Letter to Jarom: Month 44

Dear Jarom,

Today you turn 44 months old! You are really into super heroes lately. Pretty much every day you decide to be a different one so I can't keep them all straight. Spiderman, Batman, Iron Man, you like them all. The other day, for toddler time at the library, the theme was super heroes and you loved it! You listened to all the super hero books and then you got to decorate the cape they gave you. You've been wearing that cape every day since.

This past month we celebrated Easter and you had a great time. You loved hunting for all the Easter eggs and you love all the Easter candy. You also got a bunch of Play-doh which you love. We got you an R2-D2 Play-doh kit and Grandma and Grandpa Funk got you a movie popcorn Play-doh kit and you have so much fun with them. I wanted to teach you about the real meaning of Easter, that it's not about bunnies and eggs and candy but that it's about the Savior and because he was resurrected all of us will live again too. And you really latched on to that concept. You understand that we'll all live again after we die.

You love all make-believe play. You love to pretend we're at a restaurant and sometimes you'll make food for us. You'll say, "What you want? We got hangerburgers, french fries, soup, pizza..." And then you'll bring us the food. Sometimes you want one of us to be the "took guy" (cook guy) and be the one to make the food. You love to tell funny stories - any time somebody's telling a story you need to tell one of your stories too.

You've done a little work on getting potty trained. You filled up one chart with stickers so you got to have a little party. We got you a giant cupcake that had Scooby Doo on it for a "potty party." Hopefully you'll continue to put stickers on your charts and get potty trained.

You've become really interested in color and how mixing colors creates different colors so we've been doing a little painting and color mixing. Also, it's been warm enough that we've been able to go to the park a few times this month. You love the park - any park - and you always make friends with any of the kids that are there. You are very friendly and outgoing and I love that about you.

Love, Mommy

Letter to Alex: Month 5

Dear Alex,

Today you turn 5 months old! You are changing so much. This month you got to start baby food! You started with rice cereal and I'm not really sure what you think about it. You eat it but whenever I put it in your mouth you get this weird look on your face like you don't really like it. But you eat it anyways. Maybe it's just a weird texture to get used to. A few weeks after we started you on cereal we started vegetables. You love those! So far you've tried carrots, squash, green beans and peas. And you've liked each one. Jarom didn't like peas at first but you have liked all of them. In a couple weeks we'll try fruits!

You get really excited when I put you in your high chair. It's like Pavlov. You know what's coming when you get in your high chair and I put your bib on you and set up the tray. Your little legs start flailing and you get a huge grin on your face! You are such a smiley baby. I call you Mr Smiley Face because you are rarely upset and you always have a smile.

You've sort of started laughing. It's not like a real belly laugh but it really does sound like you're laughing. You love it when we tickle you or put your feet up to your face. For such a chubby boy you are surprisingly flexible. Just the last week you've started rolling over from your back to your belly. You like it for a few minutes and then freak out because for some reason you can't roll from your belly to your back anymore very often. You'll get it. You still know how to get around though! You kick your legs and wiggle around until you are somewhere totally different from where you started out. Sometimes you freak out in the morning because you've managed to get completely out of your burrito wrappings. You are such a squirmy worm!

This month you celebrated your first Easter. Not that you noticed. Next year will be more exciting I'm sure. You did get a toy though. It's a fish with a mirror in it that also has little toys attached to it. It can go on the crib or be a tummy time toy. You love to look at yourself in the mirror - even though you don't know it's you yet. You also love to bounce. When we stand you up in our laps you could just bounce and bounce all day. It's quite the workout for all of us! And you're finally long enough to start bouncing in your exersaucer! You really like to play with all the toys on that too.

You are growing so much and you make such a wonderful addition to our family.

Love, Mommy