Little Fish

When we learned the McKinnons were moving here, Shealy asked if we wanted to put Will in swim lessons with Kate. Will took lessons last year, but never really got to swimming. He got comfortable with the water, could blow bubbles, loved putting his head under, but I didn't trust his skill to just let him jump in and swim. This year he made SO much progress. I was so impressed! I definitely think it helped that this year we opted to do 8 lessons in 2 weeks...having them back to back totally made such a difference. By the end of the 2nd week, he was leaping in the pool and swimming around to the side, swimming long distances and taking a breath in between with decent looking strokes. I was so proud of him!

 Alex and Ann Clayton were troopers....they liked to watch too!

I like to say that Will and Kate are going to be best buds by default since Kate's mom is one of my favorite people! But...I think it is safe to say that these two really do like each other and like to play. Will looks forward to hanging out with the McKinnons just as much as John and I do.

 

They are pretty cute, that's for sure!

TWO

How can it be that two years have already passed. I seriously can't imagine our little family without him. He and Will could not be more different, but that makes it fun and provides a good balance.

 Last night, Will spent the night at my parents house with his older cousins. It was so weird having just Alex in the house. We enjoyed the one on one time with him, but both John and I laughed that Alex was probably bored because he was used to just jumping in on whatever Will is playing with. I have had people tell me before that your second child will sometimes skip over entire hobbies/shows/toys because they are into what the older sibling is into. This is so true with Alex!! I don't think Alex has ever watched an episode of Chuggington or Choo Choo Soul (these were Will's favorites at this age....remember the train obsession?). Alex's favorite things right now line right up with Will's....Monsters, Inc, Toy Story (All things Woody and Buzz), superheroes, trampoline, big trucks.

Alex has totally fallen into the role of second child/younger sibling beautifully. He is amazing laid back, chill, go with the flow but knows how to TURN IT ON if Will is bothering him/taking a toy. Suddenly he is the victim and plays the "woe is me, I am smaller than you" card extremely well.

Recently I have seen the "temper tantrum" stage come out in Alex, but even these are so different from Will. He seems to be very dramatic and then get over it and carry on in the same breath.

He is still a big boy. He weighed 31 pounds 12 ounces at his 2 year check up today and was 35.5 inches long. That puts him around the 85th percentile. He is SOLID. Everyone that picks him up comments about that :)

He is much more talkative than Will was at this age. About 2 weeks about Will turned 2 his vocabulary just exploded....having said very few words before that. Alex cracks us up with his words/phrases. I can pretty much understand him all the time and he can find a way to communicate what it is that he wants. My favorite words that he says right now are "monk" (milk) and "moe" (more).

I love love love this child. His smile is the most precious thing and I can't imagine life without him. He smiles with his whole face and you can't help but smile right back at him!

...Workin' at the Car Wash....Alex turns TWO!!

 Saturday, June 1, our baby turned TWO! I cannot believe it!! 

 I love having a June baby because there are so many options when it comes to a birthday party. Being able to plan a party outside lends itself to so many options! A while back I decided that I wanted to do a "Car Wash" themed birthday party for Alex. Alex loves anything on wheels so I knew this would be fun and enjoyable for him! The actual car wash was super easy to make. We found instructions on Pinterest and John the engineer received his "honey-do" list :)

 The party was exactly what I envisioned in my head. Kids arrived to the party and rode up in their favorite ride on toy. They used buckets with soapy water to get their ride-on toy sparkling and then rode through the car wash. There were squeals all around!! I was so happy with how it turned out and couldn't have imagined a better way to celebrate our precious boy!

 We are so incredibly grateful to our family and friends who play an integral role in our lives and the lives of our children on a daily basis. Birthday parties always make me feel so blessed...to see my babies surrounded by so many sweet friends and their families is very special!

THIRTY

Yikes!! John is 30....that is OLD :) I can say that for another 3 months until I hit the big 3-0!
In typical John style, he did not want a big "to do" about his birthday. We talked about a party and he just didn't want anything big, so I respected his wishes (even though I love to throw a big party!!) and we kept it to a small family dinner.
John's birthday (March 20) usually falls on my spring break which is nice! This year we didn't go anywhere, but John took off the day of his birthday to spend with us. We started with a family trip to the Starbucks drive thru and then got ready to go to the zoo! It was a very overcast day and a bit chilly for my liking but we enjoyed our morning there, complete with a train ride!
For lunch, we treated John to Momma G's....a favorite among all members in our family. Once we got home and put the boys down for naps, I set out to run some birthday errands. I made it easy on myself this year and ordered the food and the cake for our dinner instead of making a mess trying to cook up a storm when we had our families coming over. The cake was a surprise!

John's favorite food hands down is buffalo wings....so that is what he got! I ordered those from Billy's and made a few sides to go with it.

He had two pretty cute helpers to help him make a wish. 

 John, you are my biggest blessing from the Lord! I may not say it often, especially after eight years of marriage, but I can't imagine life without you. You are my favorite person in the whole world and even though you drive me nuts sometimes, I love you more! Thank you for your dedication to our family and for the example you set for Will and Alex every single day. I hope your thirtieth year is your best yet and filled with little blessings all along the way! I LOVE YOU!!

Almost TWO!

On April 1st, Alex was 22 months old. Hard to believe I am planning a birthday party and in two short months he will be TWO. We are so blessed by this sweet boy! Bless his heart, he doesn't get near the solo blog posts like Will did. Life is moving quickly and we are just trying to keep up! He keeps us on our toes though, and I did want to take note of a few cute things that he is doing/saying that makes our days with him so sweet!

Alex has really started talking over the past two weeks. Nothing major....probably words most other kids start saying soon after they are one :) But Alex is like his brother was and is a man of few words. He can say: mama, dada, hot, night night, lovey, car, go go go, yay!, uh oh, no, mine, and piglet. I may have left a few out but I think I remembered the main ones.

 He can also quack like a duck and roar like a lion. When we go and feed the ducks he is constantly "ACK, ACK, ACK." Cracks me up!!

His favorite word as of late is MINE. He screams it all day long. Will screams it right back at him :) Poor Will....Alex wants most anything that he has at the moment. Will has learned that usually if Alex wants something, he will lose interest in about 10 seconds, so being a sweet brother he just hands it over (most of the time) and waits for Alex to move onto something else.

Alex is on a food strike. He used to be the best little eater. Here lately, all he seems to want is meat. Chicken fingers and hot dogs are his favorite and definitely a go-to food if we can't get him to eat anything else! He also likes rice, gogurt and squeezable fruit (because Mr. Independent can do these two himself), peanut butter and jelly, and broccoli.

Everything else is hit or miss...fruit is SO hard to get him to eat right now which is SO weird. He used to eat it all up and Will has always loved fruit so we are trying to get it into him any way that we can! In the morning, when I pour a bowl of cereal, I always pour more than I will eat because Alex ends up eating half of it. If you give him his own bowl of cereal, he wants nothing to do with it, but he will let you feed him yours all day long. He also loves snacks. The boy could snack ALL day!! He loves goldfish, ritz crackers, animal crackers, teddy grahams. You name it! We had to get one of those things to go on the door knob of our pantry because Alex kept opening the door and coming out with random snacks!

The kid LOVES his lovey. I am amazed that we haven't lost it by now. At home, it is always by his side. When we are out, we keep it tucked away, but close in case we need it :) Calms him right down....this is so new because Will has never latched on to anything like a lovey, and doesn't really like stuffed animals.

He loves books just like his brother! His favorites right now are Elmo Says, Ten Little Rubber Ducks, If You Take a Mouse to the Movies, and Brown Bear Brown Bear What do you See.

(at this point I think it is no secret that the kid loves his paci.....and we don't care enough right now to take it away!)
He has a hysterical personality that makes us laugh every day. He loves to dance and has a signature move that I wish could be described into words....but it just can't :)

He is the sweetest little boy. He is still a daddy's boy, but loves his mama and if he is sad, he wants no one to comfort him but me! He is care free and tender-hearted....but also rambunctious and does not like to be reprimanded! Time is going by WAY too fast for me to handle.

(This picture was taken towards the end of Easter lunch. His poor knee socks had cut off the circulation in his chubby little legs that he took it upon himself to scrunch those socks down to his ankles!!)