a few of my favorite things right now

Tonight I was telling Chad how much I love these things and wanted to write them down before time goes on and I forget.

1. Rowen's big, open mouth kisses he gives with a huge grin on his face. They may be the wettest kisses, but they sure are the sweetest.

2. The way he tries to save all his bath toys from the drain when the water is going down. As if he is afraid they might disappear with the water. What a good friend.

3. His willingness to always share his food, especially with daddy. He will even share his last bite. I hope his generous spirit continues to grow.

4. How he tries to swim in the bath but it is too shallow.

Happy Birthday Rowen!

Rowen enjoying his new fire truck :)

Yummy Cupcake!

Soo BIG!!

Showing where his new teeth are!

I cannot believe that my sweet little 7 lb 4 oz baby boy is now a 23 lb one year old! There are no words to express the absolute adoration I have for this precious boy. Just thinking about how much I love him brings tears to my eyes every time. I am so grateful to watch Rowen's sweet personality come to light alittle more each day. He has the brightest smile and a contagious laugh that gets me every time. Lately I have been calling him sunshine (partly due to the fact that he enjoys to wake up when the sun wakes up!) but mostly because that is the best way to describe him. He truly lights up my life. Each day seems to bring new milestones, some of the most recent is waving and saying 'bye bye' in the softest, sweetest voice. One of my favorites is if you ask where Elmo's nose is, he squeezes Elmo's nose...if only everyone had big orange noses he would have that one down!

For his actual birthday, Chad and I gave him his firetruck Cozy Coupe which he LOVES!! He could go for rides in it for hours I am sure. He is so cute that he isn't quite big enough to get in and out himself, so he just climbs right on through the windows. After playing for a bit, he took his nap and then it was off to swim lessons. Poor little guy just started his lessons, so they are still pretty tramatic. I know he will get it though and be a little fishy in no time. His swim was soon forgetten though as he got to go to lunch with Grammie and Papa at Liberty Market; our favorite spot! He took down his pizza, probably the most I have seen this kid eat, which is saying a lot. My personal favorite part of the day was after dinner I gave Rowen a cupcake and sang him happy birthday. He must have remembered the joys of eating a cupcake from his birthday party because he wasted no time and went face first into the frosting. He giggled his way through the cake and was even nice enough to share with me. He was so precious with how he wanted to give me bites that how could I refuse?!? All in all we had such a fun day together and I feel so amazingly blessed to have such a precious boy to spend my days with. Being Rowen's mommy is beyond anything I could have ever hoped or dreamed. I love this little boy and know God will do great things in his life. My prayer for this year is that as he starts to learn how to talk, the stories about Jesus and God's Word will be continually on his lips. I cannot wait to see what this next year holds in store for my Rowen.

What a difference a year makes!

For mother's day last year Michael gave Rowen a soccer jersey he got on his visit to Turkey. I found this picture of us holding the jersey up on Rowen when he was just 5 days hold. Fast forward 11 months, and here is that same little baby rockin his soccer jersey! What a big boy!

Beach Day!!

I have been soo excited to take Rowen to the beach thinking how much he would love it...well, not so much. We wrestled him down to get his swimsuit on and lathered up in sunscreen for a whopping 15 minutes down at the beach. He sat in the sand for a minute before it sank in that he genuinely did not like the way the sand felt, dry or wet, and especially not the FREEZING ocean water. At least we got some sweet pictures to document our trip and will try again in June!

Meeting Theo Pete

Rowen finally got to meet Chad's good buddy Pete this weekend out in Coronado.The guys met in military school Chad's sophomore year of high school and have been super close since. It is not very often Chad and I are spontaneous, but we decided on Thursday to drive out to California for the weekend in hopes of seeing Pete who was in town for a friends wedding. We are so grateful we came; we have had such a nice time seeing Petey and enjoying the warm beach weather, not to mention yummy breakfasts with Pete at our favorite spots...Cafe 1134 and the Del for Sunday Brunch!

Walking...Almost

Anyone who has seen Chad with Rowen knows he has been pushing walking since we brought Rowen home from the hospital. This kid doesnt need much encouragement to walk though, since he figured out how to crawl all he wants to do is crawl to new locations to pull himself up on and walk around. Tonight he started to get the concept of his little walker which as you can see made his daddy very very proud :)

Crazy Man

Today was one of the first times we have put Rowen in the nursery at church (normally my parents watch him in the afternoons for us to go). Although Rowen hasn't had colic for some time, I think the anxiety of him screaming his head off for an hour for someone else sticks with you. I was excited to pick him up and hear about how he did. When I went to get him I was relieved to see that he was happily playing. Anyway, the nursery staff said he did great but called him "very curious" so I thought I would post this video to show my crazy man. Here is "Rowen the Tornado" in action!!

Who knew Rowen moonlighted as a woodchuck?

Oh yes, my ever creative son is always thinking of new ways to get out of napping. His latest had been standing at the end of his crib yelling and throwing his nuks (which to me was very cute). However, today he tried a new technique, chewing the side of his crib. I went in to check on him and found his face covered with wood chips and white paint. His drool apparantly had mixed with the paint chips and got paint stuck all over his sheets too. Awesome. Oh my, this kid will keep me on my toes!

Crawling!

Since Rowen figured out how to crawl, he has been going non-stop. He loves exploring the world around him and the sound of his little hands pounding on the ground is something I will never forget. You can almost hear how proud he is of himself, I think the best way to describe his crawl is a strut. Once again, I have been blessed by my dad's gift of photography to get these sweet pictures of Rowen in action!

So handsome

Nothing really I have in mind to post, but this has been my favorite picture I have taken in the last 2 months so I thought I would share. I still cannot get over his big precious eyes, I know he will be a heart breaker with how he is able to look you right in the eye, give a little smile and raise one eyebrow...oh it melts my heart. This boy is going to get away with a lot with that look.

Watch out Lance...here comes RO!

So my parents are the super amazing kind of grandparents. They love to take Rowen on new adventures (one of the most recent, and I must admit, not my favorite, was letting him play with the toilet bowl wand, yes, you read that correctly, the toilet bowl wand...need I say GROSS!?! They even captured it on video :) One of the sweet, and much more sanitary things they got for him is a cart for their bikes so he can go on rides with them. He has one in Coronado and LOVES it so they got one for here. He just looks like he could go fast, huh? I am sure his daddy and Papa will be teaching him racing strategies in no time!

Fall

Rowen truly seems to be getting bigger each and every day now. My little man is not so little anymore...he is only 9 months but wears 12-18 month clothing, has 7 teeth (almost 8!) and is crawling and pulling himself up on everything he can...including the wall. One of my favorite things he does is his goofy laugh. Instead of breathing out when he laughs, he breaths in and makes the funniest noise only he can make...trust me we try to copy him and just end up coughing! I love his sweet smile he seems to have on his face all the time now, it is truly such a blessing to have this mini man in our lives!