Happy Leap Year, Everyone!

It turns out February 29th was the day for some surprising new manners at lunch. There was a very brief exchange yesterday over saying "thank you" and "you're welcome" that didn't seem to register much at the time, but obviously made a bigger impression that I'd thought.

Today, my boys – Nate especially – couldn't get enough of finding things to hand to each other in order to elicit the "thank you/you're welcome" exchange.

And I thought we were doing well with "Exmoosey!".

Nicely done, boys. Nicely done.

- L.

PS. Of course there's a video of it all (and then some). You can check it out here.

Sharp Dressed Men

Blue jeans, no shoes;

I not know where I is goin' to.
Clean sweater, new hat;
Don't tell the cuties where I is at.
They come a runnin' just as fast as they can;
'Cause all the girls crazy 'bout a sharp dressed man.

- It not easy being 'dis cute, you know.
– Tells me about it. *sigh*

- L.

PS. The new hats – or as my boys would say... "AAATS!" – were a birthday present from Auntie Karen and Uncle Brent.

As you already know, my boys can never have enough hats. Really. And if things don't work out with their futures as basketball all-stars, professional chefs, future Olympians, architects or entertainers of some persuasion (particularly the dramatic arts) and/or if their in-home cleaning service goes bust, I think it's safe to say they can always fall back on their millinery background since they have to pretty much be experts at this point.

PPS. Auntie Karen and Uncle Brent might want to rethink their careers and at least consider becoming baseball all-stars, because they definitely hit one out of the Pahk this year. 

The Party Part I: The Nutshell Version

The birthday banner was up:

The cupcake toppers were ready to go:

And the special guests had arrived without much time to spare:

All we needed were a couple of birthday boys. Luckily, I happened to have some handy:

Don't worry. I didn't try to make them eat cake again this year.

I stayed up late making those cupcake toppers for a reason after all. Cupcakes do not = cake by the way and in case my logics here aren't making sense it's a well known fact (and if it's not it should be) that cupcakes have a completely different cake to icing ratio. Sometimes it's all the details. Suffice it to say I was optimistic.

Nate and Seth opened their presents after their big cupcake experience was over and I'm pleased to say there was plenty of wild abandon. Unfortunately it was so wild that most of the photos are a complete blur of activity – but on the plus side, they have definitely cottoned onto the idea of opening presents.

A couple of shots from quieter moments:

The sock monkey jack-in-the-box has been a big hit, but the sock monkey hats have turned out to be an even bigger hit. My boys have always had a fondness for hats after all.

They also scored some new books which have joined their recent collection of completely out-of-reach books since book-tearing is still a hot commodity around here. Despite their reckless behavior with said books, there is little my guys prize above a good read. Nate could not be any more zeroed in here without actually boring a hole through the book (which would involve an entirely new level of destruction I'd prefer not to think about).

And despite all the birthday excitement, naptime at 2 went off without a hitch. They actually slept exceptionally well that day – including overnight – which was a good thing since planning even a small and simple party nearly wore me out.

In case it sounds like I'm wrapping things up, I am – but only for now.

I know you've been sitting on tenterhooks the whole time wondering how my sweet boys enjoyed their cake this year and now you're going to be wondering if my cupcake strategy paid off in the form of finally having a picture of icing-faced little ones to show you.

That, however, is a tale for another day.

- L.

The "Big" Gift

Just so you don't think all Nate and Seth got for their birthday were a couple of haircuts (spectacular though they may be!), we decided to give them their "big gift" after their nap.

I took a "before" picture for posterity, even though my expectations for wild abandon were set fairly low. The boxes are full of all the requisite accoutrements a couple of bachelors would need for their first kitchen (and then some):

Then it was time to release the hounds. Much to my surprise, Seth went straight for the presents. 

And for the first time ever, there was some legit paper-tearing at the OP – books and magazines aside, of course. I mean they were tearing paper that I actually wanted them to be tearing. Joy! 

Nate found the bow especially exciting.

Beholds my mighty bow, everyone!

There was even a hint of wild abandon:

Setting up house. Deciding where the ice cream and apples go for the first time is serious business!

Chef Nate hard at work:

Seth taking a call on the kitchen phone – probably from one of those cuties he's always busy smiling at:  

And just in case it wasn't clear, the "big gift" was a hit! I think the face on this happy boy sums it up perfectly: 

The party is all set for tomorrow at noon and I'm still hoping to have my babies down for their nap around 2.

Overly ambitious? Most definitely.

But wish us all luck anyway.

- L.

First Haircut

My boys' first haircut – on their second birthday no less – went off splendidly. In the end I was so glad we did this, birthday or not. 

We showed up here midway through Daddy's haircut, which was strategy on our part:

Official barber pole was also strategy. It's in the OP colors after all.

Nate and Seth got to hang out and check things out. They saw Daddy having a good time and I think being the only customers waiting helped a lot. 

Last look at Nate's wild mane... 

... before it was go time:

Barber Mike had his work cut out for him, but Nate sat so still on his Daddy's lap. 

And I just love this picture:

Seth meanwhile was hanging out with Gamma Rita in the next chair over and had a great time going up and down in the big chair and checking himself out in the mirror. Last look at Seth's natural mullet* by the way:

Because it was suddenly go time for Seth too... 

... who somehow made it look like sitting in a barber's chair was an everyday thing. In true Seth style, he was a cool customer the entire time:

Barbers. I eats them for breakfast everyone!

• • • • • • •

And now, the moment you've all been waiting for...  the BIG REVEAL!

I took these pics after our birthday supper, so please excuse the messy faces. Feel free to swoon a little though.

- L.

*Barber Mike appeared a little confounded at Seth's natural mullet and asked if I'd cut some off the top myself. Apparently it looked like a Mommy home haircut attempt gone awry!

Oh Hello.

We're still here.

Apologies for our absence, especially when this month started out so promising. It's certainly not been for lack of stories because there are plenty.

I was still hanging in there pretty well after we all got sick at the beginning of the month, but when we all got sick again before most of us had even recovered from the first round staying up late to post was about the last thing on my mind.

And of course, somewhere in there some serious birthday planning somehow managed to take place.

The party is on Saturday, but we've got some pretty fun things on order to celebrate the big day tomorrow – and at least one thing on order that I hope will turn out to be a fun thing (or at least something we can look back on and laugh about).

Since we're saving the party for the weekend, and since the boys have long since reached the point of needing a haircut, and since getting one's first haircut is rather a rite of passage kind of a thing it seemed fitting somehow to plan it for their birthday – so tomorrow morning we're off to the barber to say goodbye to Seth's mullet and see if something can't be done to tame Nate's wild mane.

Of course, between now and then there just might be a couple of new posts tomorrow morning – at say, 8:53 and 8:54 AM.

- L.

PS. Odds are good that the boys will barely be awake at their respective birth-times this year, much less fully dressed and at play like they were last year. I can't even say with any certainty which bed they might be found in these days. For all I know, tomorrow's pics might look an awful lot like the one I took this morning when we all woke up:

For the record, Nate found waking up next to Seth and Mommy especially amusing today, but plenty of giggles from both my boys preceded this shot.

Of Course, The Best Things In Life Are Often Free*

I need to start this post by saying that the important thing to remember is we eventually had fun.

Crankypants was the watchword one particular morning several weeks ago, following a night's sleep that ended several hours before our typical wake-up time. The usual toys and activities weren't cutting it, so I went in search of an unexpected (and hopefully pleasing) distraction.

I found two. They both looked like this:

Boxes are always a big hit around here, so I was feeling good about my offering.

It was all going so well for about 5 minutes and then disaster struck.

Disaster that came in the form of Nate tearing his box to pieces and wanting Mommy to "Fix It!". And of course, I could not. No one could have. There wasn't enough tape or glue in the world to fix that box.

The meltdown was epic. Seth after all still had a perfectly intact box he was happily playing with and Nate was left with a handful of shredded cardboard. Well, technically the shredded cardboard was in my hands at that point. Nate had already turned into a puddle on the floor. 

It was time to pull out the big guns, but I was at a loss. The butter boxes were my big guns after all. 

At least until I remembered the boxes that had arrived from Amazon only a few days earlier, still filled with books for Christmas.

I could barely empty them and get them into the nursery fast enough.

Big guns indeed! Those boxes kept everyone entertained and happy on and off not only that day, but for the next week and then some. 

And once again, if the pics aren't enough to do this scene justice, there's a video of all the hijinks here (meltdown not included). 

• • • • • • •

*The boxes came with purchase, so technically they were "free", but the contents were not. Free is sometimes relative, but had the boxes not made for such great entertainment they were otherwise headed for recycling. That still counts, right?

- L. 

PS. This was the first time my boys chose their own outfits for the day – which is what I naively thought this post was originally going to be about before everything went sideways – so it deserves a brief mention. I thought it was interesting that they wanted to wear the same thing – and were quite vocal about it too. At this point, I'm 100% sure that orange is their mutually favorite color. It's been more than a few weeks since these pics were taken, but since that time I've had to put the "unge" shirts on an as-yet-undetermined sabbatical in a secure location because I've grown tired of looking at them. Fortunately "out of sight, out of mind" is a real thing. For a couple of weeks there, this was the only outfit either of them wanted to wear. 

PPS. In case you are wondering about everyone's crazy hair, we had French Toast for breakfast that morning and there was some self-styling with the syrup going on. Syrup is a pretty impenetrable product as it turns out, so everyone looked like this until evening bath time. 

PPPS. The aforementioned Bath Toys™ are very much front and center in this post too. Really, if you don't already own a set, do yourself a favor and get some. They are the next best thing to "free" boxes.

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas...

... or at least it was. Looks like I'll be re-decorating the tree tomorrow, but it was worth it.

When the tree still had ornaments on it:

Of course, that didn't last long:

Never underestimate "the long arm of the Seth".

 The floor ended up nicely decorated at least:

Dude, I is *so* going to tell Mommy you did it. 

Tallying up the wares:

Lots and lots of wares:

Final check in case we missed anything: 

Taking a well-earned break:

Out-of-focus and everyone is a blur on top of that. Still, I kind of like this photo. It sums up the general level of chaos rather nicely:

– L.