Dear Bently,

There are so many things I want to write about, but then when I go to actually do it, they all slip from my brain like water running through my fingers! Ugh! I am such a slacker mommy. I feel like I haven't written about all the fun things you do in forever. Let's just get started shall we and we'll see where it leads! :)
You have turned into a little parrot. You repeat most everything we say. I love it! I love making you say silly words, or words I know are pretty much impossible for you to say right now! But there are always those rare moments where you actually say a really hard word crystal clear. I always am shocked and amazed and end up hugging and kissing you like crazy cause my mommy pride is exploding! :)

1-Mama
2-Dada
3-Cracker
4-All gone
5-Amen
6-Dog (mostly when we ask you to say dog you just bark! It's adorable!)
7-Duck
8-Papa (Started consistently saying this one today!)
9-Car (You say this one all day every day! It get's a little annoying sometimes!)
10-Plane (Mostly sounds like pa. It's adorable! whenever you hear one you point at the sky and say plane! :) You also said it today when you saw some balloons floating in the sky! We'll have to teach you balloon next!)
11-Home

Here's the list from before and I'll add the ones you can say now!
12. Chicken
13. Annie
14. Grandma
15. Melissa
16. Milk
17. Eat
18. dinasaur (This one is hilarious! You just say it so cute!)
19. Amublance
20. H (As in the letter H. We have magnetic letters on our fridge and every letter is H no matter how many times we tell you otherwise! :)
21. Bye bye
22. Hello or Hi
23. Cheese (You pick up our digital camera, Point it at yourself and say cheese! It's pretty much the cutest thing in the world!)
24. Bath
25. Night night

There are more but I can't think right now! I love that you can talk! It's the cutest thing ever! Everytime you say a new word I get so excited! You can't even imagine how happy it makes me!
We bought you your very own potty awhile back. No I have no intentions of potty training you yet because you are not ready. But I read this neat article about preparing your child for potty training and that is a part of it. You love sitting on your potty. It's pretty cute! :) I can't wait for the day I don't have to change diapers!
You have a weird reaction to sirens. We have 2 firestations within 1 or 2 miles of our home so we hear a lot of sirens. You have 1 of 2 reactions. The first reaction is your terrified. You will run and cling to us and snuggle down and get the scared look on your face that is adorable. You will stay that we long after there gone! Or two you look up with big eyes and imitate the sirens making a little wooing noise! I love it! That one always makes me laugh! Whenever I hear a siren I always automatically look to you to see what you're going to do! It's quite entertaining!
You have become very giggley lately! You love being chased. I will growl and you will automatically go running towards Dad! You squel with anticipation and hide your face in his legs! We then of course have to tickel you. You are so ticklish! I love making you laugh! You also laugh when I make silly faces at you! I probably look like a nerd as I munch my breakfast down making the craziest faces I can muster for your enjoyment! :) It's worth it to hear your sweet baby giggle! :)
Every night I check on you when your sleeping. I quietly sneak into your room and look into your crib. You are the sweetest sleeper ever. You are always snuggled down in some crazy upside down position with Dog dog wrapped tightly under you arm. Or Dog dog is under your belly or beneath your head, but mostly you just hold him tight as you sleep! It's incredibly adorable! I have never seen a child actually sleep with a stuffed animal until you! I just sit there and stare at you, taking in every single little detail! I whisper I love you, wrap a blanket around you and sneak back out. As soon as I shut the door I wish I had one more second with you. I always want as much time with you as possible. I miss you when your sleeping! :)
You love dancing. It's hilarious. I would like to give the credit to me. I am always having crazy dance parties by myself in the kitchen. I should say I used to because now you will usually join me for my dance parties! Before all you could do was rock your head back and forth. I'm happy to report your skills have much improved! You now can spin in a circle and bend your knees and bounce. I love it! We turn on music just to watch you dance. You are picky when it comes to the music you like though. It has to have a good beat or you will ignore it. Oh I should also mention when you spin in a circle you make yourself dizzy. Again, hilarious! :)
I'm sure there were more things I wanted to talk about but of course they have all dispeared! I hope you always know how much I love you! How much your smiles mean to me when I am having a bad day. I love getting Bently hugs. Today we just layed in my bed and snuggled and played. It was one of those moments that I wish could last forever! I am one lucky Momma to have you for a son! :)
Love,
Mommy

Dear Bently,

Guess what you finally started doing? You have started to give kisses. I have been looking forward to this day for a very long time. I have been hoping it would've come a lot sooner then this but the fact that it is here is good enough for me! :) I love how you pucker your little lips, and you put your hands on both sides of my face and plant one on me. I LOVE IT! I love how you do it randomly. You won't give them when we ask but you are willing to do it on your time schedule. Once you get going it's nearly impossible to stop you. You don't give just one kiss you give kiss after kiss after kiss. I'm not complaining. Nope. Not one bit. You can give me as many kisses as you very well please! Just expect to get twice as many back. Because I can't resist kissing my man! :)
I love you so much Bently!
Mommy

Dear Bently,

I feel like I don't write enough of these posts for you! I'm going to try and be better! Weirdly enough I wanted to write this post about your Dog. You see, you finally have become attached to a stuffed animal. It's this little dog that plays music. You sleep with it everynight. I call it dog dog because you can never seem to say the word dog just once. When we ask you to say it you always say it two or three times. I love going in the middle of the night to check at you and find you cuddeling with your dog. Seriously is too cute! And when we go to get you in the morning you are standing in your crib holding it to your chest. It's adorable!!! :)
Love,
Mom

Dear Bently,

Yesterday was the 4th of July. It's still weird to me that we are celebrating 2nd holidays with you and not 1st anymore! I was really worried because I got off July 4th morning at 7am and had to be back to work at midnight that night. July 4th is my favorite holiday and I wanted it to be awesome! Well, it turned out great! :)
We went to the parade bright and early! We sat with Aunt Shawna and her family and Uncle Cole and his. I was super worried about the parade starting because they always start with the sirens going. You still aren't a fan of loud noises! Well just as I suspected the sirens started and you got the most intense worried look on your baby face! I felt so bad! You even cried out a few times and snuggled up close to Daddy! It was adorable! Luckily that part ended soon! I don't know if you were too impressed with the parade. Mostly you like eating the candy and having people hold you and give you attention! Your first 4th of July you were only 3 months old. Let met tell you the difference a year makes! ;) When you were a teeny tiny 3 month old in the blistering July 4th heat, just laying there helpless, they threw ice cream samples into the crowd and one hit you on the stomach. Of course it startled you more than anything and then you cried, quite a bit. This year we decided to try and get you into the candy collecting! Daddy took you to grab a piece and as you tentatively were trying whether you wanted to pick it up or not, another candy was thrown and smacked you in the head! Again there were tears involved. So the candy collecting aspect of the parade will have to wait until next year! Mom and Dad sure had fun collecting there own private stash though! :)
After the parade it was nap time. Dad and I had 0 sleep in our systems. Luckily we all got a little sleep. At last minute the Hyers decided to come and have a little BBQ with us. We had hot dogs, watermelon, cookies, and chips. It was simple but yummy! We learned that you don't like watermelon! We kept trying to feed you pieces and you kept spitting them out! Maybe you'll grow to like it! More than eating though all you wanted to do was walk around the back yard. We have these cement steps and you crawled up them easily. Then you decided that you were a big boy and you tried to walk down the stairs. Of course you had to decide to experiment on the most dangerous steps possible. I hate those moment when I know you are going to get hurt but there is no way I can move fast enough to prevent it. You of course face planted it and in return got a bloody cut on your forehead! Poor guy! I rushed over and gave you a big hug!
After we headed out to a firework show! I love fireworks and couldn't wait for you to experience them again! Aunt Shawna arrived before us and saved us a seat. We spent some time trying to find her. The crowd was huge! We finally arrived, took some family pictures, then I whipped out some sparklers I had from the year before. It turns out year old sparklers don't work very well! It took a hundred years to light and then ended up burning out before it was even half way down. You loved looking at the sparkler. It was hard to convince you not to touch it!
Then the firework show began. The first one went off, and you stared in awe as it shot towards the sky. Then it exploded and the bang went off. It echoed behind us and your head whipped back towards were the noise sounded like it was coming from so fast. And then for the next 5 or so minutes you were scared, crying, and sad. I was sad because I really wanted you to love it! I don't know what I was expecting since you are terrified of loud noises! After a while though you calmed down and seemed to enjoy it! I think you got bored because you started trying to get up and walk around. Dad got out his phone and you happily played on that for the majority of the fire work show. Ah well, maybe next year you'll enjoy them more! :) But there was this moment. As we were laying on the blanket, watching the fireworks together, a moment were everything felt right in the world. Maybe it was the magic of the fireworks making me feel so happy, but in that moment I looked at my two handsome men and just felt sheer and utter happiness. I can't put into words the beauty of the moment, I was just so grateful to have our little family, our house, everything that I hold near and dear! I hugged you guys a little closer, wishing for this moment to last forever!
I love you Bently and love every single holiday I get to spend with you! I loved my 4th of July with you and can't wait for more in the future! Love you little man!
Love,
Mom

Dear Bently,

I am writing this letter not quite sure what I want to say to you. All that enters my mind is how completely happy I am. You make me so happy. You are so sweet. I love your smiles and your giggles. I love singing to you right before I put you to bed. I hate days where I have to leave for work without putting you to bed. I stand there and you lay your head on my shoulder and I sing to you. I can always tell when you are really tired because you'll raise your head and look at me and smile. I just know you are so anxious to get into that bed! I love holding you there because I know someday you are going to be a big boy, you're not going to want me to hold you, or rock you, or sing to you before bed. I can't even tell you how much I dread that day coming. I am trying to hold onto every single second because they are going by too fast! :( Here is a small list of things I never want to forget!

-Every morning when I get you out of your crib you have the biggest smile on your face! Then you hand me each of your stuffed animals in your crib one by one.
-You have started sleeping with a stuffed animal under your arm! It is too cute!
-You have started to giggle at everything! It always makes my day!
-When you walk you hold your hands together or you'll have one hand underneath your chin. It's adorable!!
-You love dogs and will give any dog you meet a hug but not humans!
-You cry when I leave you now. I love it because it means you love me and miss me when I'm gone. But it breaks my heart because I hate to leave you!
-You LOVE bananas. You get so excited when you see one coming your way! :)
-You clap your hands ALL the time and I love it!
-You hate getting dressed/getting your diaper change. As soon as it's off you are on a mad dash out of there! As annoying as it can get I love watching your baby butt crawl across the floor as fast as it can!

I know there are so many more but those are the ones that immediately come to mind. I love you so much my son. I home some day you can read these letters and feel of my love and now how deep it runs! I love you handsome man!
Love,
Mommy

Dear Bently,

You did something amazing today. Let me start at the beginning. I have been wishing you to walk basically since you could crawl! I was so excited to see you taking those little baby steps. Everyone told me to be patient, that I shouldn't rush you, I would regret wishing you to walk. But you are my first baby. I was so excited to see you grow and learn. I was convinced you would be walking by your first birthday. That came and went. National average is 12 months 2 weeks...that came and went. So I had basically given up hope. Your Dad and I had a running joke that you couldn't drive until you could walk. Yes we thought it might take you that long. It's not that you didn't have the ability. You could stand unassisted and even walk pretty much by yourself. You just refused to do it. You were steady as a rock, but the second we let go of your hands, down to the ground you would drop. You were too chicken. Yesterday, June 10, 2012, I was holding your hands as I walked you into the family room. I stopped in the middle of the room and let go. To my surprise you just stood there. Unassisted. I said, "Walk Bently." Your Dad could see your face, he said you looked over at him and smirked. Then you, steady as rock, like you had done it for years, took 6-7 full steps across the room. Your Dad and I just watched in absolute silence and shock. I immediately began to cry. My baby looked so grown up walking himself across the room. I had been terrified that I would miss your first steps. Working 40+ hours a week and sleeping during the day makes me miss a lot of quality time. I was so ecstatic that I got to see your first steps. You reached the chair in the corner of the room, turned around and grinned. We probably freaked you out with our out of control reactions. I was crying and clapping and shouting. Your Dad was beaming with pride. It was something I will never forget. You went from zero interest in walking, to walking your little baby butt across the room. I don't think I have ever been so proud of anything in my whole life. I whisked you right up and gave you about a million kisses. One of the very best moments of my life!!! Thank you for letting me be a part of it! Now we just got to convince you to do it all the time! You have shown no interest since that moment. But I'm not so anxious anymore. I am just so very grateful I got to witness it. Thank you for that Bently. It meant more to me then I'll ever be able to describe to you! I love you my little man. I love you so so so much!
Love,
Mommy

Dear Bently,

Son you are the cutest thing I have ever seen. I feel like you just keep getting cuter and cuter. I am so worried that I am going to forget all the adorable things you do so here it goes.
-You love looking out the window! More often then not I find you standing at the family room window just looking. Everything outside just amazes you!
-On that note, you love being outside. You always are trying to get outside and enjoy the world. I feel bad that we don't take you outside more. You love playing on the grass and looking at all the cars driving by. You point at every single car. I say, "Oh ya a car" and you grin like you are the smartest baby in the world. Which of course you are! :)
-You can now play pass with your ball. We can sit a couple feet away from you and you roll the ball to us and we roll it straight back to you. You smile the whole time. You love it!
-You clap for yourself all the time! You love it when people pay attention to you, and clapping does that. You know if you clap that everyone will clap with you and watch what you are doing. It's hilarious. You'll do something, look around to make sure we're watching then clap. Then you do something else and the cycle repeats itself. I don't mind. I love watching you smile!
-You and your Dad are very best friends. You lite up when he enters a room. You giggle at him all the time! You guys just love each other and I love watching you together!
-You have recently learned to "growl". I can't even describe the noise you make but you make it all the time! It's kind of hilarious and kind of annoying! I will have to see if I can get it on film so you'll understand what I mean!
-You and I have a tradition. I put you to bed every night I can. Which is basically every night. We rock, we read your train book, we brush your teeth, but my favorite part is right before I lay you down. You know it's coming so we enter your room I turn off the lights and put on your night lite. Then you willingly lay your little head on my shoulder and I slowly sway back and forth as I sing to you a song. It's a little quiet moment in time where I can just enjoy being with you. Away from the hussel and bussel of the world. A moment where I can pretend you are my little baby again snuggling with me like you used to! You smile the whole time I sing then I kiss you remind you a hundred times that I love you and lay you down. It's the best moment! Honestly I look forward to it every night!

Bently I hope through these letters your realize how much I honestly and truly love you. How honored I feel to be your Mom. How much I truly appreciate you, that you're healthy, that you were sent to me. I take my responsibility very seriously! I can't wait for more years together! I love you like only a Mom can!
Love,
Mom

Dear Bently,

Child oh how I love! I love days when I get to spend time with you! I love your Dad and all but I also LOVE days where it's just the two of us hanging out! I get to play with you and love on you! :) Today was like that! We went to the park with Aunt Shawna and Christina and Stacey. You were adorable! I was pushing you in the swing and the whole time you are gripping the front and staring at the ground. You looked not miserable, but not happy. I thought you were probably done and felt bad for swinging you for 10 minutes! To my utter and complete shock when I pulled you out of the swing you threw a fit! Screaming and kicking. So you went back in the swing. You stopped throwing a fit and resumed your hunched over position. I guess you enjoy it though you don't look like it on the outside! :)
When I finally got you out of the swing you had a blast crawling around on the sand! :) I loved watching you run your fingers threw it! I began chasing you! You recently started to scream when we chase you! It's hilarious! It makes my day hearing your little baby scream! :) You also do this thing when we get close to catching you where you plop your head down on the floor. Like an ostrich hiding in the sand. It's usually not a problem but today, like the ostrich, you really were in the sand. You have been drooling a ton because of your teeth so you can imagine your face when you pulled up from the sand! :) It was pretty gross but you were just smiling the whole time! You also got sand all up your nose! That was really gross! Aunt Stacey and I ran you to the bathroom to wash you off. Aunt Stacey was holding you when you let out a terrific sneeze. Snot and sand landed all over Aunt Stacey! Thank you Bently for not doing that on me! :)
You do so many fun things! I feel like I don't write enough of them down! I am stinky about writing in my journal so this is my journal for you! I will list as many as I can think of off the top of my head!
-You are too chicken to walk but you would rather us hold your hands and walk you around then crawl.
-When you are done with your sippy cup, or food, you throw it on the ground. You sometimes also throw it on the ground because you like to watch it fall. Dad always says we could feed a whole other kid just by the food you leave on the ground! :)
-You love watching cars! I am trying very hard to get you to say cars!
-Just these past couple days you have started to say the word Mom consistently! I LOVE IT! It's the most beautiful sound I've ever heard in my life! :) I can't even describe how good it makes me feel! :)
-You love bananas, hot dogs, candy (of course), and french fries!
-Don't get me wrong we give you drinks all the time! But every time, not matter how long since the last one, you drink like you are dehydrated and dying of thirst. You will chug and chug. You drink more than you eat! Thus, we have switched to whole milk because your Momma is worried about you getting too skinny! Daddy says you got that from him! :)
-You are constantly trying to get into the bathroom. Like constantly. If you hear the door open you hurry your baby butt as fast as possible over there. You always seem so proud of yourself when you make it in!
-You love books. You will just sit and look through all your books for hours on end. You love to flip the pages. I'll read them to you but you get impatient. Flipping the pages is apparently really fun! You are gentle though. Knock on wood, but so far you haven't ripped a single book.
-Lately when we say cheese you will scrunch up your little face into the most heart breaking smile imaginable! Sometimes you'll even close your eyes! It's hilarious! I try and make you do it as much as possible because I just love it so much! :)
-Dad has been trying for months to teach you to say "Oh Bugger" and then hit your head with your hand. I thought he was going to fail but the other day he said it, and you didn't say anything, but you hit your little head with your hand. I'm pretty sure your Dad was on cloud nine! And I got a nice little laugh out of it too! :) It's pretty much hilarious!

I know there is more but that is all I can think of right now! Every day you get bigger and bigger. I think you officially look like a toddler now. (Even though there is no toddling going on! ;) I love you my little man! You light up my world and keep me smiling!
Love,
Mommy