Party #1

The day before C's big birthday party, we had a small gathering with my parents and sister.

Excited about her grandparents coming to visit!

Loving on Nonna

present time

Her favorite present was her tea set. Time for tea, daddy!!

What? No presents for me?!?

Time for cake

cake is yummy

sneak attack

the hair pulling begins

tight grip

revenge...  *poke*poke*

Hi GP!

Silly Birthday Girl!

They don't know...

They don't know a pre-9/11 world. 

Sometimes this thought stops me in my tracks. The majority of my life was a pre-9/11 life. I met my husband, moved out of my parents' house and became an adult in a pre-9/11 world.

I can't even imagine a post-9/11 childhood and yet that is the hand dealt to my children. I am a post 9/11 mom with post-9/11 children. That date, for them, will be what JFK's assassination or Neil Armstrong's landing on the moon was for me- not even a distant memory, but rather the memory of a generation before.  They will read about it, they will hear people talk about it, but it won't be real to them.

They will never understand how the world changed that day.

Look at me, being all crafty!

For C's 2nd birthday I wanted to do a theme. My husband had shot down my "Pride and Prejudice" themed party early on, which in the end was probably a good thing because ever since C was introduced to the Backyardigans, she has had no time for the company of Lizzie and Mr. Darcy. *sigh* There go all my hopes for a toddler with a British accent  and a Mr. Wickham pinata.

So, I settled on an owl theme, cause I figured that it would be pretty easy to put together and very adorable. With the enlisted help of my sister and some friends, I think we pulled off the theme very well!

Some of the ideas came from Pinterest. Some of them just happened as we were working.

gift bags - the trick to these was to make sure they didn't look angry.
The guy on the right looks pretty ornery if you ask me!

My sister designed and created each of the masks. 

puppets

We cut out 'feathers' and created wings for the kids to wear on their arms.
This was pretty time consuming. I wasn't thrilled with the outcome because
they didn't stay on the kids arms very well. 

owls for random decorations- these were a lot of fun to make. As you can tell,
we got more creative with the eyes as we went along.

the big pupils are cute

look deep into my eyes!

I strung them together, along with the extra feathers, to make
hanging decorations. 

napkin wraps

Photo wall - Owl 'month' stickers

Pinterest was my go to place for food ideas.

Owl deviled eggs - they walk the fine line of cute and creepy

THE BIRTHDAY CAKE!!!

I knew I wanted to do something fun for the cake so

when I came across this idea I jumped on it! My sister made

the cupcakes and my friend Emily decorated them. The final product

looks pretty close to the picture!

Birthday cake!

Along with the cake, I wanted to make individual owl cupcakes.

I am delighted with how adorable they turned out!

owl cupcakes

It was a lot of work, but it was fun to watch it all pull together.

Stay tuned to see how C enjoyed her Owl themed party!

Things he can do...

He can sit in a chair...

He can sit in a bumbo...

But best of all... He can sit on his own!

Congrats, little man, on your newest milestone!

Case Closed

There can be no doubt these kids are related.

C used to make this absolutely ridiculous facial expression... 

Exhibit A- 

Now that E is about that same age, look what I noticed. 

Exhibit B- 

Case closed. 

An unspoken, albeit shaky, truce

First Foods

So, E has been eyeing our food for a few weeks now. Ok, maybe even longer than that, but I just wasn't ready to accept that my little baby was ready for 'real' food.  I use quotations there because, let's face it, pureed peas are probably not going to make it onto my dinner table any time soon! But I digress. It's getting to the point that it is a little uncomfortable to eat around him. He leans in toward you, not blinking... just salivating, watching every single motion. Fork to plate. Fork to mouth. Fork to plate. Like a tennis match, this kid is hooked. So, ever so reluctantly, I decided it was time for this next milestone.

The first thing we ever fed C was avocado. She hated it. So, with E, I decided to go with something a bit more conventional. Peas. Yum.

I'll admit, as I opened the jar I thought, "Wow, better him than me!" That stuff just looks gross.

So, with camera in hand... We commenced our first feeding session.

ready and waiting

Here it comes!

Open Wide!

Touchdown!

Blech! That's disgusting!

Peas, mom, really? We couldn't start out with cake?!?

Despite his lack of enthusiasm over his first meal, (i.e.- he started crying right after this picture) he has decided that maybe pureed peas aren't so bad after all. Now he reaches out and grabs my hand to pull the spoon faster to his mouth. I knew he'd come around!

5 months

I know this cute boy that turned 5 months recently. He's pretty awesome.

Every morning he wakes up smiling...

He loves his big sister.
He likes to reach out and touch your face.
He thinks mouth popping noises are hilarious.
He belly laughs.
He's only had pureed peas. He hate them at first. Now he can't get enough.
His hair is just long enough to spike. It's mostly blond, but starting to turn darker.
His cheeks and thighs are chubby.
He chews on his toes.
He likes his pacifier.
He has incredible blue eyes.
He rolls over.
He likes watching the cat.
He tries to escape the Bumbo.
He gets mad when he drops a toy.
He doesn't mind loud screeching, as long as it comes from his sister.
He gets up at least twice a night.
He drinks Gripe water like there is no tomorrow. We think he pretends to be uncomfortable just to get it!

Happy 5 months, Little Man!!

Love, Mommy

HFM

Beautiful, spotted birthday girl

In my opinion, Hand Foot and Mouth should be renamed... "extremely-high-fever-followed-a-day-later-with-nasty-painful-bumps-all-over-body-coinciding-with-extra-crankiness-then-followed-by-multiplying-rash-yet-endearing-temperament," or "EHFFADLWNPBAOBCWECTFBMRYET" (...for short...)

Hand Foot and Mouth had been going around like crazy all summer, and we had done well to avoid it in our house... until last week. C woke up with a fever on Monday which quickly escalated well over 104. With no other symptoms, we were at a loss as to what she had. She was eating and drinking normally. She wanted to play. She would just get very tired and lay down, fall asleep for about an hour and then wake up ready to go. As her temperature fluctuated all day, we decided to take her to the walk in hours at the doctor. 

As there we no other symptoms, the doctor recommended testing for a uti. Apparently they are pretty common and very serious if not caught right away. I'm just hoping she doesn't remember what they had to do to determine that she did not in fact have a uti. I promised her french fries as a reward for the trauma she was going through. French fries are her favorite reward. 

The next day her fever had come down and we thought she was on the mend... We were wrong. Toward the afternoon she was complaining about her mouth and she started to break out into spots on her face. They soon spread to her hands, arms, legs and diaper area. She started getting incredibly cranky and clingy. By then it was obvious what she had. 

The strange thing about HFM, at least for C, is that as the rash has gotten worse, her temperament has gotten better. The past few days, she has been such a joy to be around. She smiles and chats and wants cuddles. She doesn't act uncomfortable (except for diaper changes). If she wasn't covered in spots, I would never know she was sick.

It has been quite a chore keeping her away from E, but so far he seems to have avoided it. We are still not out of the woods yet in terms of contagiousness, but hopefully he will stay healthy. 

The spots around her mouth seem faint now, compared to what they were. 

This is not the way that I would have had her usher in her second birthday. 

I'm so grateful that she is feeling better. 

E likes feet...

Elijah loves his bouncy seat. In fact, that is where he sleeps at night. We tried him in the bassinet for awhile, but we had much better success with the bouncy seat. So there he remains, for now. When he is in a good mood, he can really get that thing jumping!

Look at him flail!

Apparently feet are funny!

The time Charlie found bowls...

Olympic Charlie

As evidenced by this video, Charlie is not only a hands on big sister, she is also a swimming Olympic hopeful .

Big sister

I'm pretty sure that Charlie loves being a big sister. She dotes on Elijah and always tries to 'include' him in things. She likes to kiss him goodnight and tries to offer him food. She wants him to sit at the table with us and asks him to say grace too.

For the most part he just stares at her with a big smile and takes in everything that she does. I hope they will always be close friends!

Once there was this 'goat'...

Last week we took a family trip to Ohio and went to the Carroll County fair. While there, Charlotte met a goat... (a sheep actually, but in her version of the story it is a goat. So be it.) 

This 'goat' was not very friendly. It had started raining pretty badly during our fair visit. When we entered a barn to escape the monsoon, the first pen was a group of 'goats.' (remember, sheep) As I approached them to show Charlotte, one of them charged toward us making loud bleating noises. This absolutely terrified her and she started to scream. It was one of those screams that starts out silent, so you know it's going to be really bad once it gets going. Poor girl was a mess and wasn't happy until her daddy was holding her tight in his arms and reassuring her that everything was ok. She clung to him the rest of the day. 

When we got back to the great grandparents house we asked Charlotte to tell them about the goat. Her eyes got huge and she started to shake and then she burst into a long monologue about her goat adventures. 

Over the past week we have had her rehash the story multiple times. While nothing beats the first time she told it, she is still pretty articulate and emotional about it. I think it will be one of those events that is seared into her memory forever. 

So, with no further ado... Here is the 'goat' story as told by Charlie.