Today our son turned 2 years old! If you ask him how old he is, he will tell you he is TWO!

A day in the life of a 2 year old...

Good morning sunshine! Happy Birthday! We sat down and tried to read his new book "Happy Birthday Baby" by Dr. Seuss, but he didn't want to sit still, he wanted to EAT!

So he had some oatmeal and fresh fruit for breakfast.

Then he played with some of his new toys. This is from Nana and Grandpa - he loves it! 



He seriously played with all of his new toys allll morning long. He sure is one lucky little boy!



After lunch, mommy & Wesley took a nap in mommy & daddy's bed. :) It's been a long time since he napped with me. He was excited when he woke up and saw me there.

Then we went to the park for a bit. We rode in Daddy's truck. He LOVES riding in Daddy's new truck.

When we came home, Daddy ordered pizza (Wesley's FAVORITE!) for dinner and we went out for icecream. (Kybeam, according to Wesley).

And one last present from Mommy & Daddy...



A new car rug and hot wheels!

Then he had a bath and put on his new glow in the dark Zebra pjs (a gift from our good friends Shelby, Chris & Connor!).

Happy Birthday little man! 

Good night! 

Today was Wesley's 2nd birthday PARTY!

The weather was great, not a single rain cloud in sight, and we had wonderful friends & family come celebrate with us! Amanda brought a slip n slide and the kids had a blast on it...even Wesley got into it! The kids splashed in the pool, pushed each other around on the car and just had a great time! Then we ate, opened some presents, Wesley blew out his candles and dug into his octopus cake and everyone else had cupcakes!
 

On my online "mommy" board, we do a Birthday exchange for the kiddos.

Wesley received his present from Louisiana today...

He got some color wonder markers, a cool truck that he keeps saying he broke (it comes apart on purpose) and this really cool fold up fire station.



Thank you Danielle & Gracie! We love it!

Wesley sent a present to Ms. Emilee (& Lyndsay) in Wisconsin...we got her an activity baby (with a zipper, button, a shoe to tie, etc). a hot wheel (Wesley has the same one here, they're friendship hot wheels. :) and an outfit of course!)

Here's Ms. Emilee sleeping with her baby.

16 days into August....I know, I promised to post pictures more often...it's been a busy month already.

Jeff left for a 5 day long concert on August 5th - here's him, Mike & Twek. It's there "going to the gathering" pictures.








Andddddd...

on August 3rd, Louis & Jamesia welcomed their little girl Sasha Vivienne into the world. She's a peanut at right around 6lbs and just 18" long - but just LOOK at this proud Daddy!



This was at Jamesia's baby shower that Sasha actually got to attend! Nikki, Michele & I made her a diaper cake - she said she always wanted one! I'm glad we could provide. :) The shower was wonderful, 2 hours of EATING the most wonderful food and hanging out with the nicest people. I made the cake, it weighed about 30 freakin' pounds (it was heavy, ok?!). Just sorry we couldn't have stayed longer!



That sums up the first 10 days of August...

Wesley had his pictures taken at the Picture People for his 2nd birthday. They turned out great! I wish I could have ordered all of the pictures, but people only have so much money! The first 2 are pictures I did buy. The rest are from the session but went unordered.

 

My supervisor had her little boy, Kellan Gage Parker on July 2nd. :) He was a peanut at 5lbs 11oz (I think). Just a couple more weeks and she'll be back from maternity leave!



Shelby and I took Connor & Wes to the Children's Museum one day. They had a blast!



Wes also gained a new found love of his electric nose aspirator and was sucking a plastic reindeers nose. Do you see that big grin on his face? My kid is crazy. :)

And also very sweet.



Connor turned 2 this month!

Here is Shelby  & Grandma when Connor blew out his candles...



And here is the Brobee cake I made for him!



David and Nicole got married July 25th, Chewy, Matt & Drew all had a birthday.

And Wesley...well, he enjoyed squating on a beach towel and shoveling sand into his bucket. :)

Jeff feeding Wesley a little drumstick. They were being silly.

The pictures below are from our trip to the Norfolk Botanical Gardens World of Wonders Childrens Garden. Wesley liked the squirting frogs and the flintstone house. He didn't care much for the sprinkler pond - of course, he isn't too fond of water anyway. :)





I also learned how to make risotto - this is butternut squash rissoto, and it's the yummiest dish I have ever had! I'm pretty darn good at making it too if I do say so myself. :)



And of course you have to test the wine before you put it in your dish...



Fathers Day was in June. Wesley and I made Jeff a cookie cake. (He didn't eat it). We also made one each for my dad and for Jeff's dad. I mean, what else do dads need?

Just 2 pictures I forgot to add from May.

I bought him a pack of new chalk to play with when the girls came down. He likes to draw lines with it and roll the chalk across our balcony and watch it drop off the side.





Here's Shawn, Shelby, Skylar and Wesley after drawing with chalk at Grandma and Grandpa's

I can not believe that I have not updated in 10 weeks. I've been so slack  - so in an effort to catch up, I'm going to post in 3 month increments - the rest of May, June and July. Then, since it's August 2nd, I will start doing one a day or at least a weeks worth of pictures at a time.

In May, Benny B was born -



Our southern most family came up for a visit - Uncle Shawn, Shelby  & Skylar - we had a wonderful time and miss you so much.







We went to the zoo, ate a whole LOT of cupcakes, made strawberry shortcake and had a sleepover. We tried to go strawberry picking, but it rained.

The night before they came down, Wesley got really sick and had to go to the hospital. He had blood drawn *from the vein* for the first time and it was probably the most horrible thing Jeff and I have ever seen happen to our son. :( He got some strong antibiotic shots and was pretty much fine within a couple hours. Still don't know what was wrong with him.

Also, Emily & Shelby had a birthday - here are the cakes I made for them.



Emilys chocolate cake with orange buttercream and...



Carrot cake beach umbrella cake for Shelbys 30th!

And, Karen had her baby shower at the very end of the month, the last time I saw Karen before she went out on bed rest.

Went out to celebrate Caitlins graduation from her online school thing.

And to celebrate...

Sold some clothes on Craigslist. 26 items for $20. That's a good deal. The lady that came to get them was dressed in shorts and a tank top, and her son was in shorts and shortsleeves with bare feet. It was cold and raining out! And she called me Bridgette.

Some people...

We found this costume in a bag of hand me downs. It's really cute and Wesley liked to walk around the house saying "rooooaaarrr". Too bad it's a bit short on him now. I think I def. want to get him a costume as comfortable as this one for Halloween this year.

Face off.

Happy Cinco de Mayo! I met Emily, Jayson and Juliana at the mall just to hang out for a bit.

All the kids love to play in the little ride on toys. I never put quarters in them though. He likes it when it's not moving and doesn't know it moves, so why ruin a good thing??? 75 cents can get expensive!

I was trying to get a good picture of his haircut, but couldn't. He moves so fast these days!

Our little man got his very first haircut today. He would only stay still when he was drinking his apple juice.

Afterwards, Jeff and I took him for a ride on his tricycle around Mt. Trashmore. It was nice, warm and sunny. Until half way around the mountain. Then, it started to rain. Big, cold rain drops. We were soaked.

I have a story to tell you. It involves me being a bad parent.

So, Saturday, I went to hang out with Caitlin & Corey at their place. The kids had gone into Atraiu's room to play. We were in the living room. 5 minutes go by. I'm starting to think, gosh, it's awfully quiet back there. I wonder what they are doing. No sooner than I think this, Corey says "Do you know the kids are out back?" UH NOOOO!




Thankfully, they were both just back there riding around.  

I just can't help thinking what could have happened to them though. They could have run into the street. Anyone could have just walked back there and taken them. :( It's a sad world we live in when you can't even let your kids play alone in their own backyard.

I love trying new things! Kathy (co-worker) brought back some alfredo from the pizza place that they are testing out. It was good, but I had to give some helpful critisism.

A. It needs to have pepper in it.
B. It needs to have more butter in it. Most fettucini alfredo is swimming in a pool of butter. I just want a little butter, there was none.
C. It needs parmesean cheese.

:) Yum.

Today was Wesley's first day at his new daycare "Miss Cathie's"

He had a really good first day and they made a hand butterfly. He was sitting in the backseat going "woosh woosh" with the butterfly on the way home.

I love his new daycare, they do arts and crafts a couple times a week and get lots of outside time when the weather is nice! And one of my favorite parts is the "What I did today" sheet that has what he ate, how his day was, time he napped, etc. on there. It is so nice to know what he did during the day. Every daycare provider should do that!! I feel cheated out of this for the whole 18 months he was in Daycare before this that I didn't know exactly what happened every day!