Tucker is TWO!!!

Tucker,

You are two years old!!! I cannot believe my sweet little baby boy is a big two year old. You have grown so much. You are a funny kid though. You are scared of everything new but the past week you have done things you were always terrified of and we are SO proud of you!!! You got inside of a bounce house all by yourself and even tried jumping a few times, you went down a big slide ALL BY YOURSELF!!! That was a huge accomplishment for you and I couldn't believe it.

At the same time, you are also a total bully when it comes to your brother. You know how to push his buttons (which isn't that hard anyway) but you do it so often just because you know you can since the littlest things set him off. However, you are still BFFs with your big brother :)

When it comes to school, you are loving it so much! You are learning so much like colors, animals, songs, and ABCs. Putting you in daycare twice a week is probably one of the best decisions we've made. It helps you make friends, learn to be away from us, and be in a structured environment to help you learn. Plus probably one of the best parts is that Daddy and I get two whole days with no kids and I have to say, it is fantastic :)

Your vocabulary has skyrocketed the past couple weeks as well. For a long time it was only one word sentences but you are improving and getting better at talking every day. Some of the funny things you say:
    -when you want to know what someone's name is or what something is called: "Name. Name. Name"
    -something you learned at school is that Jesus lives in your heart. Everytime you see a heart you say "Jesus. Heart"
    -Superman = McMann
    -Captain America = Erica
    -Boogers = donuts
    -Open = "op"
    -Can't say your "C" syllables so Tucker is "TuHer", Michael is "MyHul", muscles is "MuHuls"


For your birthday this year we had a PJ Masks birthday theme. We didn't do too much but I made a few decorations and made shirts for everyone in the house. Since you have a deep love for donuts (not just your boogers), I made you a Krispy Kreme "cake". You weren't the only one who loved that; the guys were ecstatic :)

Your two year old checkup at the doctor went really well. You passed all the questions for the questionnaire with flying colors. Your height is in the 30th percentile and weight is in the 60th percentile, which I find hard to believe considering you hardly eat real food....The only concern I did have was that your foot turns in slightly, but I'm sure you will grow out of that soon.


You are such a funny, sweet, loving, cuddly little boy. You are completely ornery and know how to antagonize your brother. But if you don't get your way, it's like you lose your spine and you go completely noodle and collapse on the floor to throw your fit. Yes, you are THAT kid.....

I am excited to see what kind of little person you grow into as you get older. You are a sweet little boy with such a kind heart already.

The past few months have gotten even more busy than I imagined and I have slacked on keeping good records unfortunately. I'm afraid as life gets busier my record keeping will get worse. But I promise to still continue doing some sort of update!

I love you my sweet boy. Continue to be the boy God wants you to be.

 Still in love with your sweet puppy :)

 My little model baby enjoying the water park! Except not really, because you hate the water and hate trying new things. The snacks and sunshine were nice though!

 Daddy got new glasses, so I wanted some too!

 Sometimes its one of those naked light saber fighting kind of days

 Little sailor man!

The picture is a lie. Again, you were afraid to jump :)

 Hanging out at Target with that cute little cheese face

 Goggles: greatest toy ever

 Time for Cowboys Football and you wanted to paint your face like the guys

 My little Boys Town Cowboy fan

 First day of school!!!!

 First day of school family shot

 First day of school: Goggles edition

 My annual hand-holding school photo. I apologize now if I have you replay this picture in high school for my own sake :)

 I love all my boys!

 Mommy love

 First school photos! You are just too cute

 Sometimes I let you pick your own clothes out and sometimes you look like a bag of Skittles

 The best part of helping make brownies? The spoon or course!

 Birthday haircut time!! It was time to get rid of the man-bun

 Happy Fall, ya'll!

 Happy Halloween

 Another First accomplished: You rode a train all by yourself and didn't cry!!!

 You love your Daddy

 Super Gekko MuHuls!!!

 Now that you are two, you thought you were big enough for Mommy's coffee

 Ice cream after your first dentist appointment for doing so well :)

 Happy birthday my sweet boy!!

 I have to cover the guys' faces, but we had fun with your PJ Masks party and matching shirts

 Donuts and presents

 Halloween Time: Star Wars Edition

 Our first Halloween as a family. You had so much fun saying Trick or Treat and sneaking in WAY more candy than you actually needed

Tucker - 21 months

Tucker,

I am a little late, but you turned 21 months in July! Over the past three months you have grown in your vocabulary and definitely grown in your independence and ornery-ness.


MOTOR SKILLS:
-You've gotten great at using utensils and drinking out of a regular cup!
-Talking....you still love to babbly non-stop. In the car we have even heard what sounds like a song you made up!
-Lemonade = "em-en AY" with an emphasis on the AY part :)
-Dinosaurs are a fun favorite for you and you can say "T-Rex", "Dactyl" for Pteradactyl, "Tops" for Triceratops
-My all time favorite word you say is "beep" for grape :)
-You get to start "school" next month! You will be going to MDO twice a week for the entire day! It's going to be a nice little break for us too


FOOD:
-We have such a hard time feeding you! If you could live off of donuts and cereal or anything else full of sugar, you would eat tons of food. I mean, you could eat SEVEN donuts!! We have started making sure you don't get "sweet snacks" unless you've eaten your meal, but sometimes Trenton feeds you his snack....

GROWING UP/BT LIFE:
-I am already thinking about how in the world we are going to raise you both to be good kids. Yes, you will do the normal stupid teenage boy stuff. And yes, I am dreading that too. But if we stay at Boys Town throughout your adolescent years, I'm sure you will become great friends with some of the boys in our home when you are the same age. I just hope and pray that we can figure out how to raise you to not think you are better than our Boys Town kids, but to not make the bad choices they made to get where they are. I have no idea how we will do that, but I pray it will come to us when we need it.  I don't want you to ever think you are better than anyone else and that you are more entitled or anything, but I want you to make good choices in life. I want you to be able to learn from those mistakes you do make.

-Some crazy things have happened recently in our house and I am just so thankful for you and Trenton. It has made me pray even more for your innocence and safety. To not go into too much detail, we have had some major drug problems in our house where numerous kids have taken or been suspected of taking prescription pain meds that are highly addictive. We even found them in our house. Along with that we even had a kid run away and overdose and was in the ICU for a few days. So extremely scary for all involved. And my heart breaks. The thing that scared me the most though, was the fact that these drugs were IN our house. What if someone had dropped a pill? What if you or Trenton picked it up and put it in your mouth? Just by sucking on a pill, it would've made you seriously ill or even killed you. You still put everything in your mouth and have no regard for that kind of safety! This terrified me. This is one of the toughest parts of our job. Having this fear that sometimes high schoolers are so selfish that that don't think of what effects their actions have on others, especially those that can't make the choices to do stupid things or not. My children are sometimes put at risk and it is terrifying. Luckily though, things have calmed down tremendously and my safety radar is back under control. Normally I am loving this job, even though there are tough days, but our week of these issues was draining! I still feel so blessed to be here though and seeing even small changes in these boys lives for the better. I still love that you and Tucker get to grow up with so many big brothers. Being here will teach you the skills needed to succeed in society as well. You will just get the opportunity to learn them a lot sooner than others!

PERSONALITY:
-You LOVE shoes. You and your brother are complete opposites. Trenton takes his shoes and socks off the second he comes inside. You on the other hand, you want your shoes on almost the second you wake up!
-It has come up over the past few weeks that you are quite the environmentalist! Every time you see trash on the ground, you must pick it up. Even while at the zoo, if there are leaves on the ground, you walk around saying "trash! trash! trash!" and try to pick up every. single. leaf.
-Your favorite movie is The Good Dinosaur and sometime you even answer to Arlo :)
-You are SO ornery! I though Trenton was bad, but no way! You are way worse. I love you with all my heart, but my goodness child. you are going to drive us nuts! Running around taking toys from your brother just because you know it'll make him cry, hitting him just because it'll make him cry, trying to hide things behind your back when you know you shouldn't have them...just to name a few things


LOOKS:
-Both you and Trenton have this little piece of hair that curls so perfectly over your right eye. That little piece of hair, plus your eyes, I assume will be getting you in some trouble when you are older!
-I absolutely love your hair. It is my texture, so really thin, but super curly. Your curls just bounce right back in place.
-Speaking of looks...you have so many! Your angry face, your muscle face, and very often, we will look over at us and you will be giving the dirtiest looks, then crack up. You are such a funny kid!!

VACATIONS:
-We got to take a big vacation this summer and we rented a car to drive down to North Carolina to stay with Aunt Brittany, Uncle Montez, and cousin Kennedy for a few days, then drove down further for a few days at Myrtle beach where we met up with Gig-Gi, Pimpa, and Aunt Amelia. Then again we drove down further to Atlanta to visit for a day before heading back home. It was a very busy vacation with way to much driving, but you boys did great! You had so much fun playing with Kennedy and spending time at the beach. You hate trying new things though, so the ocean wasn't your favorite thing to do. Luckily you enjoyed the sand since it was familiar since we have a sandbox playground.

-We also got to spend a few days in Lake Okoboji with our BT guys! Again you got some lake time in with boating and playing in the sand. It was another week of fun and trying to push you to try new things. I wanted to take you kayaking but you freaked out every time I tried. Even though you kept yelling "no! no! no!", I made you get on an inner tube with one of our BT guys and guess what?? You ended up falling asleep! Which actually was fantastic since the first day you refused to nap and were an absolute terror all day. So for the next couple days, our guys were enlisted to be the "baby whisperers" and take you for a nap on the tube! :)

-Right after we got back from Okoboji, Great Grandma, Great Grandpa, and Aunt Sherry came to visit for a few days from California! They spoiled you and loved on you for a few days and I have to admit, it was nice being able to have family to keep an eye on you two sometimes :) You had so much fun cuddling with everyone!


Next time I write, it will be your birthday!!! I cannot believe it. This year has gone by so fast and in a couple months we will have a two year old and a three year old!



I love you my sweet and silly goofball!


LoveAlways,

Mommy

 Cousin time!

 Riding Daddy's back is always fun

 Look at those three sweet babies

 First time at the beach! And of course you had to throw sand in your hair

 Auntie Brittany love!

 I love my handsome boys :)

 Saying bye to Gi-Gi and Pimpa

 I do A LOT of shopping as a Family Teacher. Sometimes it gets tiring....

 Catching Fish!

 You LOVE taking pictures. Which is fine for me!

 Daddy selfie time!

 Happy Father's Day Daddy!!

 Father's Day dinner time

 "Show me your ANGRY face Tucker!"

 You are kind of a weird kid. If Brother has his shirt off you LOVE it! You tackle him and won't get off. With a straight face too. It's hilarious and SO weird!

 Sometimes Brother hogs the TV and you want to watch The Good Dinosaur. So Mommy gets creative :)

 Sour Skittles. Need I say more? :)

 Lake Okoboji!!

 I can take pictures all day long with you, my child :) One of our many Okoboji selfies

 Great Grandma and Grandpa, and Aunt Sherry came to visit

 Love :)

 When you give a baby a pudding cup.....

You sat on the steps outside the house and said "Cheese!" so of course, we had to take a picture!