Dear Adrian

You are my love.  You are 2 1/2 years old today.  I wish you weren’t growing up so quickly.  I have enjoyed every moment that I have had as your mother.  I can only imagine what the future will bring.

You continue to change every day.  You have always been smaller than Isaac, but you have recently hit a huge growth spurt.  Everyone comments on how tall you are getting.  I think you are about the same height as Isaac and you may be taller than him next week.  

I can’t believe how much you eat.  We call you “Cookie Monster” because you demand cookies on a daily basis.  You would eat as many as we would allow you.  How do you stay so skinny when you eat so much?  Oh, yeah . . .  it is all of that running you do.  You are constantly on the go.  Sometimes you just run around the house just for the sake of running.  

I love your facial expressions.  You have quite a range of expressions from furrowed brow to shock and surprise. You have always been very expressive.  You use your hands when you talk, too.  You get that from me.  

How did you get so smart?  I think I can actually see the wheels spinning sometimes.  You are constantly trying to figure out how things work.  We call you “The Little Engineer”.  I think you have the most beautiful thick, curly brown hair.  You get the curls from Grandpa B.  I love your big hazel brown eyes, too.  All it takes is a look in my direction from your beautiful face and my heart melts.  You love to snuggle up with me after your bath at bedtime.  It makes Papa so jealous, but I love it.

The qualities I admire most in you are the ones you naturally get from Papa.  You have fierce independence and confidence in your decisions.  You are a natural leader.  You usually get Isaac into trouble because you come up with mischievous ideas and he executes them.  You are smart enough not to get caught.  You recently started saying “I do it all myself!”  

Most nights, right before bed, you instigate a chasing/wrestling match with your brother.  You two are so rough with each other, but you have always been so tough.  It takes a lot to get you upset.  You are so even keel.  I love that about you.

Being your mother is the greatest joy of my life.  You (and Isaac) are my greatest accomplishment.  I am already so proud of you on a daily basis.  You give me a sense of purpose and peace that I never knew existed.  I have so many hopes and dreams for your life, but most of all, I want you to be happy.  I will always support you in your quest for happiness.    

Never lose your zest for knowledge.  Never let anyone take your independence and confidence away.  Those are your qualities that I love and admire the most.  I am learning from you how to be more independent and confident every day.  Thank you.  Show gratitude in your life.  Your combination of intelligence, independence and gratitude will make you a very successful person in your personal life and your professional quests.  I am in awe of you.  I am so excited to see who you will become, but, for now, please slow down a little.  You are growing up too fast.  

You are my love.

Dear Isaac

You are my sunshine.  

I simply can’t believe that you are already 2 1/2 years old.  Why can’t I pause time - just for a while?  I love you just the way you are right now.

You make me and Papa laugh on a daily basis.  You recently went through a short phase of describing everything from a toy to your meal as “pretty awesome” and you frequently remind us that you are “the boss”.  You refer to Palmer as your “best friend” and ask about him daily.  I think you might not realize that Adrian is actually your best friend.  When I ask you about this, you correct me to tell me that he is your brother.  You spend a lot of time wondering if Palmer is sick.  Where does that come from?

You exhibit empathy beyond your years.  Frequently, you ask people if they are ok just for the sake of showing that you care about them.  What toddler does that?  You worry about Adrian when he is sick or hurt.  That warms my heart.  Sometimes, out of the blue, you will look at me, Adrian, or Papa and say, “Give me a kiss.  Give me a hug.  Give me a fist bump.”  You know how to make us feel your love.

You like to categorize “guys” and “men”.  Where do you come up with this stuff?  You will talk about the UPS guy and inform me that he is a "bad man".  You told Papa that his friend Mitch is a "bad guy”.  When Papa questioned you about it, you said, “He is definitely not a good guy”.  But, you are sure of one thing - “Papa is a nice man”.  You worship him - as he does you.  

In your eyes, Hot Wheel cars are the best invention of this century.  You wake up with one in your hand every morning and go to bed with one each night.  In fact, bribing you with Hot Wheels is how we have been able to successfully potty train you.  

You really love all of your grandparents - as you should.  They spoil you rotten.  You may not get to see them every week, but you talk about each of them often.  

For some reason, milk is still your favorite food.  I think you would drink a gallon a day if we would let you.

Being your mother (and Adrian’s, too) is the greatest joy of my life.  Nothing compares.  I want to give you a life full of love, adventure and knowledge.  I also want you to understand that it is important to treat all people, especially those different from you, with respect and kindness.  The most important thing in your life will always be your relationship with other people.  Everything else is secondary.  Exhibit gratitude.  That will take you far in every aspect of your life.

I hope you never stop showing such sincere concern for the people you love.  It is what I love most about you.  I will do anything to make you feel my love.  My love for you will always be the most consistent part of your life. It will never waiver.  

You are my sunshine.

What a Beautiful Fall

I am still playing a little catch up on the blog. I have made it all of the way to September 2011. The most memorable part of September was the gorgeous weather. This fall was perfect. The boys wore shorts on and off into October. We spent a lot of time outside in September and October.

Isaac & Adrian turned 22 months in September.

We spent a wonderful couple of days in Columbia with great friends over Labor Day weekend watching Mizzou football. The temperature during the game was in the upper 90’s. I think it was the hottest football game I have ever attended. It didn’t dissuade us from having fun tailgating. In attendance: the Robinsons, the Wentworths, the Hamms, the Hulls, the Heines, Missy Monroe, Russ Gelbach, Ryan Robinson and my brother Jeff was able to come for a while. Isaac and Adrian spent the night with Gramps and Grandma Elaine one night and Grammo and Grandpa Dave the other night.

Adrian and Isaac with Grandma Elaine and Gramps Ron, celebrating Gramps’ birthday with a lunch out.

While visiting Grammo and Grandpa Dave, Isaac and Adrian went to see Grandpa’s goats. Adrian is such an animal lover, he always enjoys visiting the livestock. He fed the goats and, I believe, one or more of the goat chased him around. Later that week, Adrian was playing with his farm set. He picked up the goat, put his finger up to the goat’s mouth, made a grimace, and said, “Goat bites me!” It was so cute and he did it numerous times throughout the next couple of weeks.

Dave and I celebrated our ninth anniversary in September. The boys’ favorite babysitter, Lexi Drummond, came to watch them so we could go out to dinner and a movie. All four of us went out to dinner to celebrate our anniversary later in the week.

Several members on my mom’s side of the family spent a weekend in Columbia attending a Mizzou football game and participating in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure in honor of my mom beating breast cancer. This is the second year we participated in the Komen Race. It was a lot of fun.

Adrian & Isaac tailgating at the Mizzou game.

Our entire team!

We are on Faurot Field!!

Towards the end of September, I spent a couple of days in Springfield at an event sponsored by the Missouri Dental Association, called Missouri Mission of Mercy (MOMOM). It was an extremely large free dental clinic. It was an honor to participate and I hope that I can do it many times in the future.

We took the boys to their first air show in Kirksville on a steamy hot Sunday. They loved the airplanes, but their attention span was short and we left early because they started running all over the place.

Isaac and Adrian started a music class called Little Notes. It was a great experience for them, and it reinforced to their parents that they are social butterflies. I don’t believe either of them will ever be wallflowers. Most of the other toddlers (all of whom were older than our boys) stayed close to their mothers and Isaac and Adrian were all over the room. They didn’t always cooperate and we usually had to leave early because they were disrupting the class, but I think I might sign them up to take the class again this winter. I am a glutton for punishment.

A couple of funny stories that occurred during September: Isaac spent a lot of time proclaiming “Papa” in every tone imaginable when Dave was around and gone. Isaac was very, very attached to his Papa at that time - and he still is. One day, he started calling me “Papa” while Dave was at work, and I told him to stop doing that. I said, “I’m not Papa. What’s my name?” I expected him to say, “Mommy”, but instead he said, “Tisha!” My jaw dropped to the floor. I didn’t realize he even knew I had a name - other than Mommy. After that, he has called me “Tisha Mommy” from time to time. He comes up with some funny stuff.

We have known that Adrian has an amazing attention span for most things, whether it is sorting shapes, building towers, watching movies. One day in September when I was packing for one of our numerous trips, I put the movie “How to Train Your Dragon” in for the boys to watch. He sat and nearly watched the entire movie. During the movie, I asked him what that was on the TV and he said, “Dragon! SCARES ME!” and made a horrible grimace and shook his fists in front of his face. Looking back on September, it was probably the first month the boys started to really put at least three words together into sentences. I found it fascinating. Isaac liked to yell, “Papa, stop it!”

Stay tuned for October . . .

New Year’s Resolution

This is it. This is my New Year’s Resolution. This blog. This poor abandoned blog. I didn’t admit to anyone that this was my resolution, because I am fairly certain that I will fail. I guess I can’t succeed if I don’t try.

I actually write this blog for my kids . . . or maybe it is just for myself. I don’t want to forget anything . . . or everything. I mean, I can’t even remember what flavor of coffee I drank for breakfast yesterday (I got a Keurig for Christmas!), so how on earth will I remember what cute little things Adrian said at 25 months when I am 52 years old?

So, here I am, diving back in.

I know I don’t have many readers - mainly my boys’ grandparents and a few of my close friends. But as the mother of TWO toddler boys, I am trying to cut myself some slack for skipping the last 5 months. Come on. I am busy - as you will see if you read this blog. So, for those few readers out there, I know I can’t just skip forward to today. I should give a small update on the last half of 2011. Who knows how long that will take. Here goes.

August was a hot month in our little corner of the midwest. We spent most of the month outside swimming in our little blow up pool on our deck. The boys love water almost as much as they love each other.

Dave and I had a fantastic day and evening at an awesome little music festival in Memphis, Missouri called the Old Lake Bash. Our great friends, Tim & Kellie from Kirksville joined us and Dave’s best friend, Mitch, put on a great show as the lead singer of 80’s hair band Tiger Blood. You had to be there.

We celebrated Isaac & Adrian’s 21 month birthday in August. I know. I know. Someday I will have to quit celebrating each monthly birthday - maybe around the age of 12.

Adrian had his first haircut in August. That was a special moment for me as his mother. He sat so sweetly in the chair, barely moving at all. We didn’t cut off all of his beautiful curls. We just shortened them. And the curls still blow in the breeze today.

Before - a little nervous

During - such a sweet boy

After - with his stylist Kim

The same evening of Adrian’s first haircut, we converted each of the boys’ cribs to toddler beds. Isaac started crawling out of [escaping from] his crib that week, so we really had no choice. They love their big boy beds. They are usually great about staying in their beds, too. Although, one day at nap time they were both continually getting out of their beds to goof off. I was getting very frustrated. As punishment, I finally began taking a stuffed animal, or “buddy", away from them each time they got out of their bed. Finally, after about the fifth time, Isaac had an arm full of “buddies”, ran to the door, said, “Here. Mommy. Buddies.” as he cried his eyes out. So sweet and so sad at the same time. I am still not sure if that was a parenting success or failure.

We celebrated my aunt Carla’s 50th birthday with a surprise party at my cousin Travis and his wife Jacqui’s home in St. Joe. It was great. The following day, the entire family loaded up and visited the KC Zoo. Isaac, Adrian, and their cousin, Palmer really enjoyed it. They had all been to the zoo one previous time. Adrian is such an animal lover. He just couldn’t get enough. They also enjoyed their first ride on a carousel.

Jacqui & Isaac

Gramo and Adrian

Palmer & Tonya

Isaac & Uncle Jeff

We spent one weekend in August running a 5K in our hometown of Memphis at the annual Antique Fair, a weekend festival. Their Grandma Oleva (“Gramo") and her friend Cathy pushed the stroller and walked with Isaac & Adrian while I ran. The boys enjoyed the parade with their cousin, Palmer. They each had several pieces of candy - a rarity. They really enjoyed those suckers.

Isaac & Adrian's Great Grandpa Burdett’s antique International tractor (that he bought new in 1954) was in the parade. The boys were able to sit on the tractor with Gramps (my dad, Ron) after the parade. Later that afternoon, we celebrated our friend Hilary’s first birthday with a party at her home. She is a cutie. I’m sure the boys will fight for her affections one day soon.

We rounded out the summer with lots of jogs and walks with me behind the jogging stroller, “The Bob”, while Isaac & Adrian lounged with a snack and enjoyed the ride. Oh, how they love The Bob. We usually made a pit stop at the Brashear Park for some swinging and climbing. Isaac & Adrian also spent a lot of time cruising our neighborhood in their little red wagon. They used that time to find their good fiends, Jersey, Payton & “Baby Brett”.

The best news of the summer is that Dave and his business partners completed their latest project, Park 1600. It is a large professional building housing a slew of physicians, Century 21 and his law firm. I’m so proud of him.

Isaac & Adrian visiting Papa while he was moving into the new office.

I will have to spend some time posting about September, October, No . . . Oh. My. Goodness. I can do it. I can do it. Stay tuned.