, "Okay!" Absolutely no idea how or why you thought this up, but you think it's hilarious and you do it frequently. :) Your favorite drink right now (besides the ever abiding sweet tea) is apple juice! You still love your prune juice, but you now ask for apple juice about 15 million times a day. Your favorite food is {sigh} french fries. I try to limit your consumption of those! :) Your favorite phrase right now is "Thank you Momma, your welcome!" all in one sentence. You do say "thank you" at the correct times, but you also walk around the rest of day saying it over and over. Me and your daddy just crack up. You know how to use the potty now, but don't care to. I'm not making you either. Mommy devoted 3 days to the "3 day method" and had no more energy to keep that up. You will go when you are ready. I really don't mind changing your diapers. You even tell me when you have "poop"! :)

I just love you to pieces. Your little grin lights up the room. I'm so glad to be your mommy!



Miss Adalynn...


Addy, you are so sweet. There's just no other word for you! We love to make you smile and giggle. You are IN LOVE with "bubby". When you get a little bigger where you guys can play together, you will be inseperable! You don't do much right now but lay around looking cute. You don't seem to be in a hurry to roll over, sit up, or really even hold your head up for long :) You are incredibly chill, and I sorta expected that from you. Don't get me wrong, you can get pretty upset sometimes. Probably because we've already spoiled you rotten. You get held a lot- what can I say? I WANT TO!! You are a little prissy and definitely girly. So different from Ben already. I love watching you grow and giving you thousands of kisses every day. You are mama's baby girl!






21 things about Benjamin
at 21 months old:

1. Scrambled eggs and bananas remain your favorite foods

2. You call "Daddy" Nick sometimes
3. You eat with utensils really well & even when you can't seem to keep the food on them, you just keep right on tryin'!
4. You are learning to recognize & say your colors
5. You love getting daddy's shoes out of his closet and trying to walk around in them
6. You've started saying "Iced Tea", which is your favorite drink. It's the only drink you will ask for besides "water"
7. You LOVE brushing your teeth
8. Even when you don't want to go to bed, you will dry your tears & start laughing when it's time to say prayers & read a book.You really enjoy your nighttime routine. You always put your hands together and watch me & daddy pray, then you say a loud "Amen!" at the end and giggle ;)
9. You NEVER turn down a graham cracker!

10. Your favorite shape is a star. You point them out everywhere we go- you don't care to learn any other shapes :)
11. You eat more than I do for breakfast- a typical morning for you is: 2 eggs, 2 pieces of toast, 1/2 a yogurt, a WHOLE banana, & some dry cheerios!! (oh, & your vitamins and powdered greens mixed in w/ prune juice- you love the stuff too!)

12. You love to wrestle on the floor- you get pretty rough!
13. We put your crib mattress on the floor beside our bed (you don't have your own room yet), and that's where you've slept since being weaned at 12 months. You were too tall to go into your crib- you flipped yourself right out of it one night! Yes, it scared THE LIFE out of us! So we had to put you on the floor and train you not to get up. It only took a few nights of consistency on our part & you've done well with it ever since. You DO, however, usually crawl into our bed at some point during the early morning ;) that might have to stop once the new baby arrives!
14. You love "Jersey", Courtney's cat. You and her play a lot together.
15. The other day Mawmaw Barbo said you were "crying for a bath"... I figured you just wanted those brightly colored rubber ducks she always pulls out- and I was right. It wasn't time yet for your evening bath so she just let you play with them on the kitchen floor & you were happy :)
16. Every time you see one of daddy's baseball caps laying around, you put it on (backwards) and go on with whatever you were doing. It's SO cute!
17. Your favorite things to play with are balls and cars. Typical boy through & through!
18. You know dirty diapers go in the trash, so I usually don't even have to ask you- you just automatically go throw it away when I'm done changing you. Time to potty train??? :)
19. On that same note: you still DETEST getting your diaper changed. You've never enjoyed it & you always put up a fuss about it despite numerous spankings throughout. You would rather walk around dirty than lay down & let me change you.

20. You pick up remote controls... ipods... or anything that looks that - you hold it up to your ear & start talking into it like it's a cell phone.

21.  You frequently do what we call the "role call"- going through each and every family member's name randomly- whether they are present or not! It goes something like this: Mama... Daddy... Jersey... Kiki... Mamie... Papaw... Mamaw... Papaw H. P.(eeeeee)... Mimi... Pepaw... & then you start over again. :)
 
 
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11/22/2010
Dear Benjamin,
You are 18 months old now, and you seem so much more like a toddler than an infant now! It's kind of sad to see you leaving the "baby stage"... but there is another baby on the way, and we know you'll be a fantastic big brother! We recently found out it's going to be a baby girl. I can't wait to see what you think of her when she arrives. You are running all over the place now and climbing on everything. You say new words nearly every day and you are so incredibly smart! I think you understand nearly everything I say.
Your favorite things to play with right now are your ball and your hot wheels cars. You want everyone to participate in your games, too! Since we are still living with your grandparents and you see them often, you go through the "roll call" EVERY SINGLE DAY- you say, "Mama... Daddy... Mamie... Papaw..." over and over again. ;) It's so adorable! You've also taken to calling your Daddy "Nick". You yell up the stairs just like mama does (same tone and everything) and say "Ni-"... waiting for him for answer. Boy, you like to talk! You just take off jibber-jabbering at people (sometimes at the top of your lungs.) Yesterday, you found a ruler that looked like the paddle mama uses, so you picked it up and proceeded to reprimand Jersey (the cat.) We had to stop you before you spanked her with it. ;)
Yesterday, we finally decided to quit the bottle- COLD TURKEY! We've experimented some with putting you to sleep without one, but we would inevitably go back to using it for our own convenience. But changing your diaper in the middle of the night is getting pretty old so IT'S TIME! You've never sucked your thumb or been the least bit interested in a pacifier- the bottle WAS your pacifier. That's what is hard about getting rid of it. It has nothing to do with drinking- you've been drinking from sippy cups and straws for well over 8 months now. In fact, you even do pretty well with just a regular cup. You are getting to be such a big boy & in a couple of wks. once you've had time to adjust to no bottle, I'm gonna start trying to potty training you! (YAY!) I think you can do it, and I want it done before your little sis arrives.
You have no idea what a source of joy you are to me. Waking up to your smiling face is such an incredible feeling, and when you pucker up those lips and lean in to give me a kiss... my heart swells so full of love and pride it just feels like it will explode. ;) You are the light of my life and I love you so much.

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I can't believe my little boy is getting so big!!! He's the love of my life. Being a "mama" is even better than I thought it was going to be!









One year later...

Benjamin at the Pavilion watching the Houston Symphony & The Cirque Du Soleil
May 2010


June 30, 2010

Dear Benjamin,

I can't believe it's been that long ago that you were born. The days and months have just flown by. You change constantly- we can hardly keep up with you! You just took your first steps last week. Although you are not sold on the whole "walking thing" quite yet, we know you will be running all over the place pretty soon. Your balance is great. You can definitely do it, you just aren't sure if you want to yet! You are also starting to climb on top of things. You've been crawling for a long time, but I guess it never occurred to you to climb up the stairs. (Maybe you were just having pity on your tired mama. :)


Though quite late to show up, you have a mouth full of teeth now; and boy, do you have an appetite! You get so impatient when we are feeding you! If your meal is something you can feed yourself with your hands, all is much better. Upon tasting table food several months ago, you completely gave up on baby food. (You knew there was something better out there :) And you haven't stopped eating since.


You have been saying "mama" and "dada" for a long time now, but lately you have started attempting to verbalize other words. You don't really pronounce the consonants, but it's obvious to me what you are trying to say. You say, "Jersey" (the cat's name) a lot. It usually comes out more like, "Ersey". :) You also like to make a kinds of goofy sounds with your mouth. It's so cute to watch you laugh at yourself. You are learning so fast at this stage. You make new discoveries every day and it's a blast watching you develop!


You are my little man, and I know God has great plans for you! I will try to do my best to "raise you in the admonition of the Lord" and "train you in the way you should go". You are very special to me, and to the Lord. I am so glad God entrusted you to us!


Love,


Your Mama




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