Jackson's 4th Birthday

Taking after my friend Sara, we decided that numerous celebrations throughout Jackson's birthday week were in order for his 4th birthday.

The celebrations kicked off Wednesday with cupcakes in Jackson's class in school.  On Thursday, Jackson stayed home from school and Corey and I took the day off to celebrate with the birthday boy.  During my and Corey's stay at Salish Lodge last summer in honor of our anniversary, we enjoyed a delicious breakfast which was a 4-course meal of all Jackson's favorite foods. We talked about bringing him back sometime, and it seemed like the perfect way to start his day.  We were excited to find that they had a 4-course breakfast just for kiddos and J loved every bit of it, eating more than he normally does in a week.  I'm not gonna lie - $22 for a kid's breakfast is insane, but it was honestly the best money I've spent in a long time, seeing his big smiles, not having to ask him to eat, and hearing his content sigh after he finished.

After breakfast, we headed to Corey's work to visit his co-workers (J is always asking us when he can visit our offices) and then we headed to his first movie in a movie theater - Home.  We were the only people in the theater and we were pleasantly surprised at how well he did.  Other than asking what time it was a few times, he stayed in his seat the entire time, didn't talk and basically ate an entire bag of popcorn himself while intently watching the show.

For dinner, Gramma Joan and Lisa and Hadley joined us at Red Robin.  As per usual, J enjoyed the singing and ice cream sundae.

First course = pastries and "kid's  coffee" (hot chocolate with whipped cream and chocolate shavings)

Course 2= pancakes

Course 3 = oatmeal

Course 4 = eggs, bacon and a biscuit (he didn't touch the sausage or potatoes)

 

After lunch, we walked over to the Snoqualmie Falls viewing point - J's first time.

Another first - playing an arcade game at Red Robin. He always seems so big/tall but he had to sit on Daddy's lap to reach the pedals.

Then today was Jackson's birthday party at Central Park. After a week of sketchy looking forecasts and discussions of potentially moving the party to our house, we were pleasantly surprised to see sun and blue skies breaking through the clouds just in time for the party (and never mind the hail and on-and-off rain showers that happened just after the party!).  The kiddos had a great time running around the park, snacking on bagels, donuts and fruit and stuffing their faces with cake.  And finally, J wrapped up his celebrations by unwrapping all the gifts from the party goers once we made it back home.    He was completely spoiled by all and spent the rest of the day enjoying all his new toys and games.

Jameson is one of Jackson's BFFs at school - they had a blast playing at the park together.  

It's hard to come by a Curious George cake, so J helped design this one by providing specific details around what he wanted, like green frosting, his name on the cake and chocolate cake with vanilla frosting.

Cole loved playing on all the toys and hanging with all the big kids.  A favorite was having Addy blow bubbles towards him, and going down the slide a million times.

Natalie and Ellie joined us to celebrate the birthday boy

Romi is another BFF.  When I ask him how school was each day, he tells me he played with his friends.  And when I ask about which friends, Jameson and Romi are always included.

It's not a party unless you need a clothes change when you get home. The kids loved the chalk we brought out towards the end, Cole included.  He plopped himself down right in the middle of the action and went to town.  This was just before waving, blowing kisses and giving hugs to the other kiddos before they left.

Almost time to open presents!

Jameson's present - little kid writing is one of my favorite things.

Getting ready to open presents

Putting together a new lego set with Grampa.  Not sure who had more fun...

I can't quite believe he's 4 - in some ways it seems like only yesterday he was Cole's age.  But there there are times he seems much older and I have to remind myself that he's just a little kid.  Regardless, I can't remember life without him but seriously, time needs to slow down - 4 sounds just way too old! 

Easter 2015

Kelsey, Sara and I headed to Denver last Friday, for a girls weekend with Gina, who is expecting baby #2 (a girl!) in June.  While I was off hanging with my girls, Corey took great care of the boys, with the help of his mama.

 

The boys had a great weekend, which included trips to feed the ducks, to the park, to dance class (Jackson), riding bikes, and of course Easter!

 

As per usual, the boys were spoiled by all, and they loved every second of the holiday.  Jackson loved searching for eggs, whereas Cole seemed to enjoy his time pushing his lawn mower around.  Jackson even brought the egg hunt fun indoors later that day, hiding the eggs for Gramma Joan and Corey, and then having them hide the eggs for him to find all over again.  This hobby lasted a few days, and I was able to partake in the fun as well.

 

So glad Corey captured some great photos of Easter since I wasn't there to witness the excitement in person.



Seriously, these boys are SPOILED.

Pretending to act uninterested in the eggs big bro is finding...

 

..."but, wait!  Let me just get a closer look..."

 

"WOW! Look at all those eggs, Jackson!"

"Hey Jackson, let me help you count all these eggs." 

"What's this egg hunt business all about , Gramma?"

 

 

Proud of himself for finding an egg.

 

J is turning into quite the coloring maniac, and he's getting really good at staying in the lines.  This was a picture he colored for me...

...and he even wrote "Mom" at the top.

14 Months

Although I'm a day late, I couldn't let Cole's 14-month mark pass without a quick update on what's going on in his world.

He seems to have grown and changed so much in the last few months. We find ourselves saying how we can't believe how much more like a toddler he looks/acts than he did even just a few weeks ago.  It's probably a combo of the recent haircut, the walking and the constant babbling.

Here are a few highlights about Cole at 14-months:

• Loves to feed himself and although gets very messy, does a fairly good job.  
• Babbles all the time, with a periodic shouts mixed in. Current words are "buh-bye!" (said in a bit of a southern accent?!), Dada, Ra-Ra, uh-oh, mema (more more, using the "more" sign), and trying to say "what's that" and "all done".
• Walks everywhere.  Really only scoots when trying to find something to pull himself up on to initiate the walking (he hasn't yet figured out how to get up from the ground and start walking).
• Climbs up on the couch in the TV room and can climb into high chair.
• Speaking of high chair, he's now using the Stokke chair for meals.
• Always has his feet crossed at the ankles when sitting, regardless of whether it's in his car seat, in the high chair, on the ground. Takes after his daddy.
• Wiggles his whole body when excited about something - arms and legs stiffen and shoot out all over the place.
• Down to one nap a day.  He goes down around 12 p.m. and sleeps for 2ish hours
• Goes to bed between 7 and 7:30, and is up around 6:30, or closer to 7 on the weekends, if we're realllly lucky (like this a.m.!)
• Can understand many simple instructions i.e. "take this to Daddy", "get your shoes", "let me have a foot" (when putting on his socks) and then "let me have the other foot!" (he'll put the socked foot down and provide you with his other food to have a sock put on).  He even has helped set the table a few times. I gave him some napkins the other night and asked him to put them on the table. He did his little old man march over to the table and put them on the table. He's also helped with his and Jackson's silverware.
• Loves kitty cats and will trek right over to pet them when the neighbor's cats are in our driveway.

I braved the grocery store with both boys for a big shopping a few weeks back, and was pleasantly surprised with the outcome.  Definitely not as nuts as I'd expected.

He loves the park, just like his bro

He loves riding on daddy's shoulders, but always feels the need to hold on for dear life.  

Such a big kid, feeding himself oatmeal (one of his fave breakfasts)

They interact more and more and I just love it

Not sure what my fave thing about this pic is - his expression, his necklace, the Irish shirt, the hipster jeans, or his love of the slide

During a recent visit to Yakima, we were able to tour the local Pepsi production line and had a great time. We had to wear hairnets and surprisingly, neither boy seemed to mind. Cole ended up pulling his down so it covered half of his face, and still didn't mind.

In his big boy highchair, at the table