Music

My kids respond to music so well. Violet is a song bird and can learn a song in a few days, she is constantly humming something and inserting her own words to whatever tune comes to her mind. She has CDs of kid music she listens to with her headphones all the time, and when I turn on a CD of music for both to listen to in the house, they almost immediately calm down and play nicely together (well, not all the time...they're professional fighters too!). Violet learned the entire first verse of the Star Spangled Banner in about a week and loves to belt it out. Calvin can hum almost every song Violet knows on tune. He was humming the star spangled banner while eating his cheerios this morning. I think they got stuck on that song over New Year's when Dave and his friend Shawn were belting it out while cooking breakfast together.

Calvin probably won't be a fan of short pants

Dave and I have discovered one thing that will keep Calvin from napping: short pants. And if his ankles are exposed, he'll FREAK out. Last night when we were putting him to bed, all his pajamas were in the washing machine so we had to resort to using a long sleeved onesie and and pair of pajamas that he wore a few months ago that I suspected were a little too small. The pants were slightly short but they fit everywhere else so we figured they'd be fine. I put on a pair of really long socks and pulled the socks way up on his legs. Dave put him to bed and later told me that he was fussing about his ankles, and Dave "helped" him pull his pants down over his exposed ankles and pulled his socks up. Calvin seemed satisfied with this, and went to sleep, but a few moments later, he woke up fussing again. I went into his room and got him up, he was crying and pointing to his ankles. I asked him if he wanted another pair of pants and he sadly said "yeahh". So I got him a different pair of long fleece pants and he seemed reallllly happy. Silly boy. He snuggled right into bed with no fussing at all. And slept through the night (with no pacifier!!). Same thing went on at nap time this afternoon. Apparently the pair of blue sweatpants he had been wearing all winter are all of a sudden too short. Nap time was a disaster, and I had forgotten about his issue with short pants. I went up to his room and again, found him fussing in his crib pointing to the skin that was exposed on his ankles. Duh! The short pants! I changed his pants into the same fleece pair from the night before and he immediately was happy and went right to sleep. I predict he will be very happy to see his footed pajamas ready to wear in his closet tonight.

Nap trouble and I'm still sick

Even after a tiring morning at indoor park, both kids were wiped and went down for naps at 1 pm. They are just not sleeping well. Violet woke up after only 30 minutes and Calvin was screaming after 45 min of sleep. I think I'm going to lose my mind if they stop napping during the day. Calvin is doing fine with out his pacifier, although I think he would sleep longer naps if I he still had it. I'm still sick...maybe I didn't write about it before but I've had the nastiest cold for a whole week. The start of it was the day before Violet's birthday which was last week Tues night. My nose and sinuses have been completely blocked and my throat has been sore. Especially in the morning, from breathing through my mouth all night. Its getting so old...and tiring. I can't taste anything, my breathing is raspy and I just feel exhausted from morning to night. My head feels like its fifty pounds and bloated. Dave caught my cold too so he's suffering along with me. I'm ready to be done with this and start feeling better.

All done with pacifiers?

I've been thinking about taking Calvin's pacifier away from him lately. And today is happened. A few reasons why, actually: 1. His addiction to them lately has seemed to increase and he seems to want it all the time. 2. He still cries if I give it to him and he's still upset, having it in his mouth doesn't make him stop whatever he's upset about, it doesn't serve the same purpose it did when he was 4 months old. 3. I lose them constantly and am sick of depending on having one with me at all times just to "pacify" him. 4. He's two years old...definitely not a baby anymore. 5. I wish I had taken it away from him when he was 12 months old. 6. Having it in his mouth all the time keeps him from talking, which he needs to do more of. 7. Almost every picture I've taken of him in the last month has that thing in his mouth. I can't see his pretty smile and sweet little dimple on his left cheek. 8. He's still at that precious age where he can cry it out, if he gets any older I'd have to incorporate some sort of logic tactic that made sense to him when taking it away or deal with even bigger tantrums...no thanks, I'd rather not. Its bad enough already. Soooo....after his nap today, I got him out of his bed, he handed me all his "stuff" which includes his favorite blue blankie, two stuffed kitties and his paci. Seems in his mind, all of those things must be together to be comforting, but not anymore. Anyway, he gave me all his stuff so he could climb out on his own. He reached his arms out expecting me to hand him everything back, and I only gave him his kitties and his blanket. I think its still important for a child to have comfort objects, and blankies and kitties I totally approve of. He knew he was missing something, but I told him he didn't need his pacifier anymore. Of course he threw a fit, which I ignored. I stuck the beloved piece of plastic in my pocket and walked downstairs, knowing he would end up downstairs eventually. And he did, and he got over it. He played off and on, and at times he would get really upset, he would go search out his blankie, kitties, and then BEG me for his pacifier. He even found my diaper bag on top of the counter top and started digging, found one, and then heroically announced "here's mine!!" with the paci proudly in his mouth. I took it away immediately and told him he was done with them. Of course he threw a fit, so I just walked away figuring he would get over it soon enough. 10 minutes later, his cheeks were stained with tears and he clutched his blankie and kitties. I was starting to feel a little bad. He wanted to cuddle with me for awhile. I suppose after what he thought was a great find in the diaper bag was something I was going to take away, he was probably pretty frustrated and defeated. Dave encouraged me to not give in...we've made it this far and announced to him it was over, no more pacis. In fact, even though I had been thinking of taking it away for some time, I was blissfully ignoring the fact that time was ticking away and my little boy wasn't a toddling 13 month old baby anymore and in fact, a little boy who was growing older and working on completing his third year in life. Besides, some times the paci is downright convenient. It keeps him quiet for hours some times and he's never gone a night with out it. So tonight is his first night with out the paci. I told him no more pacifiers, but he could keep his blankie and kitties. He said "o-tay". That just confirmed to me that he 100% completely understood what was going on. I did the usual bed time routine...diaper change, pajamas on, brush teeth, read books...kisses, hugs, lights out, fan on, zip up tent, say goodnight. He did cry a little bit, but it wasn't even close to a tantrum. And he did great. I heard some noises come his room (babbling and talking) as I worked on getting Violet to bed. She always takes longer to get to bed so I get him down first. Its been an hour and I *think* he's asleep. At least I heard no more crying, and its silent upstairs. I will check on him before I go to bed, but I think this is it!! I just keep telling myself there will be times he probably freaks out again and wants it, but I can't give in, not now, not after I made such a big deal out of it and he's already learned that his relationship with that piece of plastic is over. Dave and I have been discussing the idea of taking it away from him ...but today it just happened, very much unplanned, but in a few days, he'll hopefully forget about it. It will be easier NOW than when he's three, and I knew it would have been easier if he was just one. I guess I live and learn. So I guess my advice to any moms reading this who have babies with pacifiers, take them away earlier than later! I wish I had done it loooong ago! Ahh...funny. I can hardly believe that I'm blogging about pacifiers. :D

Pics of Violet's birthday

Violet's 4th birthday

She is four years old today, wow! The day couldn't come fast enough for her! I made a paper chain of the days left until her birthday and when I created the whole chain, it was 20-something chains long, and each night she ripped off a day. It was a big motivating factor getting her upstairs in bed, getting to rip off a day. Last night we made her birthday cake together, and she had to wait an entire day to eat it. This morning she woke up around 7:30 and climbed into bed with me. I told her Happy Birthday, and she said "I'm four! I think I feel taller!" and she jumped out of bed, stood on the floor, and put her hands on her head trying to "feel" if she was taller. Silly girl. She wanted me to sing her happy birthday right away so I tried my best with my morning sick voice. Daddy got home from the gym shortly after that and she celebrated the fact that it was her birthday over and over. I snuck downstairs while she was still upstairs and put the helium balloons that I had gotten for her on the kitchen table with the completely decorated birthday cake. Last night she only saw the green frosting go on the pink cake (her color requests) but not the decorations. When I asked her what she wanted ON her cake, she told me these things: -a picture of Violet with pigtails -a picture of Calvin -hearts -flowers -"a box of a game" <--her exact words, which means a picture of a game that is in a box, she received a few games in boxes recently for gifts (memory, Twister, etc) so that must have been where her mind was -the number 4 So I tried my best to make a cake with all her requests, and when she saw the balloons and cake she got even more excited. Calvin and her immediately disconnected the balloons from the bag of candy that was holding them down and ran around the house with them. Helium balloons are the best toy, I should pick them up more often for temporary fun! I went to Bible study at 9:30 this morning, and she got to play with all her friends at the chapel for a couple hours and eat lunch together. She passed out fruit snacks to her friends in honor of her birthday, some of the kids sang happy birthday to her. She ate four bites of her peanut butter and jelly sandwich, four baby carrots, and took four drinks of her water and a whole bag of chips (a little one). Apparently she wanted to eat more than four bites of chips. :) When we got back from the chapel I got both kids down for a nap. I am feeling pretty sick with a sinus cold and congestion so my head felt (and still feels) pretty congested and horrible. I laid down to take a nap the same time the kids did, and I woke up when I got a text from my dad saying he had arrived. I knew he was coming and would show up at our house around 3-3:30 so I knew to wake up around that time. I got myself "awake" and let him in the garage. Violet woke up shortly after that, Calvin slept a little longer. She was really happy to see Grandpa Jon. She gave him a big hug and he held her for awhile. He read her some books that he brought from home. One in paticular, called "I am four" is one from my childhood that brought back a few memories for me. It was a gift for Rachel when she turned four, but I read the book a lot when I was younger. Dave and I got dinner ready around 6:00. Violet polished off all her food (a few big pieces of ham, a big pile of rice, and broccoli) and even had two extra helpings of broccoli. She found independence with the stick of butter near her and her own knife, I'm sure she smeared butter on all her bites of broccoli before the bites hit her mouth. Either way...she got her veggies for the day. Then...THEN....FINALLY we got to eat the anticipated cake. She picked out four candles herself and stuck one in the cake (way too far) so I did the rest. We sang her happy birthday, she grinned from ear to ear, and blew out her candles in a few blows. Of course she wanted to eat the piece that had a stick figure drawing of her...which was huge. Dave cut her a piece and she only ate half of it. Calvin just sat in his chair during the meal...didn't eat or want anything. He had asked for oatmeal when he woke up from his nap and I let him have some since he's had such a picky appetite since being sick. He only wants oatmeal. I guess it isn't the worst thing to want, in fact its pretty healthy, but he refused anything else. I think Violet is the only healthy person in the family right now. Dave is feeling under the weather, I have a cold, and Calvin is getting over croup. Calvin didn't even want cake. Violet then made sure we were all done eating cake, and was super excited to open up all her presents. It went much like Christmas time a month ago. She was on a mission to open all the presents as quickly as possible, barely looking at each gift. She got most excited about a little outfit for her baby doll and wanted to dress her as soon as she opened it. She did inspect every gift after she opened them all. She got: -bendaroos -a huge cupcake pan to make huge cupcakes -a sparkly pink folder to put papers and drawings in -a card with $50 from Hardinger Great Grandparents -two sets of furniture for her Loving Family dollhouse -three shirts -a pink baseball bat and ball -Elmo tickle hands (Calvin got his own set too) -a pack of gum I may have missed something, but for now that is all I can remember. All in all she had a really great day. I thank God for her, she is a sweet little girl.

Mornings have MUCH improved

Wow, what a difference. I really feel like a new woman! Dave installed some light blocking shades in our bedroom so it is darker in the morning. It allows me to sleep longer than when the sun shines in the room so early in the winter. Before Dave installed the black out shades, we had some other cellular blinds on the windows, but they were so transparent there might as well have been nothing on the window. One of the window shades was broken too so we (yes, quiet tacky in fact) tacked a blanket up in front of the window. So the new blinds are a nice upgrade to our room. Since Calvin has been tented in his crib, mornings have been pleasurable. I wake up when I want to, or Violet wakes me up when she comes in my room and snuggles in bed quietly with me. She is very sweet in the mornings, full of hugs and kisses. I usually get up and shower right away so I can get Calvin at a good time. When I go in his room he is always awake, but just sitting or laying down in his crib just waiting for me to come get him. Its just so much nicer. This morning Dave and I had to make a point to set our alarm so we would wake up (knowing it was going to be so dark!). We got up and both got ready...and by 8:15, the kids still weren't up yet, it was eerie. With in minutes though we heard Calvin wake up...it was just much later than normal. Too bad he is sick. I don't think I should take him to Puggles tonight.

At home with a sick little boy

Calvin woke up this morning with an ugly cough, I suspect it is croup again. Poor kid. Doesn't seem very severe but when he does cough, it sounds like an adult seal is in the room barking. Dave took Violet with him to BBC because he teaches a Sunday School class and she was on a mission to sing happy birthday to her friend who just had a birthday yesterday.

5 months pregnant

That's how far along I am now. I had to figure that out, I haven't been keeping track as well this time and I have to look at the ticker on my blog to find out exactly. I am feeling this baby move a lot more lately, especially at night when I'm trying to go to sleep. That's how they all seem to be. Mommy finally relaxes and stops moving, time for baby to wake up I guess. Thankfully the kicks aren't very strong yet and not keeping me up, but it is really comforting and nice to feel the baby move on a more regular basis.

Bonding time with Aunt Rachel

Since Rachel graduated from her ortho residency in Oklahoma, she's been around Iowa staying with us, other family, and visiting friends. She's been here a number of nights and we've all loved having her around. Myself especially since I don't see her that often, and the kids totally loved having her around too. They got some great time with Aunt Rachel. Makes me happy that they know her and will remember her! She got Violet a couple early birthday presents which she opened, because Rachel wouldn't be around for her actual birthday. She got her some new dolls (she called the dolls Violet and Rachel) for her doll house in her room and the game Twister. I got some silly pictures of the last few weeks with the kids and Aunt Rachel:

Calvin's tent

And it might not be with you think. Over the last two months, my little Calvin (um, not so little anymore though) has made my mornings miserable. He has been consistently climbing out of his crib every morning around 6 am and walks into our room and asks for his little meow, blankie and pacifier. When he found his new freedom he did it every single time he couldn't find them in the dark, so most mornings I would get woken up way too early and he would get out of his crib a number of times after I'd put him back in and tell him to go back to sleep. Nothing was working. A few times I spanked him but he didn't seem to respond to that very well either. Mornings became a time of dread and much frustration. Sooo.....I resorted to caging him in. I was so desperate to find something that worked, I was willing to try anything. I got him a crib tent (I searched the market, there really is only one out there), ordered it, and paid for the quick shipping. I got it in two days! It took Rachel and I about a half hour to install it. It totally works, and I love it. This morning I slept in til until a lovely 7:40 when Violet woke up (she is easy in the mornings, she doesn't wander around and do dangerous things like Calvin does) so I took a shower, got ready (she played with her doll house in her room under strict orders to not go in Calvin's room), and then went into Calvin's room to get him out of bed when I was ready about 15-20 minutes later. It was soooo nice. He was ready to get out of bed, but he wasn't crying or anything. He was just standing there in silence waiting for me. I got him out and said "Calvin, do you like your new tent?" He enthusiastically said "Yeeeeah!" So its a good thing. I never would have thought I'd do this in the past...just seems so "silly" to "cage" in my kid, but its working, and I really like it so far. When he is older things will change of course, but for now, it is the perfect thing. There is no possible way he could get out of it. There is an inside netting that completely wraps underneath the mattress and connects to the dome top and when the zipper is shut the pull tab gets tucked into an outside pocket. The only thing it makes more difficult is changing his crib sheet, but its still possible.

Oh be careful...

You all know the little kid's Sunday School song. "Oh be careful little eyes what you see, (repeat), for the father up above is looking down in love, oh be careful little eyes what you see..." and it goes on warning about ears, etc. Violet has extrapolated the lyrics to anything she sees or thinks. She was spending some time in the bathroom after breakfast and while sitting for some time, I started jotting down the verses of the songs she was singing to this tune. Here are some of them, I'm sure I didn't get them all: -- "Oh be careful little mom what you hug, oh be careful little mom what you hug, for the father up above is looking down above, oh be careful little mom what you hug." -- "Oh be careful little shirt what you put on..." -- "Oh be careful little stroller what you push..." -- "Oh be careful little finger what you move..." -- "Oh be careful little hand what you plant..." -- "Oh be careful little pants you pull up..." -- "Oh be careful little door what you shut..."

Harold and the Purple Crayon @ GBPAC

I took the kids to the performing arts center at UNI today for a live production of Harold and the Purple Crayon. This book happens to be one of my favorite childhood books and has become one of Violet's. She has heard us read the book to her so many times that she can recite almost every single word on each page, down to the "hungry moose and the deserving porcupine" and the "trim little boat". She was looking forward to this day for so long, and I gotta say, I'm glad its over. It was just OK. The play was creative and mostly accurate to the whole story, in fact, Harold in the play acted out the whole book with animations in the background that helped make it feel more real. But at the end of the book when Harold gets in his bed and "drew up the covers", that wasn't the end of the play. It kept on going, and going, and going. Harold ended up in the middle of many other adventures. Violet was so confused why the story kept going. She kept saying things like "Why didn't Harold go to bed? Why did he have a bad dream? Why don't we have this part of the story? Why does Harold keep going to bed and waking up? Why does this keep going? Why this, why that..." it didn't end. She was so inquisitive about this Harold story. Calvin sat on my lap the whole time and just stared, he didn't seem to be that affected by the story. There were some very scary parts to the play, when the drawing of the dragon under the apple tree became real, and many other things. Every time she got scared she had to jump in my lap and verify with me that it was just a person under there dressed up in a costume pretending, and that it wasn't real. We went to the production with some friends, and the conclusion was the same...not so good. The beginning was great and fit the book, but the play just went on and on and didn't seem to have a point or an end. All the kids got pretty scared, but while we were eating lunch with everybody at McDonald's after wards, Violet told me that she wanted to go back and see Harold again. When we walked back to the van after lunch, she sighed, buckled into her car seat, and said "Well! That was really fun. I want to go see Harold again! When can we go see Harold again mom?" I was happy to say we probably couldn't go back because they weren't going to play it again. And she would be just as happy reading the book over and over and over again to herself.

Dave gone this week

Its time for the quarterly sales meeting at Dave's work and he's going out there to meet his new boss and new co workers. He didn't get a different job, but someone was placed in charge of professional services (he is a project manager for professional services) to give the department more direction and develop it. So, he's looking forward to it. His new boss is a lady in her 50s or so, he has spoken to her and said he thinks they'll get along. That's good news. His flight left around noon today, and Violet was not taking the news well that he had to leave. We didn't tell her til yesterday because we knew she would get weepy and clingy. She did, and didn't handle daddy leaving all that well. He was packing, and she wouldn't stop hugging him. I had to distract her and ask for her help in preparing lunch so he could finish up packing. We made PBJs and she spread jelly and peanut butter from here to timbuktu by the time she finished. She made a huge fuss if I tried to help her so I just allowed her to be distracted, and he left with a few goodbyes, kisses and hugs. She got disciplined during lunch for whining back at me when I asked her a question so after a slap in the leg, she started crying hysterically for daddy. I have a feeling its going to be a rough week. I haven't been feeling the best. I think the worst is over though, and I'm glad it was yesterday, not today. I had some type of indigestion and couldn't function well, I was popping Rolaids every couple hours for stomach comfort and sleeping as much as I could. On Saturday (yesterday), I slept from 10:30-5:30 in the afternoon, with a few breaks in between there to do a few things. Dave took the kids to the store by himself to exchange some shower heads (we're looking for a new one for our shower, its proving to be a difficult task!) so that gave me a little quiet time to rest. Dave was itching to go out to eat last night so we made a trip out to Waterloo and had dinner at Red Lobster. He got a lobster tail, snow crab legs and shrimp, and I nibbled bites of potato soup, which I could not finish. My body was just saying "don't eat right now". I had no appetite. Kids were pretty restless while we waited for a table (the line was super long) but they kept themselves mostly busy staring at all the live lobsters in the cage. Violet was disgusted and intrigued all at the same time that daddy was eating a lobster. She asked a million questions how the lobster got killed, did it hurt the lobster that he was eating it, etc. He offered her a bite but she didn't want to try any of it, saying it was yucky. We left and by the time we got home it was 9 pm. We were in high gear getting them to bed ASAP. Mornings have been rather difficult for me lately. Calvin is always the first to wake up around 6:30 and he walks into our room and immediately says "Meow?" asking for help in finding his precious little white stuffed kitty. Dave took him back to his room and Calvin said to him "poopoo" - much to our surprise, he was actually right this time. Dave did a quick diaper change, put him back in bed, and he just kept getting up and getting up, probably 5 times. Its so hard not to get incredibly annoyed when I am just not ready to wake up. He even walked into Violet's room and woke her up, which annoyed me even more, because she was crabby and not ready to wake up. I've resorted to locking her door when they go to bed so he can't get in there. I am ready to start locking him in his room too. Or put up baby gates on his doorway or something. I just CAN'T deal with the kids climbing all over me in the morning when I'm trying to sleep. It makes for a very frustrating time and a bad start to my day. I've learned that I can not get by with less sleep than I need. Being pregnant, I am generally very tired all the time, and getting to bed too late is detrimental to my survival during the days. I fell asleep at 10 pm last night and I don't feel like it was enough sleep. Getting to bed at a decent hour is a big struggle for me since I never want the nights to end. They're so nice, quiet, and peaceful, I love night times after the kids go to bed. Dave and I some times watch movies, or stay up and watch favorite TV shows, whatever, its just a nice relaxing time for the two of us and its so easy to let 11 pm slip by and go to bed around 11:30-midnight. Not good...need to change that.

Visitors for New Year's 2009-2010

Dave's mom, Martha, was one of the guests we had over for New Year's. We had wanted her to come visit for some time and decided after Christmas was going to be the best time. She came out late Wednesday night (the 30th of Dec) and stayed til Saturday the 2nd. One of the main goals of her visit was to allow Dave and I help her transition over her budget system to an electronic form. When Dave and I visited her a few weeks back on our way home from Ohio, she showed us her paper system of budgeting with the envelope method. Her binder of papers was categorized with all her expenses, how much she budgeted per month, etc...it was a painstaking (well, that was our perception of course) effort of budgeting that method on PAPER, of all things and required so much of her time to organize and keep up. Dave and I have our finances (the envelope budgeting system) on a software program called Money Map which is designed by Crown Financial Ministries. Anyway, we saw the work she did to record just one transaction and knew immediately if she converted her work to the software that we used, it would be MUCH easier for her to manage. In our opinion, of course. :) She was very willing, however. She brought out her computer and we got the software downloaded onto her computer, and over the course of three days, converted her work on paper to the software. It is all the same information and the same way of budgeting, it will just take her awhile to learn the functions of the program. She feels very lost and confused, but she knows we'll help her transition over. There were moments during the set up process that she "saw the light" and got very excited at the prospect of having all this information at her fingertips. With her paper system, she never really knew if the envelope balances added up to the balance in her checking account, and the software program calculates everything to the penny so you're never a cent off. I also helped her log on to her internet banking, sign on to her credit card online, and when the time comes, I will help her pay her first bill online. We're rocketing her into the 21st century world of banking (which is SO much easier! I can't fathom actually writing a check, sticking it in the mailbox, and putting a stamp on it, I haven't done that for 10 years). She's nervous, of course, because she tried convincing me that her generation of folk doesn't trust the internet, but with our guidance, she will figure it out soon. We told her to call us if she has even the simplest of questions about the program, and we're confident we can help her transition over. I know once she learns it, she'll be glad too. Shawn and Kim Thompson also came for New Year's. We have a tradition going with them for the past few (4 or 5 maybe?) years of getting together to bring in the new year. They came back to Iowa during Shawn's break from school and spend Christmas with their parents (who live in Mason City and Greene), so they get together with us for New Year's. They came on Thurs the 31st and stayed overnight. Martha, Shawn and Kim joined us for a few hours at Bethany Bible Chapel's New Year's Eve celebration, which was really fun. There was tons of yummy food to munch on, games to play, and silly home videos to watch (small groups made videos). We only stayed a couple hours so we could put the kids to bed around 9:30 pm and we stayed up and played Balderdash. The first day of the New Year was a delicious one. Martha made a favorite recipe of Dave's, her egg/cheese/bacon frittata, cinnamon coffee cake, and I cut up and served red juicy grapefruit, melon and strawberries. What a great way to start the new year! New Year's Resolutions? That question got asked many times. Dave started working out in December. He's following a year-long fitness program that he used years ago and really likes. He actually started in the last two weeks of December to get his body used to working out in the morning. Three times a week he gets up early and goes to the rec center and follows the weight-lifting routine. He is enjoying the work outs, he says they're not too strenuous and it starts fairly easy. He enjoys the feeling of being sore and knowing he's making progress. Me? Nahhh, no new year's resolutions. I'm gonna have another baby, there we go. But I'm very proud of Dave for sticking to his plan so far, I guess my resolution will be to support him in his effort. I know I play a big part in his success, being OK with him being gone three mornings a week. At least its not in the evening.

Calvin's 2nd birthday...

was barely a celebration. He woke up and climbed into our bed, Dave and I started singing him happy birthday, and he yelled "mo! mo! mo!" (no, no no) motioning for us to stop. I guess he doesn't like singing, lol. At least that early in the morning. We had nothing special planned. The night before we had gone to the grocery store and gotten some cake mix and frosting in a tub. On Monday, his birthday (December 28th), we baked the yellow cake and I frosted it using green food coloring to make the frosting colorful. I stuck two candles in the cake, lit them, and everyone sang happy birthday while he blew out the candles himself. He wasn't satisfied just blowing them out one time only, however, so we re-lit them a couple times and let him blow them out over and over, which he just thought was super fun. I had to re-lite them at least once for a photo op, the camera wasn't ready at the right time. He didn't mind doing it over again. Violet was the most excited about his birthday, she kept trying to smother him with love and get in the way when the camera would try shoot at him, she stuck her head in many pictures which turned out to be a little annoying. She kept whining that she wanted her birthday to be here and was barely handling the fact that Calvin's birthday is "before" hers. Well, in order of the months and the way it "seems", yes, his is in December, and hers is in January. She's keenly aware that she's older than him, and knows he turned 2 and she is turning 4, but she still wanted to celebrate her birthday first. Too bad, girl, that's how the calendar works. We let Calvin have a big piece of cake on his high chair tray similar to how a kid eats his first birthday cake. He didn't want anything to do with the cake itself, he just used his fingers to swipe off all the frosting and suck it off his fingers. And we didn't even have presents ready for him. In the coming years, I'm going to have to make a conscious effort to plan for his birthday, since it is only 3 days after Christmas. Not exactly the best birthday timing, but oh well. He didn't even care or notice about anything birthday-related. He just had fun with what we did, and we have great family time. Rachel was with us, she enjoyed celebrating his birthday with him too.