TWO!!

Two years ago today, I woke up at Northside Hospital.  I was 8 days past my due date, and my midwife had insisted that I must go ahead and let them induce labor.  I kept hoping and hoping that I would go into labor on my own, but it was not to be.  Shim was a stubborn little thing!! So, I had checked in the night before and they started the induction process about 6:00 a.m. on the 24th of May.

I won't go through the whole story.  But, I will say that it was quite a long day.  A lot of waiting, a lot of work, a lot of family sitting around twirling their fingers in the waiting area.  Eventually, the doctors decided that little Shim was going to have to be delivered via c-section.  At 7:46pm, Jackson Wyatt was born!

Although this picture is terribly unflattering, this is one of my most favorite ones ever taken.  Our first family photo!

It was a long day, and then turned into a long night as Wyatt had to be admitted to the NICU.  However, all was fine and today I have a wild, spunky, hilarious, fun-loving, perfect little TWO. YEAR. OLD. boy!

How in the world can I encapsulate your  little personality in a simple blog post?  I don't think its possible, but I'll try because I know I'll want to reference this one day!

You love: to play outside, the pool, watering plants, donuts, m&m's, jelly beans, juice, pizza, cheese, yogurt, big trucks, motorcycles, to watch people mow the grass, to help with chores

You don't like: being told no, when we tell you its time to go inside, to sit still

You think your name is Wyatt Lawnmower.  We talk about your name each night before bed, but you continue to say "I Wy-Wy Mower".  We'll get it right eventually :)

You call motorcycles "big quey's"  (said in a very throaty German way).  I'm not sure how you got "quey" out of cycle, but it is hilarious.

Each morning, I give you a Flinstones gummy vitamin and you call it your "na-mai"

If I'm giving you a treat - like an M&M or a jelly bean, and I fail to ask you what color you want you'll eat the one you have and then ask me for a specific color.  I'm pretty sure this is just your way into manipulating me out of more candy!

You have an incredible memory.  For example.  We were out on a walk a few months ago in the neighborhood.  We hadn't been to the pool since last summer, yet as we walked by the clubhouse you pointed at it and said "pool".  How on earth did you remember that? 

You're still using pacis.  I dread taking these away, but afraid I will have to do so after our vacation in June.

Every truck you see is a "big dump truck".  It doesn't matter if its a pickup truck, trash truck, a real dump truck or an SUV ... they are all dump trucks in your eyes.

You love playing in the water.  Both in your pool and your sand/water table.  More than anything you like to fill buckets and water my flowers.

You are a huge helper.  When you see me doing a chore you often try to copy me/help.  Whether I'm cleaning a mess off the floor or putting dirty clothes in the laundry, you are always there to lend a hand! 

You identify most things by their color.  For instance, if you see your dad wearing a blue shirt he is "blue dada".

You string words together all the time.  The longest sentence we've heard from you yet is "dada red lawnmower all done"

Although your sitter says you aren't a great eater, you eat well for me at home.  (Typically) You are very choosy with what you eat and will inspect things very closely before putting them into your mouth.  

Happiest of Birthdays to you, dear Wyatt!

Wyatt's Birthday {The Party}

I've already shared all the details and decorations of W's party but my mom also took loads of pictures of all the kids at his party!  As you can tell, everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.

As I mentioned earlier, the party was at a local bouncy house place.  (Kangazoom -- its right by our house and Wyatt goes up there all the time).  They do a good job at having slides/jumpy things both for big kids and toddlers.  Although most of the children at the party were toddlers, they also let adults help their children to get up and down the big slides.  (And it is exhausting!)

Anyway, here are some action shots.

I personally think this whole concept is brilliant -- wear the kids out, then feed them dinner.  Not sure about everyone else, but I think W was asleep before his head hit the pillow that night!

After the kids played, they took Wyatt via wagon back to the party room.

I thought for sure it would be a goat rodeo in that room, but surprisingly it wasn't.  Pizza and some fruit and a juice box (sorry about the HFCS y'all -- i should have known to bring my own juice boxes and not used what they provided) were on the table at each child's place and they all actually sat down and ate.  It was amazing.  I suppose they were all tired, and hungry as it was dinnertime.

After everyone ate, we sang Happy Birthday.  Wyatt was on the verge of meltdown mode and then he realized that everyone was singing to him and we saw his sweet little smile!

 And then he refused to blow out his candles.

He also refused his cupcake.

Until we quit trying to encourage him to eat it.

Although it was nearly bath time when we got home, we let Wyatt play outside for a little while once we got home.  He just loves watering our flowers so he had a blast.

We also tried and tried to get a family picture.  Ideally, would have liked one of him with each set grandparents and his aunts and uncles, but that just wasn't gonna happen ....

He definitley understands presents this year and loved opening each one.

Thanks again to everyone who made the day so special for Wyatt (and for Ben and I).  

Birthday Month will continue next week on W's ACTUAL birthday!

Wyatt's Birthday Party {The Details}

Whew! We just came off a busy (but fun) weekend.  We had to celebrate Wyatt's birthday a few weeks early this year due to some scheduling conflicts, so his party was this past weekend!  (And to be totally honest, I fully intend for him to have at least 2 more birthday celebrations this month). 

Anyway, I LOVE planning Wyatt's birthday parties.  I start thinking of a theme and ideas many months in advance.  I believe this particular party had 3 different themes before I ended on construction.  I ended up choosing this because a) W loves 'big dump trucks' and b) I found a cute invitation.  He also really likes this local jumpy house place, so I decided to host his party there which made it pretty easy on me!

I do have to give credit where credit is due here -- although I did think of a lot of the ideas my mom  was the one to embellish and execute them.  And, she took all the pictures at the party for me.  So a big thanks to Meme!!

Be forewarned that I have a LOT of pictures.  I'm probably going to do a couple different posts on this party because there are so many and I just can't choose.  Also, I really love to see the detail pictures of parties (so I can steal ideas), so I'll assume others feel the same way!
First, the invitation.  As skittish as I've been about using Etsy lately, I actually found a lady who did a wonderful job.  She sent me the PDF and I printed them at home on my own printer.  That part was actually kindof a pain, but it worked out. (I did have to blur out my phone # ... probably not a great idea to post that all over the interwebs)

Next up, the decorations.  Mom found tool belts at Home Deopt and put each child's name on them.  We filled them with plastic tools and also gave each kid a plastic hard hat with their name on it.  We put those on each of the tables to use as decoration. In the center of each table, we had an orange construction cone with orange, black, and yellow balloons and construction tape.  The caution door streamers were a last minute idea, and it is still driving me crazy that there is a short little one in the center!  I spent entirely too much time making that banner you see hanging on the wall.  But, it was a fun project!

Next, the cupcakes.  We over-estimated cupcake consumption, but they were delicious (at least I thought so).  Mom and I each made 2 batches.  I'm not going to say who made which ones, but I will tell you that when she texted me a picture of the ones she was making I got a little concerned that people wouldn't eat mine b/c hers were cuter! 

Here is an overview of what the food table looked like.  (We also served pizza, which wasn't pictured but the pizzas weren't in a cutesy display so its just as well that I'm not showing you that!)  We just used all of W's loaders, excavators, and dump trucks to display the apples and grapes.  The only slight problem with using his toys to display the food is that he wanted to tear them off the table when he saw them!  The drinks weren't pictured, but we just served soft drinks and water.  And I hear there was some beer smuggled in by my husband, but I certainly didn't sanction that!

I'll leave you with a few more pictures to give you an overview of what the party room looked like.  It sure was fun to plan, and I am pleased with how everything turned out.  I'm already brainstorming ideas for next year ....

I'll post the rest of the party/birthday pics later in the week.  I do want to thank everyone who was able to come to the party to celebrate with us!  It means so much that family and friends traveled from all over the place to be there for Wyatt.  We had a blast!!