January 2012

 There's no time to blog about things that happened in January than the middle of August.  I've been a slacker when it comes to blogging and I have no excuse. So let's start off our review of the first half of 2012 with a cute picture of Ethan just after a haircut.

 With four boys and the husband, there are a lot of haircuts at our house. We try to save money by cutting hair at home. Since this picture I've started taking Bradon to get his haircut at Cookie Cutters because I like how they handle his fine hair.

 Anders looks like he's having a good time in these pictures. This is before the actual clipping has begun, and trust me it did not end happily.

 Anders turned 1! Wow! He's such a cute little monkey, but 1 has not been kind to him. We tortured him by giving him a couple of gifts. Doesn't he look just miserable in the following picture? Happily, he has loved his birthday presents and still plays with them months later.

 He loved his birthday cake! Who doesn't love a flaming candle atop a sugary surprise? When this little boy smiles it just melts your heart.

 Yummy, messy cake.

 And let's not forget that Anders LOVES ice cream! He just can't get enough of it and these days he'll run to our freezer in the garage whenever he gets out of the car to ask for an ice cream treat.

Anders was perfectly content to just crawl for the longest time, but he sure learned to be a fast crawler. He took his first steps at about 16 months and had the whole walking thing down within about a week. In just the past couple of days he has learned to push chairs around and position them in order to be able to reach light switches and things he wants on the counters. Trouble. He's a very bright little boy. He loves to climb on tables and is always seeking higher ground. Anders doesn't have many words yet, mainly just "mom", but he understands almost everything you say and he's very good at pointing out what he wants.
The past six months have really been a struggle. Anders is very slow to warm up to other people. Most of the time he wears a sour expression on his face. There were a few weeks a couple of months ago that he just seemed completely miserable for most of the day. He would cry and cry and it didn't matter whether I held him or not. I don't know whether it was teething related or not, but it was a struggle. The days seemed so long and I would just do my best to hold out until Brian came home and could offer some relief. It was hard. I want to thank my sweet mother-in-law who let me cry to her on the phone one afternoon and then came out to play with my kids and give me a little time to get stuff done around the house. That meant so much to me, and I could tell that she was praying for me and Anders because things got better after that.
I really do love it when Anders finds his smile. When he's happy he is just delightful. He loves it when his brothers put on music and he can dance with them in our family room. He also loves to practice his tae kwon do moves with Tanner. He does a little kick and shout that is so cute. I hope that he grows we'll be able to uncover his sweet smile a little more often.