Birthdays Abound!

Our family's birthdays are not very far apart. Ian's is on February 21, mine is March 8, and John's is March 14. This is a busy and fun time of year for us, then! It's exciting to get something birthday-related in the mail nearly every day. Ian has enjoyed his drawn-out celebration, and I think there are still some gifts on the way! So, here are some more birthday updates.

John got an iPhone for his (early) birthday present. Of course, Ian thinks the new gadget in the house is super cool, and the word "mine" has been prevalent in his iPhone encounters. John did download a few kid apps, so Ian does get a chance to play with this new toy every once in a while.


In addition to the art easel, we got him some new bath toys. I'm not sure why bath toys have small holes in them that allow water in but not out. Those other toys, well, they were smelling sorta suspect. Ian now has some fun Sesame Street toys plus those foam letters and numbers that stick to the tub walls.


And there's been quite a buzz about Ian's gift from Aunt Lydia. Check out her blog post about how these cute hooded towels came to be. We requested them for his birthday because Ian LOVES them. It has offered an incentive to pry that water baby out of the tub... he'll sit and play in there until his teeth are chattering and his toes are pruny. It's always great to get out and get all warm and bundled up!

Have your cake and eat it, too

I must say that the two-year-old birthday celebration wasn't quite as messy as the first birthday. I suppose we could have allowed for more mess, but Ian did get kinda concerned when he had icing on his fingers. I was actually impressed that he was able to blow out the candles by himself. (Well, almost... I'm pretty sure he blew out one of them.) He did very well eating his cake with a fork, and in the end, he showed a preference for the ice cream, actually! Happy Birthday, babe!

Let the Celebrating Begin!

Birthdays are never confined to just one day, really. Especially when family and friends live here and there, the celebrating can even last for weeks as gifts and wishes trickle in. So, thus it has begun for our little almost-two-year-old Ian. Sunday is his official birthday. However, the festivities around here have already begun!

It all started with a package arriving last night... the first gift to be opened!


Our little artist is hard at work with his new toy. I'm not sure what it's called, but the pen makes the screen light up as you draw. Thanks, Uncle George and Aunt Mary! This toy doesn't make any noise...ha! It was difficult to pry it from his hands come bedtime!

I sent mini-cupcakes with Ian to Mother's Day Out today. I was trying to make them relatively low maintenance for his teachers who corral 16 toddlers in his class. I even made my own confetti!


Here is Ian's gift from us... an art easel with all essentials: crayons, markers, chalk, and paint. It awaits the budding artist's arrival.


Ian takes to it pretty well. On the chalk board and dry erase, he enjoys erasing more than anything else! He wouldn't wear the green tshirt pictured above which I bought as his painting shirt, so we did get a little on his clothes. He was also concerned about paint on his hands. He also seemed to enjoy taking the caps on and off all of the paints and such.


Hey, Mom! This is fun!


Oh, you just wait, kiddo. There is more birthday fun to come!

Sniff... a Little Sad

I had a ton of fun planning for Ian's first birthday party last year. I was so proud of my theme, the decorations, the guest turnout, AND the loot... we received around $500 to start a college fund for Ian. This year I am not planning or hosting a party. And I'm kinda sad.

I just realized that maybe this is why I've gotten into the hype with Valentines (you know, the cookie baking and all) plus I'm planning to send cupcakes to Ian's class on Thursday. (Oh, the sugar rush these kids have had recently.) I have an urge to celebrate. To decorate. To commemorate a little boy who is very soon to be TWO!

We are having a large family birthday party this weekend with John's side since there are several February and March birthdays. I am excited, of course, and hey... my birthday is even included in the mix. I'm sure my mother-in-law will have a wonderful and welcoming setting, and we'll all enjoy the family time. But I still want to throw a party.

Like a kid party where all the kids come and have fun... maybe next year? Doesn't help that family is five hours away, friends are 3 hours away, and new friends are few in numbers right now. Sigh. I guess I'll throw myself a party. A pity party, that is.

I think these feelings have been intensified since reading about this party back in Waco plus following this site which was set up by the same person. So... I'm sure I'll eat some cake, open some presents, and watch my two-year-old's excitement this weekend and feel better about it all.

Ode to a Cookie

You really can win this kid's heart with a cookie.


Hope everyone had a wonderful Valentines Day!

Crying Over Spilled Sprinkles

Ian and I had a cookie-decorating fest yesterday in order to make Valentines cookies for Ian's class at Mother's Day Out. He helped with every stage... the making of the dough, the rolling and cutting, the decorating, AND the eating. I took about an hour's worth of video footage overall. No photos, but I figured hey, we had the videos to relive the memory.

So this afternoon, Ian and I sat down to "relive the memory." With our little handheld video camera in hand, we watched some of the videos on the tiny screen. I got the camera for Christmas, and this was my first time to use it. I hadn't attempted to download the videos, yet. I wasn't even sure what all the buttons did... but Ian figured out a few of them for me.

Gasp! What did you do, Ian? I see the "trash" button being pressed by curious little hands and somehow he even bypassed the follow-up screen, you know, the "are you sure?" By the time I grabbed the camera from him, I was staring at the trash can icon and a void where that precious video (of several that were taken) used to be. "Oh no! You broke it!" I reacted. Ian was very upset about it, too, but mostly because I then took the camera away from him and put it up.

Enter genius husband.

Who not only consoled me in my moment of despair, but also assured me that he would take a look and see if the file could be recovered. Somehow, I knew everything would be alright. I don't think it was an easy task, and I've encouraged John to blog about how he did it. But John found my lost video, hooray!

The ultimate plan is to splice and dice and make some sense out of all the footage I took. However, I feel compelled to share this one video with you... it's very RAW, I might add, and a little lengthy for typical blogroll viewing. But this one is special... because it was almost lost!

Stinky and Sweet

Well, today was NOT like yesterday. Ian had trouble going down for naps and bedtime. He threw a few tantrums. He expected another trip to the park even though the weather was cold and cloudy. And getting him to finish meals was its usual challenge. Oh well, there's always tomorrow... and every other unpredictable day in the life of parenting a toddler!

Two things of note from today, though...

First, we dropped Ian off at Sunday School this morning. We visited the church where he attends Mother's Day Out, but he was in a different classroom. When I walked in, I said, "Oh, look a little bathroom!" (You know, the short ones they typically have in childcare rooms.) I turned around and Ian was pulling down his pants saying, "Bathroom, bathroom." I intercepted his waddle toward the door, explaining that he had on a diaper. He's never done this at home. Our best guess is that he learned it at Mother's Day Out... by watching other kids? I don't know!

So, John turns to me... does this mean he's ready to potty train? Well, he certainly has some idea of what's going on. The plan was to tackle potty training this summer, after we get settled in with new baby and when Ian will be "wearing less clothes," as one book suggested. Speaking of books, I NEED ONE, because I have NO CLUE how to even begin thinking about potty training!

I'm just not ready for all the mess. This was confirmed when Ian had the strangest blowout diaper after church today. Apparently the nursery worker didn't put his diaper on right because it was virtually void of poop... the offending mess was all up in his pant leg instead! I've just never seen anything like it!

That's my stinky story. Now, on to the sweet. Ian will occasionally rest his head on my belly when we talk about baby brother in there. Every now and then he'll give my belly a kiss. Tonight, I told him to say hi to baby brother, and he said "Hi! Wuvyou!" So stinkin' sweet... I tear up even now thinking about it!

Oh Happy Day!

I will cherish this day. As far as the day's events went, it was very ordinary. But my son was so well-behaved, delightful, and downright adorable! Let's see, how did it all start?

Ian slept ALL night and woke up at a more decent time of 7 a.m. (Lately his trend has been 5:30 a.m. with a wake-up-and-holler session in the middle of the night.) He got himself out of bed and came into our room. I thought maybe since John's side of the bed is near the door that he would be the buffer for any of Ian's wake-up calls. Nope... the kid marched right over to my side, got real close to my face, and let out a very chipper, "Good morning!" He then climbed into bed, gave us both hugs and kisses, and said a few "good mornings" and "wuvyous." He also informed us that he did "sleep well." Then he decided it was time to make his request, "Mommy, up!"

No fits at the breakfast table or even at lunch. No tantrums to speak of when we told him to stop doing something. Ian probably did think it was his lucky day. He got TWO trips to the park since I needed to get some work done, and John was gracious to occupy Ian for most of the day. He also enjoyed playing with play dough, trains, and blocks. We did watch his beloved "ee-ohs" but not for very long, and he was fine when I said it was time to stop.

He also took a three hour nap this afternoon. In. His. Own. Bed. Is that an angel choir I hear singing Hallelujah! And I was able to not only get work done... but even take a nap myself!

At dinner tonight, we were truly amazed. We went to a restaurant, and Ian can be a wild card on these kinds of outings. We had about a 30-minute wait in a very crowded restaurant, but Ian behaved very well. You could tell he was antsy and hungry, but he almost tolerated the wait better than his hungry parents. He also complied to sitting in the high chair, something he hasn't done in MONTHS. We did talk about it beforehand... it was the kind of restaurant where he didn't need to be climbing all over the chairs. We asked him if he wanted a highchair or booster and told him he needed it to reach his food on the table. Ian made his choice and was content.

And boy did he eat! I ordered chicken strips to share with him and started him out with a few bites. He kept asking for more... even after we were finished. Usually we are begging him to finish his chicken. He also ate crackers, bread, and fruit. No veggies to speak of, really, although he did swipe a finger full of my mashed potatoes and even tried broccoli! (He called it "trees.") He sat contentedly throughout the meal, colored his kid's placemat when he wasn't eating, talked a little about his surroundings, and that was that!

His evening routine commenced as usual... bath, stories, bedtime. Let's hope for another good night's sleep and more days like this! Anyone with a toddler knows that such perfect days can be few and far between. For the most part, Ian is a lot of fun, though. Nothing terrible... it's only two weeks until this little guy turns TWO! Below is a picture of him dressed up for "Cowboy Day" at school. Also, check out this announcement about Ian's little brother.

To eat or not to eat...

Lydia made a comment somewhere (on fb?) that anytime I mention something I ate, it's followed by the statement, "and it gave me heartburn." I don't know why this pregnancy has been so heartburn-laden. Doesn't that mean the kid will have a lot of hair or something? So, I did a search on foods known to cause heartburn, and well, a good portion of my diet is ON that list. Better make some changes to find some relief, I guess. (Click the image to enlarge.)

Oink, oink!

I wore my hair in pigtails today. Not because I really can get my hair into decent pigtails... it's still a bit short. And we're a long way from ponytail. But it was something fun and different and just an experiment, really. I suppose you could say that I'm growing my hair back out. Now is as good a time as ever... especially with pregnancy hormones and prenatal vitamins on my side.

I'm not really sure what my goal is with growing it out. I cut it short the summer after Ian was born because I wanted something more simple plus the kid was starting to pull my hair. (Oh, and that postpartum hair loss was also driving me crazy.) So, I can see returning to the no-fuss short-do sometime in the near future. But for now, at least I am saving money on haircuts!

A funny story about the pigtails... so, yeah there's hair hanging out everywhere because it's still too short. So, there's a crop of fine hair at the nape of my neck and also the bangs falling out on the sides. A mess, really. So, those fine hairs in the back? Totally started sticking straight out, crazy frizzy this afternoon. It was bizarro! I don't know if it's because I was wearing house shoes and therefore generating electricity from the carpet OR my other theory is that our heater was replaced today and the hot air blowing might have dried things out a bit. Nonetheless, it looked like I stuck my finger in a light socket. Too funny.

And because no post would be complete without a mentioning of the boy... Ian can make a pretty good pig snort. It's been hard to distinguish in the past, but he seems to be working on perfecting it here lately. A good pig noise should be in any kid's repertoire, don't you think?

For Facebook or otherwise

Once upon a time, I saw my life as a running blog post in my head. Mishaps were amusing because they would make good blog fodder later. Bragging about your kid is OK because hey, I'm not forcing you to read this or anything. Now, I'm functioning in a world of one-liners and short paragraphs... like what you might put on facebook or twitter. But I don't want to look like a goof who posts every little random thing that comes into my mind on facebook. So then I had a stroke of brilliance... I'll just post it here. Because like I said, I'm not forcing you to read it. And maybe it will help me clear my mind.

I just finished a tasty cup of hot chocolate... I made it with milk and added caramel. Yum!

I drank the aforementioned hot chocolate because (as you may have read on my real fb status) the heater is out in our house.

I drove nearly 600 miles this weekend. I sort of feel like I'm still in motion. I tore up I-35... and thankfully didn't encounter any major traffic!

I heart my Ikea hazelnut chocolate cookies. Too bad they give me heartburn.

Ate Mexican food twice this weekend. Gave me heartburn both times. When will I learn?

At dinner tonight, Ian kept saying "Up...up...up!" in a high squeaky voice. When we asked him what he was doing, he said, "Hiccups!"

Ian likes to watch videos of himself on YouTube. He watches one about his first cut. Today he cut himself again, but knew exactly what to do and what was going on because he watched the video recently. He was much braver about it this time, though. (And could talk about it, too!)

When Ian sleeps, he still looks like a baby to me.

I felt a knobby thing while rubbing my belly. Perhaps a knee or elbow. I also thought I looked/felt small... on FRIDAY. Then there was a growth spurt (or a mind shift) over the weekend, and now I feel/look HUGE.

It's a good thing we don't have TV, specifically Food Network. I've been craving donuts since I saw them on a show at a friend's house yesterday. And I typically don't even like donuts.

I bet donuts give me heartburn. Poptarts do... and so do oatmeal raisin cookies.

Hubby had a good review at work. They seems to like him 'round there, and he seems to like working there, so that's always a plus!

I think I've resigned to the fact that we won't be buying a house before April (when tax credit expires and baby is due). It saddens me, but I'm glad we're not rushing into it, either. I've got to pick a school district, too, with this one!

I've had various conversations with moms who have kids in some sort of fancy school. Then I meet their kids who are, well, kinda snobby. How do you have a well educated kid who's not a complete nerd or acts like he/she is better than everyone else?

Living on a budget kinda stinks. I spent all but $1.06 of my weekly allowance. It did keep my purchases in check and made me think about how I could spend more wisely in the future, though.