Happy 2nd Birthday! I love you through and through

I can't believe my little October baby is already two years old.  It seems like only yesterday Matthew and I were changing her first poopy diaper and watching our tiny little 8 lb, 9 ounce miracle coo and yawn and stretch as a teeny little baby.  Gavin has grown into such a smart, silly, loving, creative, ornery and happy little boy.

There are a lot of bittersweet feelings on a birthday- feelings of nostalgia, remembering where we were "this very minute two years ago" and remembering a tiny little boy placed in our hands and in our lives to take care of raise to be a Godly man.  But rather than focus on that, it's a time to celebrate the awesomeness that is our little Gavin Cox!  I am not sure I could sum it up more perfectly than with our favorite "good night" book that we got him for his first Christmas.  I wish I could claim fame to this cute little poem that's become a Cox family favorite, but alas it was written by Bernadette Rossetti Shustak.  I would also like to brag mention that Gavin knows the book by heart and can read it along with us when we read it to him at bed time. 

 So without any further ado, I present a birthday poem for our birthday boy and wish him the happiest day a big 2-year-old boy can possibly have. 

 

I love you through and through!

 

I love your top side

and I love your bottom side.

 

I love your inside

and outside.

 

I love your happy side,

your sad side,

 

 your silly side,

and your mad side.

I love your fingers

 

and toes,

your ears

and your nose.

I love your hair and eyes

your giggles

and your cries.

 

I love you running

 

and walking

silent

and talking!

 

I love you through and through

 

 yesterday, today and tomorrow too! 

 

We love you, Gavin Cox! May you continue to grow in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and men. 

Same Same. But Different.

  

Who's up for a little Cox Challenge?  

I am convinced that Harper is a little "copy" and "paste" of Gavin- with a few slight modifications.  These two are such look-alikes!

See what I mean?!

Let's try this again.  Who can tell me which one is Harper and which one is Gavin?

For those of you who guessed based on the numbers of wrinkles in my chin, you were wrong.  Baby #1 in the first group of pictures was Gavin...and Baby #2 in the second group of pics is Gavin again.  But for reals- these kids are pretty similar looking.  

Don't you think?  

Here's a few more for your viewing enjoyment.  I realize the dashes of pink or blue respectively make it a little bit easier to differentiate them, but at least humor me to see if you can see a resemblance. 

Gavin

 

Harper

Gavin

Harper

Gavin

Harper

Gavin

Harper

Gavin

Harper

 

Gavin

Harper

Need I go on?  It's pretty crazy to watch.  Someone said the other day- "it's definitely clear that you and Matthew have a kid template."  I would definitely agree.  

Our two templates are so cute together.  Gavin has always been pretty giddy around his little sister and she has always been enamored with him.  

But as she's getting bigger, it's getting even funner to watch!  Especially as she's sitting up now, Gavin has a little friend that he can play beside.  

One of my favorite parts of the day are the mornings that I get to take Harper into Gavin's room when I wake him up.  He gets so excited to see her!  Forget mom- he goes straight to little sis.  He'll kiss her hands and reach for her and say "sister".  If I happen to wake him up after she goes down for a nap, the first thing he does when we walk out of his room is point to her door and say "Harper"! I love their little budding relationship. 

I love our little templates!  

I'm so glad that God allowed us to copy and paste!

(Please disregard the large tuft of hair coming out of the middle of my forehead.  It was very windy and we don't have photo shop!)

5 Months- September

Harper is five months old!!  

What a big girl!

Reminiscent of Gavin's 5-month neck tie photo shoot, we thought we'd do a little pearls and tutu.

 

  Would anyone ever guess that these kids are siblings?!  Um.  Yes.

Harper is now taller, fatter, cuter, louder, grabbier, rollier, funner and all-together more Harpie-er. 

Harper loves to play in her exersaucer, listen to noises that she can make when she scratches things or  plays with noisy things, and she LOVES to make eye contact and smile- which her mommy and daddy  really love! She especially loves to smile at her big brother Gavin.  Harper is rockin' and rollin' in her fifth month of life...with an extra emphasis on the rollin'.  She's gotten so rolly that it's made diaper changing time quite a challenge.  It's become mandatory to have a distraction object to get her to try to stay on her back long enough to wrangle her into a clean diaper.  I picked her up from the nursery one day this month and one of her more senior nursery workers reported to me "Changing your daughter is like trying to change a maggot."

While I'm sure there are more endearing ways of describing my daughter than to compare her to a legless larva, I am in agreement that she's quite squirmy.  

In addition to rocking and rolling, as you can see she's sitting too!  

I must admit  that her sitting skills have really been honed this past week, which was technically into the start of her sixth month of life (since her 5 month birthday was on the 24th), but we are truthful in saying that she was sitting, albeit more wobbly before the 24th, which means we can include this milestone safely and in good conscience.  And just to prove it, I've added a sitting picture that was taken on the 22nd which can evidence her sitting tendencies within Month 5.  Whew.

Harper is also eating cereal like a champ..that is, when you can get the spoon in her mouth fast enough before she tries to grab it.  Harper is a grabby grabberson, there's not doubt about that.  She's got super  stealth ninja reflexes, which makes all glasses, earrings, hair or any other stray object no match for her.    It's really fun to feed her cereal with Gavin nearby.  He's such a good big brother- and really encouraging! He will sit there and cheer for saying "Go Harper!" her while I feed her with the spoon and when she takes a bite he'll say "Yayyy!"  Who knew eating was such a spectator sport?! 

Just in case you thought that Harper's tutu looked cute- which how could you not?!- a shout out to our family friends Miss Phyllis and Brother Danny who gave Harper this tutu at one of our baby showers.  I have been dying to put it on her for months.  And her bow is from her Arlington Cox fam: Uncle John, Aunt Alice, Autie Amy and Uncle Nathan. Thanks Texas Family for dressing our little gal so fancy! 

Whether she's dressed to the nines (or the twotwo's- no pun intended) or just bummin' around in a onesie- we think we're pretty blessed to have this little bundle of cuteness.  She's a good little girl and we're so happy that she's ours to get to love!