Wow, it’s been a busy week! There’s so much to write down and share. First things first:
My baby boy is two!
Thursday was James’ 2nd birthday. He celebrated by proclaiming he is three. If you ask him how old he is, he’ll say three. Then we’ll correct him and he’ll tell you he’s two. He’s so excited about that three though! It was a pretty non-descript day though. I went to work. Kris and the kids did whatever it is they do on any random Thursday. When I got home I sang “Happy Birthday” to the boy (and girl) and we played for a bit. (Our game was who can kiss Mommy the most – love that game! We also played slide down Mommy’s legs while she sits on the bed and tickle torture – classic games, right!) Then we went out to dinner and back home for some leftover cake. Annika was pretty upset that Daddy had to go to work since then he couldn’t have cake with us. She also thought we were going to have a party and was disappointed when I told her we weren’t.
Friday was James’ 2 year well child check up. My boy weighed in at 29 pounds (65%), 36 inches (90%) and a head circumference of 18.9 cm (33%). James is following his normal growth curve – tall, skinny and with a small head. Heh. Good thing he’s packed so many brains into that small head! So, if you do the rough estimation of doubling their height at 2 years, then James is going to be 6 feet tall as an adult. Yay! As long as he’s taller than me (preferably as tall or taller than Kris who is around 5’10″) then I’d be happy. Not sure why it’s so important to me that he’s tall. Maybe because my mom stressed over Mathias’ height when we were little? Mathias has turned out just fine, why wouldn’t James? Weird. I am so weird.
OK, so Jamesy did get a party, it was just last Sunday. And now – back to last weekend!
Mathias came home last week Wednesday. I took off Thursday, Friday and Monday to spend time with him. Thursday morning he came over to our house, as did Krystle, and we played Wii Guitar Hero World Tour. Mathias is also a drummer! Kris played guitar and I, of course, took pictures. I’ll be uploading those this weekend. Then for lunch we asked Mathias if there was any place special that he wanted to go, any place that we have up here that they don’t have down there in Mexico. He chose Culver’s. Really? Culver’s? OK. Off to Culver’s we went with Annika. Kris stayed home since Jamesy was already taking his nap. After lunch we went to Target so Krystle and Mathias could buy birthday presents for Jamesy. Boy, can Mathias be indecisive sometimes! It took him forever to pick out what he was getting. I have to say though that he made some good choices. Those gross frog and dinosaur toys are a big hit. Annika proclaimed them her favorite of all James’ gifts. After Target we went back to our house and played some Apples to Apples. That game sure is fun! Mathias left to go have dinner with Gramme that night and shortly after he left, Grandpa and Marcia arrived! They stayed to have dinner with us (hmm, delivered pizza). After a couple hours of play with the kids (books, puzzles mainly) they headed home.
Friday morning was so much fun! We went to Grandpa and Marcia’s house (boo for Grandpa having to work that morning!) and went sledding and snowmobiling for about an hour that morning. Good thing they live in the country and have lots of toys! They have this really long plastic sled so Kris was able to get both kids and himself in it before barreling down the hill. It was a perfect hill too, not too high so the kids were scared but high enough that you got a bit of speed going and went pretty far. We also got out Grandpa’s two snowmobiles and the rest of us (Mathias, Krystle and myself) tooled around the rolling hills behind Grandpa’s house. I did go sliding with the kids once but otherwise Kris did all of that. And then the kids got cold so we all went in. Time for juice and snacks! And then home so Annika could go to school that afternoon. After she was off and James was asleep, I headed out with Grandpa, Mathias and Krystle so we could go suit shopping. The boys needed new black suits for Krystle’s wedding this summer. Mathias found a very nice one and got himself all hooked up with the jacket, pants and even two pairs of shoes and a belt! The sales lady loved him I’m sure. Mathias took off after shopping because he scored a free ticket to the Timberwolves game that night thanks to some friends of his. Then he was going to Alex for a couple days. No problem. The rest of us consoled ourselves by going out to dinner. Hey, we had buy one get one free coupons for Ruby Tuesday! It was like almost free! I love how by the end of every meal both kids are sitting on Grandpa’s lap. They always start out in their own seats but the never stay there for long!
Saturday was cleaning day. We had to prep for James’ party! We also had some fun too. Kris went to another round of Machine try outs. I never hear much about them. I’m sure they’re fun and interesting and funny things happen or amazing things or whatever. I’ll have to make it to some games this spring to see them in action! I always remind Kris that Dan says I could be on his team any time. Heh. And when Kris got home I took off with Amanda and we went to the CAbi spring preview! Are you a CAbi addict like I am? The spring line has some tremendous pieces in it. Pieces I’m drooling over and want in my closet ASAP. So, I’ve booked a spring show. April 3rd – 7pm – my house – BE THERE! I haven’t had my own show in a couple seasons (I let Krystle have one at my house last fall and was able to use a half price item or two of hers so now it’s my turn!) so I’m excited! Saturday night was more cleaning, grocery shopping and present wrapping. Busy day!
Sunday was even busier though! After church that morning we raced home to put James down for a nap and then we finished making food and cleaning the house. We were all ready to go at 3pm when James’ guests started showing up. It was a great turn out – Jamesy sure is loved! We played for a little while until Nana and Papa could make it (Nana had to work until 3pm). Then we sang happy birthday, blew out the candles (Jamesy tried to blow them out – so cute! – but couldn’t so Mama secretly helped – he would have been so mad if he’d known I was blowing too!) and ate cake. Jamesy and Annika ate mostly frosting but oh well. James had a Thomas the train cake and it was absolutely adorable! There was even a train on the cake that he can now play with and boy is he. After cake someone asked if it was time to open presents. Well, I have never seen that little boy move as fast! He got down off his chair and ran to the huge pile of presents as fast as his little legs would let him. Seriously he was hauling.
Jamesy received some great gifts – books, puzzle, bubble mower, suitcase (for visiting the grandparents!), gross feeling frog and dinosaur, cars, trucks, trains, baseball tee set, train table, clothes – the list goes on. SPOILED! He was an awesome little present opener too. He opened them all by himself with maybe a little help from Mama to get them started.
After the presents were opened it was time for a couple guests to go home (we loved having Gramme and Great Grandma there though!) but the rest of us stayed and watched the Super bowl together. We had awesome chili courtesy of Marcia plus all the wonderful party food (yummy dips from Krystle and Nana). At half time Nana and Papa and Uncle Dusty had to leave. The kids were sad to see them go but, of course, then got distracted by those guests still left. Grandpa, Marcia, Krystle, Pierce, Mathias and us all sat down to play a game of Apples and Apples while the Super Bowl was on in the background. Pretty soon Jamesy melted down (all the excitement and energy just wore him right out) so I put him to bed. Not long after the game was over, everyone headed out. We had one more child to put to bed and then there was more fun to be had the next day!
Monday morning we went back over to Grandpa and Marcia’s house as did Krystle. The morning was pretty low key. We watched the military channel on DirecTV (didn’t even know there was one!) and I was able to share some tidbits about what I do at work. Everybody’s eyes just glaze over when I talk about what I do. (So glad I have Michelle and Lisa at work to talk to!) With Mathias in Border Patrol though I at least feel like I have a bit of an ally in the whole defense market now, even if he doesn’t even really get or care what I do either! While we learned about aircraft carriers Grandpa and Marcia played puzzles with the kids on the floor.
In the afternoon after Kris left with the kids (school and nap time again) the rest of us sat down to a game of Trivial Pursuit (which I won – heh) and then we went to the Mall of America and bummed around until it was time to bring Mathias to the airport. We were all sad to see him go and we’re already scheming ways to see him again! We know he’s coming home in July for Krystle’s wedding but that will be the longest we’ll have gone without seeing him since he left last May. We’re seeing if some of us will go to El Paso for a long weekend some time or if we’ll fly him back up here some time before then. I’d like to go to El Paso but was thinking maybe later this year or early next year for that. Guess we’ll have to see!
Mommy brag time about my girl – When Annika and Marcia were done with the puzzle, Annika was putting it away. That smart little girl sorted all the puzzle pieces – outside pieces in one half of the box and inside pieces in the other half and then put the bottom half of the box into the top half and had an automatically sorted puzzle for next time! Marcia was amazed by this. I’ve never seen Annika do anything like that with all the puzzles at home so I was surprised too. Marcia is convinced Annika is way too smart for her own good. Sometimes I have to agree. I can’t get much past her anymore. And she’s kind of started reading! We have this spelling bee game at home and while Annika can’t really spell yet, she can sound out every simple three letter word in there. And when we read books she has to know which word I’m reading. If we read a simple book then she wants her turn to try and read it. At times I love this and encourage it and have all the patience in the world to help her work through the words. Other times? Like at bed time? I just want to read the book and get her to sleep! I don’t want to turn it into a reading lesson. Sigh. Sometimes I wish I was a better parent.
OK, one last brag moment about James. I am just so impressed with his speech. Not only does he talk in sentences and pretty clearly too (meaning people other than Kris and I can understand him) but he uses appropriate tense, pronouns and adverbs! He uses him, her, she, he and me, you, us, etc. correctly.
OK – this has gotten long enough. I’m over 2000 words! Definitely time to sign off.