m-d time

i love spending time with beth. love it. wish i could leave all my household responsibilities for the birds and just play with her all dang day. she loves new things, gets ultra excited over them which is profusely contagious, and has this incredibly fun imagination. she also is also super bossy, which doesn't bother me much, knowing that she just gets bossed around all day by people older than her, so why not give her a chance to be in charge... though most of her friends don't have quite the patience with that that i do. she loves to help, to cuddle, to dance, to play outside, and be where the party is. most people think she's 4 because of her height and fairly good vocabulary, and even i have to remind myself sometimes that she's only 2. she handles herself pretty well for a two year old.

last last weekend (as in the weekend before last) she and i had a very rare saturday morning where we played together, just me and her, all morning long. hank was on some crazy overnight driving trip to texas, and poor little hyde who had gotten 5 shots in his little legs the day before just wanted to stay in his crib and sleep all morning. he didn't want out until after noon. beth tends to be an early riser - 6:30am or so - so we had lots of quality time together. she let me take pictures of her that day, as long as i let her take pictures of me (which will not be shared - even though a couple of them were actually in focus). here is my favorite from the day.



this picture is a great snapshot of her - she is spirited and funny and playful, with just a hint of seriousness. and at the same time, in this picture, i can see her holding that same pose on a bed with her girlfriends at a sleep over when she is 16. which freaks me out....  

it was a stellar, atypical morning with some awesome m-d bonding time. (m-d stands for mother-daughter for those of you who aren't on the up and up). i will share more photos of it in my next post. for now, just this teaser...

the party

so we came up with this great plan to have hyde's birthday party coincide with the sure-victory bronco game on saturday following his actual birthday. the party would, of course, be donned in deep blue and orange and we would celebrate with cake and presents during a light-hearted halftime where the broncos were 14 points ahead of their failing opponents, unable to offer any sort of challenge for our unstoppable, manning-led team at mile high stadium. it was a sure shot. high fives all around. happy kids, happy fans, happy sugar-filled, present-spoiled little boy who has no clue what's happening or why people are singing and staring at him, happy day. in the bag.

or... just a pipe dream. 

we did in fact, plan the party to occur during the game, and went with the bronco theme. i mean, obviously... it took place at my parent's house who had hung blue balloons over the presents, prepared some delicious game/party food, and invited some other family members to join in the festivities. all started out well...

hyde's second nap of the day fell just after the end of the first quarter of the game, so we put him down, allowing his little body to prep for the immense celebration that he would be faced with shortly after waking up. he slept right through half time, where the broncos were not 14 points ahead, but were in fact, tied at 14s with the ravens. not a stellar start, but we're a second half team. we can get it done. and we will celebrate hyde's birthday after the team has sealed the deal and the game is over. we will still be super revved up then.

he woke up minutes into the fourth quarter where we found ourselves still on the edge of our seats for a close game that should have been won by now. however, after three and half hours filled with big mistakes, poor play calling, shanked field goals, and way too many penalties, we headed into overtime and the birthday party celebration was put on hold once again.

30 minutes later, into the second quarter of OT, it was over. and with our heads hanging low, we lit the little football candles atop hyde's blue and orange frosted cake, sang with sorrow in our voices, and agreed to return two of his presents - a little bronco outfit and a football. okay, it wasn't that  bad. but the whole theme did seem sort of silly and obsolete after having watched our broncos give the game away and planning the party around a sure win. whoops.

nevertheless, we still sang and smiled and clapped for hyde, overjoyed at his charming, happy little self, and let him soak up the attention that comes with being a birthday boy for the first time. he smiled and clapped right back at us and reveled in the giant piece of cake placed before him that was destroyed within seconds. that is, by far, the funnest part of one year old birthdays, no? watching them dive into that frosting and cake uninhibited, and just letting them go wild! makes for really great photos.

despite the bronco loss, we had a wonderful time enjoying each other's company and the chance to celebrate hyde's first year of life together.

beth now asks me everyday when her party is... "mom, where's my birthday? but i can't find it...!" it's so funny and cute. and even though we've told her that it's in march and that she has to go to sleep lots of times before it's her turn, she still asks me each morning as we're getting dressed, "mom, is it my party now?" to which i reply, "nope beth, not yet. not for a long time" and usually draws the response of "yeah, my birthday's in march. but i can't find it. we need to find my party..."

we're still working on what march means... :)

one

today the little man turns one. one. i can hardly believe it's been a year since he came into our world. it feels like it was last week that hank and i headed for the hospital and said "well, guess we're going to have a baby today!" he has been such a joy and blessing to us. i think the best as a parent is watching these little personalities unfold right before your very eyes, and that has just been the raddest over the last year with this guy. he has a very light heart, loves to smile and laugh, loves to be in the middle of the action - can't stand to miss a thing, and is so anxious to get up and play, especially with his sister. when she actually takes the time to play with him he eats it up and laughs and squeals and takes it for as long as he can get it. he is always on the go (he started walking running shortly after turning 9 months) and hasn't looked back since. before that he used to watch beth so carefully and you could see in his eyes that we wanted to run after her, do what she was doing, and wanted so bad to run around the house and in the grass and streets as she did. it didn't take him long to figure it out! and now he can't stand to sit still. the kid is constantly moving.

something in him draws him to music - ever since he was born he would perk up and look and try to find the source of music whenever he heard it - on the tv, on the radio, in the car, at church... and will usually calm down if he's upset and i sing in his ear. i love it. now he claps and turns around and dances when he hears something lively and the giant smile that spreads across his face as he does it is incredibly endearing.

he's super into cars and trucks (hank is super relieved) and everything else he's not supposed to be. i am constantly picking up after this kid as he tears into everything, opens every cupboard and drawer and pulls everything out, strewing it across the house. his very favorite though is, of course, unrolling the toilet paper in the bathroom. that door stays shut permanently, as you would guess.

he is laid back and good natured (except for when he's sick and cries unless he's held 100% of the time), and LOVES to eat. kid is a good eater, i'll definitely give him that, which i so appreciate. but he tends to burn a lot of calories running and falling and picking himself back up for most of the day. he is curious and mischievous, energetic and funny, and i have a feeling he might become one of those that knows how to charm the pants off of anyone. i'm already a sucker for him, so... (secret: his dad is even worse.) he has been such a beautiful addition to our little family.

he's figured out tantrums and though i shouldn't laugh at them, i can't help but do! if he gets told no or has a non-toy taken away from him he puckers up his lips, lets his eyes fill to the brim with tears and then bangs his head on the first thing he can find - most often, just the floor. he will bend right over into downward facing dog, letting his head fall to the floor, sit there for a minute, then look up to see if i've moved or changed my mind, and if not, goes back to the same pose, this time hitting just a little bit harder. sometimes he will use furniture or a wall, throwing himself up against it - hands and face and all - and then hitting his head repeatedly, occasionally looking over at me to see if i've noticed and/or care. is it terrible that it's so comedic to me? he's learned early to work it.... and sometimes it's just so dang funny and he's just so dang cute that i have to give in. what can i say?

happy birthday my sweet boy. we love and adore you so much.

some pictures from yesterday, scratch on face, runny nose, drooly mouth, messy shirt and all...

christmas

christmas this year was spectacular. the days leading up to it were extremely full and it kind of crept up on me this year, but man, was it the best.time.ever. beth was SO into it. she helped me decorate the tree, and did a fabulous job as you'll see in the pictures, and was so excited about the santa thing. she loved watching all the christmas movies (still does) and if you asked her what she was going to tell santa she wanted, she would always say "presents", which made it super easy on him, hooray!!! ...until two days before christmas, that is.... then she decided she wanted to tell him that she wanted a bike and a helmet like little gwen in the recently released arthur christmas (great christmas flick, btw). nice timing, sis. you just now decided to tell santa about a bike?!?! uh, i'm pretty sure he's finalized his gift list for the year by now...

well, with the help of the grandsantas who happened to have been given one just her size a few days earlier, santa did indeed deliver a bike to her on christmas morning. with a helmet. she was SO excited! we got that part on video and i'm so glad - the whole scene is priceless.

and hyde, of course, didn't quite get it. and the poor kid was told so many dang times to stay away from that blasted tree - we eventually gave up on telling him and smacking his little hand and just let the tree be what he turned it into. it's no macy's tree - the bottom half is empty/scattywompus, but it's ours. and it still served it's purpose. leading up to christmas he, of course, tried to rip into all the wrapped presents until it was time to actually open them, then he didn't care to at all, but beth didn't mind helping out on those. looking back through the blog at our pictures from the beach in portland just a couple short months ago... both of them have grown and changed so much since even then. hyde is becoming a little boy and losing the baby, and beth is a cute little girl, no longer a toddler. she is so conversational, and SO self sufficient (which, wow, how nice is that...?) and she makes me laugh every day with the things she says. she is so much fun right now. we have the best time. and hyde is just, well, so blasted cute, nobody knows what to do with him. despite the fact that he is into EVERYTHING he shouldn't be and has absolutely NO interest in toys, just things he shouldn't be into. he is still cute. most of the time... : )

we spent a lot of the week with family - brothers and sisters and cousins and grandparents. it was so rad. so many good laughs and quality time together. just what the holidays are all about. giving and family. especially when it comes to sick germs. :) hyde and i got nailed with it just before new years eve and have been out for the count for a few days now (yes, the christmas tree is still up - don't judge me); beth and hank have managed to avoid it so far, though beth has started to cough a little bit. i think it's headed her way next. bummer. can't remember the last time i was this sick, and poor little hyde - can't do anything for him really, but let it run it's course. hard to do as a mom when you just want to make everything all better. he's hating life right now and neither of us are sleeping which makes the days long and the nights longer. but hey, at least we made it through christmas week before getting hit. for that, i am grateful.

some shots from the night we set up the tree and introduced the ever popular elf on the shelf (huge hit, btw. huge. and GENIUS). we affectionately named our elf lucy - she was very good at keeping a watchful eye on beth every day and reporting to santa... and a slideshow of christmas morning if you feel like sitting through it.

merry christmas my friends - i hope yours was as merry and bright as ours. :)