Hooray for 100!

Hey! This is my 100th post!

This is also my belated birthday post for Will's first birthday party. Soon to follow will be the belated Thanksgiving post and the belated Christmas post.

We just had a small dinosaur party at our house. Will had lots of help opening his gifts. I felt like I was in a child-sized mosh pit.  They were coming at me from all directions with thier little paws out. I felt a little short of oxygen.

 Will didn't mind though. He thought it was great. He loves attention.

 Zoe and Madie next to the birthday boy, just before cake.

 Will presented with his cupcake. He wasted no time digging right in!

 Yum! Yum! Loved it. Ate it up. Started trying to eat mine, so I gave him a second piece.

Don't touch my cake!

 No crumb to waste. He even licked the crumbs and frosting off his party hat.

 Off to the sink for a bath. He doesn't normally get to bathe in the kitchen sink so he thought this was awesome.

 See the tsunami splashing? That is why we don't bathe in the kitchen. He usually floods the place.

 Big brother Luke had fun fun fun. It was almost as fun to him as if it were his own party. He loved all the new toys!

 Clean and dressed and cleaning up the last of the cake bits left in the highchair.

 T-Rex was his favorite dinosaur. Will kept carrying it around by biting it on the nose.

 After everyone was gone, Will had one present left and he got to open it all by himself.

Yay! PJ's

 And, just for good measure, a picture of my darling Luke. He hasn't been featured on the blog much lately due to all this birthday mumbo-jumbo. He is such a big boy these days. I am so proud of him.  He is learning to be a great big brother--some days are hard, but he is doing great.

Dear Will,

On December 9, 2010, your naked, slimy body was placed up on my belly.  I just kept drying you off with the blankets and purposefully, lovingly, making you cry. I am a NNICU nurse. You will not be allowed to grunt and get yourself into the NNICU. I will make you scream every extra drop out of your lungs so that you are breathing perfectly. The doctor thinks I am a bit crazy for this sort of behavior.

Where on earth did you get all that luscious dark hair?

You got it from your mama.

You are loved immediately.

In December, you discover that you love baths. It does not take you long to learn how to splash, and subsequently get moved out of your cozy sink tub into the big tub where you could splash without creating a flood inside the house.  

 In January, I prop you up in the nursery rocker, dressed like your brother before, and act like a maniac to try to get some grins out of you. i am successful! Your smile lights up my world!

You are a little spitfire! You do not want to be wrapped up in your blanket. You are already rolling over.

 February comes along, and I am still trying to figure out how to help you sleep. You love your mama and only want to sleep when she is with you. However, my love, I can not do that.

I love you anyway.



In March, your personality blooms. You are such a joy to our lives.  

 Before there was you, Luke never knew he needed a brother. In April, he teaches you how to play trucks. Which is great fun until you learn how to take them away from him!

You are fascinated with your big brother.

 In May, Mama finally gives you cereal. Tasty treat! It doesn't help you sleep. We try everything--even some herbal concoction we buy off the internet. All it did was stain your shirt, blanket, sheets, burp cloth.

 In June you are starting to grow back some of your lost hair. Your baby mohawk is starting to fill in on the sides. Mama has already cut it twice to keep the long strands out of your eyes. There is no direction of comb over to combat this baldie look.

I love it!



In July Mama only takes one picture. Maybe the camera was lost? At least I got both the boys. You have been such a trooper this summer. Mama totes you all over the place getting Luke to classes at the rec center and swimming lessons. You nap on the go and eat on the fly. 

In August you are on the move. You are crawling--and fast! I can't catch you long enough to get your clothes on! But you are so darn cute, I don't care!

In September you are joyful! You go to nursery school once a week. You start to eat real food. There are six big teeth in that little mouth.



Come October, you are a little charmer! You are walking everywhere and making friends with everyone. You have no fear!

In November, you are climbing into things, onto things. but not so much off of things. You take a few dramatic falls a day, but are none worse for the wear. I have started a collection of pictures of you in/on things you are not supposed to be in/on or that you are stuck in/on.

I took to your hair with the big boy clippers after I was playing with it and realized I could put it into pigtails if you were a girl.

In December you are one! Such a big boy. You want to do big boy things and play with the big boy toys. You walk and climb up and climb down and are happy and get mad.

You put yourself to sleep and wake up mostly happy.

You love your blue blankie and your big brother.

You love your mama and your daddy.

You love your puppy and know how to pet nicely.

You don't talk yet, but you know the signs for "more" and "all done" and we are working on "please."

You bring joy to everyone around you.

You are a snuggler. You give great hugs and big sloppy wet open-mouthed kisses and just lay your head on my shoulder to say "hi. I missed you."

You love cheese and corn and yogurt and that's pretty much what you eat.



I love you and am so happy you came into my life!

It's fun being one!

More on that--plus Thanksgiving--coming soon . . .

Outtakes of the year

Thank goodness for digital photography. I would have a lot of worthless pictures hanging around otherwise. Now I can just look at them and laugh. My strategy when taking picture (especially with the kids) is to just take a whole bunch, and maybe one or two will turn out great. So then I end up with the other 47 that weren't so great. And me, well, I end up falling in love with the shot of the kid screaming or picking their nose or something because I think it is funny.

All of us have had a bad picture taken. These are mine to share with you.

 No, I was not just snuggling close to my newborn baby. I was PASSED out from sheer exhaustion. This happened every time I sat still for more than five minutes for about the first month-six weeks of Will's life. No, I never dropped him, just woke up with a horrible crick in my neck. I never knew this picture was taken either, until I was going through the camera one day.  (The camera strap in the photo adds to the charm.)

 I wish I could rotate this. It is much funnier upright. 

 Will caught twice mid-sneeze.

I think this might be one that when Will looks back on in about 15 years he might be asking us, "Why are you letting him hold me like that?" and I don't think I have an answer for it.

Will was frequently caught with the "deer in the headlights" look also known as the "WTF??!!" look.

Funny little faces!

 I think Grammy was the only one prepared for this shot. 

 And a few closed-eyes pics.

 Oh the precidaments these boys get themselves, and each other, into. . .

My little cow! Those weren't spots on the camera--they were spots on his face. Chick-fil-a cow spots to be exact. Little stickers from his kid's meal that day. He fell asleep on them and somehow ended up on his face and when I tried to tell him, he wouldn't believe me and wouldn't let me take them off.

 Just looking so teenager-y and put out by this picture!

 I dunno. . . just something about this one.

Some of that raw emotion I love so much.

 Won't someone tell me what is going on?

Ear infection? Check

Snores? Check

Drool? Check

Yep, he's a Moore boy.

I seriously heart this picture. I love that Luke took a picture of his belly and toes. L-O-V-E it.

Totally relaxed.

 And for the Grande Finale!

There is an expression around this house know as the "Drunk Gene Face." Although its really, the drunk Gene eyes. But, anyway, it is the expression in which whe have caught all the boys at somepoint.

It originated here. . . with Gene.

And his sleepy, droopy, drinkin' eyes.

(He is going to KILL me when he sees that I have put this picture up. But I am going to remind him that he TOLD me to do an entire post on the drunk Gene face and I have to give you a reference point.)

I don't remember if he was really drunk here or if it was just a bad shot, but these are the eyes. . .

And here are the boys, emulating their father.

Luke's had wayyyy more than two Drunk Gene Face pictures in his lifetime, but for this post I just went back through this year.

Hope you enjoyed it!