To Charlie On Your 1st Birthday

Dearest Charlie,

We've made it! A whole year.  Can you believe it? I know I can't, but here we are. What has happened to this year? I feel like I've looked down and then back up again and here we are. It's like one day you're coming home from the hospital, the next you're rolling over, then sitting up. Eating food, crawling, walking and now we're here and you're technically a toddler (just so you know, you'll always be my baby). But somehow we've survived it.

You are just the sweetest little thing. You are a cuddle bug when you're sleepy, but on the move whenever you're awake. I love that when I lay you down in your crib at night and cover you with a blanket, you always take your left arm and stick it outside the blanket, the rest of you cozied up underneath all warm. When we're rocking to sleep, you see our shadows on the wall from the night light and you wave "bye bye" to them as you nod off.

You're officially a walker now, on the go, almost running everywhere. You love dolls and stuffed animals, when you're presented with one, you give it the biggest squeeze and a hug. You like your toys, but you LOVE your brother's. Cars and dinosaurs are some of your favorites.

I still have to be the one to get you to sleep, but you're coming around to your old dad. When he comes through the door you run, laughing at him. You want to hug him and have him swoop you up in his arms. You like to harrass Luke a little. You get into everything that he's playing with, even if he wants to be left alone. He may be irritated, but he's always hugging on you, talking about "his baby" and just how much he loves you.

You still LOVE food. Anything and everything. You've had mushrooms and lentils and feta cheese and everything in between. This week we ended formula and bottles and unlike Luke, this was no big deal. You haven't even noticed today that there were no bottles. You didn't cry for it and you transitioned to whole milk without shedding one single tear.

Speaking of, I try so hard not to do this, but it's so terribly hard to do. I try to keep from comparing you to Luke. You are two individuals, yes siblings, but with completely different personalities. Honestly, you're the ying to Lucas' yang. While he is boisterous and outgoing, you are shy and serious. He eats hardly anything and you consume everything. And while you two are so very different, boy, do you love each other immensly. Sometimes I think you prefer him to anyone else. So much so that we moved his seat next to yours in Daddy's truck so that you remain happier on trips. He feeds you, gets diapers for you, hugs you constantly. Yesterday at his Christmas program, he couldn't stop exclaiming that Baby had come to see him! Please love him forever. When daddy and I are gone, he will be your family and your friend. He will be the one you share your childhood with and that's a bond you'll never lose.

The first year is always hard. We're learning what you like, and you're learning about us. Things are scary for you and mom and dad are tired and worn down. But there are the sweetest moments, the ones I will miss. You laying your head on me, needing me for everything. Your first steps, first words. Your tiny little hands and feet which keep growing. The baby coos and sighs. It's a hard transition for me to see you to grow into a toddler, but it's also so much fun. You're personality grows with every day and you laugh deep belly laughs when you find something funny.

Oh, dear Charlie. You have brightened our lives immensley. Your sweet soul is one of the best additions to our family and I'm so glad you've been here with us these last 365 days.

I love you forever and always,
Mama

Snow Day and Birthday

Poor Charlie... When we found out that her due date was in December (originally December 27th, so right at Christmas) I knew birthdays would be a rough go of it. Everyone's celebrating Christmas and the birthday kind of takes a back burner. Add in inclement weather and there you have it.

We'd planned for awhile now to have a super small and simple party for her today as her birthday is next Friday and we'll be traveling to Virginia for our Christmas with Dillon's family. Dillon's mom and step-dad were going to come down, my mom and dad and our friends the Creggers were going to come. Early this week they started calling for some snow this weekend, and (isn't this how it always goes?) they were only saying we'd get a small amount of snow. 1-2 inches at most. I didn't think that would be much of a problem for the little get together and honestly didn't think much about it.

I woke up yesterday morning to snow falling. I thought "well, huh." and got we all got ready for school and work. Although by the time I got Luke to daycare it wasn't slowing down. The school felt they'd probably close early so I just loaded him back up and took him to my mom and dad's. I got to work and couldn't do any of my scheduled office visits because everyone was closing and the roads were deteriorating. I checked our local news station and now instead of 1-2 inches they were saying 9-12. Ummm. I got permission to work from home the rest of the day and went and got the kids and got my behind back up our steep hill. Dillon got home shortly after and he and Luke went outside to play and I finished up work while the baby napped in the afternoon.

It didn't look good for Charlie's party today. There was no way Dillon's mom could come down in this mess and the Creggers have a new baby that they don't need to get out in cold weather. Plus our hill is so bad, I didn't want anyone to get hurt coming here. By the time we went to bed last night there was a good 9 inches of snow covering our porch. PS, where I thought we weren't getting much snow, I bought NO groceries. None. We ran out of eggs last night, used most of Charlie's milk and I was running low on bread too. Oh, and diapers. The UPS man didn't come yesterday so my Amazon delivery was delayed. Good times.

Today we woke up and I wanted to make pancakes, but remember, no eggs? So Dillon made hash browns and we went back out to play. By 10:00 it was warming up some and Dill felt we could make it down the hill, so we did. We went and got our groceries and picked up our Zoom passes for tomorrow night's lights at Lake Julian. YAY! We came back home and my mom and dad were able to come up for some cake with Charlie. She got a little basketball goal from us for her birthday and a walker toy from Maw and Peepaw. We also let Luke open up his gift from Charlie (a robot BB-8) and Maw had brought him one of his gifts from her, The Polar Express book (we love the movie, but somehow didn't have the book).

So Charlie's birthday has turned into somewhat of a precursor of Christmas. There are lots of toys around this afternoon as they nap, something that's only going to get worst in the next two weeks. Looks like I need to get organized.

I can't believe Charlie is a year old on Friday. Happy birthday, sweet girl!

Snow!

Luke's favorite!

Baby on my back!

This is in a field next to our local grocery store. I wish they would have been more cooperative subjects. HA!

The view this afternoon. A lot of the snow is melting with the sun. But what a view.

Santa Claus Day!

Today was Santa Claus day! Every year we head over to the Grove Arcade in downtown Asheville to see the big man from up north and let him know our wish lists (there was one year where we petered out and just saw Santa while we were at Bass Pro, ha!) 

This morning our little family got to light the first candle of Advent at church and do a short reading. The baby ripped my paper as soon as we started walking up the aisle, so I panicked a little. The service was so beautiful and the sanctuary is fixed up so pretty. It was a lovely service. Luke was super well behaved for church but Charlie was ALL OVER. She's at the age now where she's walking and into everything. She doesn't sit still and wants to go everywhere. Honestly, this is my least favorite age. You're just basically trying to make sure that they don't kill themselves and they have NO communication skills. She's just lucky that she's super cute and I love her madly. HA! 

After church we had some lunch and loaded up to go see Santa! Parking was horrendous in downtown. It's so stressful to go down there now and I don't know if I'm just old or if downtown is just overrun now. Anyways. We found parking with some of Dillon's "beach driving" skills (meaning you ignore some rules to get a parking spot or get where you're going). Luke was so excited we went directly to see Santa. He was so good and took the letter that he wrote and even signed his own name. Luke was a pro and hugged Santa and smiled for all his pictures. Baby Charlie was not however. She did not like him, at all. Dillon placed her in his arms and that was it, immediate tears. I guess it makes for funny pictures and memories later on. 

Next weekend is Charlie's little "party". I'm not really having an actual party, just cake and ice cream and then her birthday is the following Friday. I'm having a really hard time with the fact that she's a year old. My last baby will be a baby no more. I read an article one time where a mom wrote that it wasn't so much that she wanted more babies, she just wanted to go back and relish even more the time with the kids she has now. To relive those moments again, when they first lay them on your chest, when you take them home for the first time, those tiny baby cuddles. It's just sad that all these times are fleeting. 

I'm also working on my photography skills. Dillon thinks I should edit alllll my pictures for the blog now, but I think that may be a little time consuming. And some of them have to be snapshots, right? Anyways, we had a good time this weekend even if I am a little tired from all our doings. I'll be glad to get to work tomorrow, ha! 

Luke's letter to Santa!

It went downhill after that. Probably the funniest Santa picture I've seen.

Family Shot!