Somehow a year has already passed since the arrival of the Pook. He sure has taken our family for a ride. We feel blessed each day to have this smiley, bouncy, wild little thing in our lives. He is the cause of so much laughter and unbelievable moments in our home. Here's to a year of Gerret! In my journal on his birthday, I wrote a list of things I love about Gerret and I thought I would include some of it here:
Things I Love about Gerret
The way he watches and copies everyone -- especially Nolan.
How he holds on and bounces up and down and yells "dja, dja" (for jump, jump).
He looks like a little bird when he drinks from a sippy cup.
He bobs his head & shakes his body to any kind of music.
How he always seems to be looking for adventure.
He likes to play peek-a-boo and laughs like crazy when someone will take a moment to participate.
How he is cutely chubby but not so fat I have to clean between any rolls.
When he falls asleep on car rides.
He can climb onto the couch, up the stairs, on Nolan's bed, and would probably climb on everything else in the house too if I allowed it.
He responds to "Pooka" over any other name we call him.
He smiles big and often and goofy.
How he yells "Ah! Ah! Ah!" and screams if you don't shovel food into his mouth fast enough.
Those dimples make his smile pretty killer.
He likes toys better when someone else is playing with them (his imagination hasn't quite kicked in).
He tends to be fairly high strung.
He rubs food in his hair at every meal.
How he sleeps 12 hours every night and is mostly good at taking 2 naps every day.
How his hair gets really curly after a bath.
He is intent on standing in the tub.
Those big dark brown eyes.
How absolutely disgusting his high chair gets (if I don't take it apart frequently to clean it, it starts to grow mold).
How he sleeps through inordinate amounts of noise at 6:00 each morning when the rest of the house gets going (This includes hair dryers, squeaky faucets, microwaves, doors slamming, and often, yelling right outside his door).
He is so cute as he inches his way (quickly) around a room from one piece of furniture to the next.
The way he loves his grandma above almost everyone else.
How patient and forgiving he is with Nolan.
How resilient his little body is.
How he could, in all honesty, use 4 baths a day.
The way
he cuddles and makes
kisses.
Here we have: Nolan's hat experiments, matching Christmas pajamas from G&G Mitchell, crib play, funny faces, a horse ride through the kitchen, vintage Matchbox from Bapa's childhood, dirty faces, crib climbing, and Gerret making raspberries with a mouth full of food -all of this evidence of why my days are sometimes crazy and always full of fun and surprises. Gotta love these boys.
This is Willy, short for Willow-My-Furry-Pillow. He's our new old cat. We re-adopted him, except the first time I adopted him, the summer before my senior year of high school, he had a tail. Willie is a big cat. Something between a small dog and a raccoon. He may still weigh more than Gerret, or at least it's close. As can be observed, he has beautiful blue eyes. They were a selling point. 
