Party time!

Ben had his 3rd birthday party 2 weeks ago. I started planning this party in January, and I was nervous about having our very first "friends" party--especially since I knew I wanted to have it at the house. This meant the yard (the bane of our existence) had to look presentable, and we only had a few weeks of spring to make it happen. As you saw in the previous post, we were able to finish the patio with one weekend to spare before the party. That one weekend was spent mowing, edging, weeding and mulching. Then finally....celebration time! We had 12 preschoolers and their parents here for some messy fun, lunch and cupcakes. The day was cool and cloudy but the rain held off until that afternoon. I was disappointed about it being cold but it was really a blessing in disguise since it kept the bugs at bay. The bugs here are no joke! Of course, kids don't even notice the weather so they all seemed pretty happy.

Joel and I used foam stamps and fabric paint to stamp the guests names on canvas aprons. They used them during the party, then took them home as party favors.

We set up makeshift easels for the kids to create their masterpieces. I thought they would all want to paint the whole time, but I was WRONG. The REAL star was the 2 bins of flour we set out with some cups, spoons, etc...

I can't believe how much these kids loved playing with that flour. We could have just had a flour party!

After everyone had made a big mess, we ate mini pulled pork sandwiches provided by Joel, homemade mac-n-cheese, fruit salad and chocolate cupcakes.

Three little blondies. On the far left is Carson, whose mom and I met in childbirth class and who shares a birthday with Ben. Sawyer is the other cutie, and he's Ben's new friend from preschool. Sawyer has introduced Ben to the wonders of all things superhero related.

When we asked Ben what his favorite part of the party was, he said "cupcakes!"

I'll post later about Ben's actual day of birthday celebration, plus some info about his cake. It was DELISH!

We built a patio

Well, really...Joel built a patio. I helped a little. Here's what we started with.

Don't ask me to explain the rocks. Just understand that we had a large area full of rocks.

First step was to clean up the rocks while our next door neighbor was on baby holding duty.

We dug out some sod to enlarge the space. Joel built a frame and installed it. We dug some more and made sure everything was level.

Joel added some leveling sand while Ben pretended he was in a construction zone.

Then Joel was finally able to start laying brick. With Ben's help, of course.

TADA! And this is what it looked like right before Ben's birthday party last Saturday. It's pretty awesome having an actual patio to hang out on. We've used it nearly every single day since finishing it, and it has completely changed the look of our yard.

We thought very seriously about hiring someone to build the patio, but decided against that idea for a couple of reasons. One, it's MUCH more expensive to hire somebody, like at least twice what it cost us to build it ourselves. And two, we needed it done pretty fast since we had Ben's party coming up and another party this weekend. If anybody out there is contemplating building something similar, you need to know that the skill level required is minimal but the physical labor is exhausting. I doubt Joel will want to build a patio again any time soon! We actually lucked out because the area we chose to dig out was already full of dirt, so that made it easier. We dug a few feet of sod around the perimeter and it was SERIOUSLY hard. The only thing that kept me going was thinking of my pioneer ancestors and how they used to not only dig out sod, but actually build their houses with the stuff. Yeah...I wouldn't have lasted too long out on the prairie.

The cutest baby in the universe!

Ok...so maybe I'm a tad bit biased.

But c'mon.....pretty cute, right!

Those hands must taste good, because he snacks on them most of the day.

"Mom, seriously...get the camera out of my face and give me some privacy."

This lucky boy has wavy hair, blue eyes, two dimples AND a cleft in his chin. What a heartbreaker! It almost makes me forgive him for only napping 45 minutes at a time:)

What ARE these things?

Aunt Laura came to visit us and spend some time with baby Abe, who has recently made a BIG discovery. Can you tell what it is?

I hate February

Well, we've just ended the worst. month. ever. It included Ben having multiple colds back to back for WEEKS, Abe having RSV and then pneumonia while Ben was sick, Joel having a 3 week long cold, and me FINALLY getting sick at the end of the month while taking care of 2 sick little boys. I'm glad spring is coming.

Here are some random pictures. We didn't take too many this month because every time we did, at least one person in the picture had bloodshot eyes, dark circles and a runny nose.

Here's Ben chillin' out in his undies, doing some shopping and talking on the phone (calculator.) By the way, neither Joel nor I have EVER EVER held the phone that way while talking. I have no idea where he got that idea. Another thing that happened this month? Potty training! Ben has had a little potty for a few months now, and we would have him go on it before naps and bedtime but he never really took the initiative. And then one day I just woke up and decided I was tired of having two in diapers. I put him in underwear and that was it. He had 4 accidents in the first two days and then he was fine. And we're done! I hate to say it, but it was pretty easy. Maybe because we waited so long?

How cute is Abe? This little half smile is my favorite expression of his. I can't believe he'll be 4 months next week!

My precious little almost 3 yr. old. He's been having a hard time lately. Abe is taking most of his attention and we especially didn't have too much to spare with all of the sickness. Lots of tantrums going on, but we'll get through it.

Abe's eyes are still blue and his hair is getting blonder. It's so much fun seeing him change from day to day.

I'm gearing up for sunny weather and spring projects. Things to do this month include:

paint front door

weed and mulch front beds

plan Ben's 3rd birthday party and send out invites

build back patio--or maybe have someone do that for us?

install new shower fixture, since, um...it actually broke off in my hand yesterday

spring clean the porch and touch up the paint where Ladybird has scratched it off

I re-painted my kitchen cabinets last weekend so that's not on the list anymore. It's pretty exciting to actually get something done!

Abey Baby

This is what my baby boy does when you point a camera at him....

He looks like he's laughing in that last picture, doesn't he? I know they say babies don't start to laugh for another few months, but I swear Abe is laughing right now. Whenever he gets really excited and has that big smile on his face, he makes some little staccato "heh heh" noises and I know it's laughter. What a happy little guy.

Abe is 2 1/2 months right now and he brings so much joy to us and completes our little family. Right now his main interests are mama, mama and mama, but he lets daddy hold him quite a bit. Even though we have a co-sleeper right next to our bed Abe usually starts off there and ends up right next to me by morning. I've never really been into bed sharing, but for now it's enabling us all to get the most sleep possible. I'll probably wait another 3-4 months before transitioning Abe to his crib since he and Ben will be sharing a room. We'll see how that goes:) Lately I've noticed that Abe likes to have a lot of LOUD ambient noise around when he's drifting off to sleep. Put him in a darkened room with a white noise machine and try to rock him to sleep and it takes FOREVER, but if I just nurse him while Ben is running around screaming and the dog is barking and the tv is on then he's out like a light.

Abe got out of the harness at 6 weeks and everything looks great with his hip. He still keeps his legs in a frog position though! We had a little disappointment at his 2 month appointment because his weight isn't up to speed. He weighed 8.3 pounds, which put him in the 3rd percentile. I don't know exactly why this happened, but I'm pretty sure part of the issue was a hindmilk/foremilk imbalance, plus a sleepy baby. Somehow we got into a pattern of nursing where he would stay on the breast for only 5 minutes (meaning he probably was only getting the "skim" milk) and then drift off. Instead of stimulating him and making him eat, I just assumed he was full and would put him down to sleep. And because Abe is so laid back, instead of being fussy because he was hungry, he just slept more. As this pattern continued he was sleeping longer and longer and nursing less. Basically, he was content to starve. I started to get pretty concerned around week 6, but because he was never fussy I convinced myself he was fine. The good news is that he had a weight check on Thursday, and he gained a WHOLE POUND in two weeks! That means he gained an ounce a day, which is perfect. Our pediatrician said he couldn't expect more than that. I'm glad I was able to figure things out and put us on the upswing. Abe is a new baby since I started forcing him to nurse for longer periods. Almost overnight he started sleeping A LOT less (ahem) and became more demanding about food. Now I think he's well on his way to being a chubby tubby!

Speaking of...looks like baby Abe is up AGAIN. Gotta run....

SNOW in Wilmington!

Playing in the snow is fun....

...but it's even better when you come inside your warm house, drink homemade hot chocolate and eat marshmallows with a spoon.