More Birthday Celebration

Ben ended up with four birthday celebrations this year; Liv, three. Lots of celebrating going on. Here are some random moments from the festivities.

Here is Ben opening gifts from Mom and Dad. The Bulls jersey that he is wearing was his major gift (and the big party). The rest were just some small gifts that I scooped up on clearance after Christmas. :-)

A video of him blowing out his candles:



Liv stole the birthday crown that Ben made in school and tried it on. A little big, perhaps?

Stuck to mama like glue, as usual. Here we are getting ready to do cake for their small family party.

Ben is ready for some cake!

How old are you Livvie? 2!!!

Livvie at 2

Little Livvie Lu is 2 years old today. Sometimes I am amazed we made it!!! :-)

What is Liv like at 2 years old? How do I begin to describe this sweet, saucy, stubborn, smart, adorable little girl. She has personality and then some, that is for sure.

She doesn't have her 2 year well-visit for another few weeks, but I'd guess she is around 25 pounds. She wears 2T or even 3T tops and 24 mo or 2T pants. This shirt she is wearing below is 3T, but you can see that the sleeves are a bit long and have to be rolled. But it fits nicely over her baby belly!

She LOVES to brush her teeth. It is one of her favorite activities. We keep a toothbrush in the upstairs and downstairs bathroom so that she can brush them often. She gets so excited to go up to bed because she loves to climb up on the stool, brush her teeth, and drink a sip of water out of the paper cups. It's the little things in life, I guess.

Speaking of bed, she is still a great sleeper. She naps once a day now, from about 10-12:30 or 1. Then she goes to bed around 7:30 until 6 a.m. She has started waking up and babbling at 5 a.m. Her favorite words are poo poo and pee pee, so she will "sing" those words over and over, and then eventually go back to sleep for a little bit.

Her favorite foods are fruit (especially raspberries and blueberries), yogurt, fruit snacks, crunchy things like crackers or chips, and mac n cheese. She will eat her veggies and a few bites of meat but prefers sweets. ;-)

She knows when she needs to poop and will tell us, but then she doesn't want to sit on the toilet for it. She peed a few times on the toilet, and I'd hoped we were on to something, but she hasn't shown much interest since. She is in size 5 diapers. She enjoys taking off her pants and diapers herself and running around naked. She also enjoys pooping in the bath tub, much to my dismay! Ben did it once as a toddler. Liv has already done it 4 times (one just yesterday)!

Her favorite toys are dollies, Legos, puzzles, and dumping anything she can dump. Luckily, she also enjoys putting things away, so that makes the dumping out easier to swallow. If she finds a basket or bucket that she thinks she can squeeze herself into, she does. She loves to play rough, tackling Daddy, being tossed in the air, rough housing with Ben, etc.

She also has some bad habits like throwing things (toys, food/plates/cups) and refusing to get in her car seat without a HUGE fight. She went through a biting phase but that seems to have fixed itself, thank goodness.

Though her speech is a little behind (and she is seeing a therapist once a week for it), she is smart as a whip. She does speak, probably about 20-25 words--it's coming along, I think. Here she is telling everyone hold old she is.

In general, she is fiesty, stubborn, and demanding, but sweet and loving, quick to smile or laugh, and happy. She loves to be carried (especially by Mom) and is going through a mama's girl stage. She loves to copy Ben, to dance, and to pick out her own clothes and snacks (and when I say pick out, I mean she must physically get them out herself).

We are looking forward to seeing what the next year will bring!

Stickers

Coloring, stickers, Barbies...all my favorites as a kid. Ben was never into any of them, but I'm holding out high hopes for Liv. She certainly likes the stickers, anyway.

Ben's 5th Birthday Party

Practically every friend of Ben's has had a 5th birthday party and invited their friends from daycare. Ben just assumed that he'd be having one too. And who can resist his cute little face. So, this year we opted to do the big party at Bouncetown (Ben's pick) and invite his daycare friends, rather than have a large family party.

Ben had a great time, and we had quite a turn out! I think there were 24 kids total, including our two kids. Pretty crazy few hours but a good time for the kids.

Despite all the bounce houses, Ben spent a good part of his time at the air hockey table. If it is related to sports, this kid wants in!

Just look at that concentration. You'd think he was playing at the Olympics. So cute.

Here are all the kids. Liv was so happy to sit up there with all the big kids--she totally thinks she is the same age.

They told the kids to do silly faces. Livvie is so cute and smart--as soon as she saw the other kids making faces, she joined right in. Adorable.

Here's Ben in some of the bounce houses. With a ball of course. I don't have a picture of Liv in here because she was just a blur or activity. But she got right in there and was running around with the kids, totally unphased if she was knocked down or fell down.

Liv on Dad's shoulders playing football. Ben's not the only one who likes sports.

Time to put back on their shoes. Liv has to do her own of course. But she is pretty good at getting them on herself, as long as they are velcro.

Pizza, cake, and juice in the party room. The rooms are so small, which is my main complaint about this venue. Otherwise, they do a nice job. The adults all had to wait in the entry area because there were only enough seats for the kids.

Ben's batman cupcake cake. He and his friends were quite impressed. :-)

Then, finally, the moment Ben was waiting for. They inflated the throne chair and Ben got to climb in. I think this chair is the main reason he wanted a party at Bouncetown. He's seen several friends get to sit in the throne, and he was desperate for his own turn. Ah, the things that make 5 year old kids happy.

For some reason, all the kids got in a line and decided to pose with Ben. This hasn't happened at other parties, but it was cute, if not time consuming. I got a photo of each kid with Ben, so that might be cute to include in the thank you card. I'll spare you all 20+ photos, but this one cracks me up--what a character she is. She's been going to daycare with Ben since they were newborns.

Guess who LOVES sweets. The blue frosting might have been a mistake. Total mess, but so cute.

Then it was time to open presents. I'd have rather done this at home, but it is part of the throne chair experience. And Ben loves the attention.

We now own more plastic action figures than you can shake a stick at. But a good time was had by all!

Weekend

Here's a random sampling of our weekend in photos.

Our new oven arrived! Now the old microwave and brown counters stick out like two sore thumbs. But baby steps. At least we have a functioning oven again.

I got started on the guest bedroom makeover. We said goodbye to the pink paint of Liv's old room and put up Marth Stewart's Zinc. More on this room in a future post.

My view from the kitchen table after breakfast:

I convinced Liv that Daddy could read her a book instead of me.

Dee is still hoping some eggs will be spilled.

Liv decided it was Mom's turn to read a book to her.

Hugging her book. :-)

Ben is obsessed with basketball and wears this outfit whenever we are home. The minute we get home, he's upstairs putting on shorts and a tank top.

My plan of lounging at the table drinking my mocha were short-lived. Here I'm playing with Liv. Notice the outfit: a dress, jeggings, and bright striped socks. Her pick.

Dad and Ben went to the sports store and came home with pink tulips for Mom and Valentine's Day. Thanks boys!

Liv emptied the toys out of this basket and climbed in, and then got herself stuck. Oh, this one. Do you see the spaghetti stains on her pants? This was after a trip to run a few errands and dinner at Portillos. This kid likes a good meatball.

Nightstand Fix Up

Two summers ago, while visiting us, Mom snagged this cute Land of Nod nightstand at a garage sale. I do not recall what she paid for it but I'm guessing under $10. Mom, do you remember?

It started as a reddish wood (from the looks of the underneath of it) but had been painted (shabbily) white. There were drip marks and areas where the paint didn't cover and it was stained and dirty. But it was a great, solid wood little table for Liv's room with just a little TLC.

It doesn't look bad at first glance, but just look at these and trust me. ;-)

Anyway, I had stored it away and finally decided to tackle it this week, since I was doing up her room anyway. I decided more coral would be too much, so I went with blue to match her curtains. I am trying to do this room on the cheap, so I didn't want to buy paint. I looked through my stash and found four little samplers of Martha Stewart that I'd bought on clearance years ago.

I gave it a coat, but it was too bright for the look I wanted.



So I went through my paint stash again and grabbed some dark gray and white. I added here and there until I had a color I was happy with. Then I gave it a coat of wax and called it done.

Now Liv has a cute little nightstand in her room with great (and much needed) additional book storage in the bottom. I'd like to show you a cute, staged and decorated nightstand. I tried just putting a cute little decoration on it. And this shot shows how it coordinates with the curtains. Although the lighting is not great, so it is hard to get the true picture.

But I'm keepin' it real. We needed this table top to house her humidifier and baby monitor (which we hadn't been using but need now that she is way down the hall).

Thanks Mom for grabbing this gem for little Livvie Lu!