Letter To My Three Year Old

Dear Elias,

It hardly seems possible that you are three years old today. I look at you and still am picturing in my minds eye, the baby I carried, held, and nursed. I still hear your baby cries, coos, and laugh. Those sounds are now replaced with new ones, "Mommy, I love you", "look at the bayoons!" (balloons), "Mommy, I hold you" (hold me), " Mommy, I walk" (this one you say a lot, since I still like to carry you everywhere. You are very good at reminding me that you like to walk!).

You are now mimicking things that you hear, your speech has progressed by leaps and bounds. One of the most precious sounds to my ears is when you try to sing along to whatever song is playing. Your favorites include "Double Take" by Disney's Austin and Ally, "Shepherd Me, O God" by John Michael Talbot, "Smile" by R5, and "Hushabye Mountain".

You love to dance. I absolutely love watching you dance to music. You can't keep still when you hear a song play; you have to move, and if I am not trying to capture it on camera, I am dancing with you. One of the things you and your brother like to do is have "dance parties". Every Friday night is a dance party.

You have so much energy, you are hardly sitting still at any given moment! But there are times, when you like to snuggle. Saturday mornings when Daddy and Christian are getting donuts, you like to snuggle with me in my bed watching Sprout. I love our Saturday mornings.

Your smile is infectious. It has the power of brightening my day immeasurably. I have always called you my sunshine baby, because it is true. unless you are upset, you always have a smile for everyone.

Although I do not like the fact that time is so fleeting; that you are growing up so fast, I am immensely grateful that God gave you to us, to me, and that I have the amazing privilege of being your mother. I cherish every day I have with you and your brother. Some are trying (you are three, after all!), but even those days, those moments, I would not trade for the world.

Happy birthday, Tadpole! I love you!

Love,
Mommy

Two Year Tadpole

January 28 was Elias' second birthday. I can't believe he is already two! Seems just like yesterday that he was a newborn. Our lives are blessed immeasurably because of him. He brings so much sunshine and joy to us. I call him my sunshine baby because he always has a smile.

He has made great strides in his mobility. Earlier last year I was nearly sick with worry about his muscle tone (as chronicled here) and the fact that he was not walking, much less pulling himself up to a standing position at nearly 14 months. I had so much guilt thinking that somehow this was my fault…maybe i should have been doing something that I wasn't doing, or something happened at birth, etc, as though I as a mom need any more Mommy guilt!

We had ECI come out a few times and work with him before we moved. But in the end, I had to completely put my trust in God and remember that all things work together for good. I remember the day he stood up by himself, completely independent of anything. I was folding laundry in my grandmother's guesthouse where we were living at he time pending our final move. Elias was playing beside me, crawling around, when suddenly, from the corner of my eye I saw him start to stand on his wobbly legs. Once he was at a standing position, I let out a scream like he had just won the world series. It turned out he was motivated by my yell of encouragement and proceeded to stand again and again. He finally took his first steps at the end of July last year when he was close to 18 months. I guess he just needed a little extra time. Nowadays, he is such a busy tadpole! He climbing, running, and doing somersaults all over the place and I couldn't be happier with his progress. :)

Here are some pictures from Elias' birthday party. As always i went a little overboard in the decorations and planning, but had so much fun in the process. I found this cute play center for the kids and thought it was perfect for a 2 year old's birthday party. The theme was Cookies and Milk since Elias is obsessed with cookies…but then again, what two year old isn't? :)

A 'Toot Sweet' Party

Elias turns 1 on Tuesday, January 28. This past Saturday we had his birthday party at my grandmother, and aunt and uncle's house as they were gracious to open their house to us to host this event. I wanted something different for the theme, something whimsical and sweet to capture the innocence of a 1 year old baby, and also to capture what I know Elias' personality to be. I found the Toot Sweet theme from Shop Sweet Lulu (my new absolute favorite party site) and fell in love. It seemed to capture everything I was looking for.



Because this was Elias' 1 year birthday, I only invited family and a few close friends to celebrate. Next year we will include all of his little friends as well. With mostly just family we had a full house! There was a bounce house for the children (and some of the adults too!)and my aunt found a Pandora station that played only Disney children's music which was perfect :)

We took a few (or 240) pictures of the day. A huge shout out goes to my sister-in-law April who took many of the fabulous pictures.

















I can't believe my little Tadpole, my Glowworm will be one in two days' time. It makes me sad that this year has flown by so quickly, but I am so excited about what the future brings for him.

Love,
Fiona

Dirty 30

I have to say, Mark did a fantastic job of getting together a wonderful 30th birthday for me. I knew he was planning something but I had no idea what or the magnitude until it was actually happening.

The day of November 8th he had me close my eyes and enter the bedroom where he had a beautiful Vera Wang dress (that definitely gave new meaning to "little black dress") laid out on the bed. He told me it was to wear later that night. Around 4pm, Mark's brother and sister-in-law J and A with their son Brett showed up to watch Christian and Elias for the weekend which was pretty awesome as they live about 6 hours away near Amarillo, TX. Thank you guys again!!

The entire car ride as Mark drove us to our destination I was blindfolded, so that heightened and added to the anticipation. As we drove up, he took the blindfold off and found myself at the Gaylord Texan Resort in Grapevine, TX. This was extremely exciting for me because I have always wanted to stay there!

Upon our arrival to our room for the next two days, we were greeted by a bottle of champagne.


After we got ready, we met some friends downstairs in one of the restaurants called the Riverwalk Cantina which was also a surprise. My sister Triana had been helping coordinate the party with Mark.

Justin and Becca




With my sister Triana, Syble, and Becca


With Sharon




With my sister Charissa and Becca having fun in the lobby of the hotel.

After dinner we headed over to the Glass Cactus for drinks and dancing.



Since Mark had booked two nights at the Gaylord, the second night we had fun touring and exploring the entire resort and having dinner at an Italian restaurant. The Gaylord is a huge resort that they are starting to deck out for Christmas and when it is complete will look like a winter fairyland. It is also the home of ICE! where every year they feature a walk through ice sculptures attraction with a particular theme. This year will be The Nutcracker and we plan on taking the boys to see it.

Getting ready! Ice opens November 14, 2013.


Different views of the sights inside the hotel.






The view of Lake Grapevine from our hotel room.

It was overall a magical 30th birthday weekend. :)