My boys, it is hard to believe that we have made it all the way to a year with you.  While some of the sleepless nights drug on and on, the past years seems to have flown by!  Since I didn't have a chance to write your 11 month letter, there have been a lot of changes in the last 2 months.

Jon,

These days you seem to only want to be held when you are hungry or think you have been injured. Which is frequent as you seem to take far more tumbles than Will does. Partly because he has a habit of bowling into you when he is on the move, but mostly because you spend far more time walking, climbing, reaching, and into everything under the sun. If you are awake you are on the move! And you approach everything you do with gusto.

You are a happy boy, always grinning and flirting with anyone you meet.  You too say ma-ma, da-da, and bah.  But your favorite sound to make is yeah and hey.  With all of you even way back with Britt as you babbled I would say things like "yeah is that so, tell me about it." And when I get up with you I always say "hey baby baby." So it is no surprise that you parrot it back to us. Sometimes you actually use yeah for yes. And just this week while you both have started to shake your head no, you do when you are done eating or don't want to play anymore.

You cruise and frequently let go lurching two or three steps between objects. I am continually surprised by your balance. On your birthday you stood up in the middle of the floor pulling wrapping paper off the box without falling or bracing against anything.

You are a pretty good eater.  But you eat best at breakfast, less at lunch and supper is usually a toss up.  You like picking up food or being hand fed better than spoons. I usually have to hold your hand when feeding you to keep you from trying to grab it off the spoon and making a huge mess.  You have turned down green beans and bananas the last few times and still aren't a fan of potatoes, but your favorite food these days seems to be eggs and french fries.  You have 6 teeth fully in, and are chewing on your fingers and everything else the last week or two, so you maybe working on another on your left side. We still nurse on average 4 times a day most often together with Will.  When you wake up, before your first nap, before bedtime, and then most nights once during the night.  I'm so happy that finally we made it to a year.  But at some point soon, we'll talk about weaning.

Your schedule is basically the same as Will's.  Now that we are in the new house, and trying to get back into a more normal schedule, your sleep has settled back down.  You are up between 7:30 and 9 most mornings, depending on what time we got you to sleep the night before, and when you nursed during the night.  After you nurse you have breakfast, and then play and make havoc as I try to unbox around the house for the next few hours.  You typically nurse close to noon give or take and go down for a nap for a couple of hours.  By 1:30 or 2 you are up again and ready for lunch.  You don't eat all that much at breakfast usually, but you more than make up for it at lunch and supper.  During the afternoon you especially like to be held while your siblings are watching tv or playing video games.  Then you different from your brother in that you often skip your second nap or don't go down till almost an hour after him and even then don't nap more than say half an hour.  The staggering in the schedule is tricky. By 6:30 or 7 you are ready for supper, after that is usually a bath, which you too have decided that you hate after upgrading to the big bathtub. Then you typically play in the living room floor around half an hour.  I nurse you both close to nine, sometimes as early as 8:20 when everyone is real fussy and then put you to bed.  I start glowworm when I lay you both down, and you roll over and almost never fuss after I shut the door so long as Will is with you. The occasional times we have put you done before him you squall till he is brought in too.

Your favorite toys by far are still blocks. Occasionally you will attempt to put one on top of another but mostly you delight in knocking them down.  But you too will drive toys with or without wheels around the room.  Anything that you can grasp in your hand or gnaw on is good with you though. You too seem to like music, though you prefer to be sung too and like to sing along with us at Church.  You even sing your sleepy song when you are tired like Kate always did. .

Today at the orthopedics office, you weighed in at 16 lbs exactly and 25.5 inches long.  You are still a little smaller than Will.  And yet you have an enormous personality, a real ball of energy and light in a tiny compact space.

When asked by others for ways to tell you apart from Will, I always point out the differences in the veins in your left eyes.  But there are more things that I notice.  Your hair lays down far better and neater than Will's. Even when you are tired you don't snuggle much. Flopping here and there unable to completely settle until you have been laid down in your bed.  You both favor different sounds when babbling -  for you it's anything with that ea sound like yeah and heya and of course mamamama.  If life isn't treating you right you collapse in the floor and cry, but you won't come to anyone for help. You just wallow and act pitiful until rescued.

I have started telling you no and swatting your hand when you continue.  We are only working on not pulling all the books of the school shelves and not playing with the blinds.  Little steps.  You watch me swat Will and then will try the very same thing to determine if the rule applies to you too. You also try multiple times and multiple ways. You will look at me and try a different book or a different bookshelf as if to ask, what about these? We are finding working on sitting still in Church to be a challenge with two of you.  It's not so easy when you can't tag team in and out, and when you both seem to decide that Daddy or your siblings aren't good enough about the same time. I have hardly been able to take notes this year, which kills my memory for sermon retention. The Sundays when we have been home so that I can put you in the floor or put my Bible on the table while holding one of you have worked best. Ha!

It is a wonder how to people can be so alike and yet so different.  As I told your brother, we joke that we have the two of you because your big brother prayed for brothers (plural).  But even though I've told you many times, I will tell you again, I am forever thankful that God blessed us with you.  Our family may not be the typical family of four-mom, dad, a boy, and a girl- instead we have 6 children earthside and one in heaven.  We can not afford to do everything for you all and with you all that we would like, but no finances could outweigh the blessing each of you are in our lives.  There was wonder in having our first child and then our first girl, but even after having 4 babies (5 if you count brother being 90 seconds older than you) you are no less a wonder.   Just tonight I looked at your Daddy,  like George in "It's a Wonderful Life" and craving some quiet said "Why'd we have to have all these kids anyway."  But this job of raising you and your siblings has been the greatest joy even as it has been the most difficult things we have ever done.

We love you so very much!
Love,
Momma