Letter to Alex: Month 13

Dear Alex,



Today you turn 13 months! I can't believe it's already been a month since your first birthday. You love playing with your toys from your birthday. You push all the buttons on your car and love when it rocks. Sometimes you stand up on the seat which scares me just a little bit! You and Jarom play in your room with your toys all the time. Sometimes you like to play with his toys in his room as well.

We switched you from formula to whole milk this month. You weren't a big fan at first. I had to mix some formula in with the milk a few times. But you won't drink your milk right out of the refrigerator. It has to be warmed up a little bit. I took you to the dentist because there was something weird going on with your top front teeth. He said you have an underbite and you're scraping off the enamel from your top teeth with your bottom teeth! That's probably why you don't like really cold things - your teeth are probably sensitive now. Once we got you switched over to regular milk we switched you to a sippy cup. It took a little while for you to get the hang of the new cup but now you're doing great. And you love pretty much all table food. We tried taking your binkie away after you bit through the last one but you were so cranky and would barely sleep for several days so we brought the binkie back for a little while. I stuck that binkie in your mouth and you went to sleep immediately!




This month you got to eat your first Thanksgiving dinner. You were less than two weeks old for Thanksgiving last year so you mostly just slept then. This time you got in on all the action! You loved nearly all the foods - except the mashed potatoes. I'm not sure what it is about mashed potatoes, maybe the consistency, but you do not like them at all. You had a great time playing with your cousins on Thanksgiving as well. We found a frizzy Jazz wig and put it on you. It was so funny.



You wanted to help decorate for Christmas too. I didn't put ornaments all the way to the bottom of the tree because I'm pretty sure one of these days you would try to yank them all off. So far you've been pretty good at staying away from the tree.




You got to play in your first snowfall this month. It snowed a ton and while I went out to shovel I bundled you and Jarom up and let you play in the snow. Mostly you just sat there, not really sure what was going on. You got some snow on your mitten and looked at it for awhile. Then Jarom pelted you in the face with some snow and you were done with that experience.



Your new favorite thing to do is play with my measuring cups and measuring spoons. I cannot find the stuff we used to baby-proof some of the cabinets so you can still get into the cabinets that have the measuring cups. Any time I'm in the kitchen working on dinner or whatever, you're in there playing with stuff and always underfoot. You've started walking a little bit more by yourself this month. You walk like you're a little bit drunk! And you love taking your socks off - especially in the car.



You are such a silly boy!




Love, Mommy

Letter to Jarom: Month 51

Dear Jarom,


Today you turn 51 months! It has been an interesting month. Sometimes you are so good and so sweet and other times you are a total monster! I'm never sure what's going to happen from minute to minute. I think part of the problem is that it's getting cold and the weather's been bad so we haven't been able to get outside much. It makes us all a little cranky.


You are still loving school! You come home with all kinds of crafts and goodies and tell me all about the things you've been learning. You made a countdown to Thanksgiving chain and it made you so excited for Thanksgiving to come! You also made an Indian vest and headdress and drum. You looked so cute!



One day you also dressed up in Daddy's native apparel because he was getting ready for another Arrow of Light ceremony. You always look so cute when you're playing dress-up.


We had a great Thanksgiving. Grandma and Grandpa Watts stayed at our house and we had dinner with daddy's family and mommy's family at Grandma and Grandpa Funk's house. You loved being with your cousins and aunts and uncles and you loved all the pies!



We got some pictures taken with Grandma and Grandpa Watts at FotoFly. It was a lot of fun and the pictures turned out great! They got some great shots of the grandparents and grandkids.




We have had a ton of snow this month and you beg and beg to go outside and play. You love making snow angels. We got you a new hat and mittens and you had to get the fingerless gloves that turn into mittens because daddy has some!





You are really good about playing with Alex. Often when I'm busy making dinner or doing housework you are taking care of Alex - playing in his room or yours. Alex got some new toys for his birthday and you like to play with them just as much as he does! His car speaks/sings in English and Spanish and you love singing along to the Spanish alphabet.




As aggravating as you can be, that makes the sweet times so much sweeter and we love you so much! You always make us laugh and are so much fun.


Love, Mommy

Letter to Alex: Month 12

Dear Alex,

Happy Birthday!!! Today you are one year old! I can't believe you have been with us for a whole year already. You have grown and changed so much. You are now 30 inches tall and weigh 20.5 lbs. You are crawling all over the place and will take about 4 steps by yourself although you generally only do it if we make you. You have 7 teeth and are getting pretty good at finger foods. However, I'm not looking forward to all the one year transition stuff - getting rid of the binkie, bottles, formula and getting you to drink real milk in a cup and eat a well balanced diet of table food. We'll get it all figured out though!

The day before your birthday you went to see Roger and get your first haircut! Matt says you look like Harry and Lloyd from Dumb and Dumber but you still look cute and it's so nice not to have all your hair hanging in your face. You did really well for Roger. You had a death grip on my finger for awhile, not really sure what was going on. Then you got more comfortable and you kept trying to turn your head to see what Roger was doing. Even so, your haircut turned out really well.

You had a great birthday. We had friends and family over for dinner and cake and ice cream. We got you a Finding Nemo cake and also a pounce cake since it was your first birthday! You weren't really sure what to do at first. And then you kept just getting frosting. So, we pulled some of the cake off for you and then you went to town! You were quite messy by the end. Then I threw you in the tub and rinsed off all the residual cake. You weren't so sure about the opening presents part and you could care less about all the clothes you got but you did like the toys and books. Mommy and Daddy got you a car to ride or push around and it plays songs and other things and you are loving that!

I had planned to make you a monkey cake for your birthday. I found the cutest monkey cake with a little monkey pounce cake just for you but when I tried putting it together it didn't quite look like a monkey. And I didn't like the cake that much so we went with the Nemo cake from Harmons. You did get to try that cake though and you seemed to like it - it was a good practice for your actual birthday.

Aunt Rachel did a photo session for you this past month for your birthday invitations and she got some super cute pictures even though you weren't very cooperative! We got a couple balloons for you to pose with and you had a great time with those. It's a good thing you're so cute and Aunt Rachel is such a good photographer. Your invitations were adorable!

This past month was your first Halloween! I made a goldfish costume for you that I found in a magazine. It was just an oversized orange hoodie with orange cupcake liners attached as the scales and a pingpong ball cut in half and sharpied for the eyes. You looked adorable! You couldn't get around in it very well so I don't think you were a big fan. We took you and Jarom trick-or-treating but it was super rainy so you just sat in your stroller and let the rest of us do all the work!

You love playing with Jarom and Jarom's toys. You love when daddy throws you up in the air. You're a little bit of a daredevil! You love bouncing on the bed. You say "uh huh" when we ask you questions and it's so cute! You love sticking your tongue out, especially when I'm trying to feed you. You love climbing the stairs but have a hard time figuring out how to go down the stairs feet first. You keep trying to go down head first and it freaks me out. You'll figure it out. And you do not like wearing socks. Any time we go somewhere, by the time I pull you out of the car you have your socks off and sometimes they're in your mouth!

You are so much fun and bring so much joy to our family. I can't wait for the next year and all the years after.

Love, Mommy