Dear Jude: 23 months

Dear Judesy,

You turned 23 months old on the 25th (which was also your JuJu's happy birthday!) and I'm already mourning the fact that you are almost really and truly two years old.

You are a large child!  I have no idea of your actual size, but you stand as tall as Liam's shoulders and seem to weigh at least a million pounds. You are wearing 24 months and 2T clothes and size 4 or 5 diapers. You have finally gotten your canine teeth in, so we are just waiting on molars, ugh. 

Judes, you continue to be an imp in every sense of the word. You are a bit conniving, the Irish would call you a "wee messer, or a wee chancer," which describes you exactly. If you think you can get away with something you will risk it, and often even if you can't get away with it!  You love to try to get into the fireplace that's covered in soot, if the door is unlocked you are outside and trying to get in the street, you continually climb into the windowsill or the washing machine, you love to pull plugs out of outlets and throw toys around. You are a tornado and we love your spunk. 

Lately, you've shown favoritism towards savory foods, in these pictures I've bribed you with crisps which you routinely ask for for breakfast. You love to eat curry chips and chicken nuggets, you still are our little Cookie Monster. 

Developmentally, you continue to amaze us. We have recently discovered that you love to color, you sat and scribbled for 45 minutes the other day just as happy as could be. Your climbing, throwing, running, and kicking skills cannot be surpassed. You talk really well and have nice manners. You love to sing and will demand either, "tinkle, sunshiy, nana, or Jesus" for twinkle twinkle little star, you are my sunshine, hey Jude, or Jesus loves me at bedtime. It's hilarious. 

Judesy Roe, you are a joy of a little boy. We are constantly surprised by your sweetness and compassion. You love to snuggle and love on everyone. We are so thankful to have a front row seat to your life and can't wait to see where your spunky sweet little personality takes you in this life. 

Survey: Liam at 4 years old

I finally remembered to ask Liam these questions!  Hopefully I will remember every year. This was pretty entertaining. 

What is your name? I Wiam Hawk 

How old are you? My birthdays gone, I'm four years old. (He's been a little sad that everyday isn't his birthday).

Where do you live? In the new house 

What is your favorite color? Blue

Who is your best friend? Omi (Noemi, from nursery school).

What is your favorite food? Chips and chocolate sandwich (Nutella and peanut butter).

What do you want to be when you grow up? Small (most likely not happening).

What do you like to play? Rocket ship

What is your favorite show? Peppa pig 

Dear Liam: 4

Dearest Liam Davy,

Today you are FOUR years old!  I could burst into tears at how quickly the past 48 months have passed and at how proud you make me everyday. This is the first birthday you've understood and been excited about, which makes it even more fun for everyone!

Before we moved to Belfast we had one last visit with your beloved Dr. Steitz and he confirmed that you are a perfect giant. You are 43.5 inches tall, and weigh 43 pounds!  You're in the 100th percentile for both categories, you've come a long long way from the 19.5 inches and 5lb 5oz weight of your birth. For goodness sakes, we rejoiced when you made it into the growth charts in the 3rd percentile at three months old!

Liam, you are so smart!  You have your quirks and your struggles, but your intelligence and memory skills are amazing. You forget nothing, it's remarkable. You are cruising right along with your peers in nursery school and have finally learned how to sit quietly!  Hurray!

Buddy, you love life!  You are happy, happy, happy almost all of the time, you regularly will walk up to us and say, "I happy!"  It shows in your eyes and sweet smile, love. You love to run and be outdoors. You don't love holding hands or listening to directions, so we get a bit nervous walking around the city. But you love it.  There's a park really close to our house that we walk to a lot of afternoons and you absolutely adore walking through "the jungle" to get to the park and then exploring the paths and trails. You are an inquisitive soul and love to explore the world you're in, this is when you are the most calm and collected, when you are exploring. 

Liam, you are the most hilarious four year old I've ever known. If you hear music, you have to dance. Regardless of the context, you will drop everything and boogie. This is one of my favorite things about you. You could care less that you're blocking the entrance to the grocery store, you simply must dance. You love to laugh, and you have a big wonderful laugh that we love to hear.

Dadda is the king of your world, you absolutely adore him, but momma can calm you down when you are out of sorts.  You love to tell strangers about your brother, "this is baby Jude, he's a baby," you'll say. You can take him or leave him a lot of the time at home, but you are so proud that he's your baby. You have started wanting to help sing to him at night and snuggle and read him stories, which is precious. I love watching you develop your relationship, I know first hand how difficult it can be to be the older sibling, sometimes you just don't want anyone touching your stuff!

Liam bird, I can't quite put into words how proud of you I am. You have truly changed our lives in such a wonderful way. You made me a momma!  And you continue to teach me more about myself and my need for grace each day. I wouldn't change a single thing about you. I'm so very very glad that you were born. 

Love you forever, and ever,

Momma

Dear Jude: 22 months

Dear Jude,

Happy twenty second month birthday, sweet boy!  You continue to grow and change at such a rapid pace, I'm glad to be able to look back and watch your growth!

Everywhere we go people are surprised that you are not older than you are, you are a strapping little boy!  You are talking really well and are really into identifying things you see!  You tell me all about the dogs and cars and flowers and trees we see when we take brother to school in your raspy sweet voice.  You love to read books and will back up into my lap with one and say, "I want this, read it."  My current favorite phrase of yours is when you lay by the door during nap or bedtime and say, "momma, where are you?!" Between that and saying, "momma, get me" when you want to be held, you sure know how to work me. 

Confession: I am not very good at teaching my children things. I am working on it, but I am not likely to put flash cards in your face anytime soon. Despite my bad parenting, you amaze me with all of your knowledge. You can count to ten and know a few shapes and colors, as well. You must be picking things up by listening to Liam, or Yo Gabba Gabba is more educational than I realized!

Judesy, I'm pretty sure you are going to eat me out of house and home. I feel like you never stop eating!  You love popcorn, apples, strawberries, bread, and oranges. You eat big meals and lots of snacks. 

You love music and dancing, you are a rough and tumble little boy and often initiate wrestling matches with your big brother. You are pretty dramatic and will cry and throw yourself on the ground at the drop of a hat!  If you fall down, or dramatically lay yourself down slowly, you will loudly proclaim, "I'm oooooookay."  You are quite opinionated, and very good at letting us know your likes and dislikes. You love to give high fives and to blow kisses. 

Baby Jude, you are incredibly charming and a little stinker a lot of the times. Your love of life is contagious and encouraging, I love to see you greeting strangers, they are always surprised and enchanted. You have stolen our hearts with your grubby, chubby little hands and they are yours for the taking. 

Love you forever, and ever,

Momma

Dear Jude: 21 months

*once again, my blogging app failed to post this blog that I wrote almost a month ago!

Dear Judesy,

 You turned 21 months old on the 25th of August!  You are very grown up for your age and we often forget that you're not quite two.

Judes, you are so big!  You seem older than you are because of your size, as well as your behavior.  You are wearing 18-24 month clothing, some 24 month, and a size 6.5 shoe.  Eating is your love language.  If you are grumpy a snack goes a long way in turning your mood around.  You adore sweets and routinely beg for cookies and suckers.  You also love grown up food...you want to eat what we eat, but you want to eat before it is ready.  So you usually have a snacky dinner at 5ish and then eat again with the adults.

Your personality is an absolute hoot!  You are funny, charming, sassy, hot headed, and a born flirt (clearly you take after your parents).  You love greeting strangers and have to say goodbye to everyone when we leave a restaurant.  You also fall apart at the drop of a hat and can cry for no reason whatsoever.  You are also the sweetest, snuggliest, busiest little toddler I've known.  Basically, you keep us on our toes all day, every day.

You talk really well, you aren't always 100% clear, but we know what you want.  You've recently started loving books, which makes mommy and daddy so happy, you love to read and often take a book to bed with you.  You love to be outside and you really love playing with anything that Liam doesn't want you to touch.  You boys love each other, and love fighting with each other.  You love to climb and jump and often scare us by jumping from something high.  You think it's funny to fall, you are a very tough little boy.

Sweet Judesy, we just love you to bits.  I'm not sure what we would do without you and your sweet hugs and kisses.  You love to love things: stuffed animals, dogs, people, and we are grateful to be on the receiving end of you love.  Thank you for being such a precious, strong-willed, little love.  You are deeply cherished.

Love you forever, and ever,
Momma