Shopping with Mommy

Out at Ridgedale, Wally was keeping himself entertained by modeling the latest Sunglasses. Stylin'!!

Wally's "Golden" 2nd Birthday

Happy Birthday to my little toddler - you are 2 years old!  We celebrated Wally's birthday a few weeks after the actual date this year.  Wally turned 2 officially on January 2nd - it was a Wednesday.  On his actual birthday I asked him what he wanted to do, and he said "Outside.....Snow."  So that's what we did!  We had a wonderfully "warm" January day (mid-20's) so I bundled him up and we spent a fun afternoon outdoors shoveling snow, making snowballs and throwing them for Hazel to fetch, and walking down the block to the park and back. Wally loved it - and now asks to put his boots on several times a day!  We had scheduled his party for the following Sunday Jan 6th but unfortunately Wally was a little on the snotty side so we postponed the event a week.  Luckily the new date happened to work out for most of our family and friends!  So Wally's big party was Sunday Jan 13th!

Here is a little video of Wally I caught before the party started.

Food!

I made "cupcake towers" - found the idea on Pinterest!

We did a "Trains" theme this year - he's been really into train videos and watching actual trains coming down the track.  It was very fun to put together!  We had all grandparents, family, and lots of Mound friends attend. Wally's friends Juju, Chase, Landon, Drew, Brennen and cousin Ryder were all there (along with parents!). We were missing Colin and Will - down with the flu that weekend. I tried to keep things simple with kid-friendly snacks, cupcakes, and a few train-related activities.  It kept the stress level low because it is surprisingly a ton of energy to put a child's birthday party together when you're 8 months pregnant. I got all the kids little conductor hats and sewed their initial on the front and a red scarf - a Train Engineer dress-up!  Here is Ryder with his hat on (this is my absolute favorite photo from the whole party - isn't he just adorable!)

The big hit for the kids was Fred and Kath's gift of a large cardboard-box-style Train that they could actually crawl into, like a play house.  If the kids were a bit older I would have let them color it.  It was more like a clown car than a train car with kids pouring out the fronts, back, and sides.  Great fun to watch!  After I sent out the evite, Brian started doing that math and was not excited to realize I had just invited 30 people into our house.  Yes, it was packed and most people sat on the floor, but I think it was still a good time.  Maybe next year we could do Wally's half birthday and party in the back yard in June.....or use our church or another public venue if we invite lots of friends.  But for a 2nd birthday, we got away with it.  Here are some more pics - thanks to Kathleen for doing a great job documenting the day.  Lots of action pictures.  I never would have had the energy!

Gimme a kiss Grandpa with my blue frosting face!

A few friends enjoying cupcakes at the kitchen table

Hazel gets in the middle of the action.  The whole experience for her was half excitement to
 find food, half terror of getting poked and prodded by toddlers.

Greandpas are the best! They give me whatever I want!

The official cake-eating photo!

Anna and Brennen get a snack - yum

Tanya and Ryder playing trains

They don't mind crawling over eachother for toys!

Kids in the middle, Moms on the floor, Dads on the couch!

Yep, it's crowded!

Nanna and Wally taking a break from all that sugar

I thought a really sweet moment was in the middle of the party when Wally quietly walked upstairs, into his bedroom, and sat on the floor playing with his yellow Caterpillar truck alone. I think the noise and number of people in his otherwise calm home caused a little too much excitement, so he gave himself a good 30 minute "time out." I felt bad dragging him out to blow out his birthday candles, but as soon as he saw the cupcakes he was pretty excited to do whatever it took to eat a couple. We ended up skipping the whole opening presents thing and just did a couple at a time over the next few days.

I struck gold with the first present we opened - the  "Subwoofer guitar" from cousin Ryder.  He looovvvees it, and plays it all the time.  He even figured out how to put the strap around himself and hold it without me really giving that much instruction.  A natural musician!!!

Welcome to 2013 at the John Family Home

Brian, Em, and Wally in our back yard - taken mid-November 2012

OK, it's actually Jan 21st when I'm writing this, but I thought "hey... I'm not too late to start my New Year's Resolution".  Guess what it is?!?  I keep having these grand ideas of keeping a well documented history of our family both through blogging and a beautiful handmade scrapbook...and somehow after 3 years of marriage I just can't keep up... arg!  Maybe 2013 is my year.  Could I have finally hit that organizational peak in my otherwise highly unorganized life?  (Wally - if it's 2020 and this is the only post in 2013, I'm so sorry peanut!  I tried....but just not as hard as I should have :)

Quick recap on recent family history:  Wally is now 2 years old (I can't believe it!) and little brother is almost 38 weeks along due Feb 5th.  We just celebrated Wally's birthday last weekend, which I'll post.  He is (in my objective opinion) the cutest, sweetest, highly intellectual, curious, and most wonderful little boy.  Except when I'm trying to use the computer.  As I'm writing this, Wally is snuggled next to me on the couch watching youtube train videos on the left side of my computer screen.  It's the only way I can use the computer.  His current favorite is "Alphabet Train" which sounds a little more like "abet tane" when he says it but it's hard to "not" understand when he repeats it 20 times before I'm able to pull it up.  Other favorite videos include actual steam trains coming down the track, Elmo and Grover, "Wally videos" and "how do they make that: Firetrucks."

Today is Martin Luther King Day and we've finally hit winter.  I took Hazel out for a quick potty in 14 below temps.  It was the quickest potty all month.  Brian has the day off, and we are finally preparing for the arrival of little brother with little projects around the house.  Although tomorrow I will be 38 weeks into my pregnancy, due Feb 5th, we currently have not secured a name for poor baby among our 5-6 current favorites, have not yet installed the carseat into the minivan, just fished out and laundered the old newborn clothing over the weekend, and started thinking about supplies needed at home.  Needless to say, we've been a little more relaxed about welcoming our second child into the world.  I sure hope this little guy is laid back and patient!  But not too patient, Wally was 10 days early and I've been secretly hoping this second pregnancy will end in a similar fashion.

I am still teaching piano lessons and ended the fall/winter session with a beautiful recital back on Jan 5th.  Since then, Wally and I have been completely free to romp around town causing mischief   Brian continues his work at VMware.  After working from home from the first of October through the end of the year, he finally moved into a new office at the beginning of the month and has been riding the bus downtown again.

OK, more to come - mostly about Wally!  TTFN (says Tigger)