Happy Birthday Wit Bug!

Officially 12 months old....crazy!

I'm one!

We are so thankful for this joyful, silly, active, sweet sweet boy! To prepare for the big celebration, Witten started "answering" questions that week with "nee" or "nah" and walked the length of our house. Even though he'd been walking more often, he still wasn't really sturdy on his feet until the day before his party. He stood himself up and walked from the kitchen to the front door. It's always amazing to me to see how quickly things change once they decide they're ready!

Fun friends to celebrate with!

This year has flown by, and his birthday crept up so quickly after celebrating Thanksgiving. We had such a fun time celebrating with family and friends at our house. It was a full house, much like Tytus' first birthday, but now several of our friends have added even more children to their families. He was happy to celebrate with everyone, enjoyed his cupcake (although he preferred a banana instead of finishing his cupcake), and then he was ready for a nap. We see him being more of an introvert, so when things get crazy he seems to like some quiet space. We loved celebrating our son with so many special people and are so thankful for everyone we get to walk alongside as we continue to learn how to be parents to these two awesome boys!

singing happy birthday....yummy! 

So thankful for our family of four and our sweet blessing, Witten

Witten got to celebrate again at Papou and Yaya's house with crazy blue icing!
They couldn't make it to the first celebration due to lots of ice in Dallas

Witten still had about 2 weeks after his party until he was officially one, and he just continued to change. He made the transition from mostly crawling to all walking and no crawling. He seemed to make it all the way through his first year with no teeth with his first one popping through on December 26! Now we can see four or five more just barely covered in gums. Any day we'll be getting more! So much changed in the past year, but we're just as excited to see all the changes that this next year holds for our little guy! Happy Birthday, Witten!

two brothers ready for a new year :)

6 Years!

Not many places to skate in the Austin area....but still SO fun!

I'm learning that what Ian and I have is pretty special. Most people don't have the ability to say they've known eachother/dated since they were 16. We've changed a lot in the past (almost 12) years. God is our sustainer and has blessed us and grown us in so many ways. It's crazy to see how things have changed in just six short years and exciting to see where we'll be in another six. While out celebrating this anniversary we asked each other "Is this what you expected when we got married?". Nope. It was easy for both of us to identify specific things we thought would be different, and yet we are so satisfied with where we are now. God does amazing things when you're obedient, humble, listening, and trying to follow His lead. We aren't perfect and wish we could do some things over again, but we can both agree that we make a great team for His glory!

back when we were dating

playing out at Zilker last month

We celebrated this year by spending the day together while some of our sweet friends watched the boys. It was the best day! I'm so thankful for my husband!

Understanding Their Little Minds

Tytus:

"Mommy, my baby is crying. I need to go get it. I'll be right back, okay?"

"Wait, Tytus, we're eating dinner."

"But it's sad. The baby got littler and littler and littler and was in my tummy. I need to go get it!" 

"Well, only girls can have babies in their tummy."

"Well, I'm the daddy. I went to work in my white car and forgot my keys. I need to go get baby, she's crying."

**baby has always been baby Witten, by the way**

"Well, let's wait until after dinner because your hands are all dirty.......Wait, who's your baby?"

"It's Witten's sister."

"Oh! Really? Is it a boy or a girl baby?"

"Oh, wait, it's baby Jesus! Mommy, can I go get him after we finish our dinner?"

"Sure, that's sounds like a good idea....."

Witten:

 He's been walking longer distances around our house, and when he makes it from one room to the next without falling down he looks around proudly. Yesterday, right after we had gotten back from dropping Tytus off from school, Witten was walking around babbling while I got the laundry out to fold it. (In the car ride back home he kept mimicking the sound for 'uh oh!' and I would laugh and repeat it back.) He saw me in the living room with the laundry, so he stood himself up beside one of our kitchen chairs and started to walk over to me but fell just a few steps into it. I said "Uh oh!" and smiled at him waiting for him to repeat it back, but he just sat up and looked at me. Then he shook his head (like 'no no') and started clapping. I laughed and said "Yay!" and also started clapping too, which made him break into a big smile. Silly guy! Then he stood himself up and made it the whole distance without falling.....and even grabbed a handful of clothes out of the basket before sitting down. 

We also had some fun with friends at the McKenna Children's Museum in New Braunfels today! Gosh, I think we could spend an entire day there and still not get to play with everything. It's so much fun! I think Tytus' favorite part was the long, twisting water table outside or maybe the grocery store inside. Witten liked everything we played with, but he especially liked pushing the grocery cart around and looking at the fish in the fish tank.

11 months.......and WALKING!

This is what we call the "Witten face" so sweet and innocent.....but
sometimes he can try to use it to get himself out of  a sticky situation

Our little bugga bug has been taking steps for a while now. Mostly it was one or two with a big leeeeean toward the person or thing he was trying to reach. He was definitely not interested in learning to balance and would only use walking if it was more convenient than getting down to crawl. So, I thought it'd be a week or two before we saw anything else. I really thought he'd probably still be crawling at his birthday party. But, of course, they always catch me off guard. Yesterday I saw him being a little more daring than usual. Taking some steps without being noticed (usually he waits for our applause) and letting go to walk into the middle of a room (that's brave!). Then around bedtime I saw him take 2 or 3 steps, pause to catch his balance, and then take a few more to reach where he was going. Yay! Daddy got home shortly after and we had a lot of fun letting him walk back and forth between us. Tytus also wanted to be apart of the celebration so we asked if he wanted Witten to walk to him. He gave a confident, "Yes!"and I think that was Witten's shining moment. He loves, loves, loves being more like his brother! You could tell he was so proud of himself.

He's also babbling a lot and having "conversations" using his expressions and pointing his finger. He's a silly guy, and I really think he has a sense of humor already. It's fun to ask him where something is and see if he either points to it or goes crawling to get it. Without fail, though, his face changes to the "Witten face" when you ask him where it is. He's still loving cleaning up and putting lids on any container he can find. One of his new favorite places at our house is in the sandbox. He'll crawl in himself and pick up a shovel to start "digging" or drive a few cars around like his brother. He feels pretty special to be outside with Tytus while I'm making dinner. I'll pull the screen on our door down so I can hear them, and they'll just play and talk while I have the kitchen to myself for a little bit. It's easily their favorite thing to do together.

God's Classroom

Sitting at the dinner table tonight:

Tytus: "Can I go there?"

Mommy: "Where?"

Tytus: "Can I go to God's classroom?"

Mommy: "Sure...What will you do there?"

Tytus: "Play! And Witten, and Daddy, and Mommy come to!"

Mommy: "Okay!"

Tytus: "And Brandi maybe be there?"

Mommy: "Uh-huh....."

Tytus: "And Matt?
             And Atticus' friends?
             That would be fun!"

Mommy: "That would be fun!"

A couple days ago he sat down with a book and was "reading" it to Witten. "God our Father, we thank you for your many gifts and things...." :) It's so fun hearing things he's thinking and learning at home, school, and around our friends. I'm praying there are things taking root in his heart already.

Happy Halloween!

Right after we came in from handing out candy

 This was the first year Tytus actually did some trick-or-treating, so now he knows the goodness of candy! We met up with our small group from church in our friends' neighborhood last weekend . The kids played on the playground, ate dinner, and then we had a parade down a few streets where people were sitting out with candy. It was still really light outside and there weren't people everywhere, so it was the perfect introduction to what it's like to go trick-or-treating. It was a lot of fun for Tytus to see his friends all dressed up and, of course, to get lots of candy in his red fire hat! Witten enjoyed the adventure, too, and looked so cute as our little duck.

Here are our two boys as ducks. Can you guess which is which?

On Tuesday I helped out with the carnival at Tytus' school and both boys spent the day in their own classes. This was the first time I've left Witten for that amount of time (8:45-2:00) in an unfamiliar place and he did awesome! Every time I saw him he was happy and just doing his thing. He's such a fun little guy! Tytus knew I'd be there and thought it was so much fun to have me around for a little while. I got to see some of his friends he's been telling me about. I can tell he's really enjoying being in school, and we're so thankful for his teachers and how the school loves all the kids so well.

Tytus playing basketball right next to the game I was helping with that morning.

So so happy to see mommy at his school!

Handing out candy in our neighborhood on Halloween is always fun. We've met new neighbors each year and usually have a few with young kids stop by to play for a minute with our boys.

Helping hand out candy this year!

Making friends with some new neighbors

And here's a peek into Halloween evening after we've handed out all the candy. Tytus is such the entertainer. I'm really thinking of making a flip book of all these pictures....he was cracking us (and himself) up. Witten's taking notes.

10 Months!

Here's the big guy! So, what has he been up to lately? So many fun things, including clapping, waving, pushing his toy train down our sidewalk (several houses at a time), and helping clean up! With Tytus and Witten both, from a pretty young age we have practiced cleaning up our toys after we play. My hope is that they'll see it as a normal part of our daily activities and continue it as they get bigger and bigger. For a while Witten was really good at taking things out of containers, but now we've hit a point in his development where he's able to place things in the containers! He stops after each toy and looks around to see if applause will follow his great work! I think he's practicing some fine motor skill in lots of areas because he has also loved stacking blocks. He's always enjoyed knocking over the tall towers of blocks, but now he can stack two or three and feels so accomplished when they stay up.

He's taken a step or two by himself but mostly loves pushing vehicles around or crawling. I really don't support him much when I hold his fingers to walk him around; he's got great balance. I think it's just a matter of feeling secure knowing you're standing all alone. Usually once he's aware that I let go he'll just slowly sit himself down. Needless to say that walking is probably in our near future. :) So fun!

We must have eaten something messy for dinner that night since both of the boys are shirtless. Sometimes its just easier to eat without a shirt instead of scrubbing stains out. You also get to witness Witten's ridiculous drama when he's unhappy. He'll launch himself forward and cry so you don't miss that he's upset his train is stuck. It was on to baths right after I'm sure.

God has given us two amazing little guys, and I would never trade the time I get to spend with them right now. It takes so much wisdom to know how to train them, talk with them, help their hurts, and lead them in how to love others. We've just started really talking about sharing (with brother) and how to play with someone. Sometimes a really simple explanation is necessary, but I'm finding more often we talk about the real heart behind what God asks of us. I'm searching, praying, and refining myself to be an example for them. Man, it's big stuff! I love that Ian and I get to be their example, and I know God's using them to teach the two of us.

Two Little Explorers......Watch Out!

As Witten develops new skills of his own, Tytus sees him more as an equal and loves playing with and around him. Now that he's 9 months old, Witten is often crawling quickly from place to place going into different rooms. He spends a lot of his time making sure he's right around the action, especially watching what mommy is up to. He still loves standing up using the wall, doors, couch, table, etc. and has been known to let go and stand a few seconds on his own. It's fun for us to see him figure out how to go up and down the steps at the playground and go down the slide like his brother.

The boys playing in the bathtub

Easily their favorite time of day! Witten loves waving "hi" and "bye-bye"

Witten loved driving and Tytus really enjoyed pushing all by himself!

I recently found blog of a mom that has was previously a teacher and is doing so many fun things with her kids. I loved teaching because I would get to see their wheels turning just by giving them something to work with or make. Great conversations or new ideas come from trying something new together....even if it's a little messy. We've tried a few out, and I'd say both boys had a blast!

baby-friendly sandbox (it's edible)

So enjoyable and can go in any room or outside. He learns so much exploring in there.

Tytus and I made pretzels one day during Witten's nap

As you can see, Mater and Lightening McQueen are helping roll the dough.

We've been loving the cooler weather recently and got to have boat races in the rain one day. That's one of my favorite memories with my siblings, so it was fun to find a bottle cap and show Tytus how to race it along side the curb. Ian and Tytus also got to run a 5k together without it being scorching hot outside. I think the highlight was feeding the ducks! 

We've talked about rainbows several times since and
what God's telling us when He puts them there.

beautiful day!!

 Last, but not least, our 9 month old!

He's so active that he could hardly stay in one place to snap this shot. I literally just got one picture this month, but it captured him perfectly. He is saying "dada" and "mama" almost everyday now, and I'm pretty sure he associates us with them when they're said. There are several other words that he recognizes and responds to every time: Mia, Tytus, no, bath, book, "let's go!", "I'll be right back", eat, drink, and "night night" are a few of them. He's a fun guy and is learning so much!