march madness

much of this month has been spent getting ready for baby k.3 - a.k.a. NESTING. nearly every closet, drawer, nook, and cranny has been weeded out, scrubbed out, and reorganized.  ahh...
between madwoman cleaning sessions we have had time for plenty of fun.
potty training lessons from big brother:

haircuts from auntie blair:

homemade english muffin pizza parties:

art projects:

all aboard!

I don't try to hide it.  I love planning birthday parties for my children.  I realize that they are still so little and many of the details that I love so much will mostly go unnoticed.  but that's beside the point.  I enjoy it and seeing their little faces light up when they walk into their birthday party makes it all worth it.  so without further ado...here is our little shin-dig for our mini-conductor.

we are blessed to have both sides of our families living near us and love that we can all celebrate together. the little cousins are growing up and starting to enjoy party favors. that makes me happy!

I tried to plan the party to coincide with the end of nap time. while that was the case, henry did not wake up in the best mood. he spent the first half an hour curled up on nana's lap.

just leave it to the presents and cake to bring him out of his shell a little bit. he has definitely figured out what presents are and that they are for him.  lucky for miles, he does a fairly decent job of sharing.

although we see quite a bit of this around our house too!

cake!

daddy decided that forks were optional and let little buggy dive in head first. after a good pound of butter cream frosting, we decided to pry him away.

thank you to everyone for coming and loving up on our precious little boy.

he is certainly a gift and we treasure every moment with him!

birthday boy

today was the day to celebrate our precious two year old. henry bug is a sweet, curious, quiet, loving, relaxed, yet spunky and active little boy. he loves cars, trains, babies, his big brother, cuddling, reading books, eating, climbing, jumping, running, puzzles, and coloring. he is definitely a daddy's boy and managed to wrap daddy around his little finger quite easily. he talks up a storm and has the most adorable little lisp. he can count and recognize numbers up to 10, knows all of his letters, and is working hard on colors. we are always entertained by his goofy antics and funny one-liners. he brings a smile to everyone's face.

we love candles and singing happy birthday around here and so we did that twice today.
once at breakfast:

and once at dinner:

this weekend we will have a party to celebrate all things henry.
for today we say, happy birthday little bug. we love you to the moon...and back.

funny bug

the many faces of henry bug.

love. this. boy.

brotherly "love"

for the most part, big brother and little brother get along famously.

miles is a gentle and kind teacher and henry responds sweetly to his brother's guidance. they give hugs, share toys, play games, read books, and giggle uncontrollably.


we love to sit back and watch their relationship blossom.

reality check
I know that brothers fight.  I have two of them.  they are good buddies now, but man could they pound on each other.  kyle is one of three boys - they tell some awful stories about beating up on each other.  and while we are doing our best to foster a nurturing relationship between these two, I'm not oblivious to the fact that a good scuffle every now and then is inevitable...and even a little healthy.  so it should have come as no surprise that we were about to experience our first black eye...courtesy of the little brother.

just after the injury


a few days later
 
the conversation went like this:
[miles screaming]
me: henry, did you throw a toy at miles?
henry: no. I frowed a car!
so there you have it folks...he frowed a hot wheels car and miles got a mini-shiner.

let me leave you with this more frequent sight of the brothers. I love these two so much!

transformation

besides the gross lack of closets, my major complaint about this house has always been the backyard. in a dream world, I would be able to wash dishes in my kitchen sink while gazing out the window watching the boys frolic in the fenced in backyard. reality check: the only way to get to our backyard is to go out a door on the side of the house.  our kitchen window looks out to the street. a double garage, added many years after the house was built, takes up a good portion of the yard. the walkway and dog kennel that cuts into the yard makes it difficult (at best) to set up a good ball game. so much for my dream world?!

imagine my excitement when nana and papa arrived at miles' birthday party with a brand new swing set in tow! I'm pretty sure this one was as much for mommy as it was for the three year old. good-bye enormous dog kennel, hello human play space! as an added bonus, we are using the left over materials to fence off the property line at the rear of our yard...thereby cutting off access to the river rushing behind our house. that one's for mommy too.

I hired a team of guys to come disassemble the fencing and assemble the swing set. they were fantastic employees. let me know if you need some skilled craftsmen. you can rent the trio any weekend you'd like.

ok, fine.  my little brother and lovely husband put their heads together to get the job done in a timely manner. I bribed them with dinner and cold beverages.

the little guys turned out to be much better spectators than workers.

miles wanted so badly to get his hands dirty.

but that lasted about as long as any three-year-old attention span lasts and he quickly decided to take a rest...

little brother took up residence in the sandbox...big shock.

gotta wash down all that sand

by the time the sun was dipping below the horizon, we had our very own swing set in our very own backyard. crazy.

as is always the case...the box is more fun than the gift!


p.s. for the record...there are 3...count 'em...THREE...closets in our entire house. 'nuf said.