Happy Birthday Lawson Boy

Time flies when you are having fun, but it is still hard to believe that the Boy turns one year old today.  As I reflect on the past year and try to remember the stages and milestones that he has hit on the way, I realize it has been a hectic year with 4 kids, but I think we have done our best to enjoy the time and enjoy the stages of our last baby.  Lily being the first kiddo, there was a certain anxiety of being new parents but we took time to thoroughly enjoy our time with her.  When Abby and Chloe came along we were just trying to maintain our sanity and it was tough to enjoy their infancy due to the sheer amount of work involved with twins.  So we made a conscious effort with our little surprise to enjoy him.  Fortunately he was a very well behaved baby and it is actually a close call as to whether he or Lily were easier to raise.  It's still hard to look back and remember everything which is why I started documenting a lot of it in the blog in the first place.  One thing is for sure, if you had told me several years ago we would be raising 4 kids ranging in age from 5 to 1, I would have told you that you were smoking crack.

We held his birthday party for him last weekend, and while Lawson seemed to enjoy the party I know we had a good time in his honor.  I was a little disappointed he didn't dive into his smash cake with the rigor we had hoped for, but he was still able to get plenty messy and plenty of sugar in his system.  My family and Kasey's family were all in town and came over to the house as well as some friends and their kids making for a very chaotic experience.  There were probably close to 20 kids running around the house and though it sounds horrible, it was a lot of fun having everybody over and enjoying themselves.  A comment was made about all the kids running around and if it would cause me anxiety, but then somebody pointed out that 20% of those kids are mine.

For several months now I have been pointing out how there is a light at the end of the tunnel with Abby and Chloe and I am happy to say that light is getting brighter and brighter.  If you do not have kids or they are still infants, many of the frustrations we enjoy with 2 year old is the fact that they know what they want, but they are not able to verbalize it to you so they whine and cry because they get frustrated.  There is only so much of the whining that I can take before I want to jab an ice pick into my ears so I won't have to hear it any more.  Even though their is still the occasional melt down, they are  becoming experts and communicating and they are able to let us know what they want.  The down side is we now have 3 girls who can communicate very well, but they do not know how to let the other finish jibber jabbering before they butt in resulting in all 3 squawking at the same time. 

Yet another skill the twins have mastered is the ability to cast blame on to the other.  Not only are they quick to point out when the other is doing something wrong, but they are testing the waters as far as blaming the other even when they were in the wrong.  Fortunately it is very easy to spot when they try to pull this off.  We are born with a sinful nature and the ability to lie, but we are not born with a good poker face.  Whenever one of them tries to blame the other for something they have done, it is written all over their face. 

We were on our way to San Antonio last night in the car and they were getting restless and starting to complain.  I informed them that if they continued to complain, they would not get a treat when I stopped.  Abby quickly pointed out, "Chloe is complaining, not me".  Come here Chloe so I can wash the off the grease from the bus you just got thrown under.

We still have several hours for Lawson to take his first steps by his first birthday.  He just stood for about 7 seconds on his own, but he won't quite take those steps without holding on to something.  Come on Boy!

Jeff, Kasey, Lily, Abby, Chloe and the Birthday Boy