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.

Countdown to birthday week

Lots of packages have been arriving at our front door for the impending big birthdays around here. And while the presents will be wrapped and opened on their respective special days, the bubble wrap will be played with immediately.

Consider yourself warned

When my brother was a wee lad, he and my Dad would spend many hours in the back yard playing catch. Baseball, football and whatever other catch-able ball they could throw at each other. In the winter months, they would move the game inside, with Will standing at one corner of the room, chucking balls at my Dad in his recliner at the other end. It was never ending. Even when my Dad wasn’t playing, Will would still wind up and throw things at him, catching him off-guard many times, hitting him in the chest or face, and resulting in my Dad forming a nervous tick of sorts whenever someone around him swung their arms in a throwing motion.

And just like his Godfather, my Luke has developed a strong arm and a love of throwing. And after being surrounded by Princesses and Barbies for the past four years, Chris has welcomed the nonstop ball throwing with open arms. Literally.

And not to brag, but Pookie has a pretty good arm. From an early age, without coaching, he has been able to throw a decent spiral. And not just with a ball, pretty much everything he can palm gets clutched in his right hand, cocked back behind his shoulder and released with a enough force to hit you square in the gut while standing five feet away.

So when you see this, get ready to catch something. Or be prepared for something to bounce off of you.

Luke the dare devil

And while his sister colors quietly at the kitchen table while watching a movie, my 21-month old son wanders into the bathroom, retrieves the step-stool, carries it into the entryway and practices his jumps.

 

Seriously? 

BOYS! 

I love this little man to pieces. He has the most loveable, adorable, expressive personality of any one-year old boy you’ve ever met. I promise you, if you spend eight minutes with this kid, you will totally understand why I have a really hard time trying to dole out any montherly-discipline. He’s just THAT cute.

I am in really big trouble.

Friday fun-day

Since Taylor is only in preschool on Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursdays this year, I’m making an effort to embark on a fun adventure either Monday or Friday. This is my last year having both my kids home with me twice during the week, and I need to spend this treasured time doing something other than running errands and going to the gym. So this week we ventured to the WNC Nature Center for our inaugural Friday fun-day.

And then followed up with lunch a Chick-fil-A and ice cream downtown.

And then naps for everyone, including me. Fun-day indeed!

Yep. He's a boy.

The school year officially begins

Taylor's first week of pre-K was a huge success. She loves her teacher, her classmates and everything about her preschool. I had decided to keep her at just three days a week for a number of reasons, with the number-one being that next year she'll start kindergarten and will then be going to school five days a week. And that will last forever. So I am going to savor our four school-free mornings a week for another year. 

I did opt to move her from going Monday-Wednesday-Friday, to Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday. It will allow us to have a better groove in the week, and it also means that she can take dance with her classmates on Thursday. I had wanted to start her in some sort of dance program this year regardless, and this works perfectly. For 45-minutes on Thursdays, she will learn ballet and tap, and Woo-Boy! is she excited. Especially after trying on the fancy shoes and knowing that she can wear a ballerina-outfit to school once a week.

And since we are now in the swing of things, it would only make since for the little man to get his first sickness of the school year, which is totally unfair seeing as he doesn't even go to preschool yet.

Poor Booger. He had been fighting a head and chest cold with an awful fever all weekend, and I finally took him to get checked after I caught him tugging at his ears. Yep. Another ear infection. Jeez! And of course he is just so pitiful and clingy while he's sick, which is fine. At 16-months and shot-out-of-a-canon, I'll take my Luke-snuggles wherever I can get them. So needless to say, unpacking has taken a backseat for another week. Oh well.