Pearl to the Power of TWO

So it is all official now. Pearl has left her first year behind and she is two. TWO!! My baby is TWO! There is so much awesomeness about that, but I don't want to get into my ponderings on the changing stages of my life. Let's just celebrate with this cutie.

Despite what I threatened, we did get stuff for her and it wasn't bubblewrap. (Although that would have been cool.) However, our offerings possibly weren't much better than bubblewrap. Yes, behold, an eyeball.

And books.

Okay, books are definitely better than bubblewrap. You know how kids can get fixated on one book and look at it over and over? Well, Pearl's book of choice at the moment is Pinkalicious. (I think because it has cupcakes.) The copy we have was getting very worn and the pages were starting to rip, so we got her her own copy to destroy slowly. And I have seen her read it every day since she got it. Granted that is only two days, but that is consistency for a two year old.

This picture was me distracting Pearl long enough for her to look up. In all the pictures she was looking down. (As if presents are more interesting than her mom taking photos.)

We saved the best present for last. And naturally it is one of those toys from MY childhood that we pull out every other year or so and it seems brand new to all the kids. I always let all the cool presents be from Dad. That way the kids will love him more, and then someday they will realize who really bought them all the good presents. It will be too late by then. They will all be daddy's girls. (I can handle that.) So, anyway...Marble Works. (Does it look familiar mom?)

Dad helped her start it off.

It was a pretty crazy set-up and there were four other girls vying for a turn.

But she got the hang of it right away.

June would scoop up handfuls and feed them to Pearl.

Who, in turn would, feed them all directly into the contraption. Two year old bliss.

This also has been used by all the children multiple times a day. I figure it is good for another month and then back to the garage to dazzle us all again in a few years.

There were other birthday staples like balloons (not pictured) and cake. Actually, I tried my hand at cake balls. I now know many things NOT to do again. The goal was to make a 'pearl' for each cupcake. You may lie and tell me that they look just like enormous pearls on those shells.

Pearl figured out the candles easily enough.

And then she was down to business. For the record, cake balls are way less crumbly than cupcakes. Novel too. I think I see more of them in our future.

Pearl had a good birthday, even if she didn't know that's what it was. I think most days are pretty good in her book. Here she is fresh from the tub. Those eyes are awesome.

Way to be two, little one!

Terrible Two?

I am actually hoping Pearl will mellow out a bit when she turns two. I don't have great hopes, mind you, but one can dream.

She isn't two yet, but I don't feel bad posting a little early about her, because let's face it...she isn't getting much for her birthday. We have too many toys, too many clothes, too many movies. What could she possibly need? Yes, we will still celebrate, but I may just put bubblewrap in a box, let her open it and pop it to her heart's content. Who knows? But it will be pretty low-key.

Pearl had her well check-up today and amazingly did not cry at all when they gave her a shot. She had a surprised look, but then I distracted her and I guess she decided it wasn't worth the effort. (Wish she would decide that more often.) The only other child who made it out without crying was Robyn once. I had her all prepared with a sucker that I was going to give her after the shots. They gave her the shots and she didn't even seem to notice. (Must have been watching that sucker pretty hard.) It was very anticlimactic to give her the treat.

Here's some Pearly lovin' just to get ready for the big 2!

Quite the sass, but I still love to snuggle her.

p.s. Happy leap-year day. What did you do with an extra day that normally isn't there? Me...not much actually.

Baby Boy

I had the opportunity to take some pictures of a fresh from heaven little one. He is only a couple weeks old. Here are some of my favorites.

I am friends with his Grandma. She sure loves him.

He was such a perfect newborn. He never cried and went in and out of sleep. What a special stage of life.

Mustaches, Bad Dogs, and Smiles that Kill Me

Not sure why silly mustaches on my children (or anyone) makes me laugh. Robyn sported this one:

In other not so funny news, my nephew Hinckley was attacked by a dog. It was not a good encounter and he had his mouth torn apart pretty well resulting in 40 stitches inside and 30 more outside. The dog was a Labrador (surprising, I know) and no, I don't know what has happened to the dog. The owner was still out of town last I heard.

The children and I made some pictures and cards for Hinckley and sent them back with Grandma. We hope he heals quickly. But he sure is a tough kid. Word is that he NEVER cried. Which is pretty amazing since I almost cried looking at the pictures of him. Ouch!

I made a hidden picture thing for him. They aren't hidden per se so much as part of the art work. I really enjoy making them. And the kids like to find the things dispersed inside. Would you like to try? You might click on it to make it bigger.

Then see if you can find:
Bike
Eyes
Santa
Fish eating each other
Gun w/bullet
turtle
Darth Vader
house
apple
mailbox
ladybug
planet
tree
piano
music note
footprint
star
heart
crown
umbrella

There might be more...

Lastly, and back on a happier note, this smile gets me every time.

Daisy and her blanket. She would take that thing everywhere if I would let her.

In fact, I got scowled at when I took it away from her at dinner. I didn't bother to move it this morning at breakfast. I knew better.

If you are wondering, Daisy is much better in many regards. She does not get into trouble daily. She helps all the time with Pearl and she is still just as tender hearted as always. She does have problems when parents leave. She tends to be pretty shy. Her Sunbeam teachers are still wondering why she is so sad in class. I hope she can become a bit more outgoing before she starts Pre-school in the Fall.

But at home, she is almost all smiles and silliness.

Cheese de la Chuck

We don't go to places like Chuck E. Cheese very often, but the kids do seem to have a lot of fun. Ivory requested that we go since she was allowed to pick an activity to do together as a family. It just so happened that one of her friends was there so that was an added bonus for her. She grabbed Cedric and they played together the whole evening.

*These pictures are courtesy of Susan who brought her phone and not me (who did NOT bring my camera). Thanks Susan for capturing the evening.

Daisy was happy to play with Katelyn.

June and Robyn got into the games and actually spent a lot of time playing Air Hockey together.

I stood by my man and fed him coins.

And we got some cheesy pictures.

You may have noticed Pearl missing. Grandma took her out for her birthday as well, even though it is a couple weeks early. Grandma does a great job getting down here, but we try to save her some time if we can and getting two children done in one day was a bonus. Plus, I admit it was easier to watch the children at Chuck E. Cheese without Pearl escaping to who knows where.

So that was the end of the festivities. Ivory is still trying to use the 'birthday girl' card, but I have been pretty explicit that her day is over. But don't worry Ivory. Good things come to un-birthday people too.

Sweet Six

Does this look like the face of a girl who got to get up and open presents first thing in the morning?

Ivory was born on a holiday and her birthday fell on the holiday again. So, since she had no prior obligations, she started the day in style. (For the record, we asked if she wanted pancakes, but that would have slowed down the present opening.) I really should buy some birthday paper and stop using Christmas paper for everything.

I let the older girls pick things out for her and I liked their choices.

Ivory only asked for one specific thing, and I was very happy to find a HelloKitty Backpack suitcase at Target. Ivory has finally told me that she would settle for any backpack suitcase but I was glad I found exactly what she wanted. (This is probably the last year I will be able to afford her birthday requests. Next year she'll probably want an iPad.)

Robyn knew precisely what Ivory likes. This coloring book was right up her alley.

Grandma came and whisked her off for shopping, which gave me just enough time to make her 'cake.' Ivory had some requests for the cake too. I think we covered all her desires. And then we put it all into the shape of a '6' for kicks.

I love this picture here. That's my Ives.

And here she is blowing out those candles. You can't see it here, but she is eying the last lit candle.

We also got her balloons. She looks like a little Indian in this picture.

I think that is the third outfit for the day and I know she changed at least two more times. No wonder there is so much laundry around here.

But the important thing is that she felt beautiful and had a great birthday.

She didn't get a friend party this year, but we took her to Chuck E. Cheese (as per request) with the family. I need to get those pictures from a friend, but you'll have to trust me that she had a good time.

Happy Birthday Ivory. I love being your mother.

Did You Ever Wonder?

Robyn has a creative bug in her. She makes things up. She draws awesome pictures. And she makes me laugh. A. LOT.

I need to show you some of her latest pieces.

The first she brought home from school. Apparently the kids were supposed to do a project describing how to do something. I love Robyn's interpretation of How to Play the Piano:

You can probably read most of those, but I need to document it as well since the pictures in my blog book are not that big and it would be a shame to miss all the funny details.

How to Play the Piano
1. Get a piano.
2. Know the alphabet to at least G.
3. Start with beginner books.
4. C position is where you will start in beginers.
5. C position is where you see to black keys.
6. Have any person that can play piano for a teacher.
7. Start playing.
8. When you get to G position it is where you put your hands in betwen the three black keys.
9. Get new piano books when you finish level one (level two books should be green).
10. Be good for your piano teacher.

(I think my favorite is number 2.)

She also did this fabulous artwork on the other page of the book.

Things she labeled:
*gtar
*violin
*bow for violin
*piano
*weird drum
*case
*drumset
*Aallstralia yellow after the rain thing
*malets that play the Allstralia thing
*drum sticks

And finally she wrote this story just a while ago. It was on a scrap piece of paper. But it made me laugh and it had to be documented:

The Swirl Story

Once there was a swerl. The swerl was diffrent from the rest. It liked that! Alone came a SNAIL and grabed the swerl for a HOME and the swerl dindnt like that. The swerl was sad for the rest of his life.

THE END.