Happy Birthday Tucker

My baby is one! I can hardly believe it. The year has gone by so fast. I try to remember and compare Griffin and Tucker at this age, but I cant even remember what Griffin was doing and my "notes" are not that detailed (guess it is not just the second child excuse, but rather my own weakness when it comes to recording things) It is probably better- less comparing and more just enjoying him as he learns new things. We were in Arkansas for birthday and Christmas last week and here are a few pictures of him enjoying his cake- and he DID enjoy the cake! Other than the cake and a couple more presents, he didnt even realize he had a birthday, but I guess that is par for the course for a one-year-old birthday. More pictures of our trip to come in a future post. In my attempt to be a better record keeper for my family, here are some things that Tucker is up to at age one.

Tucker is like Griffin in many ways: he is all boy, he is active and brave-climbing anything he can get into and standing up with a proud "look at me face", and he is loud. He has his differences as well. I have said it before, but he is my snuggler. He lays his head down on me and will just lay there- so sweet. I know it wont last much longer, so I am enjoying every minute of it. While Griffin is my creative drama "king", Tucker already seems to have a more "engineer" type mind. He will sit and take things in and out of a box or bowl, stir a spoon in a cup, try and put blocks or puzzle pieces where they go. He is more -oriented and I can only imagine the struggles that will come when he can stand up for himself when Griffin messes up something he has "put together". Tucker is walking...sort-of. He can take several steps without falling and now tries to walk, until he falls, then resorts to crawling. It wont be long. He is becoming very vocal. He points and grunts/yells when he wants things and he tries and repeats what we say to him- he usually gets the first syllable right. On the way home from Arkansas, Tucker was getting fuzzy and so I handed him a graham cracker and both Nathan and I could have sworn he said "thank you" (dat oo). I said it to him several times and he repeated it. Since he has only done it one other time without me saying it first, but I am pretty sure that is what he is saying. He has not added many new words since 11 months, but he says them all more consistantly, especially "dada", "nana" (banana), "ma (more), "ba" (ball).

Tucker, you are such a joy to our family. You compliment your brother and us in so many ways and we cannot imagine our lives without you. We are so excited to watch you grow and learn and play. Most of all, we pray that you learn to love God and choose to follow him all of your life.

We love you buddy!

Love, Mommy, Daddy, and Griffin