Elmo party!!

As mentioned previously I dreaded the primary color infusion that comes with having kids. I've fought it. I even make sure to hide the primary colored toys behind the more stylish ones so that the first ones we play with (read: leave out all over the place) aren't the dreadful plastic primary ones.

Then she fell in love with Sesame Street. There isn't much you can do to avoid primary colors when you go the Sesame Street route so out of love for our precious cupcake, we did it. Loud, proud, primary!!!

For her 2nd birthday I wanted the day to be about HER. Here's a few things I knew it had to be for it to be her:
1. Small - she isn't shy but she also doesn't love big crowds. The fewer people around, the more "herself" she is.
2. Sesame street - she loves it. It's the only tv we watch and we only watch the last 15 minutes (the Elmo portion) so I guess I can't blame her for having a preference to Sesame.
3. Playful and detailed - she is SOOOO detailed. You can not, don't even try, to pull one on her. You spill - she calls you on it, you toot - she excuses you, a rolly polly crosses her path - she notices. So, the more details...the more she would enjoy it.

How did I do those things:
1. Small - I asked her everyday for one week who she wanted at her birthday party. I didn't prompt, manipulate, or lead. I just made notes. It was the same few names everyday. It was hard because I know there are other sweet friends she would have liked to have there too but then it would be big....and we were going for small. SO - sidenote shout out to the handful of friends who must be wondering why you didn't hear about her party this year. We still love you!

2. Sesame street - shirts, bags, cake, plates, napkins. We went Sesame!!!

3. Playful and detailed - I made most of it and tried to think of exactly how the show goes. Here's some pictures (click for larger view):

Sign says "Elmo loves his goldfish, his crayons too, now you can take them home with you" which is from the Elmo song. Inside the bag among other things were sesame crayons that I melted down in the faces of various Sesame friends (why I did not take pictures, I don't know) and goldfish snacks. I considered sending everyone home with a pet goldfish and then realized I might be the cool mom to the kids and the enemy to my friends :).


Fun candy and a GOLDFISH!! Elmo wouldn't be complete without his beloved fish, Dorothy. Each day on the show the figurine in her bowl reflects the theme of the day. We thought a "2" was appropriate. Our detailed cupcake knew right away that this was a "Birthday Dorothy!"


Birthday banner! Thanks to my mother in law who gave me a Sesame Street cricut cartridge for Christmas, I was able to make this fun birthday banner. It stayed up for weeks. Cupcake loved it!

C's and 2's! Of course everyday on Sesame street there is a number of the day and letter of the day! We had these little 2's and C's everywhere for our cupcake's party!


And finally, just a few others from the party:

The cake. Thanks Gigi for the last minute helping on icing this baby!!


Lighting up to sing. Cupcake had a special party hat from Aunt Sheri:


When everyone sang Happy Birthday to our sweet girl she was so excited that it was fINALLy her day that she kept pointing to herself saying "to me" "to me" during the song. She also did a rock star job blowing out her candles. When she woke up from nap she said "Mommy, I love birthday parties." I think it was a success and most of all it was fun for this crew who loves her so much (shirts made by me!):


Happy Birthday again sweet Cupcake! We hope your day was as special as you are! We love you.

Two!

I'm the worst blogger these past few but all important weeks. Yikes! I'll get caught up, I will!

Cupcake is 2!

Her actual birthday was during the week so it was a sweet day for the Hubs and I to do our own celebrating with our precious little one. We went into her room with a balloon on her birthday morning and she was thrilled! Daddy made yummy waffles for breakfast. Then we got dressed in her sweet birthday outfit from her Aunt Sheri and Uncle Ken and headed to gym. At the end of the class everyone sang for her special day. We had lunch with Daddy on our back patio and really had a sweet day of family time in honor of her 2nd birthday.

Here's a few things we don't want to forget about our cupcake at 2:

She is FULL of energy. She loves to play pretend, sing songs, learn more sign language, help in the kitchen, help with anything really, read books, color, play with stickers, play with baby dolls, play outside, go down slides, swing, try daring things, swim, and go on "adventures." She is a mostly good eater but her favorites are fruit, peas, O's cereal, mac and cheese, applesauce, yogurt, and popcorn. She is still a fabulous sleeper clocking 11-12 hours at night and 2-3 nap hours a day. She loves routine and knowing what to expect. She loves to snuggle with us in bed in the morning...for about 5 minutes. Then she loves to read. She loves tea parties. She doesn't like new environments right away....it takes her time to warm up. She doesn't love when other people (anyone besides the hubs and I) crowd her space, hug her, or kiss her too much. She puts up with it with most people....but she doesn't like it and I like that she's partial to us :). She wants to potty train, mommy isn't ready. She loves real babies especially Baby Dawson and her new Baby cousin Kel-girl. She doesn't have her 2 year molars yet but we are working on them. She loves a reason to put on a band-aid but hates boo-boos.

I know I probably missing some things but since I'm going to be better at blogging, I am sure I'll get to them! Most of all, Cupcake, WE LOVE YOU!!! We are so excited to tackle age 2 with you. I can't imagine anything being terrible about you so here's to TERRIFIC TWOS!!!!

In her birthday outfit making faces:



With her Daddy:

2 years ago

Two years ago tonight I wasn't pretty. I was swelling. My blood pressure was scary high. They were attempting to induce labor. This was all earlier than expected. Little did I know how soon my tiny cupcake would enter the world.

I will be giving in to my own worst nightmare pre-baby this weekend by turning my home into a primary colored wonderland for our little cupcake's 2nd birthday. I always said the one draw back to children is that your house is overcome with hideous primary colored plastic. While we've done a reasonable job keeping that at bay, all bets are off this weekend. I figure, if you are going for it, go for it. So, pictures to follow next week and they'll be primary.

I'm also doing a little reflection tonight on the wonder that the past 2 years have been. The picture above is so funny to see now. We had no idea what we were in for, how she'd rock our world, and how even though time seemed to be ticking PAINFULLY slow that night, time would soon go faster than we ever knew. The past 2 years have been incredible. We are more in love with her everyday and thankfully each other too. The fast ticking clock can't be slowed enough for us to soak up each moment we have with her. In fact, two years later, we still find it hard to share her.

For months now we've attended birthday parties, sang the song, done the dance and come home to a sweet cupcake that politely says "My turn?" or "My birthday?" At some point the politeness became desperation. One day she promised me she'd be good so she can have a birthday. It's amazing that while time is so fast for us, it's so slow for her. Yet she's graciously done the birthday thing for her friends and some of her family. I can't wait for tomorrow when we can open the door to her room and say it's YOUR Birthday. YOUR DAY. We'll sing to YOU. I can see her face now full of joy and excitement at the realization that it is really her day. Though I can also close my eyes and still see those eyes the first time they looked at me....both faces are perfect.

Tomorrow is YOUR DAY!!!! You'll wake up and call for us around the same time you first appeared in our life...2 years ago. We'll be as excited to see you tomorrow as we were the first time. We love you, Cupcake.

Artiste in the nude

In the past Cupcake has hated showers. We've tried a few times but someone takes after her mother who at that age hated water on her face.

Last weekend though, it was a different story. Cupcake got in with Mommy. She initially insisted on being in my arms. I washed her hair, scrubbed her body, and then tried to shave my own legs with one hand while holding her. I couldn't manage so I put her down slowly and stooped to her level to show her it was ok. Then I slowly inched my way up while she checked it all out. Daddy brought her one of her tub crayons and I urged her to color while I finished up.

Color is an understatement.


Cupcake colored, erased, and colored some more! She colored while I shaved and while I conditioned my hair. Then she kept on coloring when I got out and Daddy got in. Daddy finished and she was still working on her art. Daddy turned off the water and she STILL wanted to color. Needless to say she warmed right up to the shower by way of crayons.


And she's asked to shower every day since....

Happy Valenpuke Day!

I couldn't wait for Monday! I had the perfect plan of taking a precious tutu clad cupcake to her Daddy's office with a balloon and some homemade treats so she could wish her Daddy Happy Valentine's Day. Whenever plans are "perfect" I should expect the curve ball:

Monday morning Cupcake wakes up and starts crying. She doesn't cry when she wakes up. She hasn't for many many months, maybe even a year. I casually suggest she could be sick but I don't really believe it as sickness has been so so very rare with her. (Thank you Lord, that is a praise, not a complaint!)

But Monday she was sick. The fever running, throw-up, lay in my lap all day, sick. It was shocking really. In 2 years she has never had a fever last all day, she has never throw up multiple times in a row, and she has never, ever, not even in my belly past 16 weeks been still for so many hours on end. Needless to say I didn't really know what the day would look like....but I knew all tutu wearing, balloon bringing plans were off.

We cuddled all day long. Actually it was really sweet. Her eyes were so sad but she still laughed at funny things on tv, told me she loved me and when I finally tried to put her in her bed she said "No!...more cuddles with Mommy please!!!" I could barely resist because even when she is sick she is still our cutie pie (seriously, could I look this angelic the next time I'm sick? I look more like death warmed over):


Lucky for me my hubs is the romantic type that still managed to sneak a dozen red roses in the house with some chocolates before he left for work. Can I say LOVE!


I do love him! I also love these fun candy pretzels. My Mother-in-law sent us a little Valentines package which included all the supplies and the mold to make these. Clearly I'm not a natural when it comes to mold as it looks no where near the picture. BUT it was yummy and fun to make. We had planned on delivering these to friends after the office trip but I figured no one would want pretzels from germ land. So, alas, more for us :).

The good news: the next morning the bug was gone! We were fever free! Lock-down was off! I guess if the worst sick we've ever been around here was 24 hours I should be thankful. I am thankful. Today has been a sanitizing, laundry doing, operation bug removing kind of day. For those who found out on Facebook and had been praying for Cupcake, Thank you!!!

And, Happy Valentines Day! I hope the rest of you had a LOVEly day.

Friday frosting

If you've been wondering where I've been....I've been freezing. Living on the top of a hill has it's downsides (like feeling the lowest of the recorded wind chill factors firsthand). When I was moderately defrosted I was planning and executing the Hubs' birthday or trying to be inventive with my cupcake as being stuck inside for days on end gets old!

Luckily, last Friday, though it was day four with temperatures below freezing, we got a little frosting. I certainly understand that for at least a handful of my blog stalkers 4 days in a row below freezing is nothing and our frosting is what marks your October. BUT we're central Texas and both of these are rare for us. So excuse us while we hunker down at 20 degrees and a dusting is worth of a full on sledding event.

Cupcake has seen snow both here and in Indiana. Both times she was too young and too cold to care. She was still too cold but she was willing to brave that for a whooping 20 minutes to play with us. And it's amazing that 20 minutes in the snow can make being back inside fun and thrilling all over again.

Check out our snow cupcake:

She was really cold though completely layered to the point of inability to put her arms all the way down:


But give her a little adventure:


And she can forget, temporarily:


When our small hill in the front yard got old, we went to the larger one near our mailboxes. The only problem was that our cupcake didn't weigh enough to get a ton of speed going. She did however like it:



Of course then I had to show her how to really rock it. Just a disclaimer: the hill looks smaller on this video than it is. My speed was also faster in real life. Oh...and you might not want your speakers on full blast. You've been warned.



The hubs also did a turn on the mailbox hill, face first, rocket speeds, and had the video camera in his pocket. Drat. Trust me, it was awesome and cupcake clapped!

When we came back in and I started to peel off layers, cupcake decided at a rather unfortunate point fashionably speaking that this was what she would like to wear the rest of the day:


But, she's so cute even still that we just went with it and made some hot chocolate to warm up! Luckily this week we are in the 30's. It's a long way to 100 but I know we'll be there all to quick so we're making the best of our 2 week (so far) winter.

Good morning

He's got a sense of humor that Hubs of mine. Most times I laugh, I confess others I roll my eyes, and finally when the camera is rolling....my eyes aren't...at least on the outside they aren't.



Good Morning!