Today is Gavin's third birthday!

Dear sweet Gavin, here are a few things about you at age three!

 You love your little brother! You often kiss him spontaneously (and, yes, sometimes you also smack him or push him spontaneously). You can make him laugh better than anyone else!

 

You are creative. You love music and art. You sing A LOT and always on key! I can sometimes get you to sing to your grandparents or great grandparents over the phone, but most of the time you don't like to "perform"on demand - but your joyful songs while you are entertaining yourself and you don't know I'm listening - those are the ones that make my heart so full.

You are your daddy's mini-me. Everyone comments on how much you look like Daddy. But I think you have some of my personality traits (you're cranky when hungry, you notice how other people are feeling all the time and want everyone to be okay, you're silly and goofy).

 You are so busy. You have been brave from the beginning on playgrounds, climbing trees, asking to go "up in the air" on the swing. You love any open space where you can run.

 You like for me to stay with you at night until you go to sleep, and you are getting pretty clever with your persuasiveness to make me stay with you longer. I hear things I've said coming back to haunt me. You say things like "It's not time for you to get up, it's time to go to sleep. Shhhh." You also tell me to "be patient" when you aren't ready to go to bed. And you sound just like me when you tell Aiden, "No, no, no!"

You love books about police, firefighters, trains, dinosaurs, animals, trucks of all kinds, and your favorite Bible story is David and Goliath (you can pretty much recite that one). You pray for people by saying "Jesus thank you" and then saying your prayer (such as, "Jesus thank you Gibson feel better" when your cousin was sick. And then you say, "He's all better now!" I love your faith!)

You are like a hummingbird, hardly ever still. You love chocolate milk, chicken nuggets, apples, bananas and PB&J. And all things sugary (another trait you got from your mom). You can memorize TV commercials amazingly well and I often hear you singing them which is kind of hilarious ("We are Farmers, bum bum bum bum bum bum bum!"). You like to give people presents but you are still working on liking to share.

I am so thankful for your big heart and your beautiful spirit. I love being your mom. Happy Birthday Gavin!

To Aiden: You're ONE!

Dear Aiden,
Putting you to sleep tonight I held you against my chest for a long time. You don't always let me do that, but tonight you just snuggled peacefully and let me kiss the top of your head a lot. I thought, "Has it really been a year? Has it really been a WHOLE year? Has it really been ONLY a year?" Tomorrow is your first birthday! It's amazing...I can't remember life before you, but I can't believe you're not a baby anymore!

You were born so fast I can barely even remember it. I think the total time from when I got induced was about four hours. I didn't even get to watch TV or read a magazine! Your birth went well, but you took a while to warm up and had to sit under warm lights for an hour before I could hold you. That was one of the longest hours of my life. You looked SO MUCH like Gavin when you were born! I thought I had just had Gavin's clone. You also slept the WHOLE NIGHT your first night. I couldn't sleep a wink because I was terrified that there was something wrong with you for sleeping so much. (Gavin didn't sleep much at all his first night!)

You and Gavin were sick a lot right after you were born. I felt like I couldn't handle two kids, that I wasn't doing something right. You had a recurring pinkeye virus, and thrush, and colds. I had to give you Benadryl and antibiotics and eye drops a lot and you were so tiny to have to go through all that! Gavin was a nightmare with the eye drops, but you were so good natured. You even laugh when I suck out your nose with the nose bulb!

We moved when you were three and a half months old. Half our stuff was in storage and we moved in with your Nana D. You learned to crawl there, and fought sleeping through the night for a while but finally learned to do it. You loved Nana's dog, and you also loved to get into things that you weren't supposed to touch, which made your Nana very anxious and made Mommy super stressed about not destroying the house! We found out you have food allergies that cause you to have excema. You and Gavin also got sick there too with something Gavin must have picked up at preschool. You vomited all over the booth at Steak and Shake and you never cried. You handled all of this without complaining (except the sleeping through the night part). I think you are one of the most good natured people on the planet.

You love to eat. It doesn't matter what KIND of food, you just love the whole process of eating. Gavin is the pickiest eater ever, and sometimes I think PB&Js are the only thing keeping him alive, but you are the LEAST picky. Your dad always says you take after your Papa Pete that way.

We moved again when you were nine months old. You still love getting into stuff. You have broken three of the sets of blinds in the house already due to your super-strong baby grip! You love looking out the windows, being outside, and seeing Daddy come in the door after work.You are happy 99 percent of the time. You like music, and animals, and watching Gavin do anything, and being underfoot when I'm trying to do something, and trying to escape and crawl up the stairs.

You like me to hold your hand in the car, so a lot of times while driving I have my left arm twisted almost dislocating my shoulder to hold your hand in the seat behind me. You're a good traveler though, and have handled multiple long car trips without any meltdowns. Even Gavin travels better now that you are in the back seat too!

You didn't get any teeth until you were about 11 months old and then you got two top teeth at once. Just this week a bottom tooth has started pushing through. You gnaw on anything and everything you can get your hands on. You like to clap and you beam with pride when we join in clapping with you. You even say "Cwa, cwa!" You also say "Mama" (that was one of your first words), "Dada" pretty consistently. I think I have also heard you say "Ni-ni" (Night-night) and "Ba-ba" (Bye bye or bottle) and "Ball" and "Dog." This morning you mimicked Daddy making dog and cat noises. That was pretty hilarious.

You are endlessly entertaining. It is so fun just to watch you. You are pulling up and standing a lot and can walk if we hold your hand (or while holding onto my leg), but haven't taken your first steps all by yourself yet.

You have taught me that routines are good; that naps are good; but you can recover if you don't get them; that cuddling is the best; slobbery kisses always make me smile; that crying doesn't kill you (or me); that no two children are alike. Gavin makes you laugh more than anyone. You love your Aunt Becca almost as much as you love me I think. You love everybody, really...you even waved at the teller at the bank the other day.

I am SO, SO thankful for you. I am thankful for this year, as crazy and hectic and stressful as it has been, because YOU were in it.

Your name, Aiden Peter, means "little and fiery" and "rock." My prayer for you is that you will have the fire of the Rock of Ages in your soul.  May you one day be a strong and courageous man who loves fiercely and generously. I pray that our successes and failures as parents will point you to the Father in Heaven who gave us the privilege of raising you. I pray that you will trust Him with your life and have the joy that comes from knowing you are living out the purpose you were created to fulfill.

I am so extremely blessed and privileged to be your mom. Happy Birthday, Aiden. You are loved.

A Gentle and Quiet Spirit

Confession: If I could look like anyone on the planet and have her wardrobe too, it would be Jennifer Aniston. I know I'll never get there, but I occasionally like to daydream what it would be like to have her hairstyle (I've tried numerous times!) or to have the TOTALLY AWESOME boots in the picture below (which I discovered after ridiculously too much research, are vintage women's engineer boots that she has had since the 90's and are no longer sold):

 
It's hard enough to look pretty on the outside, and I probably obsess as much as anyone about how to cover up my external flaws or try to look "cool", but what if people could see me without my INTERNAL makeup - the things I do to camoflauge my ugly qualities or the thoughts I never want someone else to know about?

As a mom, the verse at the beginning of this post has been coming to mind a lot lately...usually when I am running low on patience or involved in a struggle of wills with my almost 3 year old. I fail so often as a mom, and I know it happens when I lose sight of the Source of peace in my heart.

I am excited that God has been showing me how silly it is to try to look pretty on the outside when He is working on stuff that is so much more important on the INSIDE.

God gave me the most incredible husband - the EXACT person I needed - who hates fakeness in all forms and calls me out on my silly vanity. He really DOES think I look better without makeup. What?!? He says "I like who I married, so don't try to be anyone else!" I'm thankful for him. (Even though I think it's okay to like to dress up SOMETIMES for the fun of it!)

I am holding myself accountable to tell all three of my readers (ha) that this next year is going to be about INSIDE makeup for me...developing a gentle and quiet spirit. You are all allowed to call me out if you see me acting otherwise. My prayer is that my sweet boys will see that desire in my heart (even when I fail) and will be attracted to REAL beauty (INNER beauty) not externals...and that they will let Jesus make them beautiful on the inside too.

Moms, how do you discipline your children with a gentle and quiet spirit? I'd love to hear any advice/tips/resources/things you've learned about if you have any.