5 months on the dot.

hello my sweet loves. 

I had hoped it would not take me so long to write again but life decided to get very busy very quickly. Last I said was that you, Buel, were going to be a big brother. Well that is still true and it could become a reality to you any day now. Our family is about to grow by one little girl! Her name will be Amiette River. We know you'll be so great at loving her. It will take some getting used too, but we will always love you the same amount that we have each day of your life. And that means more and more each day! You are our miracle baby who opened our eyes to the beauty of family and parenthood. So get ready, our house is about to get even more full of love. Love for you and your sister. Mommy can scarcely believe that it will be possible for her heart to grow with love anymore than it has right now. But it's an exciting venture!

Buddy Buel, you turn 2 in a matter of 4 days! Oh my goodness. You're such a big boy. You've got a new car seat that is for big kids! You're tall and fit in 2t/3t clothes, yet you're still skinny around the waist. I hope you can keep that trend and not struggle with weight issues like mommy and daddy. You have the most gorgeous curls in your hair that make you look so dapper and handsome. Everyone who sees you, comments on how precious your hair is and agrees I shouldn't cut it just yet. I'm not ready too... Last time we did I had quite a meltdown! Silly me. 

You laugh and play, you say lots of words and we are slowly working on potty training. You go to the potty every night before bed! You sleep through the night and take one nap a day. You love to run and play with your cousins and your friend Brayden every day. You also love your downtime. We watch a few shows but your favorite is Paw Patrol! You call it "ca-trol" and love that they are dogs who drive trucks to help people. On top of that, you love Chewbacca and Star Wars! We dressed you up as Chewie for Halloween and you were the best chewie ever. You also went for your first real night of trick or treating with Carter and Evan. It was so much fun and you did such a great job at saying thank you, trick or treat, and giving your best chewie impression! We were so impressed. Your cousin Evan was very sweet in helping to make sure you got all the candy you could get and that you weren't left out. Those two boys love you so much! You really are lived so much and it's such a blessing to me. To know that while we may lack in being able to provide you with all the things we know you'd love to have and such, you will never ever lack in the department of love. And that is perfect. And soon we get to see you grow into a bigger boy who not only is loved and but shows his love. You're becoming empathetic and learning when you've made someone sad (sometimes). We love who you are and can't wait to see how you grow!

Amiette River... My little girl. We are so excited to meet you. Currently all we know about you is that your base heartrate most of the time is in the high 130s, you have nice chubby cheeks, and apparently hair! You supposedly weigh around 6lbs 8oz and you're growing at a perfect pace. We cannot believe that we get to meet you so soon. Oh sweet love. You have an amazing team that is ready to welcome you earth side and I cannot wait for you to meet them. I envision you Abe brown hair and blue eyes. That you have curls and will have long eye lashes. We will see what happens! Daddy, Buel and I hope that your birth is soon and is uneventful in a good way. We are so in love with you already and are eager to meet you. 

I wonder what mischief you and your brother will get into... Oh boy. It's going to be fabulous! And exhausting for me and daddy. But that's okay with us!

Until next time... We love you so much. I hope to update this again on buel's birthday. 

Love you,

Mommy. 

5 months and so much has changed...

hello sweetie(s),

yes.  i wrote sweeties, as in the plural form of sweetie. i'll get to that in a second.

wow - it has been 5 months since i last wrote. i have thought about doing so several times, however, you have kept me exceedingly busy. so much has happened, i don't even know where to start. you are nearly 19 months now and you're huge! you're 33.25 inches tall, you're 25.6 pounds, you wear a size 4/4.5 shoe, and are in 2t clothes. you are such a big boy, my sweet loving buel. you make me so proud. you're saying lots of words these days, you love to run into my arms and give me the most delicious hugs and kisses. you love to play with and tickle daddy's tummy. you love monster truck and puttis. you dance to all music and you love to play and rough house with your cousins, carter and evan.oh and you also love to see your uncle d when he comes home from work and says "buuuuuuuuuel!" you call him d and you always run to see him and play with him. you're good buds.  oh, and you're still into everything!

honestly, i don't know how i make it through the day with you or myself in one piece. you are exploring everything and climbing onto all the things. its funny and frustrating all at the same time. you like to make it difficult for me to keep you safe and out of things you're not supposed to be into. but, in reality, this is your job and it is my job to teach and to protect. so far i'm doing the best that i can. that being said, you did receive your first significant wound a few months back. while driving home from evan's preschool, you decided that putting your foot in his face would be funny. well, evan did not find it so funny and pushed your leg to move it. unfortunately, he pushed it so hard that your poor little leg broke! yes. broke. you had your first broken bone. so we went to the doctors and you got a few x-rays and they decided to put you in a large cast, all the way past your knee! you had to wear that cast for 6 weeks! it didn't really slow you down, as you didn't seem to mind it very much. but it was sure a difficult 6 weeks for your mommy.

i am pleased to say that i had a moment of tears when i realized something was very wrong with your leg (before we saw the doctor). after literally 30 seconds of tears, i pulled it together and was strong and dealt with it all the best i could and as fast as i could. i am so glad that God gave me the stamina and the assertiveness to get you checked by specialists and by people who would truly help you. my sweet boy. it was so sad to see you dragging and hobbling around in a bright orange thigh high cast, but you rocked it and we managed. God was gracious and kept my spirits up, even though some times i was completely exhausted from carrying you everywhere and the emotional side of it was tough too. God has also been incredibly gracious in giving you the most wonderful spirit. you are so bright and easy going. you go with the flow and for the most part, don't give us too much of a fight.

however, there are definitely moments where you give us a run for our money! you are a one tracked little boy. you go and you go and you go and you go. you play hard and you hate to be stopped from playing or going where you want to go. when we say playtime is over, you definitely let us know that you're not excited about that. thankfully, it does not take too much to get you distracted and into something else after some coaxing. if we could, you would walk and run around outside all day, everyday. and for the most part, we do. we are usually outside for a few hours in the morning and then the rest of the day after naps. sometimes we even go out after we get home from work.

the weekends are your time to catch up on lost time with your daddy. he loves to take you out on walks in your push car and to take you to the park. its always a good time. you always come in hot and ready for some water and something to eat. i'm glad you and your daddy play so well and have so much fun. i'm blessed that i get to play with you every day all day at work. but soon life will be changing for all of us and we will have to get used to a new normal.

remember how i wrote "hello sweetie(s)" at the beginning of this letter? well, you see, you're going to be a big brother, buel. we are not sure if you will have a brother or a sister, but you are going to have a sibling in the next 5-6 months! mommy has a baby in her tummy and we are so thrilled to embark on a new life as a family of 4. it was quite a shock to me and i am still getting used to the idea that we will soon have 2 little youngin's running around. but i am excited.

you will soon be able to feel the baby moving around by just touching mommy's tummy! you'll also be able to see the baby moving around in my tummy too. it's quite a bizarre thing but i hope you enjoy it. you're still a bit young so you may not totally understand, but you will and i know you're going to be a great big brother. we don't want you to think that just because there is a new baby coming, that we don't love you as much or that we will forget about you. on the contrary. our love has grown for you and multiplying into love for your new friend and sibling that will be joining our family soon. and you get to be a big help to mommy and daddy in teaching this new one how things work around here! you're going to be awesome.

once we know if its a boy or girl, we will definitely let you know. until then, thank you for being so lovely. and thank you Lord, for giving us the most amazing little boy and thank you again for surprising us with another child to care for. we are completely unworthy but eternally grateful.

until my next letter,  sweet ones. (i do hope that it won't be another 5 months!) - always know that you are precious and i hold you in my heart. you are dear to me and daddy. we love you. i love you.

love,
mommy

so much has happened!

hello sweetie,

wow! so much has happened since i last wrote. i don't even know where to begin. i guess i mentioned that we were heading to california to visit with family. well, we did just that. you had your very first airplane ride and that could not have gone any better. you made friends with people on the plane, you slept, you only cried a few times, and a few people even commended us on how well-behaved you were. so hooray Jesus for giving us grace and comfort on the plane and hooray you for doing such a great job! while in california you got to meet so many amazing people. you got to hug, play, and share life with people who love and cherish you. a few highlights: you finally got the chance to meet your grandpa walker and your namesake -  grandpa buel newman II.

grandpa walker & buel.

the surviving buels - II, III, IV, V.

they truly enjoyed getting to meet you and seeing your sweet face. you also got to meet your grandpa (namesake once again) and your uncle steven for the first time as well! you and your grandpa became very close friends. you grabbed him by the fingers and walked all over the house! you even tugged and pulled on his beard. OUCH!

buels III and V.

uncle steven loves his babby nephew.

our trip was crammed full of visits where you got the opportunity to meet so many people. so many in fact that it would take forever to post pictures of each and such. so just know that you met very important and lovely people and they were all so happy to see you. we had a small little get together for your birthday and you smashed your cupcake and thoroughly enjoyed the delectable yellow cake and chocolate icing! daddy and mommy, and your entire family for that matter, could not have enjoyed that moment more. we are so proud of you.

oh! you also got to visit the ocean for the very first time. you were not quite sure how to feel about the waves. however, you were definitely all about the sand!

when we got back from california,we celebrated your first birthday!!!! oh my goodness. on the 11th of November you turned ONE! it was such a bittersweet moment for me. you are and will forever be my little baby, but something about remembering the day you were born and reminiscing over the past year got to me. i was a ball of tears for most of the day. i am the most blessed mommy to ever grace God's green earth. you are a light in this dark world and i pray and hope that your life continues to bless others. it is my prayer that one day you will use your light to glorify God and bring honor to His name.

we had a birthday party for you here in maryland. you were not so interested in cake this time. but really, that's okay. i think you were just full. you had been munching on food and were tired by the time cake was ready. but you still smashed it, you just didn't eat it.

somewhere in there we celebrated both thanksgiving and christmas, we celebrated my birthday, and somewhere in there - we celebrated the fact that you have 8 teeth, you like to say "leego leego" a lot, and you walk! yes! you walk! i am sorry that i did not write down the exact day that you took your first step. it is so difficult to keep every first in order! however, you started to officially walk a few days after christmas. oh, speaking of christmas - we had such a sad one. your uncle matt came to visit! thankfully you got to meet him and spend some time with him.

uncle matt reading stories.

unfortunately, we all got super sick and didn't get to spend more time with him. and we missed out on the christmas festivities with the family. hopefully, we will have a better experience next year. we will see i suppose. i think daddy wants to visit california for christmas next year. we will see. we have lots of things that we are trying to plan and do... but that's another story for another time.

let's see, what else... you are 23 pounds, 31 inches tall and amazing. you are into EVERYTHING. let me repeat myself... you. are. into. everything! and while i love that you are walking everywhere, that you love to climb and be your excited and happy-self, it gets pretty tiresome repeating myself and removing you from situations all day and every day. but thankfully, these are all normal and great things for you to be doing because you are growing and developing and doing amazing. you have an inquisitive mind, you love to know whats going on and you are always ready to check things out. so that really is all i can ask for.

we are so incredibly proud of you. whenever given the chance to show you off and to talk about you, we take it. you are our beautiful little boy who we love and cherish more than we do this life. God knew exactly what we needed and when and He gave us you. thank you for being a huge blessing and part of our lives. it is near impossible for us to even remember life without you! we love you. i love you.

love,
mommy.