Walker-ONE

Dear Walker,

You, my sweet, precious boy are one year old (plus two weeks ;)! It's been the busiest, craziest, best, most joy filled year of our lives. How did we ever even live without you?! 

We had your well check up on Monday and I am just so thankful that you are a healthy boy. You weighed 21 pounds, 1 ounce (44th percentile) and were 30 and 1/4 inches long (61st percentile). Your noggin was a whopping 47 centimeters (75th percentile)! Dr. Bill was very pleased with your growth and said we could officially say you have outgrown your swallowing dysfunction and acid reflux-praise the Lord! You've been off your medicine for a month now and are doing great. 

You wear size three shoes, size four diapers and mostly 12 month clothes.

You have finally gotten to where you take a bottle like a champ and are even a little attached to it, which figures now that it's time to wean you off of it. We have started whole milk but you aren't a big fan yet so we are mixing it with formula to get you more used to it and hope to ditch the bottle soon. 

You continue to be an amazing eater, gladly gobbling up any and everything we put in front of you. 

You have eight teeth-four on the top and four on the bottom. You've had some rough days and nights here and there recently so I would expect more teeth anytime.

You have such a funny personality. From a tiny baby, you've scrunched your eyebrows up and made such a serious face. Daddy says you're a "tough crowd" because you definitely don't just go around smiling all the time and it often takes a lot to make you laugh. But then you can be so silly at times too, cracking us up like you wouldn't believe. You almost always start this fake laugh when you hear someone else laughing and it is hilarious. You are quite the social butterfly when we are out and about. You wave to everyone who walks by, often helping to put a smile on some sweet old lady's face. You love to do anything to get a laugh or a clap out of someone. While you are a little more laid back and go with the flow than your brother was at your age, you have just as strong of a personality as he does. You know what you want, when you want it and you're not afraid to let somebody know about it. That strong personality is getting you thisclose to being disciplined, but only because we love you too much not to. Strong willed and all, you are fearfully and wonderfully made and are such a precious gift from God!

Things you love most about life right now are: Sophie, any kind of animal but especially dogs, being outside, cars, trucks and tractors, your puppy toy that you push around, food, balls, and anything that has a button you can push that lights up and/or makes noise. You adore your big brother 90% of the time. You also love music and the second you hear any kind of musical book or toy or song on the radio start playing, you start shaking your little booty and bouncing up and down. It is one of my most favorite things! Daddy and I have cried from laughing so hard watching you dance when we're in the car. You'll be bustin a move like none other, all the while never hardly cracking a smile.

Sophie and brother-two of your most favorite things in life.

You are talking SO much! You have grown to love books over the past two months (thank God!!!) and you also hear brother say approximately 8,427 words per day so that helps your speech and vocabulary a lot too. Your favorite things to say are "uh-oh" and "gog" (for dog). Recently you have started saying "amen", plain as day after our prayers at meal times. And then every single time you say it, you start clapping because you know I'm about to squeal and tell you how sweet it was.

You are walking quite a bit but haven't decided to make that your main form of mobility yet. Right before you start walking to someone or something, you open your mouth real big and grin from ear to ear, like you're already so proud of yourself. You are a big time climber and there is never a time that I can turn my back on you anymore, unless you are strapped into your high chair or car seat. You seem to be fearless, just like your big brother.

You've had a few firsts lately-first time in a pool (you love the water but also spend a good deal of time wanting to climb out, and then back in), first trip to Lazy 5 Ranch, and first hair cut.

I am so glad you decided to start loving books. You're favorite ones are animal books and you try to say "dog", "cat", "cow", "duck", "pig" and "goat" consistently. You love to turn the pages over and over again, finding your favorite pictures of dogs. You also love finding and saying "truck", which you say very clear. Every night when we put you to bed you say "book, book, book" over and over again hoping we will read just one more.

You take two naps a day most days. You can't hang much past 7:00 at night no matter how long your afternoon nap was and you are up by 6:45 most every morning. You sleep with a little green lovey blanket that you seem to love in your bed but aren't too attached to (yet). You still suck your thumb while you are sleeping, which is pretty much the only time that you do but it is so sweet. I may not be saying that in a year when we're trying to break the habit, but for now I think it is one of the most precious things about you.

I think that about sums you up my sweet boy. And don't ever forget-as long as you're living, my baby you'll be!

Daddy and I love you to the moon and back!

Mommy

Walker is ONE, Gray is THREE-photo shoot

Lindsey took some pictures of Walker a couple weeks ago at her house. I am so pleased with how they turned out considering that Walker pitched a down right fit about wearing shoes so he was in a pretty foul mood the whole time. And when he was happy, the back drop wasn't what we had planned for. It is what it is y'all-life with yougins, that is. And it's so good for a type A, "I want everything to be perfect" personality. Not that I'm speaking from experience or anything. Of course I had outfit changes and poses that we never even thought about getting to and I am super bummed that we didn't get any good ones with both Gray and Walker, but there's always next time-right?!

I have a few family members not on social media who are anxious to see these so for the rest of you, sorry for another photo overload.

I got the outfit idea from Pinterest and The Littlest Gentleman on Etsy made the bow tie and suspenders (and another shout out to my blogger friend, Lindsay, for telling me about TLG on Etsy!!).

Fun fact: I had this exact same gap in my teeth when I was Walker's age until the rest of my baby teeth came in, and then I had very straight baby teeth. However, this gap also runs in Paul's dad's side of the family, so it could be there to stay until he gets braces one day. I think it gives Walker even more character and I just love it!

One of Walker's many mad faces.

Sweet, teary lashes.

Still mad guys.

This boy tore up his cake y'all!

There are only a few pictures of Gray because we have sooooo many more of him and I told Lindsey to focus mostly on Walker. Also, he was very busy playing with Lindsey's boys and it wasn't worth the battle of making him pose for too long. But I LOVE the few that she did get of our sweet three year old!

That face gets me every time!

Looking more like 13 than 3 here. Not cool buddy, not cool.

Not the perfect family shot for several reasons, but again it's a great picture of real life. And I am SO blessed to do life with these guys!

Five on Friday and Happy FIRST Birthday Walker!

1) May 29, 2014 was the day our sweet baby Walker came into the world. The day we had two sons. The day Gray became a big brother. The day our hearts became even more full. While a lot of days have been long and trying, especially in the first several months, I can't believe it's already been a year. I can't even remember what life was like before Walker came into our lives. He makes our family even more joy filled and we thank God every day for the gift of that precious boy. Gray and Walker have their three and one year well checks on June 8 and after that I will write a more detailed post about our boys and three and one. BUT, our boy did get his first trim yesterday. He was pretty close to rocking a mullet and I was getting my hair cut yesterday so I thought it was the right time for his first cut. I wish I had taken a before picture but things were a little crazy and I forgot.

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My gorgeous and talented friend, Meredith.

2) Although his birthday isn't for another week and a half, we already have a full blown threenager on our hands. Shooweee y'all! Gray has the sweetest heart in the world and for the most part he is such a good little boy but daaaaang he has made for some challenging days lately. We are pretty hard core disciplinarians; raising sweet, obedient, respectful and grateful children are extremely important to us, But at the same time we are very loving parents and try to choose our battles wisely. With that being said, I don't want to use "he's three" as an excuse for his behavior. But it's so hard. I know discipline is good for him and is one of the many responsibilities God gives us as parents but it doesn't make it easier. I'm so, so thankful the Lord has given me a wonderful, very hands-on and helpful husband to do this whole parenting gig with.

3) Our pictures could have gone a tad better on Sunday. Walker was in a great mood and was cheesing for the first few shots until I realized I didn't put his shoes on, which was pretty much my favorite part of his outfit. He hates shoes and pitched a down right tantrum off and on for 45 minutes after I put them on. We tried and tried to distract him and get smiles but instead all we got were screams and lots of tears. Thankfully Lindsey's dog came to the rescue and made for a happier Walker (our boy LOVES animals!!!). We still didn't get a ton of smiles or the back drop we were hoping for, but that's the way it goes sometimes. I had lots of ideas and another outfit we never got to but I think Lindsey worked her magic and was able to get enough good ones. I can't wait to see them!

4) One of my precious tutoring students got me a thank you gift of the sweetest card, a huge, super soft, beautiful beach towel and a Yeti thermos. Y'all, I had been wondering what the big deal with Yeti stuff was and now I know. My coffee stays hot for hours and until this week, I couldn't tell you the last time I finished a whole cup of coffee that wasn't cold. And I've heard they keep things cold and even frozen for days. I don't think I'll be running out to buy a $400 cooler but I consider myself a big Yeti fan even still. 

5) Even though it's a busy one, I am so looking forward to the weekend. We are going swimming and cooking out with some friends tomorrow and Paul and I are going on a date Sunday. In between that we've got a lot of party prepping and planning to do. I can't wait to celebrate both of our boys with our family and friends next weekend.

Hope y'all have a great weekend!

Five on Friday

It might be 10:30 at night, but this makes for two Friday posts in a row! ;)

1) Paul turned the big 3-5 on Tuesday. We celebrated with a quick, sushi dinner date night. Somehow it had been three months since we had been on a date. That may not seem like a long time to some of you but it is so important to date your spouse, especially to have time away if you have kids. So if you're a friend of mine that lives close by with no family in town, we will gladly babysit so you can have a date night! So once again, Happy Birthday to my best friend, best husband and best Daddy in the whole world! I know a lot of people who are thanking God for giving Paul Hicks to the world 35 years ago, especially me. After almost six years of marriage, I still can't believe God gave him to me. He just keeps getting better with age, y'all!

2) I am not wishing the time away by any means, but I am SO excited about some things coming up in late summer/early fall for Gray. Like his first "real" soccer team that Daddy will be coaching, hopefully also squeezing in t-ball and preschool for the first time (though right now that just makes me want to cry). Our big boy is growing up!

3) We are loving and enjoying our house so much! We have a lot more space and after coming from our small townhouse with a concrete slab for a back yard, we are just so thrilled to have a fenced in backyard. We have a little over half an acre, which is plenty big enough to play in without too much to take care of. Gray and Walker are both big fans of being outside and I have felt so thankful to have our own space to play in when we aren't out and about. We have tons of birds, a family of chipmunks and also some baby bunnies right now that just adds to the excitement of having outside loving boys. The older lady who lived here before us spent years and years and hours and hours landscaping the yard. Although there are a few outside projects we want to tackle one of these days, we have been blessed with a beautiful, mature yard that we haven't done anything to yet other than pull a few weeds.

4) Walker is taking lots of steps each day now. Some days I think he will be walking full time any minute and other days he seems content doing what he's doing. Either way, it's so cute watching him learn and he gets SOOO excited when he walks by himself. Somehow, some way that sweet babe is going to be ONE a week from today.

5) We are sticking around for Memorial Day weekend. My grandfather is in town from Seattle for the first time in two years so we are looking forward to spending time with him. We are also excited to have some down time in between birthday parties and a get together with friends. And I have to mention again how very excited I am for our photo session on Sunday! I'm hoping the boys cooperate. 

Have a good weekend y'all!

Five on Friday-it's been a while!

I don't lose sleep over it by any means, but I do wrestle with wishing I blogged more but then spending my very few free minutes doing something else. Time passes by so quickly and I know I will treasure having some of our memories documented to enjoy in the future. So maybe, just maybe, I'll manage to at least blog once a week about what we've been up to. 

1) Walker took his first steps this week! He's been cruising and walking behind push toys for a while now. He often stands with his back against the couch and while he was doing so yesterday, he just up and walked FIVE steps towards me while I was holding Sophie, our dog. He was somewhat cautious after that and I really think he just didn't give those first "real" steps very much thought. But he is standing without holding on to anything more often and for longer at a time and is taking a step or two here and there. Gray did that for over a month before he officially became a walker and our little guy doesn't seem to be in a hurry either. But it was still exciting and both Paul and I were home and got to experience it together which was so awesome. Another big milestone with Walker lately is that his other bottom teeth finally came in. They gave him a fit for so long, I was certain they were breaking through months ago. He now has four on top and four on the bottom. Gray had ALL but his two year molars by the time he was 14 months so if Walker follows in those footsteps we won't get much of a break in the teething department. 

2) I can't believe Walker will turn ONE in just two weeks and Gray will be THREE just a week and a half after that. The days are often long, but the months and years go by far too fast. We are having a combined birthday party for them at our house and I have a lot of planning left to do. We went all out for Gray's first birthday so we wanted to do the same for Walker. However, we decided at the last minute to ditch a theme and just go with bright and colorful. It took a lot of expense and planning away which we needed, but I think it's still going to be cute and fun. I think after this year we will have low key, mostly family parties but are inviting quite a bit of people this year. I'm just so thankful we have a house that can accommodate a birthday party! We plan to have it outside but will party in the basement if it rains. 

3) Speaking of upcoming birthdays, my best friend, Lindsey, is taking some pictures of the boys next weekend and I am so excited! We haven't had pictures since Walker was four months old and I am thrilled about having some updated ones around the house. I'll keep Walker's photo shoot outfit a surprise but let's just say it makes me squeal every time I look at it!

4) We have been SO busy lately. From showers to birthday parties to weddings to family reunions to church functions to soccer to tutoring, and the list goes on and on. I love to be out and about and on the go for a while, but then it really starts to get to me and I just want to be home with nothing on the calendar. We don't have one open, totally free weekend from now until the end of June and while it's all good and fun stuff, I hope I don't lose my mind in the meantime.

5) And maybe I've saved the best for last. I am so proud of my hub! Paul got selected to help coach an all-star soccer team this summer. It does add to the busy schedule quite a bit with several Sunday try outs that he has to travel to and then a few practices before the weekend long games in Raleigh that will be the end of June. BUT, it's a huge honor and something he is very excited about. Yesterday I opened the mail to find a letter from one of the senators congratulating him. Pardon the messy paper, a certain little person was "helping" me open mail before I realized what this was. 

We have a busy weekend ahead...big yard sale tomorrow (yay for clearing out our garage!!!), Greek Festival, celebration number one for Paul's birthday and Paul will be gone most of Sunday after church at one of the try outs. 

Hope y'all have a good one!

Walker-11 months

My sweet baby boy,

You, my son, are eleven months old today! Some of the days, especially your first several months of life, have been really long. But mostly, the weeks and months have flown by. You add so much joy and laughter to our family and I really just can't remember what life was like before you came into this world.

You wear size four diapers, size 12-18 month pajamas and size 12 month clothes. You have really chunked back up and I can't wait to see how much you weigh at your one year appointment.

Those meal 'ol teeth have given you a few rough days and nights and still have yet to break through the skin, meaning you are still holding out at six cute little teeth.

You are still eating like a champ and have yet to refuse one single food you've been offered. You drink 4-5 bottles a day, usually only 4 ounces at a time. Your reflux and swallowing dysfunction are barely noticeable anymore and we are in the process of weaning you from your medicine. Praise the Lord!!

You are a great sleeper. You go to bed around 7:00/7:30 and sleep until 7:00 ish. You take two naps a day and your afternoon nap is usually 2-2.5 hours long.

You still suck your thumb but pretty much only when you are sleeping. 

You are cruising around faster now and love walking behind a push toy and sometimes while holding our hands. You seem very content with your mobility and in no hurry to walk, but of course you could change your mind any day now. I'm afraid you are going to be quite a climber. You have recently started climbing on top of the fireplace which means our living room and basement aren't so baby-proofed anymore. You already push toys to a specific spot so you can try to stand on them to help you climb. You are going to keep us on our toes my busy boy, no doubt.

Your favorite things in life are: big brother Gray, Sophie, being outside, taking baths, music, cars, trucks, tractors and a puppy toy that you can push and do all kinds of things with. As soon as you hear music you stop what you are doing and that chubby little body of yours starts to bust a move. I can't get enough of it. You even try to dance in your car seat to the radio. We are still working on your love for books but you have become a tad more interested. Have I mentioned how much you love your big brother? You follow him around and it doesn't take much at all for him to make you cackle. And though he is anxious for you to start being disciplined, he is crazy about you too! ;)

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You strongly dislike having your diaper changed, getting your clothes on and being wiped down after meals. Other than very loudly protesting those events, you are still pretty laid back and flexible. 

You have started saying a few new words like "uh-oh" (sometimes sounds like "uh-oh" but usually "oh-oh"), Sophie (which sounds like "Sah-sah"), "brother" (you usually just make the "b" sound over and over). You also have consistent sounds and "words" for puppy (referring to your favorite toy right now), strawberry and bottle. You stare at our mouths constantly and I can just see your little brain trying to figure out this whole talking thing. 

I am trying so hard to soak up what's left of you being my baby because you are approaching toddler days faster than I want to admit. 

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I love you more today than I did yesterday but less than I will tomorrow. Life with you just keeps getting sweeter.

With my whole heart,

Mommy

Walker-10 months

Dear Walker man,

You are 10 months old! I can't believe in two short months we will be celebrating your first birthday.

You have had a great month. You have been pretty happy and are becoming more flexible and go-with-the-flow every day. Not that you have a choice, but you sacrifice a good, long morning nap several times a week so we can go to the Y, have play dates, go to church, etc. You like the car but we usually have to be in it for a while before you'll fall asleep.

You wear size three diapers, size two or three shoes and mostly size 12 month clothes.

You still have six teeth. I've been certain for months now that two more bottom ones were going to break through the skin any day now but they are still holding out. I'm so glad you've had a break in the teeth department.

You are such a good eater! At this point I can't even keep up with all the new foods you've tried. You still haven't refused one food that we have offered you. When you're eating table foods it looks as though we never feed you. Bless your heart, I think you are making up for how hard it was for you to drink milk for so long. Speaking of, liquids are still sometimes hard for you to handle. You are loving your sippy cup and have figured out how to use it but often get choked on the water. Dr. Bill said we might even have to thicken your water like we use to do with your milk. Mommy recently stopped nursing you for several reasons. But I am SO proud of you and of us for sticking to it for almost ten months! When I think back to you at just three weeks old and screaming every time I tried to nurse you, I am so thankful we made it as long as we did. You are taking about five bottles a day of formula and/or Mommy's frozen milk. You are getting better with a bottle but sometimes only take four ounces at a time.

You take two naps a day.

You love Daddy, your big brother, Sophie, being outside, music, eating, playing peek-a-boo, dogs, being tickled and taking baths. You also love playing with your tongue and sticking it out. Your personality is really starting to blossom and I think you might be just as silly as Gray with an equally strong will too.

You dislike diaper changes, getting out of the bath, having your face, hands and nose cleaned, when Mommy leaves the room, and you don't care for being read to (this HAS to change buddy!).

You have been pulling up for a while but have recently started cruising a little and standing with no hands for several seconds.

You are pure joy, my sweet boy and I'm just so thankful to be your Mama!

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