LifeasMeghan.com

Brantley,

We had a few warm days in November and took advantage of the weather for a trip to Grommet Island. You learned how to walk across the lily pads and finally went down the slide all by yourself. It took a few tries but each time afterward you would stop and clap for yourself. The cutest.

Your Nana found a discount for some studio portraits this month and thought it would be adorable to get some photos of you and your baby brother. You apparently didn’t think so and fought us the entire time. We got a total of 3 photos out of the whole photo shoot. Near the end of the session we got one good smiling photo but only because you were pulling your pants down and we were telling you to stop but thankfully, the photographer saw her opportunity and snapped away.

On Thanksgiving, we spent the day with both sides of the family but now that we have two little ones we didn’t do such a good job of taking photos so these are from the end of the day when we finally realized we hadn’t taken very many pictures during the day. At dinner, you sat at the big table with us in your little highchair, prayed with us, and ate most of the food that the rest of us ate. You were REALLY excited about the sweet potatoes.

Memories from this month:

• When you want us to turn up the volume of the music in the car, you say “Be loud! I want it be loud”
• You will not take a nap if you know I am home. When Daddy brings you home from preschool, I have to hide in the kitchen so he can take you back to your room without you seeing me.
• One day as you were leaving for school you were in a rather grumpy mood and didn’t want to give me a kiss before you and Daddy walked out the door. On your way to school you were so distraught, saying, “I wanna go back home. I give mommy kiss”. ” I give 2 kisses””I want kisses, I go back home.”
• Every morning when Daddy wakes you up, he tells you a special message and you run out into the living room you always have a special message for me. Sometimes it’s something like “Good morning, Mommy! You’re my hero!” but one morning after a few days of having a runny nose, you came running into the living room and yelled “I love you, Mommy!” and then added “No boogies!”
• One night you were sitting in your highchair playing with your food rather than eating it so Daddy told you to take a bite and eat or else we would throw it away and you wouldn’t get anymore milk or fruit afterwards either. Well, just a second later you started playing with it again and Daddy threw the rest in the trash. The next night I overheard you talking to Daddy again, “Daddy look! No play with them. Eat them. And fruit! And milk!”
• We went to the beach to see Santa this year and we prepped you to tell Santa you wanted drums for Christmas. We kept pretending to be Santa, asking you “What do you want for Christmas?” and you seemed to get the hang of it. A few days later Daddy picked you up on his lap and when through the whole thing again. He asked you “Brantley, what do you say?” and you replied, “Trick or Treat!!!”
• You absolutely adore your little brother. And we love watching your relationship develop. Throughout the day you walk over to him and want to hold his hand, lay beside him, and you try to make him smile, and we hear, “Hi Barrett! Hi!” a LOT all day long.

We love you, buddy.

Love, Your Mama

Brantley,

This month was absolutely full of fun memories, adventures, new experiences, and good times!

Nanny is getting ready to sell her home at the end of the year so we wanted to make sure we had as many opportunities as possible to build memories at her house while the weather was nice and the pool was warm. You love playing in the pool for hours with your friends and a day at the pool is never a bad day!

You still love to feed Shadow and now you’ve taken to feeding him by hand. Well, at least when we’ll let you. Usually he just lies down in his crate because he realizes it’s going to take a while and we’ll have to pull you away so he can actually eat by himself without unnecessary human intervention. But it’s so sweet to watch you pick up each food piece by piece while he gently takes them from your fingers.

Our favorite memories from this month of your life:

• Telling stories with Daddy… and Buddy. Going through your nighttime routine with Buddy: stories about “big pool… Ding ding ding… Whoosh.” Then telling him “hugs and kisses” and putting his finger to your mouth and his before putting him in your crib. Our little daily routines really do make an impact.
• Ocean Breeze has become a frequent hotspot for us and you love to “swim” (AKA: crawl) through the water in the kids play area. You also love the purple slide the best and you talk about it all the time.
• Your place in the world as a “Mama’s boy” is becoming more solid as you call for “More Mommy!” every day during your naps. Even though I know Daddy might feel a little left out, I must admit that I absolutely love it!
• Every night we choose a couple books to read before bedtime and recently we’ve been reading your Baby Bible. Now whenever we go into your room for bed you ask for “More Baby Jesus.”
• You’re still terrified to poop in the tub.
• Speaking of poop, you’re starting to hide when you have to go and if I’m anywhere nearby you’ll come over to me and physically turn me around and then act like nothing is happening for the next few moments while you do your business.
• Mommy’s belly is growing to the point where you can no longer sit on my lap while we read books at night. I tried to explain it to you and now you tell me “No Barrett” as you’re climbing up onto the chair to sit beside me.
• When Shadow is in your way, which happens often, you yell “MOVE SHADOW!” about as loud as you can.
• We pray before every meal and initially we would say the prayer for you, thanking God for the people in our lives but recently you’ve taken it on yourself and yesterday you thanked God for “Mama, Daddy, Shadow, Nana, Papa, Bama… and cheese.”
• Whenever you have a poopy diaper we ask you if you have a stinky butt and recently you started blaming the smell on other people, saying “Daddy stinky butt!” or “Shadow stinky butt!”
• Last year we realized your knack for rhythm when you got a drum set as a Christmas gift from your cousins Jackson and Riley and could imitate simple rhythms we gave you. But it wasn’t until this month that you started clapping to the beat of music and we were so surprised! Daddy was playing Uptown Funk in his truck and you were clapping right along. Our little drummer boy.

I hold you a little extra longer every night because I know it won’t be that way forever.

Love you, little one.

Love, Mama.

Brantley,

When we found out we were having a boy over 2 years ago, everyone told me “Boys love their mamas.” I didn’t fully understand what that meant at the time but I’m starting to get it… you are becoming SUCH a Mama’s boy. You cry whenever I have to leave and beg for me to stay. You’re also starting to figure out that when people have their shoes on that means they’re staying home so you’ll tell us “Mama, shoes off” or “Daddy, shoes on” to make sense of whether people are coming or going. And if I put my shoes on in the mornings you know I’m getting ready to leave and you’ll usually tell me to take them off.

The other day I came home from work and apparently you had missed me so much you cried for 15 minutes straight after I came home and because we had plans that evening, we had a babysitter arrive just a little while later. You seemed so heartbroken that I was leaving you again and our babysitter said you seemed sad and you were very cuddly all night long which is NOT like our little boy.

At the end of July we celebrated our second favorite holiday of the year. Obviously, Christmas takes the first place position for the Roberson family but Christmas in July comes in at a close second! You were a lot more interested in decorating the tree this year and you absolutely loved picking out our new ornament from the Christmas Mouse store at the oceanfront. We probably could’ve stayed in there all day and let you wander around the store for hours if it weren’t for nap times (which we were thankful for because then we could watch our favorite Christmas movies while you slept!)

You’ve now been introduced to Ocean Breeze! You call it “the big pool” and even though the waterpark is enormous and has tons of different areas to play in, we’ve only seen the kids area which seems to keep you entertained until you nearly pass out on the way home.

At first you were petrified to go down the slides and insisted on Daddy holding you all the way down but each time you splashed at the bottom you yelled “More!” and up the sidewalk you went pulling Daddy behind you to do it again and again. By the end of each day you would finally feel confident enough to go down the slide sitting in front of Daddy and you would talk about the orange, purple, and green slides for days. You’re still hesitant about the huge waterfall that splashes down in the middle of the pool every few minutes but once we explained to you that first you’ll hear the “ding! ding! ding!” as a warning before the waterfall happens, you started easing up a little. At home, throughout the day, we’ll hear you saying “ding! ding! ding! Woosh!” as you’re replaying the whole scenario in your head.

At the beginning of August, we made the drive to West Virginia for your second family reunion! Even when we didn’t have planned events during the weekend, we loved spending time with family at the lodge. Your uncle Knate flew in with his longtime friend Jill and we had a great time hanging out in Nana and Papa’s room. Once you realized you could run back and forth between our room and theirs through the connecting doors, you spent most of your waking hours running and we just laughed and laughed because you were so excited about such a simple discovery.

We visited the Pioneer Farm while we were there, which is one of our favorite places to go. Your great great grandmother was born here and it is still a functioning farm where a family lives and grows their own food with horses, cows, goats, sheep, and chickens in the yard. The family who lives there now has put in months of work to replace rotten boards, put a new roof on the barn, and are constantly adding new animals to the farm so when visitors come they can get the full experience of what this beautiful farm once was.

While we were in West Virginia, we had a memorial service for your PaPa as we laid his ashes near his stillborn baby boy at the family’s mountain top cemetery on Bower’s Ridge. It was a beautiful time with so many of our extended family present. There were tears shed because of what was said about Papa but most of all, our family members wept as they watched you pick flowers from the mountain side and place them one at a time on PaPa’s gravestone. At one point, I tried to hold you but you insisted “More flowers PaPa!” and I broke down in tears. I don’t know how, but somehow your little toddler heart understands the most difficult parts of life in probably to most simple and beautiful way.

Memories from this month of your life:

• You started calling me Mommy instead of Mama and repeat “Mommy up!” over and over during your naps to ask for me to come get you up out of bed.
• During our walks around the neighborhood, you started learning the names of new things like “stop sign” and “fire hydrant” and now we have to look at them EVERY TIME we go on a walk.
• You insist on mowing the grass whenever Daddy does, which is quite adorable.
• Nana and Papa bought you a balance bike for Christmas and this month you finally grew tall enough to reach the ground with your feet and also developed the confidence to try it out again and with success! Daddy helped you the first few times and had to assist with the turn-around when you got to the end of the driveway but eventually you were all on your own and we just put our hands on your back to make sure you felt safe.
• We got to spend a lot of time with your Uncle Knate when he was in town after the family reunion and you’re still not entirely sure what to think of him. He constantly tries to make you laugh in hopes that he’ll win you over with his humor but you’re tough to crack.
• Daddy took you to the Aquarium this month for a Daddy-Son date. Obviously you loved the huge fish tanks but your favorite part was touching the horseshoe crabs.
• We started using time out this month more frequently since you seem to understand that concept now and one day you threw a toy then put yourself in time out. I would say it’s working.
• Perhaps the most memorable moment from this month was one evening when you pooped in the tub… oh yeah. You were playing in the tub crouched down dumping water in and out of your cups while I was standing in the hallway talking to your Daddy. I turned back toward the bathroom and all of a sudden you started yelling at me “Mama out! Mama out!” and I realized you had pooped in the tub and you were embarrassed. Your little face was so panicked it just broke my heart. After I got you out of the bathtub all you wanted was to be held. For weeks afterward you were petrified to take a bath, crying throughout the whole experience and we have to constantly reassure you that you’re ok. One day maybe we’ll laugh about it but even just thinking about your poor little face and how ashamed you were makes my heart break all over again for you.

• …and you LOVE your toy drill.

Love you, little one.

Love, Your Mama

Brantley,

Happy two years of life, little man!

You are so cool. Way cooler than me and your dad. Let’s just get that out of the way now. You’re also pretty hilarious and you have quite the personality!

Moving on though…

Your speech therapist Mama is so excited to announce that while we’ve noticed a language delay of a few months for a while, we’re happy to report that your language continues to explode and it makes me so proud for all the hard work. I constantly tell people that you didn’t stand a chance because of my professional position but in all reality, it was a lot of work to get to this point. We’re still not up to the level that’s considered “age appropriate” by professional standards but when I turn my SLP brain off, I try to relish in your cute little sentences that come out as simple as “I sit!” and “I splashing!” In those moments, you’re so happy and proud of yourself to have accomplished whatever mundane task it is that you’ve accomplished by yourself and you’re just absolutely thrilled to be able to tell us about it!

This month we had to say goodbye to our favorite neighbors and your girlfriend, “C”. They lived in the house next to ours for about a year and this summer we spent nearly every day outside with them, the grown ups sitting in lawn chairs on the driveway and you two running around kicking a ball, chasing bubbles, and pushing each other in C’s cozy coop car.

Your Mama may have cried a LOT when we were taking these last photos but mostly because I know how rare it is to have neighbors next door who are so amazing and the friendship you shared with C was just precious. Not to mention, C’s mom had just given birth to a baby boy and with our second on the way, these two would only be a few months apart in age. It broke my heart that I would have to say goodbye to this time in our lives and I knew the day would come – sooner rather than later – when you would ask to go over to C’s house and we would have to tell you that she wasn’t there. I knew that you wouldn’t understand and that it would probably happen over and over (and it has) but change is just a part of life and we never know what plans God has for us that may be even better! So we said our goodbyes and wished them luck in their new home in Georgia and Mama went home and cleaned up her face after a good hard pregnant cry.

We may have had to say goodbye to one friend but just a week later God brought us a new one! There’s a new paramedic working at Daddy’s station and his wife came to Sunday Dinner with their son Aiden and you two hit it off immediately. We always love our Sunday Dinner tradition but it sure doesn’t hurt to have another friend there with us.

At the end of June, the beach house was available for a whole week so we capitalized on the opportunity and drove down to enjoy an impromptu family vacation! With Mama’s school schedule, I was off for the entire week so we were able to relax and spend long days playing on the beach, napping on the couch, and relaxing in the “morning room” sunroom – Mommy’s favorite room in the house.

Every morning we ate breakfast out on the deck then wandered down to the beach before any of our neighbors arrived and had the beach all to ourselves for the first few hours of every day.

It was a great time for us to spend as a family before the whole family joined us just a few weeks later for our annual Beach Week!

The day before we left for Beach Week, we had one more very important event – our gender reveal party to find out if you were going to have a little brother or sister!

We had our friends Blair and Ty order pink and blue pinata and then order paint powder in the right color. Your Daddy and I were both convinced we were having a baby girl so we both wore pink that morning and had been talking about different baby names for a girl. When I was pregnant with you everyone told me I was having a boy, and this time around everyone said it was a girl so I guess we just believed them!

We had a big party with all of our friends and family and then went outside to pull the trap door on the pinata and surprise – it’s a BOY!

Blair made us a cake to celebrate our newest little boy and Mama cried when she saw what the cake said. I guess it wasn’t until that moment that I really realized what it would mean to have two boys in the house and I was exponentially more excited to raise two boys!

Beach Week was incredible, as always. Here are the highlights from our week!

Celebrating Fourth of July: You were obsessed with the flags that G-Daddy dropped off at our house before we left for the OBX and since this was our first day at the beach house, the flags were a common toy throughout the rest of the week.

We spent ALL DAY at the beach with the exception of your nap times, getting out early again before the rest of the beach filled up so we could enjoy the quiet mornings alone on the sand. Once we got you in the ocean you never wanted to leave so we obviously spent a lot of time in the water. You even got on a paddleboard with Daddy for the first time!

And everyone enjoyed playing with you, reading books with you, and snuggling up on the couch with their cutest little family member.

When we got home, we had one week to prepare before celebrating your 2nd birthday with all of our friends and family and Nanny and PaPa’s house! The theme was a “Splash Bash” and other than playing in the pool all afternoon, we also had a few sprinklers set up for you kids to run through, little pools to splash in, and big bins of water toys that seemed to be the biggest hit of the day. The grown ups didn’t seem to mind a day at the pool either.

Overall, your party was a hit!

The things I want to remember about this time of your life:

• You sing all the time. You don’t know any words yet but you just hum along by yourself to whatever tune happens to be in your head and it’s so sweet to hear you coming up with your own music if that’s what we can call it right now.
• You still feed Shadow every morning and evening but you know that he has to go into his crate before we feed him so first you’ll ask us if you can feed Shadow and then you immediately turn to the dog and yell at him “Shadow dit!” (sit) and you’ll just keep yelling at him over and over until we intervene and say “sit” so Shadow understands why you’re hollering.
• You’re learning how to catch a ball and Daddy is thrilled that you’re living up to his expectation of growing a “highly tuned athletic machine” as he’s been calling you since the day we found out we were pregnant.
• One day there was a thunderstorm and you were afraid of the thunder so I explained to you that maybe it was PaPa just playing drums in heaven. All of a sudden, your expression softened and you ran away from the door to your toy bin. You brought back your drumsticks as if you wanted to play along. It was the sweetest thing and brought me immediately to tears.

I love you, Brantley.

1 month

1 year

2 years

Love, Mama