Claire turned 2

Claire's birthday began with her getting her birthday present from Kevin and me (kevin and i?  me and kevin?).  We got her a very cute dollhouse.  It's a "green" dollhouse, actually.  It has a rain retention system, wind turbine, recycling center, and most importantly, a solar panel on the roof.  The solar panel is what sold me on the dollhouse....I just had to get it.  She pretty much took apart every piece that wasn't screwed in and used the long rod-like pieces as drum sticks.  I figure she'll get the concept of the dollhouse soon enough.

We had a 10:10am doctor appointment for her 2-year well visit.  I don't know why I take them to the doctor on their actually birthday - it doesn't seem fair that they get shots on their special day....but it is what it is.   She is doing extremely well, as far as the doctor is concerned.  She's 32.5" long (20%) and weighs 23lb-10oz (15%).  Her head is the largest % surprisingly, measuring in the 40% at 18.5". 

I spent Claire's entire nap and the hours leading up to dinner making her birthday cake.  A delicious (if I do say so myself) 6-layer rainbow cake with homemade Lemony Swiss Meringue Buttercream icing.  For the life of me I couldn't get the icing to the right consistency, but the taste was there.

A few days before her birthday we celebrated with friends and family at our local Gymboree.  It was a very nice time and Claire seemed to thoroughly enjoy herself!

Other miscellaneous facts about Claire:

Claire is finally getting her K9 teeth....all 4 at once, poor thing.

She's talking up a storm.  The doc asked if she's putting 2 words together yet - HA.  She recently put 5 words together.. "I.  Don't.  Want.  To.  Nap".   She does lots of 3 words: "sweet dreams mommy", "come on mommy", etc.

She got her first haircut the other day.  I didn't want to do it - but it needed to be done.  She's had a mullet ever since her hair first started to grow in but it recently started to turn into a tail in the back.  I draw the line at mullet.  So i cut an inch or two off the very back just to even things out a bit.  It's still a nappy mess most of the time and her bangs are still in her eyes, but the tail is gone and the mullet is gone (or less apparent).....we're moving forward (or backward, generationally - we got rid of the '80s mullet and the '90s tail, but now she's got a '70s Farah Fawcett thing going).

Another huge change we've seen in her recently is her willingness to eat fruits and vegetables!!  Her fruits don't go far beyond apples, but she eats a whole array of different vegetables now.  It's done wonders for the tummy issues she'd been having.

She loves music. She loves singing Twinkle Twinkle, ABC's, and If You're Happy and You Know It.  She has recently gotten very interested in the alphabet, colors and numbers. 

I'm sure there's a hundred more things I could go on and on about, but this is it for now.

more on Trent's third

We decided, for a number of reasons, to once again go small for Trent's birthday celebration this year.  We got a small group of Trent's most favorite people in the whole wide world and we went out for pizza after one of his soccer games a week before his actual birthday.  It was all of Trent's favorite thing: pizza, cake, presents.

I made the cake using a special kit I got at a craft store.  I purposely dyed the cake mix three different colors: red, yellow and brown.  My goal was to give the cake a Lightning McQueen and Mater theme (from the movie Cars).

what a day, what a day

Trent turned THREE today!!  Since he's been asking about his birthday for 3 weeks now I wanted him to really know that his big day has finally arrived.  I started the day with a big "3" balloon and a Mickey Mouse balloon being the first things he saw - and he loved them!!  He dragged them into Claire's room and woke her up to show her, then they had fun hitting playing with the balloons together. 

We did a "first" today...I took the 2 kids out to breakfast by myself.  I've taken them to lunch and to dinner by myself, but we've never been out to breakfast just the 3 of us.  I came this close to telling the waitress about Trent's birthday so they could bring him a special treat and maybe sing to him, but I didn't.  Should have.

After breakfast we went to our local indoor play place.  Claire hasn't there since she become very mobile, so it was extra fun for me.  I always feel like the only parent who gets very hands on and climbs on everything as much as the children do.  Other parents just sit down and read a book.  Maybe it's because my kids are younger than all the others and they don't need that hovering supervision that I provide.  I mean, Claire definitely needs my help.  Trent was doing great all by himself, but I did find myself in a slight panic whenever he left my eyesight.  Yes, I'm sooooo going to be one of those parents!!!!!   Yesterday Kevin reminded me to take change with me to this play place for the few token games they have.  Trent doesn't understand half of them, but he enjoys them for one reason or another all the same, whether it has buttons to push or parts that move, it doesn't matter.  What did I forget?  Change.  What did I remember the second we walked in the door of the place and couldn't turn back without fear of completely ruining forever the lives of 2 children?  Change.  But guess what - Trent enjoyed himself anyway!  He ran and played and slid and climbed and crawled.  And he's an old pro at the balance beam.  Future gymnist. I'm just saying.

Now, here's the big news (aside from Trent TURNING THREE TODAY!):  Trent's Uncle Paul and Christina were expecting their first baby with today being the due date.  What's that you say - No woman has her baby on her actual due date??  Baby Avery said nay.  She is due today, she will be birthed today!  Aunt Christina went into labor early this morning and was admitted into the hospital upon arrival. 

After a morning of french toast and potatoes, and an early afternoon of fun, we went to the hospital to show support.  A few hours later Avery Marie entered our world with her mama, papa & grandmothers right there to welcome her.  Kevin and I visited for a few minutes, but it was getting late and Christina had just gone through a very exhausting experience, so we didn't stay long.
Once we came home we gave him his birthday present:  a bike & helmet.  While him and daddy put it together I whipped up a batch of birthday rice krispy treats.  I lit a candle and smooshed it into the treats, and put the tray on the living room floor (unconventional, but that's where we were hanging out).  This is when I got a little emotional.  Before we started singing, Kevin pulled Trent in for a hug and told him 'happy birthday' how much he loves him, etc.  It was such a sweet moment and it made me think back to the day he was born (and having just been in a delivery room to visit with Avery and hear some of Christina's story, it just took me right back).  We sang, we ate, he "rode" his bike, we cuddled.

In our minds Trent is the sweetest little boy that ever did live and we couldn't imagine the world without him.
(check back for pictures!)

Claire turned 1

my baby girl is 1.  I'm not sure HOW it happened, but it happened.  A full year has gone by and I have so many mixed emotions about it.  I find this phase of baby-hood/toddler-hood to be extremely exciting and amazing - a time when there are so many wonderful firsts and milestones.  She's gaining independence and her personality is shining through.  It's a joy to watch!!  To some extent I can understand why the Duggars keep having kids - they don't even want this stage of life to end!

But, the night before Claire's birthday, I was looking at pictures of her during the first couple months of her life, and I was choking back the tears.  I hardly remember her being that small.....her looking that way.

I wish the year had gone by slower and I wish the memories of that year were more vivid in my mind.  But I guess that's the way it is for most people.  A blur.  A blur of random memories that only really come back to you when you look back at photos or videos. 

I don't know how mother adults do it.  How do you handle watching your babies become adults?  I can't even imagine it!  I can't imagine me becoming a mother of an adult.  I still feel like a youngin' myself.  I swear I still feel like an early-twenty-something.....

I love my life and I feel so blessed (a word that I use hesitantly, but the only word that feels appropriate) to be where I am at this juncture of my life.  I'm trying my hardest to take it all in.  To soak up all of Claire and Trent that I can.  To take as many photos as I can.  To take more videos of them.  To be a better dog-mommy.  To create new and wonderful experiences for Trent and Claire.  To be away from the kids enough, but not too much. 

Happy Birthday to my pensive, daring, beautiful, brave, healthy little girl!

Trent turns two!

It's time for me to change the name of my blog.  I no longer have "2 under 2".  My big boy is officially over two.  We kept his birthday low-key this year, in terms of a birthday bash, but we certainly did make it special in other ways.  The Sunday before his actual birthday, we had our immediate family over for food and cake.  I had several dozen balloons blown up for the event because I knew Trent likes balloons.  (I have this desire to cover the entire ceiling with balloons, but that's not practical on the wallet, or for transportation purposes).  7 dozen had to do for this party.

I'm only posting this picture because it reminds me of how YUMMY the food was! 

but this is where he spent alot of his time...

Trent really enjoyed taking the initiative to open his presents....then play with each of them

Here's the homemade yogurt strawberry cake I made for my big guy.  When it came time to sing Happy Birthday, Trent knew just what to do with the candle....although he did struggle a little.

the strawberries are supposed to form a 2 on top

He didn't get as messy this year as he did last year!  Maybe the cake wasn't as good...eeeek. Just kidding.

Later, I tied balloons to Maggie, but she didn't float away



A few days later, on Trent's actual birthday, Kevin took off work so we could spend the day as a family.  We started by taking Trent to IHOP for breakfast!  The waitress asked if she could sing and bring ice cream out for him, but sadly we had to get going.  Kevin had a doctors appointment just down the street that we were running late for.  Luckily, the appointment was very quick, so we were able to continue our day-o-fun by going to Hullaballoo (an indoor play place for kids).  We spent a few hours there climbing, sliding, running, and throwing balls.  Being that it was a weekday, there weren't many other people there, which was nice.  Once Trent was all tuckered out, we headed home for a nap.  It was a good thing he got a couple hours of rest, because as soon as he was up, we jumped back into it.  We decided to take the ball and head to the basketball court down the street.  During our walk (the court is only 3 houses down) we ran into Uncle Paul.  He was on his way to bring Trent some cupcakes, so he joined us on the court instead.  I made the silly mistake of insisting Trent have a cupcake right then....which totally distracted him from playing ball. Fast forward a bit....after dinner we had, yet another homemade (albeit boxed) cake, along with the rest of Uncle Paul's cupcakes. 

Trent's 2-year well-visit with the pediatrician was a week or two after his birthday.  We went over all the usual stuff, and overall Trent is doing great.  He's in the 50th percentile for weight, height, and head circumference (28 lb, 34"L, 19").  She was happy to hear that Trent's speech is improving.  He now says approximately 20 words on his own, but he will try to repeat other random words we say from time to time.  The words he says regularly include (but are not limited to): no, truck, poop, baby, dada, ma, bubbles, cup, juice, milk, sit, ball, shoes, up, bye, hi, please, and go.  He will also make the noises different things in lieu of saying the actual object:  woof woof (dog), gitcha gitcah (which is supposed to be the chugga chugga of a train), baaa (sheep), and vrrrooom (car, boat, plane, helicopter). 

Here are a couple of the classic chair photos.

on his birthday, whenever we asked him how old he was, he'd try to hold up 2 fingers and say "two"...but his "two" sounded just like "six"

here he is pointing at the beautiful quilt Aunt I made for him before he was born

one heck of a busy day

August 14th was probably the busiest day we've had all year.  Luckily, it was fun-busy (for me...Kevin worked in the morning) and the weather was great. 

I started the day by taking Trent and Claire to Nature Babies at White Clay Creek Park.  The theme was butterflies!  After learning about them we released one into the wild.  It was a nice time....until Jude's finger went into Trent's mouth and Trent bit down...

After Nature Babies I met Kevin at home and we headed over to Kayla's 4th Birthday party.  Abby Cadabby was the theme.  It was great seeing some friends that I haven't seen in a while.  Trent also got to see some old daycare friends (Kayla, Cameron & Natalie).  Trent got in the pool and played on the swing set - and he was oddly fascinated by the garage door knob things. 

We had to leave Kayla's early to hit Thomas' bday party - luau theme.  Our kids wore outfits Aunt Lauren recently sent home from Hawaii.  We weren't there long before having to pack up and leave again.

By 5:30 we were on our way to a Blue Rocks game with cousin Bryan and family.  Again, the weather was great - perfect for a ballgame!  Blue Rocks creamed the competition.  We left a little early, but not before getting some ballpark food and trying to get one of the players to toss Matt a ball (no luck).  I wish I'd gotten a picture of the 2 babies together, but I didn't....the 2 babies weren't exactly near each other the entire time - Claire didn't want to sit  in the stands, so I ended up standing with her up near the concession stands most of the time.  Bryan and Erin alternated having Emma near me and down in the stands.  Then we had to deal with Trent wanting to go up and down the stairs and climb on the bleachers.  I'm not complaining, I'm just saying....  I'd love to do it again sometime.

Dads Bday

June 24th was my dad fifty-something birthday so we all met at Season's Pizza on Main Street to celebrate.  Normally we would have sat out on their deck, but it was way too hot and humid on this particular day, so we stayed in the A/C.  I picked up a cake and had the baker write "Happy Birthday R J M P C" on it - but instead of initials she wrote the actual names.  My dad has a weirdly long name...and honestly I'm not positive why.  It was just funny that she fit it all on such a small cake.  Anyways, we all had a good time.

I can't for the life of me get this picture right side up