Dear Shep,

This update may not be as long as the others, but I promise it won’t be a permanant “this is life as the big brother” deal.

You are officially a big brother! River was born two days ago and you are a smitten kitten with him. We over thought everything from how to shield you from jealousy and how to help you adjust as easily as possible and bam! You saw him and immediately gave him love. I’ve never been more proud of your little heart than I was at that moment!

As far as the last month goes, we can tell that you will be a chatty kathy before too long (smitten kitten, chatty kathy…..someone stop me). You are finally getting better at practicing all of the things we have been trying to teach you from animal noises to identifying things around you and we could not be more proud. It’s been super mild for a winter so far and we have enjoyed so much these last few weeks with you with all of the Christmas festivities going on.

For starters, the Festival Of Lights was going on and we drove through miles of Christmas lights in Daddy’s truck with Dece listening to you say “WHOA!!!!” every two seconds. You played with Olaf in the fake snow when Dolly came with us, and even managed to take about 15 rides swapping between all of us as your company on board on the real life choo chop train. You sat on that train like a deer in headlights, then immediately began clapping for yourself and asking for “more please” the minute you got off. Absolutely adorable. Part of our Christmas gift from Dece and Shep was a ride on the Polar Express. This was a real train ride to the North Pole to meet Santa and Daddy and I got to come along. You were ecstatic when you saw the trains. We thought for sure you would eat the whole thing up (and hoped so since it cost $150 for us to go) and well, let’s just say we won’t be going back. You were in RARE form. The train took us to the woods where you surprisingly were into Santa (thank you by the way) but once he was gone and you were forced to hang on a train for more than 5 minutes well, let’s just say the complimentary cookies and milk weren’t enough to make you enjoy the adventure. All is forgiven, you win some and lose some I suppose. And between you and me? I didn’t enjoy myself too much either. You were a huge help for year two in picking out a tree from the big red and white tent. We watched you roam in and out of the aisles of trees and garland acting like you were hot stuff and waving to the employees while holding your juice under your right arm. We took it home and went with a low key decor party of lights and traditional cookies before bed. The grinch is your official movie of the season and you’ve watched it about 100 times already. We also caved and got you an iPad for River’s arrival. So far the movies Frozen (another favorite right now) and the grinch are locked and loaded and you loved getting that and your new train tracks at the hospital when you met your little brother. Now we just wait to see all of the fun that Santa has in store for you in a few days.

Another fun thing that happened this month was a surprise visit from Dolly! She will be back in a few weeks for round two, but after hearing that Mommy needed help with preparing for River, she came and made a week of fun for us all! From the park to the toy stores (where she bought you anything you wanted of course) we had a blast and enjoyed every single second of her being here. She even slept over in the room next to you and had popcorn and movie time before bed. You are so loving to her and she adores every inch of your little tan body.

I’m so proud of you pooh bear. Proud of the little man you are growing into (despite my efforts to keep you lithe forever) and proud of the heart that you already have as a big brother. River will be lucky if you are half the older sibling your Dolly was and is to me still. Thank you for loving as wonderfully as you do.

Mommy Xx