One Year Wils

My dear sweet handsome Wils,

Today marks an incredible 365 of knowing your sweet little face, your contagious grin, your soft little fingers, and your mischievous curiosity.

A year ago I walked into the hospital and 20 minutes later you were tucked inside my arms. I blinked and you were here. Today I woke up to my toddler wrapped inside my arms. I blinked and you are growing up.

You're such a happy, laid back, gentle little man. You go with the flow, you smile at everyone, you know no strangers, and you eat anything you can fit in your mouth.

The baby clothes have been packed away and your dresser is full of 18-24 month grown up shirts and pants. Baby toys are hardly touched as you chase after your brothers' cars, jets, soldier guys, and swords. 

You've decided to hold out on walking, but I'm pretty positive this is intentional since you smirk as you collapse to the ground. I wouldn't be surprised if you just stood up and ran to tackle a brother any day.

And while you are easy going, you aren't a pushover and you'll vocalize any disagreements you have with the current chain of events. We are currently working on not throwing food off your plate when you are finished eating, not growling at Mommy when you aren't a fan of my saying, "no", and not head diving off the stairs.

We've found you eating grass, playing in toilets, hiding in cabinets, raiding the fridge, rearranging closets, and dialing phones. We've got our hearts full, our love captured, and memories rich. We are so proud of the man you are growing into! Happy one year birthday Wilson Tyler! Grow in wisdom, stature, and favor, with God and man.

DC Road Rules...Second Edition

Now that we've fought for vehicular survival on the DC roadways for a year now, it's time to publish the second annual, DC Road Rules:

Right-Of-Way: Belongs to whoever has the best insurance, the biggest vehicle, the worst temper, or a death wish.

Lanes: These are the HHS mandate of Capitol Hill roadways...If you like your lane, you can keep it regardless of merging, light signals, or blinkers. If it was northbound this morning, it will be southbound by noon without the consent of the people. If you've never been able to make lanes work for you, just take one from someone else.

Pedestrians: Mainly 2 different types of pedestrians...

 1.Staffers -dressed in business attire and tennis shoes, will take their chances to cross even if the crosswalk isn't lit since their errand is way more important than the oncoming wall of traffic.

2. Tourists- Very dangerous, exercise extreme caution due to tour maps blocking their line of vision, their lack of clearing crosswalks by light change due to excessive weight bought on by backpacks, souvenirs, cameras, water bottles, ponchos, and pushcarts, and their flighty unpredictable actions around national monuments may cause them to randomly stop for photo opportunities.

No Turn On Red: Look both ways, or don't, and turn.

Car Horn: Remember to keep randomly using this. I still can't determine the rhyme or reason, but you're not in the "cool" group if you aren't honking.

Yield Signs: A vintage decorative throwback to simpler times of horse and buggy transportation. One day they'll update the roadside decor with more modern signs of, "You Snooze, You Loose".

Parking: Allow a 5 1/2 hour minimum in your schedule to achieve this.

Turn signals: Pretty sure this is a ticketed offense. Everyone seems pretty hesitant to use it so play it safe and use road rage.

Rosetta Stone Can't Teach Jeffrun-ese

Harrison started talking early and a lot. Right off he was speaking full sentences with unabridged stories and he hasn't stopped since.

Jefferson had no need to talk with a built-in brother translator and communicator. He took his own time to speak his mind and still seems content with letting Harrison continue being the family spokesperson.

Wils' first words have been more sounds since he's surrounded with big brothers who could win an Oscar for their sound mixing skills. So he's currently fluent in guttural male territorial growls, war cries, and car engines.

But my J-Man wins all the points for creativity and uniqueness. Quite pleased with speaking his own language, a mix of Minion and Yoda, he keeps us guessing, laughing, and in a state of "huh?"

I'm not fooled for a moment though. Behind those eyes that disappear with his smile he knows he's master of his word game. Besides, all I have to do is mention baseball and the conversation takes off with discussion of pitching and home plate...sans the minionese ;)

Spider Man (For Real)

Just follow this chain of events. Due to the graphic nature of this content, parental discretion should have been better advised...

1. Crazy hectic morning; making coffee, packing lunches, cooking breakfasts, starting laundry, two boys wrestling, and one attached like a leech to my ankles certain I will make him starve before I feed him breakfast.

2. Out of the corner of my eye a large spider runs across the floor and so I do what every brave house wife does in that circumstance; grab the nearest cup, cover it, and leave it for Matt to deal with....except I forgot.

3. Hours later the forgotten spider and the forgotten cup were left forgotten in the dining room corner as we all talked in the living room. Wils was crawling the loop around the house when he suddenly became very quiet and never emerged from the dining room...

4. The cup was overturned, empty, and tossed away...no spider...and Wils was happily chewing complete with "mmmm" sounds. Matt began frantically digging out pieces of arachnid from our child's gum line. Certain his tongue would swell or he'd break out in spots, his only complaint was being denied his wriggly protein.

5. Once relief set in, gagging took over; on our part, not his. Gross, eww, and gross were the only sensible words we could speak for the next half hour. In the future I will be dealing with 8 legged home invaders immediately by calling a big brother to dispose of it, saving it from a later certain death of consumption by our own Spider Man.

Udvar-Hazy

I'm spontaneous and completely free-spirited.

I married a steady, constant rock...also, he is completely not spontaneous.

And this match is perfectly perfect or else we'd be hitchhiking to Cancun with 3 kids next weekend for the fun of it.

He's the tether God designed just for me to make sure I don't get blown out to sea due to my feet-off-the-ground mentality.

But Matt's really good at recognizing when I get an itch for a last minute thrill and bending a bit in the flexibility department.

Plus he knows that if my need for adventure isn't met I'll find some project to begin that I am in no way qualified to attempt...

...for example, recent attempts have included axle boot replacement and bathroom remodeling.

So when I woke up last weekend with a wild idea to go somewhere last minute for the fun of it, Matt graciously agreed in fear of otherwise backpacking the Appalachian Trail later.

Of course with 3 little guys it's not exactly just jumping in the car and going, but nothing fruit snacks and extra diapers held up too much as we headed for Udvar-Hazy.

It's an Air and Space playground and since Harrison's birthday was all things 'fighter jet' it happened to also meet his adventure need.

Wils was thoroughly unimpressed but we'll keep trying. If he's anything like his big brothers a place like this will be his dreamland one day...

I mean, what can I say? Jets just do something to these boys...I have no words.

Our spontaneous adventure was filled with space shuttles, rockets, bombers, and observation towers...not too bad for a last minute, rainy day thrill.

But it's been over a week since our day of last minute and the warmer weather is starting to pull at my adventure heartstrings.

Thankfully, God gave me three adventure loving boys, so we've got 5 miles of hiking, 3 lakes, and 3 playgrounds under our belts so far this week...oh the adventures ahead :)

Party Like We're Five

I'm addicted to celebrating, so around here we totally give in to my inner party animal. For example, what good are birthdays if they aren't covered in partiness?

Harrison's been putting up with enjoying my celebratory craziness for five years now, so he wasn't too shocked to wake up to his room filled with gold and camo balloons (keeping with his fighter jet themed party).

And the gold streamers blocking his entire bedroom door didn't really phase this seasoned child of a party-mad woman. But walking down the stairs to parents surprise attacking him with silly string got to him a bit...in a good way...I think?

And for the most part these guys soak up their birthdays as we look for every little opportunity to celebrate them. Harrison picked "those eggs in bread that pop with gold in them" (hole-in-one eggs), and sausage for breakfast.

Then we went to the "chip place" (Chipotle) for lunch. Then a quick stop in a grocery store gave us all a surprise when an employee named Eddie gifted Harrison a large tray of strawberries. When we returned to say thank you one more time he was completely gone...I hear angels like to celebrate too :)

We played Wii, read favorite books, and for dinner Harrison requested 'fire and knife' place. The kid was so partied out he fell asleep on the way home and I got to cradle my sleeping birthday boy and try to find some trace in his sleeping face of the tiny infant that was placed in my arms five years ago that night.

But even with jet fighter birthday parties, leagues of grandparents, aunts, and uncles with insane talents of spoiling and gift picking, sugar highs and sugar crashes, lack of sleep, brothers attacking new gifts, losing and finding new toy pieces, paper decorations, wishing his voice would change to a man voice now that he's five, and growing over an inch since Christmas...

He's also learning in his own way to celebrate and keep the party going. I thought I was the one planning the surprises for his big day, yet all on his own he bought me flowers for being his "beautiful amazing Mommy" and then curled up in my lap. "Mommy, I'm a little sad that one day I'll be too big for you to hold. But when that day happens, it will be ok, because then I'll be big enough to hold you." And with those words, he gave me the best gift given the entire day :)

Birthday Interview: 5 Year Edition

Me: Ok Harrison, ready for your birthday interview? 

Harrison: Yep! Well, maybe...I might be kinda not sure or laugh you off your feet. 

Me: Oh boy...here we go.

What's your favorite color: Gold

What's your favorite thing to play? LEGO's

What's your favorite movie? Spy Kids (we don't own this, crazy kid)

What's your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Salty noodles (that would be adding salt to the boiling water for pasta.)

What's your favorite thing to wear: Nothing (I have no words...and he's laughing hysterically.)

What's your favorite game? Wii

What's your favorite snack? Cheezies (Cheeze-Itz)

What's your favorite song? Angel Armies

What's your favorite book? Dr. Suess books

Who's your best friend? Jaden

What's your favorite thing to do outside? Football, and mud, ride my bike, and bobsledding. (What?!)

What's your favorite holiday? Summertime, summertime, summertime, and my birthday!

What's your favorite thing to sleep with? Airplane

What's your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? *insert potty humor word*-sausage

What's your birthday dinner? Fire and knife place

What do you want to be when you grow up? A jet fighter pilot and I'll drive a motorcycle when I'm not flying.

What's your favorite tv show? Octonauts

What's your favorite fruit? Apples, no, no wait, oranges, not apples, I think.

What's your favorite animal? None, ok maybe dogs.

What's your favorite thing to drink? Lemonade

What's your favorite special treat? Suckers with gum in them.

What's your favorite Bible verse? Leviticus 26:6 and Matthew 7:12

Harrison: Ok Mommy, can we be done questioning?

Me: Sure baby...

Harrison: Did I laugh you up? I did some funny!