The Adventures of Grace, Ella and Sutton: Happy First Birthday, Sutton!

The past year has been the quickest of my life, and Sutton James has been more of a blessing than we could have ever imagined. Travis and I always knew we wanted three children, and Sutton perfectly completed our family.

After three and a half years of all pink, princesses, dress-up and all things girly, Sutton has introduced us to balls, bats, and cars and is pure boy! I love watching him play as he tosses around his sisters' dolls and uses their wands to swat things. He plays with cars and says "bbroom, bbroom." His first word after "mama" and "dada" was "ball," and his vocabulary now includes "bat," "this," "that," "book," "wow," "uh-oh," "nana" (banana), and "cacka" (cracker). He also calls Baylor, "bay-by" and "bay-ba." He has picked up some of the girls' habits, and he likes to pretend to brush his hair and talk on the phone. But, he's still all boy. He has banged his head on our hardwood floors more times than I can count. He climbs on everything. He has no fear. Oh, how I love my boy.

Sutton looks very much like Travis. His hair is the same color as Grace's and Ella's. His eyes are brownish green. He is the most beautiful boy we've ever seen.

He's the biggest of all our babies, but he's not big compared to other babies. He wears mostly 12 month clothes and a size 4 diaper. He does not like getting dressed and squirms and wiggles and fusses until you leave him alone. I've loved getting to buy boy clothes for him and know that he won't always let me dress him in jon jons and smocking (nor will his daddy), so I'm enjoying it now. I could eat these chubby little feet, which he prefers shoeless right now.

Much to our surprise, Sutton is our picky eater. When Travis took him to his one year appointment, he asked Dr. D a question we've never asked before, "How do we deal with a picky eater?" Apparently, we're supposed to keep serving him all the things he won't eat, namely turkey, chicken, beans and any type of vegetable. Sutton's food of choice is fruit, including apples, mandarin oranges, pears, blueberries, grapes, mango, bananas, strawberries, and watermelon. He'll also occasionally eat macaroni and cheese, grilled cheeses, and sunbutter or almond butter and jelly sandwiches. Surprisingly, he will not eat Chik-Fil-A nuggets and fries (who doesn't love that?) or our favorite tortillas from Chuy's. And if he doesn't like something, he'll meticulously pick it apart and throw it on the floor with a disgusted look on his face, like "Seriously, you think I'm going to eat this?" Oh, Sutton, I knew our luck would end sooner or later. Your sisters will eat anything, but I guess you felt the need to set yourself apart.

As for sleep, Sutton does well most nights. His normal bedtime is between 7:30 and 8:00 and for the longest time, he was sleeping until at least 7:00. Now, he's waking up at 6:30, which is entirely too early, as neither Travis nor I are ready for work at that time yet and would like to sleep a little later on the weekends. Occasionally, he'll take both a morning nap and an afternoon nap. Somedays, however, he doesn't want to nap at all! Gracie is 4 and 1/2 and still takes an afternoon nap, so if Sutton thinks he's going to give up naps at age 1, he is sorely mistaken! We finally took the bumper pads off his crib because he was climbing on them, but turning one brought a huge milestone--no more pacifier! We just go cold turkey with pacis when our babies turn one and throw them all away. Thankfully, Sutton didn't seem to mind at all! He still sleeps with his favorite teddy bear and a couple of blankets. Grace bought the bear for him before he was born, and when you push its paw, you can hear Gracie say, "I love you, baby brother!" Sometimes, we hear this in the middle of the night and just smile.

Aside from beating things with a bat, practicing his throw and making car noises as he pushes along his trucks and cars, Sutton loves to read and loves music. He dances and waves his hands when he hears music and likes to sing Twinkle Twinkle and If You're Happy and You Know It. He asks for books and cuddles up to turn the pages and narrate the story. Goodnight Moon has been a consistent favorite, but he also likes the Karen Katz life-the-flap books as well as Matthew Van Fleet animal books. He gets so excited when he sees animals and when he spots a dog now, he says "woof, woof." We're working on other animal sounds, as well, and the girls love to help with this activity.

Grace and Ella are the best big sisters ever. Grace is such a mother hen and keeps an eye on him constantly. We constantly hear, "Oh, no. No sir. Do not get on the coffee table. Mama told you to get off!" and "Sutty, uh uh. You are not supposed to climb up the stairs by yourself." She loves to hug and hold him and is still convinced that she's going to marry him and that they're going to live at home. Ella adores him. She looks at him and says, "Sutty, you are soooo cute! Look, Daddy, Sutty is so cute. Look at him!" We have several nicknames for him, including Sutty James, Sutty, Sutty Sut Sut, Sutter Butter, Sutter B, Sutter Bear, Little Man and Handsome. To say he is adored is an understatement. Even Baylor loves him, and the feeling is mutual.

Sweet Sutton James, we love you more than words can say. You complete our family and light up our lives everyday. I thank God for you everyday and cannot wait to see you grow into the man He created you to be (but please go slow for me)!

One Year