Tiptoeing through the tulips

We don’t have a season pass to the Biltmore Estate, but my friend Jen does. So when she offered to sneak the me and the kids in her car to tour the beautiful gardens one Sunday afternoon, we jumped at the chance. And it was very much worth laying in the backseat of her minivan with a blanket over my legs. 

Our Friday night in videos

Alternate post title:  Life is good. 

Batter up!

Luke scored a ton of sweet outside toys for his birthday, like this tee-ball set from my parents:

Thanks, Yaya and Papa!

Taylor and Luke’s Spring Birthday Bash

Just like the four years previous, we were blessed with perfect weather for the kids’ birthday party day. Probably because the Universe loves watching the Masters as much as letting us have a stress-free sunshiny day, because Taylor and Luke’s birthdays always fall on the same weekend as the historic golf tournament. Sorry, Chris. We’ll have to making family trips to Augusta.

Taylor didn’t give us any real direction for a party, other than she wanted all of her classmates and friends there. And since we now live in a house that can host lots of little people, we invited everyone she knew. I had a table for decorating flower pots for the kids to take home, and then other outside toys available.

Luke had just woken up from his nap as the guests started arriving, and while the party was technically half his, he was just mad that all of these people were all up in his space.

But then we did cupcakes and sang songs, which surely perked him up.

Instead of decorating the little cakes myself, I just let the kids load them up with as much candy as they pleased. 

The birthday girl put so much on hers that is exploded.

And when it was done and the kids had all left and the presents were all opened, I looked around my totally trashed house and breathed a big sigh of relief. Success! I had never planned on having two kids with birthdays within days of one another, and while it will always prove to be a hectic week, it was great to be able to knock off both parties at once. Cheers to another awesome birthday week in the books! And thank goodness for leftover cupcakes!

Two years old

Luke is two years old.

And maybe it’s because he’s nearly the size of a seven year old, or maybe because I’m still recovering from his first sleepless year of life, but I really do feel like he’s been with us for way longer than two years. It’s really hard to imagine our family without him. He is our court jester. He makes all three of us laugh out loud every single day. The kid’s HILARIOUS.

Yes, he’s charming. But he definitely demands his fair share of attention. Because the minute you leave his side, he is climbing on top of the table, snatching something away from his sister, rearranging the pantry or lining up and kicking all of his balls off the side porch. The boy likes push his limits, and test my sanity. He’s lucky he’s so cute.

No joke, though. The boy is good looking. Those big blue eyes and toothy smile make him pretty darn swoonable.

As you can see, he is still a big boy. His two-year checkup revealed that Luke is now tipping the scales at 32 pounds, and he stretches 32 inches long. He’s dropped down to the 90^th from the 95^th percentile, and I’m happy to report that his huge fuzzy head is starting to even out with the rest of his body. And even though he’s a rather large two year old, other than his belly, there’s not much chub to pinch. He’s solid. And he throws a wicked spiral. And shoots a jump shot. And he dribbles the soccer ball. I'm pretty sure we're raising some sort of future Olympian.

He’s also talking so much more now, and it’s such a relief to both him and I that he can now tell me what he’s thinking. Gone are the days of him frantically pointing and squealing at desired objects, as now he can either ask me to get them for him, or he just crawls up the walls and grabs them himself. And he ends every begging with the sweet words, Dank-yoo Mah-mah. Ah. My little gentleman. 

It the past two years, Luke has brought so much joy into my life that it’s easy to brush off the exhaustion. Because of him, I am a mentally and physically stronger person, and he also made me relax on some of my self-assigned pressures. I blog less. There’s a constant layer of dog hair on our floors. We eat more leftovers. I am not afraid to say that raising this energetic little man leaves me exhausted. But I’m not going to give up my playtime with him. That will go away before I know it. Laundry will always be there.

And for a such a fun-loving little dude, we had to make his day as special as possible.

Oh, we had a such a fun day! And, just like with Taylor’s day four days previous, we were humbled by all our family and friends birthday generosity and attention Luke received.  He’s a lucky kid to be surrounded by so much love.

We definitely ended the day smiling. I am so proud of my son, and was so happy that we could give him such an awesome day. He in my little man. He has made me a better mother, and I can’t imagine my life without him.

Five years old

Five years ago, I gave birth to this sweet and happy little girl.

Oh me, oh my. She is more perfect than I could have ever dreamed true. And she makes my heart swell with pride every single day. And sometimes I just grab Chris’s hand and squeeze it real tight and say, WE MADE HER! We are part of the reason she is so amazing. WE DID THAT. And just when we think we have no idea what we are doing and totally failing as parents, we’ll steal glimpses of Taylor singing, dancing, pretending, coloring, twirling, giggling or just being adorable, and we fist pump the air. We’ve done a good job so far. Because she’s perfect to us.  

Gone are the sweet chubby cheeks that once hung below her chin. Yes, I smooched those off years ago. Gone are her soft chunky arms and thighs that looked like they had rubber bands wrapped around them. In the last months, my daughter has sprouted arms and legs. She is leaning out, and if you look hard enough, you can peek in and get a preview of what she might look like as a young lady. She’s beautiful.

She’s become this real little person, with a very sweet, yet persistent, personality. And now that we’ve got a full-blown toddler boy under our roof, Taylor has eagerly accepted the role of the Big Girl. She refuses to ride in strollers or shopping carts, she wants to watch Good Luck Charlie over Doc McStuffins. She begged me to get her Shimmer Body Art for her birthday. And I did. Because she still holds my hand when we’re in public.

And she’s FIVE! And that’s a big birthday. So we had to make sure she had the most special day in the history of forever.

It was a wonderful day, and it was made super doubly special by being able to play with her friends and FaceTime with so much of our family. She is not only very very important to Chris, Luke and I, but she is loved by a whole lot of people. It’s takes a village.

And all throughout the day of her birthday, starting in the wee hours of the morning, I would reminisce about what I was going through five years ago at that point of the day, and where we were at in the process of bringing Taylor into this world. Five years ago she made me a mother. And I’ll never be able to thank her enough for that. This is the best ever.