Celebrating Micah's birthday, family style.

Micah's Birthday Dinner:  pizza and cupcake.  What a meal:)  What the birthday boy wants, the birthday boy gets.

 How old are you Micah? "1"  "No, 3!" No, you're 2!  "3"  Little stinker :)

 

Micah singing "Happy Birthday to you."  Not to be confused with "Happy Birthday Ew Ah."  Micah loves this song!  We probably sang it about 20 times today...

 So excited about the cupcake...we had to relight the candle three times for him to wait for us to be done singing before he blew it out!

 Waiting for us to finish singing.

Now...blow!

 

 Yummy cake.

 Full fist in mouth.  He rarely gets treats like this, and he was very excited about it!

 We didn't give Micah our gift to him at his party, so he could have something on his actual birthday.  We had bought a train set from my friend Nicole and were excited to give it to Micah.  He might be a little young yet to fully appreciate it, but I'm hoping in time he really enjoys building with the set!

 Oh, choo-choo!

 Fun, Mommy and Daddy.  Thanks!

I love my new gift!!

Happy 2nd birthday Micah!!

 

"Cheese!  I'm 2!!"

Dear Micah,

Happy 2nd Birthday to my sweet, smiley, strong-willed little boy.  I love you with all of my heart and these past 2 years have been an absolute roller-coaster ride of joy.  I have loved every second of it (well - almost...burning your hand and breaking your arm were not necessarily the highlights of this parenting journey...).  You have such a sweet demeanor about you most of the time, Micah.  You are such a loveable little boy who embraces all that life has to give.  You have embraced the big brother role in the short 5 weeks of that title, and it is so sweet to watch you interact with your baby brother.  You constantly want to hold baby Reid, give him hugs, hold his hand...and I try to let you love on him as much as possible before I'm afraid you might hurt him, unintentionally.  You love the outdoors...everything about them.  You love the goose and duck in our lake, you love our trips to the park, you love sidewalk chalk and you love bubbles.  You are such a fast runner and always want to join Mommy and Daddy whenever we go on our runs.

You are also a very bright little boy that brings a smile to my face daily.  Watching you learn and grasp life around you is such a great experience for me, and I'm so thankful to be able to stay home with you and soak in your love of learning.  You know all of your colors and are able to count to 15.  You know how to spell your name, although are not quite sure of their letters.  You know a couple dozen animals and their sounds.  You love Curious George, calling him "ew ah" from the beginning, thus your "Ew Ah" party!  

Your vocabulary at 2 is quite impressive.  You are continually trying to communicate with me, going as far as saying "mommy...MOmmy...MOMMy...MOMMY!!!!!!!!" until I am giving you my full attention.  You are constantly looking for my approval and praise and I love that you want to please me.  You are a sponge that soaks in your surroundings.  You love being read to, and have begun to "read" to yourself, able to say words such as satisfied, doctor, and lawyer, just by listening to Mommy and Daddy.  

You know how to make us laugh and I pray that never changes.  You are such a joy in my life, Micah and I am so proud of you.  I can't believe that I have a 2 year old?!?!?!  Time goes so quickly, and I pray you stay as sweet as ever as you grow.  Thank you for providing me laughter, joy and happiness.  Happy 2nd Birthday, Micah!  I hope you have an amazing day, with many more birthdays to come!

Love,

Mommy

 The birthday boy with two "ew ahs" around his neck.

 Welcome to Micah's Party! :)

 Family shot :) *love*

 

Reid's getting so big...5 weeks already!!!

 

 Christian and I have not really been able to see Harry and Micah interact, and it was really fun to watch.  Harry is my sitter's son.  You could tell they were truly friends, as he was the boy Micah hung out with the most.  I guess 2-3 days a week all year with the same family while I am at work begins to build quite a relationship.  Thanks Emy, Harry and Finn!

 Bubbles!  They became the hit of the party, and I definitely should have bought more than one.

 Never mind the mess in the background, the cupcakes were delish and said "Happy 2nd Birthday Micah."  Thanks Aunt Kari and Nana Kay for making them, and Grandma for helping to frost them!

 Micah loved being sung to, singing right along and clapping with excitement and "yay" at the end of the song.  He also thinks we were singing "happy birthday micah and ew ah (ie, curious george)"...silly boy :)

 "Me do it."

Yummy chocolate cupcake.  Thanks Momma!

Micah was quite flushed from running around in the 90+ degree weather, but he was having so much fun!  Taking a break from playing to eat some cake, of course.

 

 Gift time!  Micah was truly blessed by his friends generosity.  Thank you to all who gave - we are definitely grateful.

 Sandra Boynton books are the best!

 "Hmm, what's that?!"

 Surveying Micah's growing stash...

 Then came the party "hit". 

 The remaining boys could not stay away...thus began Micah's meltdown:(

 Max helping Micah tear and rip the paper.

 Reid was all partied out...

Birthday boy!

Welcome back running!

This is just a quick post for me, but I have been able to run the last 2 days and really enjoyed it!  My parents were up for Memorial Day weekend, and so Christian and I took advantage and ran 2.5 on Monday (it pretty hot weather) and then I went out last night and ran 3.2.  Those are my first 2 runs in about 8 weeks, and it feel good to be back on the pavement.  Granted I haven't had the clearance from my midwives yet, but that's coming on Monday...so I just started a tiny bit early.  Felt good and look forward to more:)

Happy 1 month Mr. Reid!

How is it possible!??!  You wait so long for your baby to come, and then all of a sudden, he's already a month old!  It is just crazy how fast time goes this side of pregnancy...I know I've said it before, and maybe I'll say it again...but it goes way too quick.  What a month it's been.  Adjusting to life with two, learning to function on much less sleep (that you are unable to make up for due to the fact that you have a 2 year old toddler running around), and figuring how this whole thing works:)  We are definitely blessed and try not to take a second of it for granted, even when you have a strong willed toddler that has meltdowns out of the blue and a sweet month old baby that hasn't figured out how to go longer than 3 hours at night between feedings. 

I love my life!  Having a second definitely makes me realize how easy just one was, although that was unknown to us at the time;)  Reid is a sweet, sweet boy.  At first Christian and I thought he was really low key and even keeled since he hardly made a peep his first day of life.  The next day or two was different, however, and we realize he probably had a dose of anesthesia pass through to him.  Still, as the month has gone on, I do believe overall he's more laid back than his older brother...but time will tell.  I am starting to figure out his signs and think he's a fairly easy baby at this point.  A couple weeks back I was complaining to Christian, asking why he wouldn't just sleep in his crib and what was wrong, and then I realized that we didn't even attempt to put Micah in his crib until he was 4 weeks old...Reid was only 2 at this point!  Already I am trying to make Reid grow up too quickly:)  I wonder how many other mothers/parents do this with their 2nd children?? 

We started back up our pictures with Mickey, which I must admit I was excited to do.  I think it will be fun to see over the months how closely the two boys resemble each other.  There has been much debate about whether Micah and Reid are essentially identical or not, and the jury's still out!  Definitely in some poses/facial expressions I see Micah, but in others not so much. 

Things to remember:

• how you refuse to take a pacifier, but when I went back to work one day and brought you with I discovered if I worked hard enough, you would actually take it...on your terms
• how easily you sleep during the day, but the late afternoon/early evening tends to be a different story
• how you are sleeping in your crib during the day, sometimes going down with very little assistance from mom or dad!  yay for those times!!
• how much you love sleeping on your tummy
• how much you love to eat, and would do it quite frequently it mommy let you:)
• how much your big brother loves you and wants to hold you all.the.time.  he was even able to put you to sleep one day in your bean bag chair while mommy read stories to you both.
• how much you look like your big brother at times!  (and Daddy thinks most of the time)
• how you can go from being asleep to alert in a split second, but then drift right back to sleep
• how you hate to be swaddled (which make sense since you love your tummy) and Mommy finally let you have your arms out while sleeping at night
• how amazing your european style mullet is
• how you love to have your hands by your face while sleeping
• how you got bronchiolitis from your brother at 3 weeks old with the most awful cough
• how you got "pink eye" at 10 days old and have continued to have the worst eye gunk since:(
• how much we love you and love that you have joined our family!!!  

We love you sweet Reid and look forward to the months/years ahead:)