Christmas Eve

It’s snowing!  What an unusual and happy occasion for us Texans – to not only have snow, but on Christmas Eve of all days!  We took Huston outside for a few seconds so he could play in it.  Of course he refused to wear a hat (and he doesn’t have gloves at the moment), but he squealed with delight and enjoyed his few moments outside.

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Catching Up – Arden at 1 month, Huston at 28 months

Arden turned a month old on December 15th.  She weighed 8 pounds, 4 ounces at birth, 9 pounds 5 ounces at 2 weeks, and 10 pounds 6 ounces at a month.  She was in the 90th percentile for weight at a month and the 95th percentile for height (at 22 and a half inches).  She has gorgeous eyes that are still a beautiful shade of blue.  It seems likely that they’ll turn brown, but they haven’t changed yet.

Though it’s difficult to pinpoint when her first smile was (since she smiled in her sleep and gave little glimpses of smiles from time to time), I’m going to go ahead and say it was on December 2nd.  She smiled at her daddy and at me at different times that day, and it was clear she was smiling right at us.  Since then, she’s been smiling more and more.  Her favorite place to be is on her changing table – she always gives the biggest smiles there.  She also likes when her daddy moves her legs fast like she’s bicycling.  It usually elicits a big smile from her, or at least a very happy look on her face.

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Her first two weeks, Arden woke up about every three hours at night and would frequently be wide awake for an hour or two at a time in the middle of the night.  At about three weeks she settled into waking up about twice during the night – usually around 1 or 2 am and again around 4 or 5.  On December 16th she only woke up once, and the very next night she slept an 8 hour stretch, only waking once at 4 am.  Since then she’s reverted to waking up twice a night, but she seems to have gotten her days and nights straightened out and no longer stays awake for long stretches at night.

Huston continues to be an amazing big brother.  If he comes into the room and doesn’t see Arden, he’ll yell “Arden!” until I tell him where she is.  He frequently leans over to give her hugs and says “Are you okay, Baby Arden?” when she cries.  He insisted upon helping give Arden her first bottle and did such a good job!

Huston’s favorite toys of the moment are two of Clarke’s empty deodorants, his collection of three clocks, three screwdrivers (which have been popular since helping Daddy assemble his bookshelves), the lights on Arden’s swing and bouncy seat, and of course, his Bear Bear, who continues to be his very best friend.  He likes to put his two deodorants on the floor close together and then spread them apart and say “open them – just like a door!” and then walk through the opening and say “go through them – just like a door!”  If one of his screwdrivers or clocks or deodorants is missing, he’ll yell “Blue deodorant!” or “Big clock!” because it’s impossible to play with his toys unless his collection is complete.  He’s getting better about looking for his toys by himself, and it’s pretty funny to watch him search for them.

Huston loves playing the “no” game, where he intentionally says something he knows is wrong, like “Arden starts with ‘Q’” and then says “nooooooooo, Arden starts with A.”  He’s terrified of the “Happy Birthday” song and will recoil at the mention of it and scream through the entire thing if anyone dares sing it around him.  However, he’ll sing it over and over to himself when he’s alone in his bedroom falling asleep.

He is incredibly verbal this days and keeps up a constant stream of chatter.  We just love how he talks, constantly mixing up his pronouns and saying “you helped me” when he means “I helped you” or “you fall down” when he means “I fell down.”  He likes to says “Are you all done” when he’s finished eating and “Are you so hungry for food” when he wants to eat.  He also stretches out the last word of every sentence, creating an adorable style of speaking all his own.

He likes to sing the ABC song and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.  He likes watching the “ooh whoo Back show” as he calls the “Dick Van Dyke Show” and knows almost all of his numbers from 1 to 25.  He is unbelievably obedient and sweet, with only the occasional flashes of temper and resistance common to two year olds – usually when he’s overly tired.  More and more, he’s enjoying playing with his friends and just screams and laughs at everything they do.  Most recently he got to play with his buddy Enoch on our trip to Arkansas with friends, and with his friends Logan and Hailey when they came to visit.

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We feel so blessed to have these two precious, healthy, beautiful children.  Thank you, Lord.

James 1:17 “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights.”

2 weeks

Here's a picture of Arden at 2 weeks. (Thanks, Truitt! You're an awesome photographer and father-in-law!)

Things are going well with us for the most part, except for sleeping. Arden continues to think that night time means playtime. Last night she was up from 3 to 5 am, just as wide awake as can be. Huston has been the sweetest big brother so far. He laughs at Arden, talks to her, and asks about her. He cracked me up yesterday with one of his comments. Lately he's been really into telling his "Bear Bear" no to things. He'll say "No, no Bear Bear get in shower" or "No, no Bear Bear go outside." He was doing that yesterday and came into the living room where I was feeding Arden. He held his Bear Bear up to her and said

"No, no Bear Bear eat it Baby Arden."

I don't know where that came from, but at least he's telling Bear Bear "no," and not "yes!"

Big Brother

Huston has been adapting so well to his role as big brother. He hasn't shown any real signs of jealousy so far and has pretty much just gone with the flow and adapted to Arden's presence in our house. He likes to give us little status updates on her, like "Baby Arden open her eyes!" and "Baby Arden move her feet!" Several times when she's sneezed, he has said "Bless you, Baby Arden" and he frequently peeks over her bassinet and says "Hello, Baby Arden" or reports to us "Baby Arden sleeping her white bed!"
He likes to operate the lights and sounds on her bouncy seat for her and seems to consider this his job any time she's in the bouncer.


Yesterday he made me laugh out loud because he grabbed his "Bear Bear," patted the round part of his belly, and randomly announced to me "Bear Bear have Baby Arden in belly, too!" He was pretty excited to make this connection between mommy's round belly and Bear Bear's round belly. Today when Arden was in her bouncy seat with Huston operating the lights, he yelled in amazement "Baby Arden have fingers, too!" This was quite a revelation, apparently. Maybe because she's always swaddled or in blankets?

I can't wait to see how their little brother/sister relationship develops as they grow older.

The Birth Story

For those interested (and why wouldn’t you be?!), here is the story of Arden’s birth.  Don’t worry – I’ll spare you the gory details and just hit the highlights!

I woke up at 5:30 on Sunday morning with a mild contraction.  Several minutes passed before I felt another mild one, and I briefly considered going back to sleep because it was so early, but thought I should go ahead and start getting ready because I was already 6 days past my due date and knew this was probably the real thing.  I woke Clarke up and told him I thought I was in labor and that I was going to take a shower, and he mumbled, “Oh really?  Okay,” and then went back to sleep.  In the shower I had a few more contractions, but they weren’t terribly strong or close together.  By the time I started fixing my hair and getting my bag together, they were getting stronger and closer together, so I woke Clarke up and told him to start getting ready and to call his mom.  It was shortly after 6 o’clock at this point – maybe 6:15.  As I was packing my bag and getting ready, my contractions were getting stronger and stronger, and much closer together.  By the time Clarke’s mom got to our house around 6:50, I barely had time to catch my breath in between them.  I remember thinking that either labor was much more painful and difficult than I had allowed myself to remember, or I was much closer to delivering than I would have ever expected by that point.

Clarke finished his shower around 7 and I got a wave of nausea about that time that sent me running to the bathroom to be sick.  (Okay, sorry – that’s one gory detail).  We were in the car at 7:10, driving to the hospital which is only about 4 minutes from our house.  I was so grateful that we didn’t live far because by this point I was beginning to feel the need to push, but still trying to tell myself that I couldn’t possibly need to push yet because I hadn’t been in labor long enough.

We parked on the wrong side of the hospital and I got in a wheelchair and let Clarke push me up to labor and delivery because there was no way I was going to make it walking.  We got up to the nurses station and when I told them that I was feeling the urge to push, they all burst into action.  They got me in a gown and into a room and one of the nurses confirmed that I was fully dilated.  (She actually said something else, but writing it would make two gory details and I don’t want to push my luck.)

They kept telling me not to push yet, which was the last thing I wanted to hear.  I heard one of them say to call the doctor and I asked “Is she still at home?” and they said that yes, she was probably at home.  I knew she would never make it in time if she wasn’t already at the hospital.  Praise the Lord that she was!  It seemed like a few seconds later that Dr. Deem was coming in – I think she had just gotten into her office when they called her.  I had never met her before, but she was so incredibly kind (as were all of the nurses) that I instantly felt better.  While she got ready, they told me not to push a few more times and I thought I would die.  Then she broke my water, I pushed through four contractions, during which I could hear Clarke saying “oh my gosh…oh my gosh…oh my gosh” and Arden was born at 7:44 – a mere two hours after my first contraction and hardly more than 3o minutes after we left our house. 

I got to hold her as soon as she was born, which I didn’t get to do with Huston, and Clarke got to cut the umbilical cord.  She scored a 9 and 10 on her Apgar test – a “9” one minute after birth and a “10” 5 minutes after birth, which apparently is very uncommon.  The nurse at the pediatrician’s office said she’s only seen 3 “10’s” in her seven years of working there.  She weighed 8 pounds 4 ounces – exactly the same as Huston – thus confirming my suspicion that she was waiting to be born until she had caught or surpassed him in weight.  She seemed so calm as they cleaned her up and weighed her and she had her eyes open almost immediately, just looking around without crying, surveying this new world she had entered.

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We had lots of friends and family come visit us the first day and Huston got to come up to the hospital, too.  He was more interested in pushing the elevator buttons in the hallway than he was in inspecting his new baby sister, but he must have been observing more than we knew because Clarke’s mom told me that later in the day he said, unprompted, “Baby Arden say ‘aaaah’” while flailing his arms around, imitating her crying noise.  He really enjoyed pushing the buttons on my hospital bed when he came up for the second time later in the evening, and drinking from the big straw in my cup. 

There’s lots more I could write about our first week home with Arden, but it’ll have to wait until later.  Stay tuned!

Arden Ruth

The UPS Man

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I couldn’t decide on a Halloween costume for Huston this year, but given his love of doors and doorbells, I could think of nothing more appropriate than a UPS man.  We stayed home and passed out candy this year, and Huston got really excited to hear the door ring and see the kids.  He especially liked helping put the candy in the kids’ bags.  In the pictures above, you can also see him helping himself to some candy and putting it in his own “munkin.”

His costume came with an adorable hat, which he, of course, despised and refused to wear.  Here are some pictures of him hating his UPS man hat this year, along with some of him hating his Yoda ears from last year.  We’ve got to get this kid a costume that doesn’t involve anything on the head!

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I tried to let his pumpkin wear the hat, but it only lasted long enough for me to take this picture.  Apparently, it’s really not okay for anybody to wear hats.

Big Boy Bed

I'm a little behind in posting this, but Huston has made the transition to his big boy bed! It went sooo much smoother than I anticipated, and he's loving his new room and bed. He slept in it for the first time on October 15th and went to bed just fine, but woke up screaming in the middle of the night. I think he was just confused and disoriented because that was the only time he has had any issue at night. The next day we tried nap for the first time and it was not successful. He ran out of the room several times and kept opening and closing the door. It was pretty hilarious, though, because he would always run back in his room and shut the door when he heard me coming to investigate. We finally had a successful nap on probably the third day of trying, and it's been great ever since. Although sometimes I do have to go in his room to remind him that he's supposed to be sleeping, because I'll hear him talking and discover that he's gotten about twenty books out and they're all spread across his bed.
Almost every morning when he wakes up and I walk in his room to get him, he says "all done seep-sing (sleeping) big boy bed." He always refers to it as his "big boy bed" - I guess because that's what I always call it.

Some randomness:

Huston has been really interested in his little storybook Bible lately. He asks to read his "Bible book" and last night he wanted to do it "all by self" (as has been his frequent request lately). I asked him to read it to me and he said "Jesus God's son, Noah build it big boat, Noah get two." I'm assuming the last part meant two of every animal. Pretty adorable.

"Elmo's World" has been replaced by "Barney" as Huston's favorite TV show. He especially loves the "Wild West Adventure" episode, which he refers to as "Barney clock in it" because there's a clock that rings at the end of the episode when it's time for the "showdown." (He is extremely obsessed with clocks). He almost always asks to watch this episode as soon as he wakes up.

He loves for me to sing the Barney song before he goes to sleep, and also likes to sing it himself. His version goes "I wuv you...fweet wuv me...we happy family...wuv me too." The other night I had asked him to say hi to baby Arden in my belly, which he did, and then he later came back and rubbed my belly and sang baby Arden the Barney song.

Huston has also discovered "The Dick Van Dyke Show" - a Rogers' family staple. He loves the theme song and gets really into the physical comedy and the dancing and singing on it.

Who built the ark?

In my last post I wrote about how much fun Huston had helping Clarke build the bookcases for his new room. He still asks to play with the screwdrivers every single day. Well, he went to "nursery" today while I had my women's Bible study and for the first 5 weeks they were learning that God made the animals. He was so cute when I would ask "Who made birds?" and he'd say "God... teet teet teets" (for some reason he still makes a tweeting sound instead of saying bird). Today he came home with new papers saying that they're going to be learning about Noah, and he had a little picture with scraps of paper glued to Noah's boat. I was talking to him about it and asking questions, and finally I asked "What did Noah build, Huston?" My sweet boy replied "Noah.... build.... bookcases!" I guess we'll be reading that Bible story over the next few weeks...

Cutting with screwdrivers

We're still working on getting Huston's big boy room ready for him, and last week Clarke put together two bookcases I bought at Target for toy storage. Huston had the greatest time "helping" his daddy make them.


He quickly took charge of all three screwdrivers and told us he was "cutting." He has a book called Daddy and Me where the daddy uses a saw to cut wood, so we think he has just generalized that all tools are for cutting. Every day since Clarke put those bookcases together, Huston has asked for his tools. He insists upon having all three screwdrivers at one time - the red one, the blue one, and the yellow one. I'm terrified he's going to poke his eye out so I watch him carefully, but it's pretty adorable to see him work.

On a super sweet note, when I was putting Huston to bed Saturday night, he asked me for a kiss for the first time. I had already kissed him multiple times, but as I was laying him down he said "other one kiss, mommy." It was so sweet! Then he said it two more times, so of course I covered him with kisses. *sigh* He is so adorable. I can't believe I'm going to get another beautiful baby to love in just a few short weeks. More on that later...

Showered!

Just a quick post to share some pictures from a shower that my sweet friends, Ashlee and Abby, threw for me to celebrate the upcoming arrival of our baby girl.  The shower had a “nest” theme because we’re adding to our nest.  Isn’t that darling?  I loved the adorable bird and nest decorations!

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Incidentally, we’ve decided on a name and we’ve also decided to go ahead and share it now, so for those of you who don’t know, our baby girl will be named Arden Ruth.  Ruth was my maternal grandmother’s name and I wanted to honor her sweet memory.  Arden was Clarke’s idea, and though I liked it from the beginning, it took me awhile to decide that it was the perfect name.  We like original names and Arden isn’t even in the top thousand of most common names, which we loved.

I felt beyond blessed to be surrounded by great friends and wonderful family and to receive so many beautiful (pink!) gifts for Arden.  My heart goes pitter-patter every time I look at the tiny clothes or blankets or decorations intended for her.  I can hardly believe that my due date is only 5 weeks away! 

Recent Favorites

It’s been awhile since I’ve done a post on Huston’s favorite things and recent developments.  I watch him grow and change every day and try to treasure every little thing, but of course I know I will forget most of them.  So here are a few things I’d like to remember about Huston at 2 years and a month!

Huston has been really into reading books lately.  He will ask me to read the same one over and over again, and as bored as I can get doing that, I must admit that I love to have him snuggled up in the chair with me.  He’s been so into his books that he’ll even go into his room by himself and “read” alone sometimes.  It’s so cute to listen to him!  Just this week, two of his favorite books have been “Baby Mickey’s Nap” and “The Going to Bed Book” (which he calls “rock, rock, sleep” because the animals rock to sleep at the end). 

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He still loves opening doors (I’m wondering if this love with ever fade) and ringing the doorbell.  He loves watching Elmo, eating gummy fruit snacks (“gummies”), and jumping with both feet (a skill which he suddenly developed on September 2nd after watching an older boy at Gymboree jumping with both feet and trying to imitate him).  He loves playing with balls and currently has 5 balls made out of clay that his Mimi gave him that he likes to throw around.  He also likes to instruct his daddy to throw them “high off the wall,” “up high,” “on the chairs,” and to “hit the fan” with them.  He always wants to know where all five balls are and at any minute of the day can suddenly yell “BLUE ONE!” or “WHITE ONE!” which means we must immediately search the house until the missing ball is located.

Here are a few pictures of his new red ball (a present from our friends, Ryan and Abby).  He loves this ball and, while he’s quite good at sharing most of the time, does not like for other people to touch it without permission.  The first day he had it, he insisted on holding it in his lap the entire way to the airport to pick up Clarke and the entire way home.  All I could see in the rearview mirror was a giant red ball with a tuft of hair on top!

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Huston is talking so much these days that it’s hard for me to keep up.  He’s stringing together 5 and 6 words at a time and picking up new words constantly.  A few funny words that he still says are “yaya” for later, “day day” for another day, “teet teet teet” for birds, “fah-see” for sorry, and “eee up” for look up and wake up.  He also likes to add the word “one” after colors words.  Like he’ll say “white one car” or “yellow one ball.”  He loves to play with our deodorant, for some reason, and can frequently be heard saying “daddy’s blue one be-de-bent” (the deodorant Clarke uses) and “Huston’s green one be-de-bent” (the one he’s allowed to play with).

He has hated taking a bath recently and is deathly afraid of having water poured on his hair to rinse out his shampoo.  We’re still working through that.  He’s also not gotten used to going to the nursery since my bible study has started again, but I’m hoping he’ll get over that soon.  He hates singing happy birthday or even hearing the words “happy birthday” and ever since Clarke’s birthday party has been saying “all done singing Mimi’s house” because, apparently, hearing us all sing happy birthday to Clarke was quite traumatic.

I am very, very afraid that Huston’s days of napping are coming to an end soon.  Yesterday and today he refused to take a nap and he has consistently been going a day or two a week without a nap for several weeks now.  Add to that the fact that both Clarke and his mom gave up napping at age 2, and I don’t know that I have a chance.  Today I tried twice to put him down, and both times (when it was obvious he wasn’t going to sleep), I went back in to get him and said something like “hey – why aren’t you taking a nap?”  The rest of the day he kept saying to me: “Heeeey – ni-night time?” (in a voice meant to imitate me) followed by “Me” and then giddy laughter.  It’s as if he was repeating what I said to him and then saying that he laughed when I said it because it was so hilarious.  He is a definite crack-up.

More Birthday Pictures

Here are some more pictures from Huston's birthday (courtesy of the family photographer - my wonderful father-in-law). I was playing around with a new way to display pictures - I'll have to look at it more when I have more time...it seems like fun.

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Birthday Boy

We've had a busy and eventful week since we got back from vacation. Huston turned 2 on Friday and also decided to give up his pacifier that same day! Believe me, I was not planning on taking his beloved pacifier away on his birthday, but it all just sort of fell into place. He wasn't falling asleep for his nap that afternoon, so I went in to get him back up and he was swiping at his tongue and making a disgusted face while he held his pacifier. I asked him if his pacifiers tasted yucky and he said "yes," (not surprising since they were incredibly old and dirty) so I asked if he wanted to throw them away in the trash can and he said "yes" again. I put both the blue and the white pacifiers in a plastic bag first (just in case we needed to retrieve them later) and he threw them away. Nap time later that day and on Saturday didn't go so well. He basically cried for over an hour each day and only slept for 30 minutes when he finally did fall asleep. He never asked for his pacifier, though. He just cried "mommy" over and over. He didn't have any trouble going to sleep at bedtime without them. Sunday we were with friends in Dallas and he didn't take a nap, and then yesterday, he only cried a tiny bit on and off for 15 minutes or so, and then took a good 2 hour nap. Hallelujah!! As I write this, he is again taking a good nap after only a few minutes of crying. I was really dreading taking away his pacifiers and was thinking I was going to buy a balloon and we'd tie them to the balloon and send them away in the sky, or something dramatic like that, but it turns out that wasn't necessary. I am so thankful that it wasn't nearly as difficult as I had imagined!

We had a lot of fun at his birthday party Saturday afternoon - Huston enjoyed playing with his presents, eating cake, seeing all of his favorite people, and playing with Uncle Ben's dog, Pup. He did not, however, like anyone to say "party" or "happy birthday" to him. We didn't even sing happy birthday when he blew out his candle, because he screamed when we tried to. When Clarke and I woke him up on his actual birthday, he was all smiles until we said "happy birthday!" and then he threw himself down screaming and burying his face in his bed. For some reason, those words just really set him off. After everyone left, I asked if he had fun at his party (which he obviously did) and he grunted "ehhh" and said "all done." He's such a funny guy."Walking" Uncle Ben's Dog, Pup

Playing Golf

Huston's awesome new piano, which he calls his "Pi-O"

Mr. Serious-Face (exploring his new globe toy)

On Monday, Huston had his 2 year check up and measured 36 inches (90th percentile for height - you better believe his daddy is proud of that) and 27.4 pounds (75th percentile for weight). We knew he was getting taller because a few days before his birthday he discovered that he's tall enough to reach the doorbell by himself. We were playing outside and he had walked over to the front door alone and came running back to me yelling "Deh dah! Deh dah!" (his doorbell sound). You have never seen a child so happy to ring a doorbell. It has become his new obsession and multiple times a day he'll suddenly come running to me and yell "Ring! Ring!" so we can go outside and ring the doorbell. He also says "felf" (which means self) because he can do it all by himself. He's so grown up these days!

Destin!

Here are some pictures of the first full day of our Destin vacation with my parents. I was a bit worried when we took Huston down to the beach last night for the first time after arriving and he got his feet wet in the waves one time and then yelled "All done!" and ran away. I thought our 12 hour car drive might have been a bit of a waste! However, he quickly got over his fear of the ocean when we took him out again this morning, and was soon squealing with glee as he rushed headlong into the waves.

Huston quickly picked up some new beach vocabulary and was saying "beach," "waves," and "sand" as we played outside. He also cracked me up by running in and out of the waves and yelling either "go!" or "ready, ready, ready!" (instead of ready, set, go).

Of course the beach hasn't been the sole source of Huston's entertainment so far. He's also had a blast opening and closing all the new doors in the townhome we're staying in and playing with grandma and grandpa (or nana and peepaw, as he calls them). As I write this, he is taking a much-needed nap (going on 3 hours now). The poor thing was a bit worn out after we woke him up at 4:30 yesterday morning for our car trip and he woke himself up at 5:30 this morning. Perhaps we can add "sleeping in" to our list of things to do tomorrow.

The Next Picasso

Huston had such fun yesterday playing with his "booo" and his "neeen" chalk (that's blue and green, in case you need a translation), that I had to post these pictures.

Conversations with Huston

This past month, Huston's vocabulary and verbal skills have finally taken off. He is repeating tons of words that we say and using sounds that he couldn't make before (most notably the hard "g" and "c" sounds). Considering I was concerned enough about his development at one point to have him evaluated, this is a huge blessing. Now that he's decided he's actually interested in talking, we can't get him to stop! The funniest thing about his recent interest in talking, is how he has certain "conversations" that he likes to repeat. We could be doing anything at all, and he'll bring up these stories whenever they pop in his head. Here are some of his favorites:

- The story of how he goes on the escalator with grandma at the mall goes like this: "eeeeee-gla-gla-tor" (which means escalator), followed by "na-naaaa" (which means grandma), followed by him holding his two hands together which indicates that he holds grandma's hand while he goes on the escalator.

- The story of how the delivery man brought two boxes to our house which daddy made into chairs for the living room goes like this: "dee-doh" (the sound of the doorbell), followed by "box," followed by "da-dee."

- The story of the big grandfather clock we saw at a friend's house goes like this: "clock" (well, actually he says it without the "l" sound, but I didn't want to type that), followed by "house" (meaning we saw it at someone else's house), followed by "ya ya" (which means later, because he wants to go see it again later).

- He's as fascinated with doors as he's always been and really likes the metal gate at the pool. Now he thinks that all metal fences or railings are called gates (or "dates," as he says), and a walk around the neighborhood or a drive around town while we're running errands causes him to incessantly repeat "date" and "tee" (which means key - because, of course, you need a key to open a gate).

Huston has also been pointing to my belly recently and saying "bah-beeee," although I'm not sure that he actually understands that there's a baby growing in my belly. I've been talking to him about how we're going to bring the baby home one day soon, so now he'll say "bah-beeee, home, dee-doh" (like the baby will ring the doorbell when she comes home). It's pretty cute.

He cracks me up with these conversations, because he refuses to continue with his story until you acknowledge what he's telling you. When we go on walks and he says a gate, he'll keep repeating "date, date, date" until I say "oh, you see a gate," and then he'll repeat "tee, tee, tee" until I say "yes, you need a key to open a gate." It's not enough to say "uh-huh" or just repeat the word. He wants you to complete his thought and make sure you're paying attention before he'll continue.

Another thing I love concerning his verbal developments of late, is his discovery of how to use the possessive, and how it slightly alters his pronunciation. He likes to point to our drinks and identify which one is "mom-ayes" and "dad-ayes." It's so darling.

I love our little conversations, Huston.

Happy Fourth!

This fourth of July, Clarke and I enjoyed a child-free lunch with friends at Dutch's followed by dinner and fireworks (and about 17 mosquito bites) with more friends.


We also fit in some swimming with Huston on Friday when Clarke had off of work, and Clarke got our two new chairs from Target assembled. Huston promptly claimed the chairs as his and has enjoyed climbing up on them and saying "sit" ever since.


He didn't want anyone else sitting on them at first, but is getting better at sharing them. It's hilarious to watch him hike himself up on the chairs and also hilarious when the cushion slides out from under him and he gets stuck in the crevice. It freaks him out a bit when this happens, but after he recovers, he likes to tell us "uh oh" and "boo boo" (in his hilarious southern drawl).

Hope you all enjoyed your fourth of July celebrations, too!

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day, Daddy!

You are such a great daddy. I like how you play "pet shop" with me and how we dance to the tunes on your ipod when you get home from work. Thanks for teaching me cool things, like how to throw a ball, and for always cheering me on and encouraging me. I like going to "seeeeeee" you in the morning (which really means waking you up before you're ready) and I like how you play fun "boy" games with me (like the broccoli throwing game). I want to be just like you when I grow up.

Love,
Huston

First Swim of the Season

I was so amazed that Huston kept this hat on the entire time we were swimming. He absolutely hates hats and refuses to wear them. I think he was so distracted by the water that he almost forgot about it.

Splashing fun with Daddy.