One Whole Year

My tiny Spencercakes has gone the way of all of my other children and become a full-blown one-year-old. It's the subtlety of the whole affair that gets me, I think; babies seem so little and helpless for so long, and then the next thing you know, they're playing in the toilet water every chance they get, and climbing into the dishwasher whenever you happen to leave it open.  I was hoping that Spence would take the hint and just stay little for a least a little bit longer than the others, but this boy has been keen on growing up since day 1 and refuses to indulge my desperate desires. 

At one-year-old, Spencer is still not exclusively walking, though he is taking more and more steps every day. He is pretty much hungry every moment that he is awake, sleeps like a champ at night, and is currently conducting a test on my sanity that involves an attempt to drop his second afternoon nap. He is the apple of everyone's eye and lights up when he sees a familiar face come through the door, often lunging towards that person from the unsuspecting arms of whoever is currently holding him. He smiles easily, enjoys long soaks in the tub (if crawling around and standing up in the bathtub qualifies as a soak), feeding himself cold cereal, knocking things over, and racing away when someone is trying to change his diaper or get him dressed.. He has started to say "yeah" and "uh-oh," and not much else that sounds like words, but a whole lot of gibberish flows from that little sweet mouth all the live-long day. 

He is easily everyone's favorite. Such a sweet-tempered, easily soothed, yet insanely high-energy baby we have never had the privilege of knowing, and we are blessed every day for the sheer fact of his being in our family. 

Here's a little recap of his eventful and adorable life thus far.

April 18, 2013

May 2013

June 2013

July 2013

August 2013

September 2013

October 2013

November 2013 

December 2013

January 2014

February 2014

March 2014

April 18, 2014

Happy Birthday, sweet boy. We'll eat you up we love you so!

Monson Humor

My children quite often push me to the very brink of my sanity and constantly test my ability to make rational decisions and/or actually see a thought through to its glorious finish. Thankfully, they also have a great talent for making hysterical and adorable remarks, which helps me remember that lightness, though sometimes harder to achieve, is definitely the way to go (when at all possible!) in the midst of raising 4 squirrelly children. Some gems of late:

Julia:

~You want me to dust? I'm not a butler!

~Savanna, do you know what rain is? It's the clouds throwing up.


Alexa:

~(mouthing the words to "Let it Go"): I'm singing, Mommy. I just have my volume turned down.

~Lex: I can't wait to get bigger so I can buy pretty clothes and things.

  Me: You know what makes you perfect? How kind and helpful you are. It's not the things you wear.

  Lex: Mmm, I'll still be perfect and kind when I have pretty clothes.

They're kooky. And crazy. And they're mine, all mine.

Guess Who's a Water Baby?

It's official: Spencer loves the swimming pool. 

Not really a surprise since he does this when it's time to take a bath:

But still, I do love it when my babies love to swim (which Alexa still doesn't) because that means that I get to get in, too, without being stuck out of the water or sitting on the steps in triple digit heat.

Spencer loved the pool so much, in fact, that he could not be bothered to stop splashing and/or kicking long enough to actually look at me for a picture. Oh well. At least we know it's a hit.

Looks like the beginning of a beautiful friendship for a long, hot summer.

As it Turns Out, Google Loves Me

Look what happens when you put your birthday info into your Google profile! I'll admit, it's a little silly how happy this made me, but I got so giddy when I saw it. (Have I mentioned before that I'm very easy to please?) I actually thought that Craig had somehow rigged this since he is a computer genius and all, but nope, it was just the universe...er, Googleverse...telling me to have a fabulous birthday. 

And I sure did.

Thank goodness I use Google regularly or I might have missed this little gem!

Glorious Mornings

Mornings around here (after the older girls are off to school and the initial rush is over) are truly blissful. Lexa is calm, and plays independently really well, Spencer sleeps in, I can usually get a run in before Craig goes to work, and, if I am feeling so inclined, I can actually get a decent amount of things done before naptime.

Life after school is a different story. Tempers and messes explode, the volume quadruples, and my stress-level basically peaks until bedtime. So we'll just focus on wonderful mornings for now so I don't have to start stressing about messes and fights that haven't actually happened yet.

I love what a kind and dutiful big sister Alexa has turned out to be. And also that Spencer can't talk yet and tell her to stop bossing him around. (I think that might be the trouble when the other girls spend time together: they can all talk.) Thus far, Spence takes her direction like a champ, though I suspect the winds will change once he can voice himself more articulately.

Here's to the limited number of peaceful, pre-verbal mornings that stretch out before me!