Better late than never!

Tonight, after I kissed Nathan goodnight, I went into Sallie's room and turned on her sound machine.  When I came back into the living room, she was holding her "mongy", pointing at the rocking chair and swaying back and forth.  She's never done this before, but I knew that she wanted to rock.  So, I rocked my baby.  I rocked and rocked and rocked.  And I soaked in the smell of her and the feel of the warmth of her sweet little body and I drank in the blessing that she is to me.  As I was holding her, she was sucking on those sweet little fingers and with her eyes closed, leaned her forehead into my lips over and over again as if she were saying, "kiss me, mama."  I melt.  This is my motherhood.  I'm not a good blogger, but tonight I realized that I've GOT to get some of this stuff down before it slips away and I forget it all...

Sallie,
You are al-most 15 months old.  You are so sweet and you have so much personality!  You can say, "Juice/Shoes (they sound the same!), Dada, Bigda, and basketball (biggle-biggle-ball).  You do a LOT of pointing and grunting, but it works for you!  You make sure we alllllll know what you want and in a way, I sort of like it.  It's honing our skills at being able to read each other's minds.  :)  You can run and you are beginning to climb, you know where your eyes, nose, mouth, hair and belly is.  You are the BEST sleeper!  You recently fell from the highchair at Memaw's (my first trip to the Emergency Room!).  You bit through your bottom lip and pushed your top left tooth into the gum, but it didn't fall out!  We are hoping that it will continue to straighten itself out as it slowly moves back into position.  I think this shows a) that you don't have quite as good of balance as your brother and b) that you are going to be a very active little girl!   You squeal at the top of your lungs with laughter when you see an animal - any kind!  It's so sweet.  And you loooooooove your daddy and your brother.  You give sweet hugs and kisses by leaning over and saying "uh-uh".  You don't like for Nathan to get into trouble and you try to do everything that he does!  It's such a sweet and precious relationship that y'all have!  You won't remember and I hope I'll never forget how in the morning when we first wake you up, he always says, "Good morning, sweet princess!"  :)  This is the greatest joy of my life, right now!  It reminds me of when he first saw you in the hospital.  When he first came in, I was holding you and he climbed into bed with us and touched you and looked sweetly at you.  But then, several minutes later, someone had placed you in the bassinet and you'd begun to cry.  Memaw was holding Nathan and was standing next to the bassinet and he said, "It's okay, Sallie!  Don't cry, I'm your brother and I'll protect you!"  And he will, he will love you and protect you all of your life.  I'm so thankful for the two of you!

Nathan,
You just turned FOUR!  I can NOT believe that it's already been 4 years since you were born!  You are so big and grown up and smart and sweet and strong.  I just sometimes wonder how in the world it's even possible for you to be mine!  I'm not (first of all, old enough ;) ) and second of all, smart enough to have risen such an amazing little person!  You are going to school at First Methodist 5 days a week with Miss Karen Moon and your friends are Luke Hice, Cade McKnight, Griffin Conoly, Kate Sears, Kathryn Ross Pass, Addy Welden, etc.  The teachers always have the nicest things to say about you and they all think you are so smart and well-mannered!  You have such a strong love for your family, for Preacher Pa (who passed away a year ago) and Meme, for our house ("We have a fun little house.  Don't we, Mama?"), for Sallie (you'll stop your bike when you're riding just to come give her a hug), for Mason (sometimes we won't have seen him for weeks and you'll say, "I'm glad I have a brother."), for sports (ALL sports), and for God ("What does God's mommy look like?")  You do test us and are not a very good sleeper and you do like to get your way and you are VERY active, but I wouldn't have it any other way.  I never knew what life with a boy would be like and I'm surprised at how much differently it was than I expected.  I love you so much, sweet boy.  You are my favorite little boy in the whole world and I'm so grateful that you are mine.  I hope you will always know how much you are loved and how wonderful I think you are. 

Love my sweet, sweet babies...