Happy Birthday to My Sweet Boy!

So, today was quite a big day in our household! Not only was it Veteran's Day which is a special day to us for obvious reasons, but also because today was Munchkin's second birthday!

I decided after the fact that I should have put the sprinkles on before the wording, ha ha.

It's scary how fast time flies. Anyhow, I didn't get a chance to do a "Birthday Week" series of posts like I tried to do last year, but I did want to make sure that I did a month-by-month pictorial progression again, so here it is (for the record, it is technically still Munchkin's birthday here in Hawaii, so I'm not entirely late, ha ha). Enjoy!

December 2010: 13 months old.

January 2011: 14 months old. 

This was the beginning of his climbing on anything and everything. 

February 2011: 15 months old.

March 2011: 16 months old.

Boy, is it hard to try to get a correct White Balance when there is something red in the picture!!!

April 2011: 17 months old.

There was a helicopter flying over and he was squinting in preparation to look up at it. :)

May 2011: 18 months old.

Munchkin LOVES goats. He always has a blast when we go to the "Keiki Zoo" at the Honolulu Zoo and he gets to go in with the goats. He's really going to be excited when we get to Virginia and he sees my old goat. :)

June 2011: 19 months old.

When he had his stitches in--poor Baby. :(

July 2011: 20 months old.

Oh, how he loves to be outside!!

August 2011: 21 months old.

And he REALLY loves his smoothies! :)

September 2011: 22 months old.

Playing in the pool with Daddy. :)

October 2011: 23 months old.

Okay, so I admit it, this is a picture from my cell phone (hence the graininess). A while back the Munchkin somehow decided it was more fun to be BEHIND the camera instead of in front of it, and would wiggle his way between me and the camera (putting the strap around HIS neck too). So, it made taking pictures with the REAL camera rather difficult and I kind of gave up on it for a while (which I'm ashamed to admit). 

November 2011: 2 years old. :)

I'll try to write an update post soon about what today actually held for Munchkin. Hope you enjoyed the pictures, as always it was fun for myself to go back and see his progression over the last year...brought back a lot of memories! Goodnight for now!

Letter to Munchkin

I meant to post this earlier, but didn't get a chance to until now....

Dearest Munchkin,

It is so hard to believe that you are turning two already! You’ve grown and changed so much over the last year--from just beginning to be confident with walking alone to running, jumping, and climbing on/over everything (including your baby gate a couple of days ago--which you are now a pro at doing--even after I raised it a couple of inches off the ground).

Just a couple of weeks ago you started having a ‘vocabulary explosion’ of sorts, and since then you’ve made leaps and bounds in your verbal skills. While you still have a long way to go before you get there, I can’t wait for the day that you say “I love you, Mommy” back to me. For now though, we are trying to convince you that “bus” is really not pronounced “butt”. :)

This past year has held many firsts for you: your first set of stitches (and hopefully it will be the only one for a very long time!), your first night in a toddler bed, your first time in a pool (it was a kiddie pool, but you LOVE it--especially the sprinkler that it has built into it :), your first cookie, and soon your first bite of cake.

You’ve become a very independent (in situations that you are comfortable in anyhow, you still prefer to observe new things from familiar arms) and strong-willed little fella, but to be honest we were kind of expecting that. Most of the time when we say “No.” it becomes some sort of a challenge or a game to you and you just grin and do what we’ve said not to do. I have to admit, that has been really frustrating at times. However, I know eventually you will be able to comprehend the reasons behind our instructions (and that we aren’t trying to prevent you from having ‘fun’, but are instead trying to protect you and keep you safe). Until then though, I have to constantly stay on top of you otherwise the next thing I know you’ll have gone into the laundry room and brought the broom back out and started “sweeping” the floors or something else mischievous or unsafe.

You are such a goofball! You love to take pictures with my phone of yourself making goofy faces. Oh, and speaking of phones, over the last month and a half or so you have been making ridiculously cute make-believe phone calls on your cell phone. I love it when you pretend to have a conversation with someone and will pause as though listening to a reply before you carry on and then eventually end with a quick “Bye!” and close your phone.

I can’t wait to see what this next year will bring (though I’m fervently hoping your Terrible Two’s stage won’t be too bad or last too long--especially since you’ve already been showing some signs of it for the last couple of months already!!), and I’m excited to see you change and grow. Maybe sometime soon I will hear: “I love you, Mommy.”

I love you my Little One--forever and always!

Love,
Mommy

Frustration. . . .

Okay, please forgive me everyone, but I need to vent for a minute. . . .  Recently my husband and I tried to get some things resolved with someone, but instead of taking responsibility for their actions the other party simply denied them or passed the buck. Supposedly the issues are now "resolved," but I don't feel that way at all. Maybe I'm wrong, but I can't help but feel like if someone doesn't realize what they did and refuses to accept responsibility for their actions and then actually apologize for the hurt they caused, then the issue isn't really resolved (anyone else feel like this? Am I the only one?). I've been told by someone else that I need to be "the bigger person" and realize why the other person is seemingly incapable of taking responsibility for their actions and simply forgive them, but not allow them to run me over again if they do try that in the future (and I know that is good advice). It's just that I am struggling with it because I feel like if they don't realize what they did, they're just going to do it again regardless (because it apparently never happened in the first place . . . yeah right). Maybe I should simply 'turn the other cheek', but this person made my life miserable for a long time so I'm having a hard time. I guess that's just the human side of me wanting 'justice' and resolution.

I am NOT a person who enjoys drama and was sincerely hoping that everything would be resolved and that we could all move forward, but now I feel severely disappointed, stuck, and like I was run over all the more by this person's refusal to accept responsibility. Anyhow, please pray for me friends, I really need it right now! Pray for God to help me accept that I can't change people and to be more forgiving in that light. I'm so stressed right now. : (