My Sweet Blake is Two Today!

I say this every year, but time flies. My kids are growing up way too fast. I wanted to start a fun birthday tradition that I saw on a friend's blog a little while back. Hopefully I remember to keep this up, because I think it will be fun when the kids are grown, for them to read their yearly birthday letters from their Mom.

Blake-the past two years have been filled with so much joy for our family. You and your sister bring your father and me happiness beyond description. I can't help but get emotional while writing this. Looking back, your dad and I cannot even remember what life was like before having children. Our life was not really complete until we started adding kids to our family. We now know true joy.

Bringing you into this world was really a breeze for me. The pregnancy was easy, other than the first trimester when I was really, really sick. The labor and delivery went so smoothly and was pretty close to painless. You really were a blessing from the very beginning. You were such a happy, calm, sweet baby for the most part, too. And though you didn't get the hang of sleeping through the night for many, many (too many) months like your sister, I really enjoyed our time together in those quiet, wee hours. I literally cried with you when it was time to let you "cry it out" and learn to sleep through the night. It broke my heart, and I really missed our special time together, though I didn't miss the constant feeling of exhaustion.

You learned to walk at around 13 months and soon were all over the place, busy getting into my cupboards and pulling out pots and pans and whatever was therein. Though the house was almost never as clean as I would have wanted after you became mobile, I learned to love your busy-ness and even your messes.

Now you are communicating, connecting words together. You LOVE letters and numbers, and you amaze me with your intelligence. You can recognize and say pretty much every letter in the alphabet and its sound. You can count to ten. You love books and being read to. You love to color and have mommy draw train after train for you. You cannot get enough of trains, especially Thomas the Train.

You love to eat pancakes for breakfast and "mac' and cheese" for lunch and have your mommy hold you with your blanket while you drink your "ba-ba". Mommy always has such a hard time taking the bottle away from her kids before they more than outgrow it. I love that cuddle time with you.

You have a very happy, calm disposition for the most part, but you can be very strong-willed at times. You know how you want things to be and you let us know, especially now that you can talk.

We say your prayers every night and each time, you say that you are grateful for "church". I pray that you will always have this love of the gospel and of the truly important things in life.

You take very good naps for me, and you nearly always go to bed easily each evening. You take a train and a book with you every night to bed and I can always hear you in there "reading" yourself the book until you fall asleep. You always wake up so happy by talking to yourself in your bed and playing with your train. You rarely wake up with crying. One of my favorite times of day is coming into your room in the morning and hearing you say "Mommy!" so excitedly and getting you out of bed.

You love to play outside or "side" as you call it. You love to play in your car out there and ride Natalie's bike while I push you. As of today, you will have your own bike to ride. You are still learning to share with your sister. Though you two don't always get along, I see how much you love her. Whenever Natalie goes to preschool, you ask for her and you have a hard time going down for a nap without kissing her first. When she gets home, you often hug her tightly and follow her like her shadow, wanting to do everything she is doing.

You love to help your mom. What a sweet boy I have. Every Monday when I do the laundry, you are right there, sorting or sitting on top of the washer while it fills and putting clothes into the soapy water. I look forward to that time each week.

Today you are two, and I wonder where the time has gone. I love to call you my "baby". Though you're getting to be more of a toddler now, I hate to admit it. I can say that I really have made the most of these past two years with you. I don't want to miss any new things that you learn or do. Your family just adores you, Blake, and we can't imagine life without you. I am just thrilled and honored to be your mom, and am so grateful that Heavenly Father sent you to us. We love you, our little "Mr."

Love your Mom