T-W-O

You're my little boy blue and I love you so...

I took these rain boot photos of you on your real birthday. I can't believe it's been two years since I met you for the very first time. My, what a special day that was. Part of me feels like it was yesterday, but another part feels like we've had you forever.

And, as I'm looking back through them, I just realized that I could just eat you with a spoon :)

Your favorite color is blue now. It's funny that Emma & I picked that color out for you when you were "zero," as she calls it. You will only color with a blue crayon, want blue EVERYTHING (clothes, pj's toys, cups, plates, oh my), and will find the tiniest smidge of blue in just about anything.

You love your new dump truck.

And your coordination is pretty amazing. You run fast. You climb like a champ. And, you can get up and down our stairs like you've been doing it for 20 years.

You still love to push things.

And, your vocabulary has exploded!

You love grapes, cashews, cheese, milk, yogurt, chick-fil-a, eggs, dried cherries, strawberries, and ice cream. I am pretty sure you would choose to survive via the dairy and fruit food group only, but of course, I don't let you.

You love the park with all of your heart and are happiest either playing outside, reading a book, singing songs, dancing, or watching Barney. My goodness do you love that purple dinosaur. You can sing and do all of the motions to "if you're happy & you know it." And you love "the itsy bitsy spider."

You listen really well...cue the hallelujah chorus please. You love your sister so much. And, she loves you back just the same. She takes really good care of you, which is so, so nice. You do really well with a little bit of independence. You actually stay "with us" if you aren't constrained, which is just mind boggling to me.

And, you love to ride the carousel too.

Sometimes when Emma's at school, we have breakfast together, just me and you.

I love to have you all to myself. Time with just one little one is oh so treasured. Oh, and by the way, your spoon skills are much improved :)

So proud! And your laugh just kills me. And, yes, you chipped a tooth, just before your birthday. I was devastated, but have no clue how or when it happened. No mouth injury, no fall, nothing. oh well.

You love to play peek a boo...

And oh my goodness do you love to read now.

Your favorites are "cake book," "goodnight moon," and "the big red barn."

Now for the boring stuff...

As far as clothes go, I would go with a 2T, but some of your 18-24 still fit. You're in a size 5 diaper and a size 6.5 shoe. You love to name your colors...especially blue! You've been sleeping like a champ lately. You usually wake up around 7:30 am, nap from 1 to 4, and bedtime is around 7:30 at night. You sleep with a real pillow in your bed now and a blanket, but we are still using a sleep sack. You love all of your stuffed animals, especially Baxter, Spot, and Blue :) And, you still sleep with three pacis (or ba's...as you call them.)

Before I call it a night, I want you to know that...

Time really does fly by. You grew so fast, but were loved every minute along the way.

I love to rock you just before you go to sleep at night. You lay your head down on my chest, and you're just so sweet.

It's my favorite time of the day.

When we rock, and I wish I could just freeze time.

You love your daddy a ton and you love your Emma too. You give her a hug every night just before you go to sleep.

And, when you're excited, you shout, "YAY!" Daddy's coming home..."YAY!" Ice cream..."YAY!"

You're so fun and so sweet and I wish you the best 2nd birthday ever.

To my little boy blue...we love you dude!

Bro's Birthday Bash ::part two::

After nap time, Carson woke up and opened a few of his gifts. He got fire man rain boots from aunt char, a rain coat from Mama C. and Papa, and a dump truck from us. It had been pouring all day, so we decided to give all of his new gear a run...

We love rain boots at our house! They are great for playing in the yard, even when it's not raining. You come away with no ant bites and clean feet :)

Emma was so excited that bro got rain boots. Jumping in puddles is still one of her very favorite things to do. Proof is here, here, and here :)

I really wanted a photo of Carson with his birthday balloon and dump truck, but he just wasn't having it.

After they splish splashed, we headed in for dinner...

And bubbles. He calls bubbles "abu," and he loves them, so a bubble machine was the perfect gift.

We grilled a yummy dinner and then sang to our birthday boy...

His blue cookie cake...

And he even blew out his own candles :)

Oh my goodness it was so good.

Love him.

And I can't believe he's two....

They both dug right in.

And then the next day they both gobbled up cookies that Mama C. & Papa had sent...

No lack of sugar here!

Happy Birthday to the sweetest little boy ever!

Bro's Birthday Bash ::part one::

My favorite little guy turned two! And, I just can't believe my eyes. His real birthday fell on a Saturday morning, which was just perfect, because we could all spend the day together.

We started the morning off with a trip to the donut shop in the pouring down rain :) We brought bro home his blueberry donut and the festivities began... He moves his little hands around when we sing...swoon.

And always claps at the end....yay!

So, so yummy!

We went pretty low key for his birthday this year and opted to not have the big party. We did that last year and alternating the big and small parties seems pretty fitting to me. So, it was just the four of us. There are some really weird shadows happening in the photo. It looks like I have an iron burn across my face...I don't!

After breakfast, we hung out at home, read some books, watched some barney & the wiggles, and headed to chick-fil-a for lunch. The kids had their usual, followed by playtime & ice cream. Nap time was next on the list for the birthday boy. So, while he was sleeping, Chef Emma helped me whip up a giant cookie from scratch and homemade vanilla ice cream.

Then, we decorated the cookie with blue frosting. Carson's favorite color is blue :)

I'll be back soon with part two!

a fun day at the zoo

mama c. was visiting us, so we made plans to take the kiddos to the zoo.

oh my goodness does miss emma love the zoo.

and just recently she has a thing for seahorses. i liked them too when i was little :)

this was carson's first trip where i think he really knew what was going on.

miss emma brought along her very own camera just for the animals.

and once we let carson out of the jogger, he was on cloud 9.

i am thinking my next trip will be a with a backpack and without the jogger :)

he loved exploring & did a great job at staying with us, which is quite the change from emma!

the giraffes were next on our list.

i think they are a favorite for all of us.

they were super friendly that morning.

emma & carson made friends pretty quickly.

we took a quick break for a ride on the carousel. emma rode the zebra.

and carson picked the baby elephant.

then, he begged to ride again.

so, we did!

almost two is so much fun!

our lunch was a picnic :)

bro ate his blender style.

and then, we headed back to giraffes to feed them.

for $5, you get three pieces of lettuce...

it is so neat.

and so worth the five bucks :)

all of the animals were pretty frisky that morning...check out the lions!

after naps, we headed to our local mexican restaurant for a super early birthday celebration for bro. the kids dug in the sand and ate their share of rice & beans. carson wasn't so sure about the sombreros...i think he was pretty much spent. his day was pretty busy!

our morning was perfect. the weather was amazing, the kids had a blast, and we had mama c. with us! we can't wait to go back to the zoo again.

and in case you missed it, i wrote about carson turning 22 months here. i think it got buried somewhere along the way :)

hugs!