Jack Ryan

Jack,

You are SOOO laid back. Everyone comments on what a great baby you are.

You have gorgeous big, blue eyes, just like your sister.

You are getting a chubby little belly and I love it!

You love, love, love, your thumb. It's so cute. Sometimes, I lay you on my bed so I can help Kate with something. You'll pop that thumb in your mouth and I'll come back to find that you have put yourself to sleep. Sweet boy.

You can roll over from your belly to your back.

You graduated to size 2 diapers and size 3-6 month clothes.

You have started eating cereal once a day. You seem to really be liking it! I'll be posting more pictures of that later.

You went for your first swim. It took you a little while to like it at first, but I have the feeling you are going to be a little fish just like your sister. More pictures to come later on that, too!

You can hold your head up so well and love to sit in your Bumbo seat. You are a part of the action that way.

Your sister LOVES you!! She wakes up and says, "I want to see Jack." She is always touching you, squeezing you, and sticking her hair in your face. But, you showed HER the other day by grabbing a handful of her blonde locks. I heard her yelling, "Help! Help! Jack, let go!" Ha!

You are the smiley-est (is that a word??) baby I know!! You are bashful. It's so cute.

You are such a glorious addition to our family. We love you, little man.

Love,
Mommy

Our One Year Old

I assured you this was coming. It doesn't matter that she is almost a fourteen month old, right???

Kate has been one since Nov. 15th and we couldn't be enjoying it more!! She is a blast.

If you make it all the way through our letters, there is a walk through Memory Lane at the end.

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Dear Kate,

One year old- congratulations. You have grown so much in twelve months; it's hard to think that you were that little tiny (relatively speaking) baby.

You couldn't do anything, but slowly things began to change. You started to hold your head up, hold your own bottle, roll over, sit up, crawl, walk, run, bounce, high five, babble, and talk. And

now you are more of a toddler than a baby.

I love to watch you rough house with the big kids, or jump on mommy, or run down the hall eluding us as you grab something you shouldn’t have.

Gone are the days when we would put you to sleep in the swing, shush you to sleep, or wait expecting you to crawl at any moment.

You’ve changed us too. We learned how boring our lives were before you. How mundane our trips were. Or how empty our schedule must have been.

How nervous and unready we felt before you came. But now you are here and our lives are crammed with love. I wouldn’t want it any other way. I am fascinated, entertained, overjoyed, and amazed by you and your exploration of the world...

...your tiny features, big girl mentality, and mimicry of everything.

We are now a family because of you. Mark and Jen have become The Roskowske Family.

Our lives are fuller, our love is deeper, our joy is more radiant. You are a blessing.

Here’s to you. Here’s to your first year.

Love Always,
Daddy

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Dear Kate,

You’re ONE!! Daddy and I can hardly believe how fast the year has flown by. You have grown from this little blob that cried all the time to this funny, vibrant, energy filled toddler. You are the light of our lives, truly. We don’t know what we would do without you. When things get tough, we always know that we have our Kate, and that makes everything seem better.

I can remember bringing you home from the hospital and the joy that we felt. For the first few hours, at least. Then, you started to cry and you didn’t stop until mid-January. Seriously, it’s true. For awhile there, Daddy and I wondered why in the world we decided to have a baby. It’s not that you weren’t adorable and cuddly, and, yes, you had your sweet baby moments, but OH, the crying!! Still, we hung on and knew that soon, it would all be over.

What emerged months later was a WAY more relaxed environment around here. A huge sigh of relief!!! We actually enjoyed you, and had so much fun playing with you. Your smile melted our hearts (still does) and with each new milestone, our hearts swelled with pride. Still do. You were our joy, we were a family, and it felt just right.

Over the course of this year, we have watched you grow and change so much. I remember laying you on your little play mat just waiting for you to swat at the little objects hanging down. We’d see you lift your hand and get so excited, “She’s reaching for it!” Normally, it was just those awkward baby movements that all you babies (oh, I forgot, you’re not a baby anymore. You’re a toddler.) do where your arms and legs seem to move involuntary. But then, one day, sure enough, you reached for something and we were so proud. It’s funny to think that not too long ago I was waiting for you to swat at something hanging inches from your face, and now I am trying to teach you how to NOT throw important things in the trash can! What a difference a year makes, huh?

You have learned so much in this past year. We watched you learn to roll over, lift your head, sit supported, then sit on your own. We’ve watched you learn to crawl, scoot, dance, clap, play Pat-a-Cake, sing, say Mama, Dada, Babababa, OOOH, and UH, and our favorite, we’ve watched you learn to walk. We’ve enjoyed Baby Einstein and Saturday morning cartoons in bed with you. We’ve watched you try new foods, seen you play in the snow, in the pool, and in the leaves.

Right now, you love to walk backwards. You’re kinda crazy like that. You love all things with buttons to push. Remotes, t.v.s, your play keys, electronics, your play kitchen, or phones. We go to Uncle Scott’s house every other Monday. Maddie has a Barbie house in her playroom and there is a button to press at the bottom that makes a song come on. We hadn’t been there for a few weeks, but you remembered exactly where that button was. The minute you got back to that playroom, you went right for that button. Sometimes, we are amazed by how smart you are.

You also LOVE the tub!! We have stopped using your little inflatable duck tub inside the big tub, so you are on cloud nine. You have the whole tub to yourself. You are free to move. One night last week, you laid down on your belly in the tub, and kept dipping your face down to drink the water. But mostly, you just like to throw things in and out of the tub. It’s a game I never should’ve started (our bathroom floor is soaked when you are done), but it sure is cute to see the excitement on your face. And, that‘s worth the cleanup later. You also love to shake your naked booty in the bathtub. I think you know how much it makes us laugh, so you stand up, hang on the side, and go to town shakin’ it. We caught this on video… priceless!!

Speaking of shakin’ your booty… you are a dancin’ fool! You rock, bounce, clap, and shake to all kinds of music. You love anything that makes music. You love when we sing to you. You are fascinated by Daddy’s guitar. You smile from ear to ear when he plays and sings for you.

You are full of energy!! You run from one side of the house to the other, normally destroying something in your path. You get into all of my jewelry. You have your own drawer at the bottom of my jewelry box just for you. You rip up toilet paper and Kleenex. You shake your head no when you don’t want to do something. You stand on the laptop. You climb into the dishwasher and refrigerator.

You pull out all of the paper plates from the pantry. You chew on shoes. You like to put my underwear on your head (why my underwear, I have no idea!). You throw tantrums- you throw yourself down, cry, hit, pinch. It’s ugly, but we know it is a phase. Probably a LONG phase, but a phase at that.

You keep us on our toes, to say the least. Honestly, we wouldn’t have it any other way. We know it’s just part of having a one year old. The thought of not having you in our lives is unthinkable. You just fit perfectly.

This year has been filled with new experiences for all of us. We love doing things as a family of three. You make everything more fun. I cannot even TELL you the times Daddy and I have said that to each other. Thank you for adding more love, joy, intensity, and excitement to our lives.

I thought I would dread the day you turned one. It felt like just yesterday that we were driving home from the hospital realizing just how much our lives were about to change. As much as I begged time to slow down, November 15th came. And, it felt right.

I love the fact that you are one (and you look so cute when you hold up your one finger when asked how old you are). I love who you are right now. Feisty, loving, a full on Daddy’s girl, funny, and full of life. We couldn’t ask for more.

I love you, baby girl.

Love,
Mama

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A Year of Pictures

One day old

One month old

Two months old

Three months old

Four months old

Five months old

Six months old

Seven months old

Eight months old

Nine months old... one of my all-time favorite pictures

Ten months old

Eleven months old

Princess Kate on the morning of her first birthday

Eleven Months

Dear Kate,

You are feisty. Yes, that is a good word for you. You love to yell, crawl really fast, tear through things, and you do it all with a smile on your face. Unless of course, I take something away from you (like my cell phone for the millionth time). And then… look out. You have thrown quite the tantrums this past month, arching your back or throwing yourself down on the floor in a mess of tears. I hate to think what these will be like when you are two.

I take all of this in stride, because like I have said before, you are SO MUCH FUN! You make us laugh all the time. I wish I could fully explain this yelling thing you so. It’s hilarious. Sometimes one yell will go on for ten seconds or so, and your face when you do it…oh, I can’t even write the words to imitate it. I need to post a video SOON, because this is something we will want to remember! I think it is all an attempt to keep all the attention on you! We love it!

You make the silliest faces, your newest one being this cute little scrunchy smile. My heart melts when you do this. I first saw it at four in the morning the other day. I was getting over being really sick and Daddy didn’t want to sleep in bed with me for fear of getting sick himself. So, after laying awake for hours unable to sleep, I crept into your room to get you and bring you into bed with me. You know, just for the company. The minute you hit our bed, you popped up and were ready to party! That little scrunchy smile was the first face you made, like you were so glad to see me. You and I played for a good hour, and then we settled back into sleep.

You have cut teeth flawlessly, sometimes getting a little runny nose. You have six teeth now, four on the top and two on the bottom. Your two bottoms came in first, followed by two fangs on the top (this was quite the sight!), and then your two top middle ones. You can actually chew food now, and baby food is a thing of the past. You are on to bigger and better things and we pretty much just feed you whatever we eat. You are a big fan of graham crackers (well, crackers of any sort, actually), Cheerios, and Goldfish. You love your sippy cup, and use it at all meals, and for formula twice a day. You still have a bottle in the morning and at night, which we are slowly phasing out. On that note, we are finishing up our last can of formula, and moving on to real milk. This is NOT something I will miss. It will be much cheaper and easier!! And, you know, I’m all about that!

You are still such a good little sleeper. You sleep for about ten or eleven hours each night and still take two naps, about two hours each. I’m sure you will switch to one nap soon, but I will let you tells us when. You wake up in the best moods, eager to greet us with a big grin and a grunt.

You have started taking your first steps!! The most you have taken at one time is six, but you are getting braver and braver every day. Our world is about to change, yet again! I am sure in true Kate fashion you will move to running and climbing within days of mastering the walking. No rest for the weary around here, I tell ya!

You love your Daddy fiercely, and I think prefer him to me. You wake up calling his name, and you cry when he enters a room and doesn’t pick you up. You went through a phase where you cried when he dropped you off at Miss Marilyn’s. She told me that you would even crawl to the door after you left. Daddy melted when I told him that. Now, Miss Marilyn takes you to the window and you wave bye- bye to him as he goes.

Oh, and that reminds me of all the tricks you can do (tricks… like a dog! JUST KIDDING!), one of which is bye-bye. You wave with both hands at the same time, and it’s more just opening and closing your hand, but cute nonetheless. We taught you how to sign “more” and you caught on in a day. Now, you use it while you are eating and it is adorable. You know how to brush your hair and will do it on command, whether or not you have a brush in your hand. You are working on pointing to your eyes and nose. It’s a gamble on that one… sometimes you get it and sometimes you point to the top of your head or your ear. You know how to “talk on the phone” when we say “Hello”. You play pat-a-cake and peek-a-boo. You love to be upside down and your new favorite trick is having mommy help you do a flip. You think that is the best and if you were able to say “again”, I’m sure you would. As soon as we are done, you are crawling up my legs to do it again. You make this “mean face” to everyone! The girls call it your haters look and that’s a pretty good description.

I can’t believe you will be a year old in a month. I thought I was really sad about it, but you have just gotten to be so much more fun with each passing month, that it is hard to mourn the passing time right now. Each month brings new challenges and obstacles, but more joy than we can hold in our hearts. You are the greatest blessing we have ever received. You make our everydays so much brighter. How can I do anything but look forward to the future we have as a family? I love you, Kate Rileigh. Thanks for being my girl.

Love you to the moon and back,
Mama

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Dear Kate,

As I write this you are taking your first steps towards walking. Mustering all the courage you can, you let go of our hands and toddle forward. Each step is a breakthrough as your little legs develop confidence. I am excited to see your development, but there is a basic understanding that you will never be this again.

Next month is your first birthday. Yes, that's right, next month. Not that long ago you were incapable of holding your head up. And now your favorite position is upside down. Bottles become sippy cups, spoons become fists to shovel in spaghetti, and patty cake is the game to play.

Your life is a succession of moments, passing us by day by day. In this moment you learned to crawl, and that one was "da da da da", and this one is walking, and that one is kindergarten, and this one is your first boyfriend. Kate, you fill up each and every moment and make my moments richer than I could have imagined.

Love,

Daddy

"Don't blink. Just like that you're six years old and you take a nap and you wake up and you're twenty-five and your high school sweetheart becomes your wife. Don't blink. You just might miss your babies growing like mine did, turning into moms and dads next thing you know your "better half" of fifty years is there in bed and you're praying God takes you instead. Trust me friend a hundred years goes faster than you think. So don't blink"