And then there’s Tate

My Tate, what a big boy you’ve suddenly become!  I can hardly believe it’s happening this quickly before my very eyes.  One minute, you were still drinking from a bottle that we couldn’t get you to give up and wearing a diaper I thought you’d never be trained out of, and then, here we are, just a few months later, making HUGE milestones!

For starters, we are COMPLETELY potty trained.  When I say that, I mean that Tate goes potty by himself and can wipe himself after pottying, put the lid back down, flush the toilet and wash his hands with soap and water and dry them.  When he goes poop, it’s a little different.  He still needs our help with wiping, but we’re almost there.  He still wears a diaper at night to make sure he doesn’t wet the bed.  Sometimes, he still pees while he’s sleeping during the day, but not so often anymore.  I’m so proud of you for figuring all this out!  It’s a huge step!!

In addition to that, Tate is starting to recognize all of his letters and numbers and drawing them on paper.  This needs a little more practicing on my end, but he gets it.  He is doing SO well and learning so quickly.  I wish I had more time to just sit with him and help him understand everything I want him to know.

This past Sunday, Tate went to Sunday school all by himself.  Of course, Daddy helped prod him a little and coerced him into going in and at least “saying hello” to the kids.  Once he got in there, he played with the kids on the playscape and ended up staying.  I can’t tell you how proud I was of him for doing that.  This has been such an uphill battle with Tate.  He is so social, and yet, he really resists being left alone without us there.  I guess that’s normal, but he’s starting to come out of it.

Today, we started our very first swimming lessons.  Tate went to one side of the pool with some lifeguards and learned basic swimming techniques while I went to the other side with Julian and worked with him.  They both did extremely well, and Tate was paddling and going under!

After swimming lessons, I dropped Tate off at JW Tumbles for gymnastics camp.  He has been talking about it all week.  He was hesitant when I was starting to leave, but when the girl asked him if he could be her helper, he quickly forgot that he was even upset.  Such a sweet boy!  He was there for 3 hours without me and did so well!  He wants to go back again tmw!

In just a few short weeks, Tate begins preschool at O’Chester Learning Center at Great Hills Baptist Church.  I am so happy that he’ll be doing this and so much at peace with our decision to send him there (despite the drive it will be for us).  I just want to stop for a moment and pray.  Dear Lord, please make this a smooth transition for all of us.  Help this to be a positive experience where Tate loves school and learns as much as he possibly can.  I pray for the perfect teachers to be placed in Tate’s life and the best of friends for him to get to know and be with during the day.  I pray for wonderful experiences that help shape him and help teach him and build a strong foundation for learning God’s word.  I pray for an amazing experience for him and for the kids to be sweet and the parents to become great friends as well.  I pray for a really strong, healthy community both at O’Chester and at Great Hills.  I love this place, and I keep having to pinch myself everytime we go there on Sunday.  It is just the most awesome place!  I didn’t really even want to give it a chance at first, but I’m so glad we’re there.

Well, there ya have it.  Tate is an amazing little boy.  Actually, I couldn’t ask for a sweeter, kinder, more loving and affectionate kid.  He is so good natured and kind.  He is also very vivacious and smart!  He is constantly asking questions and constantly observing things that I don’t even notice.

He is currently very fixated on Monster Trucks and skate boards as well.  He loves his shows about Monster Trucks.  He is very maliable right now and learns things very quickly.  This week, he has been obsessed with trains again and we checked out some train dvds at the library.  He goes around the house saying, “CHOOO CHOOOOO!!!!” and pretends to be a train.  He also sings “Get on board, Little Children…Get on board…Little Children” as well as “I love the mountains…I love the rolling hills, I love the flowers, I love the daffodils, I love the fireflies, I love the lights are low…boom diada boom diada boom diada boom di-e.”

LOVE. THIS. KID!!

He says things like:

“Mommy, you’re like a stinker bug.”

“I just love you, Daddy.”

“Julian, you’re a sweet little baby.”

“Julian’s Tate’s baby.”

“Is the orange one Home Depot or Lowes?”

“I went to Home Depot with Daddy and we had popcorn from outside and I fed him while we were walking through the store.”

On top of being incredibly smart and thoughtful and funny, he is just precious in so many other ways as well.  His eyes are such a beautiful shade of blue and such a beautiful shape.  He has this gorgeous baby face that I hope he never loses.  He is just fun loving and full of life.  I can only hope and pray that he finds friends in his life who can appreciate him as much as I do.  I pray that he would find other godly, kind-hearted children who are sweet natured and help him and encourage him to continue along a good path.  I want so much for him!

Julian turns 15 months!

Julian turns 15 months!

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I’m not ashamed of gushing about my kids at all.  After all, they are my kids!  I just want to take a moment (since I rarely get these) to sit down and write a little about things that have been going on in our lives lately.

For starters, I realized this past week, that I haven’t really catalogued Julian’s milestones lately like I’ve meant to.  It’s just been hard to find the time.  I guess I really need to get more disciplined about things like this and budgeting.  I don’t know why I shy away from the baby books and journals.  I really want to keep up with important milestones and pictures, etc…but the time just isn’t there!  I don’t know where it goes to be honest.

Anyway, today Julian turned 15 months old.  I can’t believe it’s already been 15 months since he was born.  I’m more astonished by this than I was when he turned 1 year old.  I think the milestones are more drastic.  Over the past 3 months, since he turned 1, he has gone from crawling to walking very well.  He actually started walking fully around the second week of June.  I only know this because he still wasn’t quite there yet when we were up in Kansas City at the beginning of June, but he managed to figure it out the week after we got home.  I just never wrote it down.  TERRIBLE MAMA!!  Not only that, but he has gotten 4 more teeth (all molars) over the past month.  I really need to get this stuff written down.  When, oh when!?

On top of that, he has been saying lots of words and understanding more and more of what we’re saying.  He’s like a little parrot.

He’s so funny.  The other day, we went to the park, and he pointed his finger out the window and said very clearly, “Park.”  Ummm…yes, you’re right…that is the park!  What a doll.  Then, that same day, we were walking through the grocery store and I said the word “kitchen” in a sentence, and as plain as day he says, “Kitchen”.

Just so I can make sure I’m on track with his vocabulary, here are the words he can say so far:

  1. Park (ha!)
  2. Kitchen
  3. Finished
  4. Cheese (with a cute grin)
  5. Dadddyyyyyyy (very proud of this one)
  6. Tate (more like, “Datttt”)
  7. Dog
  8. Ball
  9. Book (he likes to say, “Book a book” or “Bookee”)
  10. Nein (his favorite) or Noooooouuu
  11. Pa-pa (makes Grandma mad)
  12. Bye bye (very clearly) with hand waving
  13. Hallo (very deep voice — with hand waving)

I’m sure there’s more but I can’t think of all of them at the moment.

He also loves to eat.  This boy will try anything.  His favorite foods are waffles, strawberries, grill cheese sandwiches, quesadillas, chicken, french fries, pizza, blueberries, yogurt, mangos, and the list goes on!

His hair is just gorgeous right now too.  He has these long blonde curls.  Everyone thinks he’s a girl.  lol

Julian Paul is quite the character.  He knows what he wants and doesn’t like to let up.  He has been fighting back when his older brother takes things away from him, too.  That also makes me proud.

The only problem we’re having with him is that he still isn’t sleeping well.  This is one reason why blogging is so hard.  I would do it every night if I could, but I just don’t have the energy.  These boys are tough.  Tate is finally sleeping through the night, but it took him 2 1/2 years to do so.  I’m afraid we’ve got the same issue with Julian.  Drives me bonkers!

Anyway, all that to say, we are just in love with this little guy.

Happy 15 Month Birthday, Julian!  You make our world light up with your precious, bright smile and those big cheeks!

Love you love you love you!!!

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