Party Party Party!!

Here are the pictures from the event. Of course we didn't take that many pictures because we were too busy. Dave said it felt like our wedding where it went by fast and we didn't get much time to socialize. I'm really bummed I didn't get pictures of all the kiddos before they left.

I'm shocked to say that after a cake only lunch G is napping! He didn't get around to opening presents today. I didn't want to take the kids away from the jumper to watch him open presents. Instead, G will just open presents for the next week!

First the decorations...but these were taken after the party.

Here is his 24 month photo train which was all around the room.
The Jumper

Other activities included cake, the sandbox and water table. At the end everyone was out in the front yard looking for trouble.

Finally the birthday boy with his parents. Thanks to Isaac's parents for the picture!

Birthday Boy!

We went to Chuck E Cheese with his birthday twin, Connor. I think the big boys (the Dads) had more fun playing skeet ball, mario kart, basketball, etc than the boys. G liked all the ride on cars, but didn't want to be in them if they started moving.

Boys driving with their Dads:
Feeding the ticket machineThen we went out to eat for lunch and G ate his first hot dog! I think it was peer pressure with Connor there. He powered down french fries, a dog, milk, some bun from the dog, a cupcake Connor's Mom made, and a dessert from the restaurant (which both sets of parents helped out the kids with). G enjoyed the sweets best and is now currently bouncing off the walls in his room instead of napping.

Birthday boys and their cupcake:Don't want to get my hands messy:
Mmmm good.I think he had a very happy birthday. The sugar alone made his day. This is what he was up to when we got home:Rockstar!

Budding Photographer?

I wanted to get some shots of the boy since tomorrow he turns 2! He and Dave went outside and took some self portraits and apparently G had fun snapping away pictures. He didn't look through the viewfinder, but just snapped randomly. There are lots of nice blurry shots, but this is one of his finest. I like his artistic framing of the truck. There were lots of pictures of the truck and a few of the ground and park.

He actually likes swim class!

He didn't cry one bit today and was eager to go to his teacher. He even gave her a hug at the end of class. Dad made it to class today on his lunch break and got to see the change from the first class where he didn't want to go near his teacher.

Gigantor the destroyer of his room

Tuesday was an interesting nap day (or lack therefore). I read a story to G and got him settled for his nap before I went downstairs to clean up his lunch. When I went upstairs I hear a banging of something against the wall. The stinker had ripped his new hat rack off the wall and was swinging it around against the walls while wearing the Thomas backpack that was hanging on it.

After taking the backpack, hats, and rack away, he started climbing the headboard of his bed to get to the top of his dresser. He couldn't quite get on the dresser, so he decided to start diving off his headboard onto the bed. I watched him on the video monitor as he moved around the room like a Tasmanian Devil dumping laundry from his closet, emptying his basket of books, and littering stuffed animals all around the room.

It's no surprise that he didn't take a nap that day.

Torturing my 2 year old day 5

Last night he screamed and screamed when it was time for bed. He ran around the room doing who knows what, but eventually got into bed after he took off his pajama pants. In the video monitor I saw a little boy curled up in his bed with a shirt and diaper on.

Today after a much improved swim lesson, he was really ready for nap, but still protested. I shut the door and let him scream. After roaming around and banging on the door he finally gave up and got into bed about 30 or 40 minutes later and went to bed (this time with his shorts on!).

Swim lessons today were such an improvement. He was really upset when we got to the pool and didn't want to go near it, but once I got him into the water he started to do much better. He cried for the first few seconds with the instructor, but after that he was fine. She put his face in the water and he "swam" to the side of the pool. He definitely likes looking for toys and seems much more at ease with the instructor. Hooray there is hope! His buddy Isaac just loves the water so I'm sure it helps to see a friend so happy and eager to swim. G wasn't too thrilled with the taste of salt water, so hopefully he learns to stop drinking the pool water.

Off to the beach to beat the heat

We went to the beach yesterday with G's buddy Isaac. We went out to breakfast first and the boys enjoyed making play-doh bracelets, driving matchbox cars, and nibbling on some food. Isaac couldn't be dragged away from the water, whereas G couldn't be dragged to the water. Instead he spent most of the morning playing in the sand. Then before we got a mile from the beach G was fast asleep in the car.

Yesterday the first nap out of the crib didn't go so well. He kept opening his bedroom door and screaming. Dave finally went to the store and bought a door knob cover, but it was too late for that nap. So he was cranky all afternoon because he was so tired.

Today I forced us to be homebound so he would take his nap in his bed. I thought he would scream and scream for hours, but it was about 30 minutes or so of playing with the lights, climbing in and out of the crib (which we still need to get out of the room), tossing toys around, trying to open the doors, etc. Then he collapsed under the light switch on the floor right by the door. I peeked in to turn off the light after he had fallen asleep and I was lucky he wasn't sleeping in front of the door!
Here is how he dressed to get ready to go play outside after his nap. Like his safari hat with cowboy boots?

Swim lessons day 1

Dave had today off so he went with us to G's swim lesson. He usually does better if I'm not the person with him for things like this. I stayed out of the pool area most of the time and took pictures and video. I brought my SLR camera, but forgot the flash card, so I mostly took video and a few snapshots of the lesson.

He did fairly well at first, crying when the teacher got him from Dad, but then stopped and focused on retrieving the toy and returning to Dad. By the end of the lesson, he was crying the whole time with the teacher and even with Dad.

It was clearly stressful for him because he fell asleep in the car with a half eaten cookie on his chest. He loved the cookie, but it couldn't even keep him awake! It was too hot to let him sleep in the car in the garage so we tried to put him to nap in his toddler bed and that was a disaster.

Out of the crib and into the toddler bed

Last night we made the switch from his crib to his toddler bed. We left the crib in his room and took of the front gate so he could crawl into it in the middle of the night if he was really upset about the bed. We locked the bathroom door from the inside, the video monitor was set up, and his room had outlets plugged and toys removed except for a couple of books.

I was prepared to find him sleeping on the floor in the morning. To our surprise he never once got out of the bed. He stood up, walked around, shifted around on his knees, kicked the wall, slapped the bed, and did some talking until 10pm before he finally went to sleep. He slept most of the night 180 degrees away from his pillow. Even this morning he didn't get out of the bed. He stood up with his blanket and called out for me like he usually does, but never got out of bed. I find that weird since he would always play on the bed and climb in and out without hesitation, but I'm relieved! I thought for sure he would be escaping from his room entirely, or playing in his closet.

I just wonder what tonight will be like! Hopefully it goes just as well, but with an earlier bedtime. Naptime however is something I'm very scared of. He is finally taking a good long consistent nap and still spends at least 30 minutes fighting it. If he was to get out of bed and get into trouble, naptime would be that time! We'll see what happens this afternoon.

Trip Home

Apparently the novelty had worn off because he wasn't as interested in planes or being on the plane as the trip out. He did have fun watching other kids in the airport and eating snacks. I went through a ton of snacks this time and a ton of toys. Nothing seemed to keep his interest for long. The only thing that did keep his interest was unbuckling his seatbelt on the plane! Darn those belts that unlatch just by lifting - that's way too inviting for a toddler.

He didn't nap on the plane so by the time Dave got to the airport to pick us up, he was zoned out. Even Oskar barking and pumped up to see us didn't keep him awake. He fell asleep in the car on the way home.

Here are some pictures of him getting ready to go and on the plane.

More pictures....

Washing the car with Grandpa.



G and Siren his "cousin" who is 13 (!)




Here are some pictures of his playgroup reunion part II. He gave everyone except Ben a hug. Sadly Ben wasn't in the mood for a hug.

Poopy Day

Well yesterday was a poopy day (Mother's Day) because G was so fussy all day. Today was literally a poopy day. G told me twice that he pooped and cooperated for a diaper change. Perhaps he is figuring out that if he tells me he doesn't have to sit in a mess! Now if this continues we have to hope he tells me BEFORE he poops.

His new favorite phrase is "Mommy get up". Apparently it angers him when I sit on the couch. He's just talking so much these days. I think my parents are amazed at the difference over the last few months too. Before he would say one word here and there and now it's three words strung together and constant chattering.

He's become obsessed with shoes. He'll wear any kind of adult shoes he can find. He doesn't need them to match or be comfortable. He wears them indoors and outdoors and the bigger the size the better. We went out and got him some knock of Crocs for swim class and he much prefers Grandpa's slippers. I think he likes them big so he can take them off and put them on by himself. Stability and fitting securely are not important....independence is all that matters!

Where's Daddy?

Today we went to the park and G saw someone flying a radio controlled plane. He got so excited and said "Daddy plane" and asked to go see it. Unfortunately he wasn't as skilled as Dad and the plane wasn't in flight long before it nose dived and landed upside down.

Then he saw "Daddy truck" in the parking lot and started a beeline for it. He also saw a bunch of dogs and said "Oskar home". I think he wanted me to go get Oskar so he could see the dogs. He also pointed out that the dog on his new sippy cup looks like Oskar.

Today he built a fan out of his new toolset that Grandpa got him. He asked that it be hung up on the ceiling and Grandpa complied hanging it from the chandelier. I think G was proud of his "big fan".

Gigantor flies

We survived the first leg of our second (and probably last) plane trip alone. I can't imagine flying with two kids by myself! Much to my surprise Gigantor did great! He loved the airport so much. This is the first time we've flown since he's become so interested in airplanes.

While we were waiting for our flight to board, we went from window to window to check out the planes. He was directing the planes to take off and land as they taxied past. Then he would point across the room and announce that there were more planes over there and we should go.

While all this was going on I had three people approach me about the GogoKidz I borrowed from Connor's Mom. I felt like a celebrity. They wanted to know how I liked it and where to get one. I loved it because it made getting through the airport to the gate, through the jetway, and to baggage claim a breeze. With a two year old that doesn't like to hold my hand, or follow me for that matter, it's a lifesaver! When we landed, I had more people comment on it in baggage claim. We had it last time we traveled, but there wasn't this much interest.

We also borrowed the CARES harness from Connor's Mom. Being 24 weeks pregnant, I didn't want to deal with carrying the carseat through the aisle while herding G to his seat. This time I gate checked the carseat and GogoKidz and used the CARES harness. It was so easy to install and G seemed to like it just fine. My only complaint is that Southwest has leatherish seats and since the CARES doesn't have a crotch strap, he just kept sliding down. I tightened down the seatbelt as much as I could with a squirming toddler. Perhaps the return trip I'll get a more snug fit.
On the plane he ate a few snacks, played with some little matchbox cars, a motorcycle, and looked out the window. All in all I would say he's a pretty good traveler. The only thing I would like him to improve upon is not taking his shoes and socks off minutes before we land!