Happy TWO, Charlie!

Charlie’s Birthday week is finally winding down around here, i.e. we finally opened Charlie’s last birthday package this afternoon. Since we have to pick up all our packages at the apartment complex office, Charlie’s largess has even elicited comments from the dear ladies who work there. It has been ‘hard work’ slogging through all those presents and we had to pace him!  He is one well-loved boy!    We had his party last Sunday afternoon.  While Charlie napped, Jonathan put together his new table and chairs from Nana and Papa so that the kiddos would have a place of their own to eat Birthday Cake.   I decorated the cake.  We decided to do a Blue’s Clues theme (loosely) party because he is so enamored with that show right now.  He loved it, as I hoped he would, and greeted it right after his nap with, “cluuuuue!”In fact, it was hard work to convince him to leave the cake and go anywhere else in the house.  He just camped out there for a while.  Pretty soon it was time for our first guest to arrive.  We had been talking for the last couple days about the fact that he was going to have a party.  Charlie requested a ‘brown cake’ and had been talking about which friends were coming to see him.  Charlie was SO excited he was bouncing and dancing all over the living room.   Then, just as the first guest was walking in the door, Charlie pulled a classic birthday party move and tripped and face-planted, hard,  into our speaker stand--the only sharp corner in the living room.  The rest of our guests came in the next 5 to 10 minutes and were greeted by a frazzled Mama and hysterical shrieking and sobbing coming from the next room.   It took a bit to recover, but recover we all did and the party went on!  

First on the agenda was making our very own silly party hats!  Some were invented with ear loops, bobbles and curlicues ….…and some were just too precious for words…(Thank you, Miss Debbie, for the Birthday Crown!)The Blue’s Clues Scavenger Hunt came next.   Now, if you have never tried to send three two-year olds on a scavenger hunt, it is really something you don’t want to miss.   Not only was it impossible to get all three toddlers interested in the same thing at once, there were also 9 adults hovering about, shouting conflicting, “helpful” suggestions.  Complete mayhem, hilariousness and, I hope, enjoyed by all!   ….if you dare to participate in the full experience, here are the unedited videos!

     

After the scavenger hunt it was time to eat. Homemade pizza, salad and fruit were on the menu.  Toddler friendly, yes, but who can eat much food when you are having a BIRTHDAY PARTY with….…brown cake and ice cream to come!?!!   Make a wish, Charlie!“Mmmmmm, delicious!”And suddenly, for inexplicable reasons, they were intent on eating…

After cake, we had a little story time.  Miss Ashley is sooo fun!  (You can see Charlie’s beat-up face pretty well in this one!)And then onto the presents!   Charlie specialized in removing about two square inches of wrapping paper at a time.  Whew!  (I think its time for bed now!)  Thank you all, for your gifts!  This picture about sums it up!  Our dear guests made the party so fun and celebrated Charlie so well!Happy Birthday Charlie!

You are a delight to your friends and family, you remind your mama and dada of how loved they are by God, just through your existence in their life, you are a blessing and daily joy! We love you!

p.s.  a little view of the post-party party—brought to you by the sustainable bio-fuel ‘brown cake’ and ice cream!

….its really too bad Mr. Kaybn and Miss Alyssa are no fun…no fun at all!

“Just like Dada”

This morning it was the red hooded sweater and the book…At dinner it looks like this:

Last Sunday it was the shirt with buttons and a belt…

…and of course Dada can’t go anywhere near the tools without handing Charlie a wrench or screw driver of his own to use too!

….The apple just does not fall far from the tree…

Give the father (or grandfather for that matter) a vacuum and Do NOT expect to see them for the next three hours-- DO expect they will eliminate dust and dirt from places you didn’t even know to look for it!Give the son a vacuum for the first time. Show him how it sucks up pine needles. Watch the intense fervor spread across his face as he is busy for the next hour--even meticulously noticing and picking out red pieces of lint from the needles before vacuuming them because Mama had said (when he went after the leaves on the fichus and the soot in the fireplace) to only vacuum up the needles!I find I heartily agree with the Psalmist:

Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord,
the fruit of the womb a reward.
Like arrows in the hand of a warrior
are the children of one's youth.
Blessed is the man
who fills his quiver with them!

Psalm 127:3-5

First Hair Cut!

Before: It was getting a little scraggily….though we love, love, love the curls!

After: His hair still hasn’t come in all the way in front, so I just trimmed a little off the back and neck. Now he looks somehow both more polished and grown up.

I’m resigning myself—little boys do grow up, and I guess 23 months is longer than most go before getting their first cut!

skill or coincidence?

Charlie has taken to very carefully, painstakingly, drawing little tiny shapes recently. They usually look like small circles that accidentally got in a head-on collision with a truck. As he draws, he tells me they are a car or a flower, but they look nothing like what he says they are. So, imagine my surprise today when Charlie excitedly called for me to come see his rocket. (He and Jonathan have been talking a lot about rockets recently.) I was expecting to celebrate the funeral of another mangled family of circles while making blast-off sound effects and instead I saw this:

(I’m not sure how he did it, since I didn’t see him draw it. And believe me, I checked to make sure that Jonathan hadn’t drawn it for him! All I can figure is that he did it by accident and then recognized the image!)

I hearted my birthday—literally!

When we woke up to the first day of February, it was doing a little of this--

        and a little of that--

      --all in all too nasty to go out in. 

 

 

Classes were canceled and I couldn’t make it out of the parking lot to go babysitting, so Jonathan had the time to roll up his sleeves and make blueberry muffins, thyme scrambled eggs and tea for breakfast.The tea was a special treat--Commodore Grey from the Tea Cup in Seattle, hand carried to me by my dear friend Abby.  It is SOOOOOO good!While the muffins baked, Charlie and I broke out his new to him fishing game that I found at the thrift store.  He was more excited about it than I expected, and insisted that Dada and Mama come fishing with him!

Isn’t a candle-lit breakfast exciting? 

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Sure, especially if you take into account the bed-headed and pajamad participants!)

 

 

 

The fact that Charlie got to drink some tea milk from his very own tiny tea cup excited him to no end!   He took a sip every time I or his Dad did, just because he could!

After breakfast, I invited my neighbor friend Debbie over for what I thought would be an hour or two of cutting out hearts for a heart garland I had in mind to make for Valentines day.  

 

 

 

 

 

One idea led to another and pretty soon, there were 3-d heart mobiles and see-through lacy hearts flying out of our hands….There were a LOT of hearts –different colors and sizes—but no garland!

 

The three of us ended up cutting out hearts, and coloring  and gluing all morning, though lunch.  Then Debbie went home for a bit…

 

…And Charlie went down for his nap. . .

…And I stared at the pretty paper for a while before giving in to cut out more hearts so I could do this! Oh yes, friends,  it was long--around the living room long! It was double sided! And it was the most fun I’ve had in a really long time!After I got it up, it felt like spring inside while it hailed and iced over again outside!  Charlie woke up from his nap and wandered into the living room and noticed them immediately, pointing excitedly,   “Hahts, Mama, hahts!”  You’d think I would have had enough or maybe just the common sense to stop there because really by this time I was quite tired! 

BUT …there were those left over hearts that I hadn’t used just staring back at me…even after I made these….

…and I didn’t have anything to put on the door after taking down our Christmas wreath….

…AND Jonathan was making fairy cupcakes with sour cream chocolate icing—pretty much my favorite—so I invited my friend Debbie back over for dinner and cupcakes and wreath making!

We finished up around 9pm.  So really…(should I be embarrassed to admit this?)  I, the mother of one almost two-year-old,  shirked all my responsibilities and did nothing but cut and glue paper hearts alllllllll day long!   And, um, it was pretty much the best birthday I can remember having! 

Also….…it needs to be mentioned, that Birthday celebrations like these, especially when there are toddlers at hand, are made possible by terrific husbands (and conveniently timed ice storms).  Thanks for making all the food, changing the stinky diapers and washing the dishes so I could I could be so extravagantly crafty and happy all day long, my Boy!  You are the best husband a girl could desire!

a snow day song….

Charlie and I were playing the piano together today, and he suddenly started singing out along with me, mostly in tune, at the top of his lungs.  It was so loud that Jonathan heard it behind the closed door to the bedroom and came out to video it! This is the most developed singing I’ve heard from him yet and it gives me hope that he may enjoy music along with his sports some day!