Atticus: 2nd Birthday Party

Tomorrow, our baby boy Atticus, turns 2 years old. And, this past weekend we had some family come into town to celebrate. Everyone's schedules are so busy, but Vic's parents, sister Jill, and my aunt GG and sister Molly were all able to celebrate with us.

Although this was just a small family party, I love a theme. And, since Atticus is into everything "am-mulls", we decided an animal theme was appropriate. So, we had a jungle animal birthday party. See pics below for the day's events:

After his nap, Atticus woke up to find birthday decorations in place; this includes balloons which can entertain a toddler for hours on end. In fact, they are all still floating around the house to entertain him until they pop or the air slowly leaks out.

 

 

By the way, Molly and I made these cookies the day before. I was so proud of them; I had actually practiced decorating them earlier in the week, but Molly made them so much cuter with her creative touch!

Clearly, we hadn't put pants back on him yet. Oops! But, he loved the balloons and he would go into his tent that was turned on its side and we would put as many balloons as we could in it until he pushed them all back out and laughed and laughed!

We decided to have a shrimp boil, so we sat outside on the back porch to let Atticus open his first gift while Steve took care of the boil. I let Atticus have an elephant cookie and then GG gave him his first gift....a motorcyle trike. It was so fun watching him open it up and then just hop on and go. The seat even opens up to hold toddler treasures and before Atticus took a ride, he placed both his sippy cup and his half eaten elephant cookie inside it. Then, later, after his ride, he took it out to finish eating it. Such a funny boy!

 

After eating dinner, we sang Happy Birthday (twice) and blew out the candles (twice) and then proceeded to eat this delicious cake. Molly and I also made this cake, although Molly did all of the icing decorations and used the cute little "am-mulls" that Vic found for the cake. I love, love, love this cake! It was tasty too - two layer chocolate with cream cheese icing. Atticus also took a long time eating the icing off of the alligator, but it was pretty funny once he figured it out.

After this, we needed a bath....big time. So, after a bath and pajamas, Atticus opened the rest of his birthday presents. He got a table and chairs from GG, which he immediately sat down at. He also got some books including Lady & The Tramp, The Jungle Book, Dumbo and this really fun book called The Tickle Monster that comes with this set of monster hands that moms and dads can use to tickle little children! He got 6 stuffed puppies that you play a multitude of games with, a toy story nightlight and then some money. What a blessed little boy! I should also mention that Atticus LOVES books and loves to read. After he opened books, he thought he needed to sit down and read through them immediately. I love his thoughtful, yet serious focused faces he has when looking at a book.

And the last card Atticus opened was one of those musical cards that played the tune of The Chicken Dance. These pictures of Jill & Molly teaching Atticus the moves cracks me up!

 

And finally, he was off to bed after hugs and kisses to everyone. He also made sure to tell his animals on his animal poster (see below) "night night". I know I'm biased, but...ADORABLE. We had a really nice birthday weekend and I'm excited because Vic is taking the day off work on Tuesday so we can celebrate his actual birthday all day long. I think we have a picnic and the park on the agenda and if the weather is good, some water play with the water hose and a new sprinkler! Here are a few last photos!

 

Atticus: Funny Words

I have this blogging goal of one day having a consistent, well-typed, organized blog that is not too wordy and is funny in all of the right spots. But, the problem is I haven't had time to organize it. However, with Atticus beginning to talk, I want to document some of his funny sayings the way my friend Britt does on her blog of her boys - titled "Quotes of the Week". Her stories are so funny and I know I won't remember all of ours if I don't write them down. So, eventually maybe I'll have this nice organized blog, but in the meantime I will continue to type the way I talk and probably not do any grammatical checking; blog whenever I find the chance; and set a goal to have an easy to read blog one day!

Atticus has started putting two or more words together this past week! They don't necessarily form adult sentences, but they are definitely his way of telling us what is going on. For example:

"No nap."
"Das (Grace) Poop (poop) Eeeww (ew)". He loves to tell me when he thinks Grace has pooped.
"Attis (Atticus) bath poop Dada bath wut (wet)." Yes, Atticus pooped in the bathtub during his virus this past week and then another night, Vic got really wet while bathing Atticus (this would be two stories combined).
"Das ti-ey. (ti-ey is very high pitched)" Grace is tiny.

Other fun newer words right now:
"Puh-puh" (play dough); "Yayee an Tup" (Lady and the Tramp); "DuhDuh" (Dumbo); still saying "But-thi" (lion king); "buit" (book);  night night; "tuck" (truck); "ca" (car); "cuck" (porkchop); all animals: horse, taouw (cow), tat (cat, da (dog), jaff (giraffe), dut (goat), muss (mouse); "tet" (tent); "beh" (blanket); "Si-si" (Simba); "ya-ya" (Nala); "Yiah" (lion); "tar" (guitar); "pooss" (push); and my very favorite: "Am-mulls" (animals)

Clearly, it looks like we watch a lot of Disney movies and lately, he actually has watched Dumbo, Lady & The Tramp, and The Lion King quite a few times. I just have to get this stay-at-home mom routine down better. Sometimes it's just easier right now to get something done if I can pop in an hour long movie for him. Of course, as soon as I do, then Grace needs to be fed, or held, or loved on. So, then I don't get to my ever-growing to do list anyways. But, I do get to watch him enjoy his movie and talk all the way through it telling me what is happening. It's still pretty cute!

He will also repeat numbers 1 thru 10 in English and Spanish when prompted. And, the other night, while we were watching Wheel of Fortune and talking, we noticed that every time a person would call out a letter, he would repeat them. Such a fun, smart little boy!

And to end, here is a cute picture of Atticus. He has only fallen asleep in his high chair one other time that I can remember when he was much younger. But, this day he must have been exhausted! He didn't even wake up when I took him from the chair to his room for his nap.

Grace: 5 1/2 weeks old

Grace is already 5 weeks old this week! I keep forgetting how little she is though. Having Atticus to care for (especially since he has been home all week with his virus), makes it harder to pay as much attention to her unless she is eating. I am trying to do the eat - sleep - play routine with her, but it doesn't always work exactly right. At least, for this past week, she has continued to follow and eat-sleep pattern with no play through the night. That helps. But, I do forget how much babies want to be held; although I love to do it! If she is sleeping, she will stay in her bed or swing, but if she is awake she wants to be in your arms! Okay, onto my notes:

A few notes on Grace at 5 1/2 weeks:

• 11 lbs. 12.5 oz at her Doctor. appt on Saturday for her cold. At her appt last week for her cold, she was already 10 lbs. 9 oz. 
• Size 1 diapers
• Wearing 0-3 month clothing
• Still fighting that cold, but now we have Amoxicillan to help get rid of it.
• Her hair on top has thinned, but is still around the back (just like Atticus did). Still darker, but has shades of red in the sun (just like Atticus did).
• Still has floppy airways and apparently, those can last months. 
• Has smiled really big once that I have noticed during playtime, but otherwise, no regular smiles yet. 
• Takes a pacifier.
• Barely starting to make cooing noises, but they are so sweet!
• Most of the little baby acne she had is almost gone. 
• She is still ok with being swaddled, mostly at night, but likes to stick her feet out of the bottom. She is also still sleeping in the bassinet. 
•  Has already made one road trip to Sanger, been to Church, been to a scrapbooking store, and met all of her living great grandparents. She's had a busy month!