Define: One

Jericho is one year old!  Let's just ignore the fact that she has been for almost a month, and just focus on the fact that she is. :)

One of her birthday gifts was a handmade blanket, which she quickly became obsessed with.

Her birthday party was wonderful, and she was just as spoiled as Beckett was at his.  These kids are loved by a lot of people, and we are so thankful for that!

Jericho has recently started saying "hi" when she sees people.  Beckett got really into it when he was younger too, but the thing that's different about Jericho's "hi" is how soft-spoken and personal it seems.  Many times people don't hear, or don't realize that she is speaking to them, and sometimes when they do notice and say hi back, she gets really shy and buries her head in my shoulder.  I love it.

Walking has seemed to be just around the corner for a while now, but I'm really okay with it not happening yet.  She's a quick and stealthy crawler, and once she figures out walking I don't think it will be long before she's running to keep up with Beckett.  She does not hesitate to let us know when she is not happy, and I absolutely believe that she will refuse to be left behind.  She likes to be right up in the action.

She's a trunkseat driver.

Even though walking is still on the agenda, she's jumped right into climbing.  This terrifies me.  She crawls onto step stools, stairs, Beckett's bed, clothes, the cat, toys, chairs...anything she can get up onto, she does.  Her speed and stealth serve her well in this.  Yesterday I looked away for what couldn't have been more than 8 seconds.  She was standing next to the ottoman, which really is not much below her chin.  When I looked back, she was sitting on top of it, looking at me like it was no big deal.  I still have no idea how she got up there.

I cannot even describe what happened before this was taken.

When this girl gets tired...oh my goodness.  "Fighting sleep" is not even...I can't even think of the words.  It's bad.  She will find her blanket on the floor, lay down on it for a few seconds, get up, crawl around, come back to the blanket and lie down again, then get back up...it is almost always a wrestling match to get her to go down.  She has to be held just so, and even then you have to adjust because oh man is she a flailer.  I remove all jewelry before I try to put her to bed.  Really.  I've had the earrings ripped out of my ears more than once (the backs released, thank goodness!), and she's broken a few necklaces.  I've been slapped, scratched, and kicked more times than I can count or remember.  Once she started to fall asleep sitting in her high chair, and she fought, and fought, and fought...I couldn't believe how long she kept herself awake.

Her tooth gap is the best.

Most of the time, she's a pretty happy girl.  Especially if she's being held.  I read all these stories of second children doing things so much sooner than the first kid because they had all this time on the floor while the parent was attending to the first child, but that has not been the case with Jericho.  Beckett requires a lot of supervision, but I couldn't leave Jericho on the floor with him or she would have been trampled the day we brought her home.  Even when I left her in her little rocker seat I had to worry about Beckett sitting on her, or trying to crawl in with her.  He also tried to share food with her very early on.  She got to have some of Beckett's chocolate chip oatmeal cookie at about three weeks old, and a few days after that he dumped about half a can of root beer all over her.  Side note: Jamin did not do well with this.  I reassured him many, many times that newborns were very squishy and she was fine.  As a result of trying to save her from her brother during the first few months of her life, she became very accustomed to being held, and is showing no sign of outgrowing that.

Standing up in her high chair - another fun way to give mama a heart attack.

Before Jericho was born, I had said many times that I would be totally content with all boys.  I don't think that that wasn't true, but now that she's here and we're getting to know her, I can't imagine having had a boy instead.  She is our sweet, beautiful, pumpkin girl, and I am so excited to see what the next year of her life brings.

Define: Three

Beckett had this third birthday last week.  Three years seems to have flown by, yet at the same time it seems like he's just always been a part of our family.

Beckett's words have really made leaps and bounds over the last month or two.  He was evaluated a few months ago, and his speech was a little bit behind.  We worried that he had been having some ear problems, and that maybe his pronunciation was off because he couldn't hear us.  Our audiology appointment at Mott's went really well (and what a cool facility!), and they said his ears looked great.  He's started stringing more words together lately, and repeats just about everything we say (great for progress, not always great for us to hear what he's hearing from us...).

Whenever we asked him how old he was going to be for his birthday, he'd put his finger on his chin and say, "Hmm...two!" We would say, "No, try again..."  And he would say, "Hmm...one!"

Meltdowns at three are both funny and maddening.  Yesterday, he was upset about something, and I was trying to deal with that.  Jericho was also in the kitchen, and had crawled over to the cat food.  She started to dump the bowl on the floor when Beckett realized what she was doing, which just pushed him further into his meltdown.  I tried to tell him that I couldn't go take care of Jericho until he stopped freaking out, but Jericho spilling more cat food made him freak out more...I was really glad when Jamin got home.

For a while I've been disappointed with the amount of time I spend on my phone, and now that Beckett is a little more independent, I feel even worse.  Whenever he asks for a game, or my phone, or to watch something, I have a pang of conviction.  I know that it's unrealistic to think I can keep him away from all technology, and even if I could, I don't think I would want to.  I just don't want it to be a focus in his life, I want him to play with toys, to go outside, to catch bugs and play in the mud.  A lot of times I convince myself that it's too hard to do those things because of where we live, and truly, that is a factor, but I also know that if I were to be truly intentional about it, those things would happen.

One of his birthday gifts - this kid has a lot of people who love him!

At three years old...when he's throwing himself on the floor screaming because we said no to a video game (which he's actually doing at this very moment), it's hard.  When it's been an hour since we put him in bed and I hear his door open again, it's hard.  When he's been sitting in time out for 15 minutes because he won't just look me in the eyes when I'm talking to him, it's hard.  But when he smiles and runs to me when I get home, it's worth it.  When he learns something new and is so excited to show me, it's worth it.  When he says, "Love you, mama" (even with the prompting), it's worth it.  When he runs up and wants snuggle (which is the point of the meltdown he's just reached), it's worth it.  It's all worth it, and I am so blessed to call this three-year-old crazy kid mine.

This is his picture pose...ugh.