Better Late than Never!

In part of my series called "Catching Up" (otherwise known as Motherhood), I am posting pics from Dean's month long birthday celebration during March. He was turning two, so we had to celebrate the start of the terrible twos! Am I right? ...silence...

Ha, we're ready for it! Terrible twos, here we come! :)


The boys even got to wear matching outfits, which means it was a VERY special party!

We started with a party with our Atlanta family. That was Debbie, Bob, Josh, Gloria, Annie, Tae and Abigail. Sweetest friends that feel like family are the best! Too bad I didn't take pictures of our group. I guess we were too busy baby wrangling and boozing it up. ;)

But, I did take pictures of what we ate. Shows what's really important, I guess.



Menu: Barefoot Contessa Garlic Chicken Meatballs (per Annie's request), Addictive Meatballs (per Annie's request, since I wasn't sure exactly which kind of meatballs she was craving), Beef Brisket, Macaroni and Cheese, Cornbread, Broccoli Salad, and Baked Beans. Very healthy and responsible choices!

Why eat broccoli... (although very delicious)



...when you can eat this! (You can see I like to add a "sprinkle" of bacon to my baked beans. And yes, they were the bomb!)



And Debbie was a little too happy that I got schooled by Josh, in the fine art of proper etiquette and decorum in table setting. Who says that fork must always be on the left?!




Our best little party guest was Abigail. Ahhh, the boys had to fight for her attention...



Since Dean is so particular in his refined tastes and high-brow ways, the theme of his bash was Tic-Tacs. And no, don't be ridiculous, NOT the mint kind! Hello, everyone with kids know that the orange or cherry tic-tacs are the only suitable bribery for shopping trips to Target.



Tic-tac inspired flowers. I'm sure somewhere, Ina Garten's friend Michael (the florist) is having a very bad rash. I loved them!



Since we like to keep the parties flowing, our next extravaganza was a family party with almost all of our peeps present (except G, Judah and Quinn). We were so happy that Grandpa and Mimi, Courtney and Via came to visit us for the weekend and Rebecca and Will came over to join the family fun...



Grandpa just loves on these boys and they both love when he is here!



For Grandpa's Christmas present, we decided to take him for a special trip to the Aquarium with his two favorite boys that live in Atlanta (because he has his OTHER two favorite boys that live in Charleston, so don't get it confused!)



And we had two little boys that were glued to the windows...





Because there was just too much cool stuff to see...


Like this scary grouper. Nightmares...

Jellyfish ballet...



and Finding Nemo...



And Dean loved getting Grandpa snuggles during lunch...



And of course there were presents for Dean. Baby milestone alert: When baby can open their own presents, you know they are turning 2!



Yay for musical stuffed animals!



We just HAD to wear the party hats for the birthday boy...



And Dean loved his chocolate cupcake! How come he can say "chocolate" perfectly, but he can't say much else???





"This is SO good I just want to dive right in!" No seriously guys, I'm really gonna dive right in...



Chocolate Face... Priceless!



Our best, best surprise of the weekend was that Courtney and Viviana were able to come. We just couldn't wait to see these cute chubby cheeks...



And gorgeous eyes...



Viviana, just give me one cute baby yawn, kay?



Seriously, does this girl have the custest outfits, or what?! Cuteness...



Via, who's gonna buy you lots of cute dresses, Tiffany jewelry, Barbies and American Girl dolls? ...whispering...



You got THAT right!

Catching Up

I was missing this little blog during the late winter months, when we slid down the slippery slope of toddler rule. It's so easy... To bring this sobbing little one into your bed, to cuddle him and hold him tight and make his tears go away. And to realize that 4 months later, you have not accomplished anything past 8:30pm because you've somehow still got this little monkey sandwiched in between you every night. I see why families co-sleep. I really do. I'm empathetic to how they got there. Because I did too. And little by little, it got better and better. It was so nice to lean over and kiss Dean's sweet forehead in the night. We snuggled and he slept with his head tucked under my chin. Firoze said in my ususal sleep walking and talking state, I kissed and hugged Dean all night long and he kissed me back. Those nights were sweet and precious. But, they had to stop.

It was time for us to take back our spot on the throne. Dean just had to go. And so he did, right into his new big boy bed! And finally, I got my evenings back. Imagine all the things you can do after 8:30...

So, when I have time, I'll be posting some catch-up posts from the last few months. Starting with our trip to our favorite spot to go with the boys. It's pretty much perfect. It's the "duck park" and it's just a two minute trip from our house, which means it's our favorite hangout!

Now that Devon's getting older, he can ride his bike like the other cool kids at the park.



But, our favorite activity is feeding the ducks!



Even Dean is so mesmorized, he sits at the waters edge and doesn't even move.



The ducks were showing off their pretty colors.



And Dean was loving life with his little duckie friend!



But the best was yet to come. A gorgeously huge white crane flew towards us like a small airplane and glided to a stop right in front of us. She put on quite a show and we were mesmerized!



And just when we thought it couldn't get any better, she dove into the water and showed off her skills!



I mean, come on... how cool is this?!



And so we stared and watched her, slowly stalk through the water, quietly waiting for her moment and then... SPLASH!



The beauty of nature in perfect focus...



It was better than watching Animal Planet!



After crane watching, there was duck chasing...







"We might catch these birds if we work together!"



"Now how did I miss them?"


I just love this picture and couldn't believe I caught the exact moment of the ducks in flight.

After all the bird watching, it was time for some exercise...



Little shadow chaser...



And there was quite the game of frisbee!



Devon mastered the frisbee on this trip!



Dean even tried his best to run away with the frisbee.



Baby bear ears on jackets just melt my heart...



But eventually he got his stance and his throwing arm into position...



And looked cute while he was doing it.



No matter how good we thought we were playing frisbee, we were no match for this dog! He literally could leap about 8 feet in the air and catch the frisbee mid-air. I was so happy I caught the catch with my camera!



Devon is so grown up, he easily climbs trees and gets a little higher each time.



But Dean knows how to get a real birds-eye-view!



The best father I could ever imagine for my boys. He is everything to me.



Such a sweet picture. Father and son.



Duck, duck, goose.



Lovely little lashes.



Little boy silhouettes on trees... magic.



Littlest park ranger.



And my big boy rock climber.



Capturing these fleeting moments of babyhood...



Love these sweet cheeks and little rosebud lips.



I love you my sweet Dean, my little snuggler, my bed stealer!



Lovely park paths, see you next time!