Happy 2nd Birthday Auden!

 In keeping with the tradition of writing Auden a letter on his birthday every year, below is his 2nd birthday letter that has been a work in progress since his birthday on the 12th of February.  

Dear Auden,

Happy 2nd Birthday little monkey!  What a big boy you are now!  You were born smaller than the size of a football and now you hold it high above your head!



2 months old (due date, approx. 6lbs) 



This year we had a small birthday celebration with mostly family, because let’s face it, we will probably never be able to get away with doing that again!  In honor of our airplane theme, we went to the air and space museum in the morning which you (and your cousin Reegan) loved running around, had a neat birthday cake with an airplane on it, and Grammy and Grandpa got you a cool toy airplane that you love flying around the house.  Here are some pictures of your special day:

I can’t believe how much your little personality has been changing lately.  You have become very attached (dare I say-clingy) to mommy and daddy (especially mommy) in the past two months. You frequently want to be picked up and carried these days...which we really don't mind:-)  You are still very good when it comes to sharing and are almost a pushover when other kids take something from you, you just move on to something else (which they then usually take from you too, ha).  Right now your “big issue” is patience, or lack thereof!  When you decide you are thirsty, we can’t get the water or milk out of the fridge fast enough for you.  When mommy says you can pick out a book after you get your pajamas on, you are not a happy camper.  And your teacher says trying to get you to put on your jacket before you go outside is no easy feat- you just don’t want to bother with it!  Oh yes, I should mention that in the last three months you decided you hate getting your haircut.  After mommy had a mortifying experience at the barber shop and you left with half a hair cut, we have since resorted to daddy cutting your hair at home!  It still is not pleasant, but at least it is in the privacy of our own home.  And we have to give daddy credit, he is doing a pretty good job!

So, what do you have to say lately?  Everything!  When you are around the house with mommy and daddy, we call you our little parrot because you repeat everything we say.  We can’t keep track of how many words you have anymore, I would guess over 200 by now.  Everyday you try to put more and more words together.  It is so fun that we can actually have a “conversation” with you now!  You point at something you want and you say “I want it please,” you point at the front door and say “go outside, park?,” you go to the basement stairs and say “down, purple choo choo train,” during our bedtime routine you always say "more books please" in efforts to stall and in the car you always point out the “yellow school bus” and say “see big crane” when we drive by the construction site every morning.  Your newest discovery is sizes, everything is “daddy size,” “mommy size,” or “baby size.”  Whether it be the different size mustards we have in the house or the dinosaurs in a book...it's so cute!

You are getting pretty good with colors, you can say them all but still confuse red and green (crossing our fingers you aren't colorblind, ha).  You can say and identify the majority of the letters of the alphabet now and currently we are working on singing the alphabet song.  With your birthday came the love for the number “2,” but other than that, your interest in numbers isn’t quite there yet.  Your teachers still can’t believe how much you sing all day long and insist you are going to be a very musical person (which makes daddy and I laugh since we are not at all).  Most importantly, you have been learning very good manners and we are so proud of how you remember to say “please” and “thank you” the majority of the time.  You even say “thank you” when you give people stuff, which we aren't quite sure how to correct, ha.  You are definitely a typical boy, you LOVE trucks, tractors and planes!  You have been working hard at saying “motorcycle,” “helicopter,” and “excavator” for months and I think you are at the point now where someone else (besides mommy and daddy) can understand it!  You love running around outdoors more than ever...mommy and daddy are working hard to give you a wonderful BIG backyard very soon as we are currently under contract on a new house!

In other news, you have been off of the medication prevacid for three weeks now and doing great!  We have tried to get rid of it in the past without success so we are thrilled right now that no reflux signs have crept back yet.  We couldn’t be happier that you are down to only one medication now (heart meds) and hopefully that will be gone in the next year too.  We are thrilled about how well you have been eating lately.  You have never been much of a breakfast or snack kid, but you have nice big lunches and dinners.  You ask for “tots!” almost every day but you also like meatballs, turkey meatloaf, breaded fish fillets, ravioli and chicken dogs/hotdogs.  You have always loved fruit, veggies and yogurt so that makes us parents happy for sure!  At your 2 year well visit with the pediatrician you weighed in at the 25th percentile where you have been since 9 months old, so it looks like you are probably just meant to be a skinner than average kid, nothing wrong with that!  You did fall from the 75th percentile in height to about the 60th percentile, but let’s be honest, it was only a matter of time with these genes!

Auden, we are so very proud of you and are nothing short of amazed at how far you have come in these 2 years.  I'm sure that as you grow up you are going to get sick of hearing how you were a preemie and about your rough start into this world.  But you see, when a mommy spends the first 47 days of her baby's life sitting at his bedside in the hospital, watching her son turn blue in her arms countless times when he “forgets to breathe” it's impossible to forget.  It makes everything you do, that much more special in your daddy and my eyes.  We can’t believe what a strong and healthy little boy you have grown into, we feel blessed beyond reason.  Happy Birthday sweet Auden angel!