Let me tell you about Anthony

This is the way he is ALL day! Giggles, giggles, giggles...

This is the tired, sweet face I get when he is saying,
"OK, tell Gabriel to stop swimming. It's time for my nap!"

He makes the craziest faces... but, this is one of the most hilarious... he squints his eyes practically on command. We always bust a a gut laughing at this.

Standing. Standing. And more standing. All he wants to do.

His brother listening to directions... he is not happy he has to sit still...
just for a minute for one picture.

Swinging boy! When in doubt, swing him.

Getting into and under everything... happy as can be.

MMM... I could just eat those feet all day long.

This picture was just seconds after the one below it. He reached over, almost fell out of the bumbo, and grabbed Gabriel's foot and ate it... he loves to munch on you. It's weird.

We swore we would only call our children by the full names we had named them, but sweet Anthony is called "Ant," "Chunky Monkey," "godspilla," " the incredible hulk" and all other names that mean BIG! He is only in the 50% in height and weight, according to our last visit to the doctor, but compared to Gabriel he is so huge, so he comes with some names that consider him such. They are now 1/2 lb. apart and I am sure it won't be that way for long.

Anthony has been the sweetest baby boy since the day we brought him home. I have to say that he is quite the perfect child minus one very important thing... sleeping. Anthony has never liked to sleep. Since we brought him home he has loved to wake up in the middle of the night, one, two, or even three times before the sun comes up. We have tried every which way to get him to sleep, listened to all the sleep experts, followed all the rules (don't pick him up), but he has struggled to sleep through the night AND he LOVES to poop in the middle of the night. He is quite confused with that! We have FINALLY within the last month finally accomplished a 7:30-8pm bedtime and he doesn't wake up until at least 5am... sometimes sleeping till 7am. But, my friends, this has been a MAJOR challenge and trial and true test of our patience. Sleep deprivation for parents is no good. He has allowed us to grow in much virtue with this challenge.

After accomplishing sleeping through the night, our sweet boy has begun to come into his own. As soon as he turned 10 months, he broke his first two teeth (bottom in the middle), he began to squirm his way around on the ground, he began to pull up on things, eat more solid foods, and as of 3 days ago, he is crawling and eating small pieces of fruit. I am SO proud.

He turned 11 months yesterday and his personality is breaking through. He giggles about everything. He has a very serious side... and has a Patrick face he puts on when he is focused on the object at hand. He loves to follow Gabriel around. He always wants to be standing. And he can destroy ANY creation in seconds if he manages to get a hold of it. He is now climbing up the stairs with a huge smile on his face and in the morning he is especially talkative. He loves for me to read him books if they have things for him to feel... he tends to giggle the whole way through listening to my voice read the story and do different voices. He loves to cuddle and is still nursing about three times a day... although as busy as he is, I think he will be weaned soon. I love that every time I get him up from his nap, he is standing, pulling the curtains back and looking out the window and I love that if we play outside, he tries as hard as he can to eat all the grass in our front yard. He loves to crawl on top of you (mostly Gabriel) and clobber him and eat him. It's hilarious! And I swing him almost every day and I am not sure he loves anything more!

The other morning I was laying in bed with him at a very early hour and he was playing while I was trying to pray. He crawled up in my lap and I looked into his sweet eyes and said, "I love you. Can you say "I love Mommy?'" He looked me right back in the eyes, smiled and said, "DA DA!" It was a good try on my part, but he likes to say Da Da about 10 times more than "Ma Ma," which I have only heard a handful of times.

Anthony has a super sweet disposition just like Gabriel and will flirt with anyone close by. But, he also has the will power and stubborness of a bull... hmmm.. wonder where that is from... and will stop at nothing to do what he wants to do. I am so proud of this bundle of joy, my sweet Anthony. I pray he grows chubbier and stronger. I pray he continues to eat well so Gabriel will learn from him. I pray he continues to get good nights of rest so he is happy and healthy. And I pray he learns to love Jesus. I am such a proud mother. I really never knew that my little boys could bring me so much joy and fulfillment in my vocation and wife and mommy. Thank you, Lord, for my sweet baby boys.