Yummy Mommy Sweetheart Valentines Dance

It's Valentines Day! My mom's club did a SUPER cute event this year called the "Yummy Mommy Sweetheart Valentines Dance". Everyone dressed up their kiddos for the event. Ethan looked very dapper in his little oxford shirt, sweater and pea coat--but then again I am a bit biased! haha. I could NOT stop hugging and kissing him he just looked so darn cute! There are a few pics below. At the party he got to make his own Valentines bag and we had a Valentines exchange. During the party we had a huge dance party --picture about 30 mom's and their kids ranging from 6mos to 4 years all dressed in red jamming out to a variety of "hit" kids songs. VERY fun! The highlight for Ethan a "yellow" lollipop that he found in his Valentines bag from his friend Kate.

Getting ready to go to the party :) In the picture above at the door--I couldn't believe how much he looked like Mike!













Digging into his Valentines bag













The highlight of the party for Ethan--a "yellow" lollipop from his friend Kate! Only the 2nd lollipop he has ever had so you can imagine the enjoyment!

The word of the week--yellow :)

This week is a big speech week for us! As you can imagine we are SOOOOO excited!! We could literally listen to him talk all day and night. So the word of the week this week...yellow! Ethan will literally seek out things in the house that are yellow just so that he can say the word--it's very sweet. Plus, he has started to say "hi" to everyone which is adorable. We went to a birthday party last week and he sat down at the kids table and said "hi" to all the kids. They were all around 2-3ish. It was so CUTE! He says "hi" to his "boosh" bear when he wakes up and when I go in to get him in the morning he says..."Hiiiiiiiiiiiiii" very drawn out. New words this week...he can now clearly say "Nana, Nanny, Pop-pop, Pap" he also says a ton of other words like...up, down, out, off, on, etc. And he has started to put 2 words together like "up please" "more please" "mommy do" "i do" "i will" "i want" "mommy down" etc. This is a HUGE breakthrough for us! Phonetically--he is constantly amazing us and our speech therapist. He can pick out almost any letter in the alphabet and tell you it's phonetic sound. He can also say and recognize colors (he still has a little trouble saying green and orange though). This week we were getting into the car and he saw a dog. He said..."daaa...mommy's...pepa". I was shocked...my dog when I was little was named Pepper...he was telling me my dog's name. I told him that months ago when we were reading. It was adorable!! We're definitely getting there! yay!!! :)

Only 10 weeks left!

Wow, as of yesterday I am 30 weeks pregnant with our baby girl! I can't believe I only have 10 weeks left. We went to our Dr. appointment yesterday and everything is right on target! The doctor did say though that given that I had a 9lb 7oz normal delivery last time--that this time, they don't want me to go more than 39 weeks or 40 at the absolute most. She said that second babies who follow a big baby are 4-6 oz more than the first one! That would be a 10 pounder. I know the Presley side of my family was known for big babies so maybe it's genetic? I remember my grandmother saying that she had at least 2 babies over 10lbs. Yikes! So we might be having a very early April baby instead of mid-April. I am still praying though that my little girl is born on my Nunny's birthday--April 14th. Whatever God's plan is though, will be! Here's a picture of me at 7 mos.

This week we went to see a kids singer/banjo player on Wed and then had lunch with 5 other moms and kiddos at a cute little pizza shop. One of my mom friends has a 2 year old and a 4 week old. I got to hold the 4 week old and Ethan did SO well with it! He was gently petting the baby's head and tried to give him nuzzles. It gave me hope that he is going to adjust better than I have been thinking! Then today we had his coop playgroup. It was my turn to work. I caught a glimpse of Ethan putting a baby doll in a high chair and trying to pretend feed the baby a variety of things--a huge loaf of fake bread, a fake ice cream cone and then his sippy cup. He is going to be such a good big brother! I just know it :)

We've been reading a lot of books about bringing home baby. His favorite came from Aunt Ann and Uncle Tom. He LOVES that book. We read it 3 x in a row before nap yesterday. We have been using her name a lot too so that he gets used to hearing it. And this weekend we are taking him to pick out a baby doll that he can take care of. He is very excited about this adventure! We have been talking to him about it all week.

Ta-da!

Believe it or not, we started this blog back in December 2009, but never finished it-ha! We finally got it ready to go, just a short year later! We figured that with our baby girl on her way in a couple months and with our sweet "big" boy just hitting his 2 year birthday, we better get going if we were going to get this blog started. Given that so many of our friends and family are spread across the U.S. we figured that this would be a great way to keep everyone up-to-date on things that happen in our household. Plus, I take a million pictures and then am so bad about sending them out after we come home. So this way, I can upload a couple as we go along. We'll try to update as often as we can so stay tuned! You can click on any photo throughout the blog to enlarge it.

Our first snow day!

We haven't had much snow at all in DC this year so far. The one "storm" that we did have closed down the whole city for almost 2 straight days! Kinda crazy--but it was SO nice to have Mike home for our first "snow day"! We have a teeny hill that is perfect for a 2-yr old to go sledding on. So we went all out--snow suit, sled and all...and I think we had a total of 4 inches. haha. Our neighbor Brady came over to play and the boys had fun in the snow. Here are some pics of the day. Ethan wanted to "help" daddy with the snow so we got out his shovel. Such winter fun! (click on any photos to make them larger). Ethan's new snow bibs are too small and they are 3T! He definitely looks like he "can't put his arms down" though with the whole set on! haha.

Sledding with Daddy and helping to shovel the snow!






Very helpful lifting the big blocks of snow into the yard.

Our sweet boy turns 2!

I can't believe how time is flying by! We kicked off this year by celebrating Ethan's 2nd birthday! We could not be more proud of him and all the he has accomplished so far. He is such a mild mannered, sweet and caring little boy. He listens very well, is well behaved (most of the time--haha!) and loves to explore life! It's so fun to watch his wonderment with everything that he does. He is such an intelligent, observant and fun loving kid. We could not feel more blessed!

For his birthday this year we did a construction theme. Ethan loves, loves, loves anything with wheels and anything construction-related. He couldn't be more excited when we drive down the road and see an arrow sign directing traffic around a construction zone. Or a loader on the side of the road. So that's what we did! From construction hats to an actual "dig zone" (aka a rice table) he had a blast. Here are a few pictures from the party.

Blowing out his candles!


Ethan's very own construction cake (a Mommy original!)--he could barely contain his excitement when he saw those construction vehicles on there! I made an Oreo road and used graham crackers for the dirt piles. The cones were candles and I printed the street signs on card stock, cut them out and attached them to craft picks. And his personalized billboard was the only way I could get the writing on the cake--excellent suggestion from my very creative hubby!!








Pictured here: The kids table--Noah, Adin, Daniel, TJ and Ethan enjoying their lunch; Ethan enjoying his birthday cake and ice cream--he says..."burr burr burr" when he eats ice cream; and the kids in the "dig zone" aka a rice table filled with construction vehicles and scoops. Very fun!

Making banana bread with Nana

I truly feel blessed to say that I have so many wonderful memories from childhood. One of my favorite memories was cooking and baking with my mom. When Nana came to visit us for Ethan's b-day, they made homemade banana bread. Ethan LOVED every second of this. He got to crack the eggs, add the sour cream (and eat some too), smoosh the bananas and mix and pour the batter. He was in heaven. Standing back to watch brought such joy to me and the memories of my childhood came pouring back! Here are some great shots that captured the project.