August 2, 2013
42 pounds (99th percentile)
40 inches tall (91st percentile)
Dearest Carson,
It’s difficult to find the words to express
just how much I love you, my sweet boy. I am so very thankful that I get to
live life with you. You are an absolute joy. Watching you grow and learn is
such an honor. In some ways, it’s hard to believe you’re already three, but in
other ways you seem much older and it’s hard to remember my life without you.
This year has been extra special because I’ve
gotten to see you become a big brother! Not long after your second birthday, we
found out I was pregnant and Daddy and I decided to tell you right away. We
knew it was a lot for you to process and would be a long time to wait, but you
did great! You watched my belly grow as Charlie grew inside me and loved to
talk to him, sing to him, and give him kisses before he was even born. You were
patient with me while I was pregnant, sleepy, and unable to carry you. You went
with us to my doctor’s appointments and loved getting to hear your baby brother’s
heart beat.
My very favorite moment of being a mama so
far is seeing you and Charlie meet for the first time. I will never forget the
excitement and love in your eyes as you came into the room and crawled into the
bed with me to see your brand new baby brother. You talked, sang, and kissed
just as sweetly as you had when he was still inside of me and over the next few
weeks you kept saying, “Mama, can you believe Charlie is really here?!” Since
then, you’ve continued to show him love, care, and patience. I am so thankful
Charlie gets to learn from you!
I love to hear your sweet voice call for me
in the mornings. “Mama, I’m awake!” What a joy it is to be greeted with such
love each day! Some days, we snuggle for a little while when you wake up, and
other days you’re ready to play. You like to know what day it is, and have been
working to better understand time, so several months ago we put a calendar in
your room, and you’ve enjoyed learning with it in the mornings. You can sing
both the days of the week and months of the year. A couple months after that,
we added a United States map. You’ve really enjoyed learning where various
states are on the map. You can already locate and name 12 different states.
Your favorite toys are Fisher Price Little
People and plastic animals. You use your imagination and play for hours with
them. You also like to build with blocks and legos. You’ve started watching TV
some and your favorite shows are Little Bear and Clifford. We still love
reading books together, especially snuggling and reading one after another. You
also like to play and explore outside. Rocks and sticks are some of your
favorite toys. You like to call your grandparents on Facetime. You love your
stuffed animals. Sometimes you try to put all thirty in bed with you at once,
but you normally sleep with about 10 each night. You especially love Tiny,
Teddy, and Pooh.
You don’t always nap anymore. Some days you
will nap for three hours and other days, not at all, but you always stay in bed
and rest for at least an hour and play with your stuffed animals and sing.
One of the highlights of our year was potty
training! Just two months after your second birthday you started using the
potty and wearing big boy underwear during the day. It’s been challenging at
times, but you’re doing really well! You are 42 pounds and 40 inches tall. You
wear size 4T-5T shirts and 3T-4T pants.
Daily tasks are fun with you. You help me
with cleaning, laundry, trash, and mail, but our favorite task is cooking. I
love spending time with you in the kitchen and teaching you as we prepare
dinner and make yummy breads and cookies. One of your favorite parts of cooking
is sharing with friends and neighbors. Your loving and generous spirit challenges
me almost every day.
You really like to go out and about and I
enjoy running errands with you. We go to the post office, Kroger, Sam’s,
Target, and Hobby Lobby. You help me find the things on our list and we enjoy
chatting while we shop. We also go fun places like library story time and the
park together. We’ve made sweet friends this year so sometimes we invite them
over or meet them at the park, library, and Chick-Fil-A. At least once a week during
the day we spend time with Shannon, Laura Beth, and Caroline; Kristen, Colin,
and Owen; or Keely and Addison. In the evenings or on the weekends, we have
lots of fun with Brian, Kathy, Graeme, and Miles.
You love people and are thoughtful and
compassionate beyond your years. You’re outgoing and friendly and remember
everyone you meet. You have friends of all ages including our neighbors and
church family. You love going to church to see people you love and sing.
Singing, oh how you can sing, my sweet boy. You’re almost always singing! It is
such a joy to both listen to you sing softly as you play and to see you grab
anything you can find to use as a microphone and sing loudly and with great
passion. You still love Thank You Lord and The Doxology, but a new favorite
this year is 10,000 Reasons. You love to sing at church and at Southland, the
nursing home we visit once a month, and you’ve even gotten to help lead songs a
couple of times. Your worship is not only a blessing to God, but also to
everyone around you.
As is our tradition, you woke up to balloons
in your room on your birthday and we had pancakes for breakfast. You also got
to open gifts and go to Loco FroYo. We made chocolate cake and shared it with
friends at church. I had a lot of fun planning your birthday party with you! It
was fun to share ideas and see you get excited. We ended up finding inspiration
from one of your favorite books and had a bear hunt party. Everyone brought
their teddy bear to hunt and we ate milk and cookies. A lot of friends came to
celebrate with you.
Carson, I pray that your love may abound more
and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern
what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with
the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ-to the glory and
praise of God!
Thank you for being my boy! I love you so
much.
Mama
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