Mav is 14 months old!

I fall more and more in love with my son everyday. From his deep baby blues to his blonde curly locks...his ginormous smile and infectious giggle. His burly big boy movements and his bigger heart. I fall deeper and deeper and deeper in love. This age, just after one, is such a precious time. I am forever grabbing Mav and smothering him with kisses, I can hardly walk by him at this point without giving him a squeeze. All the cuddles he has wanted all these months has got me hooked, I can't live without them either. He still comes up to cuddle me lots, but most of the time right now I get to him first.

At 14 months old, I can't help but remember that Tula, at this time, became a big sister. I look and Maverick and although he is becoming such a "big boy" in so many ways, I cannot imagine him as a big brother. He is still so much my baby. On the other hand, I am really feeling like I have two "big kids" and miss having a little tiny one to hold. I just cannot imagine bringing home a little one to Mav at this age. Mav, you gotta give credit to your big sister, she did so good bringing you home and accepting you when she was just a babe herself. I can honestly say, at this point, Mav would not react near as well to having a new baby in the house as his sister did. I guess its a bit of an unfair accusation, as we will never know what might have been. But their personalities are different, and for a few reasons, I just don't think Mav would have been ready to be a big bro at this age.

This month hasn't brought a lot of big changes. You still love boys toys, you still love to watch tv before your nap and before bed for a bit. You LOVE your bottle, and I have tried a couple times to not give it to you and you lose your mind. You are definitely not one of those kids that walks around with one hanging out of your mouth, but you like one when you first wake up and freak if its not the first thing we do in the morning. You like one before your nap and you like one before bedtime. It occurred to me this month that I should probably start weaning you from it, but I am not really into the whole "cold turkey" thing and it seems like you will lose your mind if I don't give you one when you are expecting it. Honestly, it just creates a lot of unnecessary stress for both of us so I am going to give it a few more weeks and try it again, with a few attempts here and there to see where you are at with the whole thing. I don't really have a goal or endpoint in mind, hoping it comes to me when the time is right. Truly, I love your bottle time too. All three of them are a time of day that we are alone and quiet and snuggling. I don't know if I am ready to give on on those times yet either.

This month you went from being petrified of dogs to loving them, I think that is because GG and Papa are here and you have spent some time with their dogs. Oh yeah, this month you had you first sleepover without Mommy at GG and Papas house for TWO nights and they said you did great! The first time we have been apart since I went to Brazil. Mommy and Daddy got to have lots and lots of fun, we went out for lots of dates and slept in and all that fun stuff. We finally found a good Indian food place out here in AZ, we went out one night for sushi, we came home at night and loved the freedom of not having to whisper and tiptoe around. We even had a waterfight in the house! We love you kids so much...but we do love when you stay at GG and Papas and we get to be kids ourselves again. We are all kids at heart, Mav John. And I hope that when you are a Daddy you and your wife take time to yourselves too, to play and to eat fancy and to wrestle on the couch. That is the important stuff, son, and she will treasure those times with you as much as she will treasure her babies. Daddy and me had a wonderful time..but I did miss you guys lots and after two days I was more than ready to snuggle you again. You walked in the door and immediately wanted me and up. No complaints here!

This month you got to go to your first concert. Well not really a concert, I guess, it was a show called Disney Live. We thought you guys would like if after how much you both loved the parade at Disneyland. It was so much fun. Tula actually took a few minutes to get into it, I guess cause she is older the big crowds and darkness before the show freaked her out. But you, from the moment the lights went down, were totally into it. All the bright colors and loud music...you absolutely loved it. The next day we had another big event, and went as a family to our very first Arizona Cardinals game. Mav, you were ever the stud in your Cards hoodie, you were into the game for...oh...about 10 minutes.. and then over it and those chairs were too small to hold your wiggly self. We stayed till halftime and then left so you and sis could sleep. It was a fun day and we were lucky to have friends who got us free seats..but pretty sure that we will wait a few months to attempt that one again. Although you are still at an age where you are considered a lap child, you are not really lap child size, and we need to take that into consideration now more than ever. Mav...you are a moose! You are so tough, so big, so quick, so burly. I constantly hear "He's a BIG boy" from people about you, and you are. You are wider in the shoulders than your sister now. I am not sure but I think you have her beat in weight. You walk around like a little man with you big chest all puffed up and out. You are my hero.

This month we have switch from showering you guys before bed to bathtime and you are a huge fan. You love to splash around in the water, your favorite is when I am filling the tub and I let you stand in there and play with the water coming out of the spout. Tonight you though you were so funny sticking your mouth under the water and swallowing a bit, or putting your face in the tub of water and closing your eyes. Oh, the things that make you smile. You still love after bathtime, when you get to crawl around naked on our bed for a bit. You think that is the best, hiding in the pillows and rolling around laughing and laughing.

Oh, this is big, you had your first haircut this month. Mommy friends Nicole and Pete came to visit and nicole does my hair so she trimmed your up a bit in the back and around the ears. Didn't take much off, not enough to even keep a lock for your baby book, but it did make you look a little more grown up (and handsome-er!) to me. Of course. Even two weeks later, it is starting to get long enough on top that I actually have to put some sort of styling product in there or the curls will just lay flat. I am not sure how much longer I will let it grow, but I don't know if I will ever be able to cut the top...you have beautiful hair, my son.

You love it when I read books to you. You love to shake your finger like I do when we read "No more monkey's jumping on the bed!" You love to clap and dance with Tula and I. You love to wrestle and try and sit on me when I lay on the floor. You love to be tickled. You cuddle your sister, I have found you a few times putting you head on her or trying to make her let you lay your legs on her.

You are MISERABLE when you wake up from your afternoon nap. Absolutely miserable. Ug, I don't even want to think about it. It's THAT annoying.

You got your upper and lower molars on your left side this month...nothing on the right side yet. You like to coloer and steal Tula's pencil crayons and run with them whenever it is her coloring time. You love making your sister chase you for any reason. You squeal with delight. This month you have started running, for sure.

Maverick, you still melt my heart with you big, sloppy, totally wide mouthed kisses that you love to give. You are such a nice and sweet boy, Mommy could not have asked for a more loving boy. I love you so much Maver. Happy 14 months old buddy!

safe

Today John had the day off and so we spent the day as a family out in the yard. John was busy ripping up all the summer grass and throwing down the winter seed. mav was running around in the dirt and Tula was helping me. We were ripping up all the basil and plucking the leaves off to make pesto. There were a bunch of flowers on the end, which is how we know it needed to be pulled up, and it makes for lots of bees around, which freaked me out, of course. John was pulling them up for me and I would occasionally act scared or whatever and Tula could sense I wasn't diggin all the bees around. We were talking abotu them, and I told her not to worry, that she was safe and I would always keep her safe.

"No Mama," she said, "I keep YOU safe."

be still my beating heart. I love that girl.

funny slash scary

...that's how Maverick would describe the loud noises I was making to him tonight. He was scared out of his mind and cracking up at the same time. too much cuteness in one kid.

Tula- the latest and the greatest

Now that Tula Belle is 2 there seems to be so much less reason to update "her" part of the blog. Other that vocabulary and personality, it seems like not much is changing. But that's sort of a good thing. She is really just coming into being her own little girl, and we are finding out the joys of getting to know her...the good and the bad...maybe I should say the fun and the not so fun. At this stage in her life, she is a little Mommy. She loves to help. She loves to boss her brother around. She loves to pull a chair up to the island and watch any and every thing I do in the kitchen. Loves to wash her own hair in the shower and dress herself. Loves to wash Mav's hair in the shower. The entire time. Her brother will sit there like champ while she puts the soap, scrubs, and rinses. Loves to carry things up and down the stairs for me. Tula has learned that I am half deaf and knows to tell me when the phone is ringing (I have the ringers turned REAL low, from when we were in the "baby stage"). Loves her big girl bed but is having a hard time falling asleep on her own in there still, bedtime can be a pain in the butt cause she wants us to lay with her. Someone usually ends up just falling asleep with her. That's gonna change soon. Oh...here's a good one. Colors on stuff. THIS IS ANNOYING! I can't leave her alone for 5 minutes without her finding a pen or marker. Loves her dollies. Sally and Darla sleep with her most every night. And Barbie doll is kinda the new cool thing too. Today she insisted that Barbie needed a blanket and then laid her down on her kitchen set for a nap and laid down on the floor beside her and pretended to sleep. Loves Mickey ever since Disneyland. Can *almost* count to ten. For some reason, likes the combo 2,5,8 when counting. Will stand at the edge of the pool and could 2,5,8 and then jump? I don't get it...loves to sing wheels on the bus and itsy bitsy spider...loves to sing and show Mav the actions and try and teach him. Loves any activities that require us all to sit in a circle on the floor. I know its sort of cliche but loves to be surrounded by people she loves. Loves to love.

Some Tula "isms" from this month I wrote down...

To Maverick:
-"go see Mom" when he is crying
-"sit and talk to me" while patting the ground beside her, trying to read to him

To Me:
-"I figure it out" when working with Daddy or pretending to fix something
-"that's Tula's favorite" when I tell her we are going for ice cream
-"this is SO nummy" ice cream
-"I'm sorry...I sick...I peed" when she had an accident and peed on the floor

And the best one...

When my Mom and dad were here a couple weeks ago for Mav's Bday and we were getting ready to go I think over to San Tan mall. We told her we were going out and she said "Not enough money". I have no idea where she got that but I was mortified obviously. We all started laughing so then she thought it was even funnier to repeat. Thank goodness she has forgotten that line.

Other big news. Tula is out of a high chair and sits in a booster seat with us at the table, Mav is in the restaurant high chair at the table too so we actually can sit down, the four of us and have dinner as a family. Just this week I have stopped going in and waking Tula at midnight to go potty. It seemed to be bothering her more and more that I was waking her to go, and she was peeing less and less. So we have went almost a week with no accidents! She has been totally day trained for 4 months or so...out of diapers for 6 or 7 months, but the nighttime training takes a little more work. I am excited I can actually, for the first time in months....wait, years, go to bed at 10 if I want and not have to wake till morning. As if that would ever happen though. I am still up way too late every single day. But I have the option of a full nights sleep, which is good enough for me!

Having two toddlers running around is crazy busy but I feel like these are the times, when John and I talked about having baby #2 right after baby #1 and I envisioned them playing together, this is the times that I envisioned. I knew it wouldn't take long before they would be chasing eachother around the back yard and entertaining each other for hours. We are at that stage. yes, they fight sometimes. But they are absolutely best of friends. They spend hours playing in the rocks together, reading books upstairs in one of their bedrooms, and they love to sit on the couch and watch tv. They love to get into things together, like to go into my closet where they can shut the door on me and snoop around in there. Anywhere that they can be alone and I can't see them they love. Downstairs. The spare bedroom. Wherever.

Sometimes they keep each other so entertained I think I am ready for another, then there are moments in my day where I don't think I could handle one.more.thing on my plate. I go back and forth between wanting all of my babies close in age to be playmates like these two, and then just giving these two time together with a mommy who isn't super duper busy. Hmm. To baby #3 or not to baby #3, that is the question...

oh...sidebar...just thinking out loud. no opinions, please:) Either way, I rest easy knowing our family will become just what it is supposed to be, just when it is supposed to be.

A couple new videos...

13 months old!

Maverick, at 13 months old you are a busy, busy little boy. Here is what has been happening in your little world this month:

- you love to babble. I can't say that you have any particular "words" yet, but you seem to be trying to copy or repeat us on some. We *think* we have heard: dog, ball, up, that, button, bug, and of course mama and dada. For everything else it's just "ooooooh" and pointing.

- you love cars! All the fun boy toys you got for your birthday you love to play with and you roll them across the ground, the tile, the arm of your carseat, wherever you are and make "car" noises by either doing "vroom vroom" or blowing your lips.

- you LOVE airplanes and not only have to point and stare at them when they fly over and you are playing outside, but you also make sure everyone else notices as well. Whenever you see a plane you are sure to get my attention and make sure I see (and get excited about!) it too.

- you fell down the stairs for the first time this month. My bad. We have a gate at the bottom and I always put you over and you go all the way up to the top by yourself no problem with me right behind you. I am guessing when you got to the top and realized I wasn't there you turned around to come and get me (cause you are sweet like that) and fell down.I was in the kitchen getting your bottle and heard a couple loud thuds and then you crying and it scared me half to death. You had a big goose egg on your forehead and a bruise on your arm and hip. Tula was standing on the stairs and when i got there her eyes were as big as pie plates from seeing the whole thing. She was yelling "You okay Maverick?" Your big sister is always looking out for you. Needless to say it will be a long time till we try that again.

- you love to sit in chairs, if you can't get into it yourself you will hit at the seat of it and say "that" till I put you in there. Then you like to move all around in there and give me a heart attack thinking you are going to fall off. You have BIG SMILES when you get to sit on any sort of an adult chair.

- you are a bit of a screamer. You have a temper, no doubt. If you don't like or want something you have a scream that would shatter glass. Loud and clear, we get it when you are not happy. You will also try and smack things out of my hand if I try and offer you something you don't want. You get VERY frustrated with me when I am not understanding you, and although we are still working on a couple baby signs to make this stage a little easier, nothing seems to have caught on yet so Mommy plays lots of guessing games with you!

- digging in the rocks. The weather has been cooler here the past couple weeks and you and your sister spend most mornings outside. You love, and could for hours sit in the rocks and dig, pour them from one cup to the other, and load up your Tonka truck and push it around. There have been a couple mornings I have put you out after breakfast and other than me bringing snacks to you haven't seen you again till lunch. I love watching you through the window lost in playtime and wonder in a moment alone or with your sister. You love your Cheerios in the morning, but as soon as you are done and I set you on the floor you immediately walk over to the patio door and bang on the glass till I open it for you and let you outside.

- you are a very independent little guy, I guess you learned this from your big sister. You love your alone and quiet time. You go to bed very easily right now, a bottle and a little snuggle and I put you in your bed totally awake and you go to sleep on your own. Love you for this:) Easy bedtime=happy Mommy.

- you love to clap and are starting to figure out dancing. You think it is funny to do, but when you and Tula start clapping or dancing together it is hilarious to you. I have a couple fond memories of driving in the car and turning around to see you both clapping together, huge smiles on both of your faces. You guys are two peas in a pod.

- oh, you love the television. I don't know if it's a guy thing or what. Your sister was never as in to it as you are at your age, but to be honest I don't think I really even turned the thing on much back then. Tula is older now and has a couple shows she likes to watch but you will sit and watch anything. Sometimes you will go and crawl into your guys' tv chair and point to the tv and "ooooo" till I catch your drift and go turn it on for you. You will lean back in the chair and relax like you just put in a 12 hour shift somewhere and get lost in whatever is on the tube.

-you are waving "bye bye"

- you are my cuddle bug. You still will just come over to me, especially if I am down on the floor with you guys, and lay your head on me. You like to wrestle too, you will sit on me and giggle if you want to play. You love to be touched, any physical contact and you are a happy guy.

Happy 13 months Mav John! Love you!

Goodwill

This afternoon Daddy and Tula went out together to fix Daddy's truck and Mommy and Mav got to run a couple errands together, alone, which was actually sort of a fun treat for both of us. For me, it's just so much easier doing that kind of stuff with one kid, but for Maverick, he loved having all the one on one attention, me talking to him and telling him what everything is, and lots of kisses. We had to take a trip into our local Goodwill store and I put Mav in the Ergo so that he could be nice and close. He still loves to ride in there, and although he is getting pretty heavy, I love having him close like that.

We were waiting in line to pay for the cool new Christmas train set we found (yay!) and giggling together. Playing one of Mav's favorite games, where he sticks his finger in my mouth and I pretend to bite his finger off and he laughs hysterically until we do it again. I couldn't help but notice the lady in line in front of us watching me, so I looked up at her and smiled.

"That is so sweet," she said. "My son used to love that game too." Her eyes were misty.

I did the usual small talk, 'Yeah, he loves this game" or whatever.

"My baby is 20 years old now, and he is in Iraq." And it was apparent she was trying very hard not to cry.

I did not know what to say, and regret to write that because I just didn't know what to say I really said nothing, except maybe, "Oh?"

You see, the first thought that came to my head, right or wrong, was "I am so sorry" but then I just didn't think that was appropriate. I hardly think these people over there want their loved ones to be accepting apologies for their brave and heroic acts. Then i thought to say "Thank You" but it just seemed so selfish as I was still able to cradle my baby safely in my arms and hers was a million miles away. I wanted to thank her for raising a man strong and good and brave enough to be willing to go to places like the Iraq and fight for freedom, whether it be his own or someone else's. She must be so sad to have him gone, but she should be so proud.

What a special reminder today of how little boys grow up to be great big men, but they are always their Mommy's baby. Oh, it hurt my heart to see her eyes well up, I couldn't imagine her pain. But I could sense her pride too as she spoke of him and that somehow eased the hurt for her a little.

She got to the front of the line and asked the Goodwill employee what they do with all the clothes they cannot sell, because he son had phoned her from Iraq and said "Ma, you gotta do something or send something, the kids here wear just rags and they have no shoes." She told the story as colorfully to the employee as it had been told to her, and seemed just as every bit concerned about it as her boy was. How incredible that this young man isn't only over there, life on the line he is phoning home brainstorming with his Mommy about how to clothe those kids.

I am so fortunate to have been behind that kind lady today at Goodwill. She and the story of her son really struck a chord, and I can only hope and pray that I am able to raise such thoughful, wordly children. What a gift, in so many ways, has she given to the world. I wish I would have said more to her in that line...there was so much to say. But I have a feeling that she rests easy anyways, with or without the encouraging words from others. Knowing that she did her best with what she had, and he is doing the best with what he has, and inspiring others to do the same.