Will,

You are a cuddler, a real sweet heart.  You love your Momma, but enjoy being held by most anyone.  I love when you snuggle into my neck and let me rub your hair or your soft little leggies.  You have an infectious smile, and are such a happy boy.  You smile big at everyone, and though you don't talk much you do say ma-ma, da-da, bah (for everything from brother to I want that toy).  You also make little grunt and growl noises a lot especially when you are tired.  But your favorite sound to make is rawr-rawr-rawr.  And you love it when we answer back.

You cruise barely holding onto the furniture these days, but when speed is required you still drop to the floor, and crawl like no one's business.  Sometimes you turn and crab crawl sidewise, which always makes me laugh.  You are an active boy.  Always looking intently at things, it's almost like you are a tiny engineer in there.  It really seems like you are studying things, analyzing them, and then cataloging away the way they work.  The two of you tag teamed together to figure out how to open the dog gate at the stairs at the old house.  Watching the two of you, Jon just more or less rocked at it and bashed at the top.  But you kept watching your siblings open it, and eventually while Jon was banging away, you crawled over and hit it just right at the same time down low, and popped it open.  Working together the two of you are fierce, but I'm certain it was you who figured out what to do to open the thing.

You are a great eater.  You are love to be fed, but you prefer to handle your own food.  Even after we put it in your mouth you tend to eat on it a bit and then pull it out to take a look before finishing it.  You still like green beans and broccoli, but your favorite food these days seems to be ham or turkey slices and pretty much any kind of fruit.  There isn't much that you aren't willing to try.  You have 6 teeth fully in, and swollen gums, where you might be working on two more. We still nurse on average 4 times a day.  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.

Speaking of sleep.  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 with Jon 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.  Most days you take a short one hour nap around 4:30 or 5.  By 6:30 or 7 you are ready for supper, and are typically kinda needy the rest of the evening.  It is a difficult time, because everyone is getting cleaned up from supper and ready for bed.  Your daddy is tired from a day of work and then cooking, and I'm touched out and wore out by that time.  After a bath, which you have decided that you hate after upgrading to the big bathtub, you typically sit with Daddy watching tv, though sometimes you will play in the living room floor a little with Jon.  I then 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.

Your favorite toys by far are cars.  Even toys without wheels, even non toys, like sponges, you drive around the floor.  You love music, dancing whenever you hear songs on the tv, bouncing in my lap at church, and beating on the table when we do the kids music lessons.  When Kate or Rebecca take out the thumb harps, you beat a path to them to listen.

Today at the orthopedics office, you weighed in at 17 lbs exactly and 25.5 inches long.  You may be a little man, but there is a lot of boy in that tiny package.  And when you want more to eat or think we have forgotten you are there, you can make an incredibly loud shrieky noise for such a little fellow.

When asked by others for ways to tell you apart from Jon, I always point out the differences in the veins in your left eyes.  But there are more things that I notice.  Your hair grows different, not so many cowlicks as your big brother, but you definitely inherited some crazy ones from my Granddaddy.  It helps when I part it on the right like mine, but it just doesn't lay very flat. You tend to cuddle more, and enjoy being held close.  You both favor different sounds when babbling -  for you it's the m's and r's.  If life isn't treating you right you shriek when you cry, but you come right to me.

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 have seemed to catch on pretty quickly.  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 two seem to feed on each other.  Just today.  You were perfectly happy till the doctor took Jon for his x-rays and to examine, and before anyone even looked at you, let alone touched you, you started crying right along with him.  The second they handed him back, you stopped.

We continue to be amazed at the little every day miracles that the two of you are, both as individual people, and the bond you have with one another.  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, with 6 children earthside and one in heaven, we may not get to do everything for you all and with you all that we would like, we have to pick and choose very carefully what we do with our finances; but each of you are a blessing.  There was wonder in having our first child and then our first girl, but even after having 4 babies, you are no less a wonder.  Being your mother gives me far more than any number of things that we could have or could have done if we'd only had two children.  Oh there are bad days, days when like George in "It's a Wonderful Life" when we look around and say "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