iPhone Recap

Walker's new teeter-totter helicopter that Emmy and Tuck got him for his birthday!

My fancy heart hairdo that I attempted for Valentine's Day. :)

Walker's haircut. At least he's not on the floor partially clothed and crying! :)

 Walker is TWO! And he's such a ham for the camera :)

 zoo trip

 Lainey's gymnastics friends... Lilly and Addison

 a snuggly Reagan

 monkeys

(Gage, Walker, Brayden, Lainey)

 We finally left the park after three hours. Did I mention that I LOVE this unseasonably warm weather that we've been having!?

 Lainey's new favorite challenge...the monkey bars. She still needs lots of help but boy, she is determined to get across those bars someday!

 Walker and Grace

 watching some TV :)

Lainey's Black Eye

Thanks to some accidental rough-housing on the playground yesterday, Lainey got a bit of a black eye! These pictures don't show it too well - as you can see - but you can see where it is... :) Poor girl. Good thing it doesn't slow her down too much. She seems completely and 100% unaffected by it!

 blurry but sweet picture

Hot Tub

I'm not sure that I've mentioned how much I have enjoyed our very mild winter this year... I have LOVED it! It has allowed for many trips to the park, few occasions to bundle up the kids in layer after layer of clothing, and the opportunity to do things like this! Getting in the hot tub. In February! Our faces and ears were a little cold, but the experience was fun nonetheless. Thanks for having us over for swimming and dinner, Aunt Tisha and Uncle Greg!

Cheese!

This is a silly (and not all that exciting) video. I found the kids (and Reagan) breaking into the refrigerator this morning. It's a little hard to hear what they are saying, but from the looks of it, they couldn't care less about my being there catching them in the act of breaking and entering. :)

Zoo Day

The past few days have been SO gorgeous here...we've been spending a lot of time outside. On Wednesday, we went to the zoo and spent a REALLY long time there. 

Before our adventure at the zoo, we went to Walker's 2-year checkup. He got a shot (he cried the whole way down to Dallas about it), and we found out that he weighs a whopping 27 pounds (25th-50th percentile) and that he is 35 inches tall (50th-75th percentile).

the cute girls on the elephants

(Thanks, Kelley, for these great pictures - you can tell which ones are hers!)

Walker LOVED the goats.

So did Lainey and Ainsley.

And, this is what happens to your son when you forget to bring a change of clothes. The kids decided to get in the water at the zoo (in the children's area) and thanks to Kristina, John and Grace's mom, Walker didn't have to go home in wet clothes. :)

Walker's 2nd Birthday Party

We had our family and friends over on Saturday evening to celebrate Walker's second birthday. The little boy did great and had a great time at his party. :) Thank you to everyone who helped us celebrate!

Walker flew around on his new Plasma Car that Emmy and Tuck gave him. Correction. He flew around on Lainey's new Plasma Car that Emmy and Tuck gave her until she demanded that he let her ride the pink one. :) 

Happy Birthday, Walker!

smiling with a mouthful of something :)

Walker definitely got the hang of opening his gifts. He loved opening each one!

Thanks, Yiyia and Bud!

"Cheese! And I'm SO excited about my new basketball hoop!"

excited face as Aunt Ally helps him open his gift

Walker is TWO!

Happy Birthday to you, Walk-a-doo!

He will wear anything that his sister tells him to.

Including this ladybug headband/antennae thing.

"Uh-oh."

my most favorite 2-year-old

Loves:

• yelling for his sister - "Nay-nee!!" When we watch her perform at dance and gymnastics, he pounds on the glass window and calls to her over and over again. 
• playing "hide seek" and "ba ba boo" (peek-a-boo)
• "helping" me pick up Reagan's poop (or anything that resembles poop) with a napkin or paper towel or a plastic sack 
• Ben's "eyes" trick that makes him laugh and smile (Ben pulls down the skin around his eyes to make a crazy face and the kids crack up)
• arts and crafts and painting and he's so excited to show me what he's made at school
• my iPhone
• dancing
• pencils
• books
• making sure gates/doors are closed...he has a bit of OCD
• singing along with us, trying to sing songs, trying to repeat words that we sing... (His "singing" is just making sing-song noises and trying to follow along with the tune and our voices and words.)
• saying "ticka ticka ticka ticka ticka" when trying to talk or explain something to us
• saying "Wheee!" when we go over bridges
• Ainsley ("Ay-ee!")
• Elmo

Is likely to:

• get very worked up over stuff – when he’s in a mood, nothing makes him happy
• get frustrated
• not be distracted very easily
• say "ah-beh" or "ah-boo" over and over if he wants me to "open" something (including peeling stickers off a sticker sheet)
• turn off the TV if he doesn't like what is on
• beg for "seows" (TV shows)
• not eat much breakfast
• put his hands in his mouth all the live-long day
• use the correct intonation and correct number of syllables when trying to say a word or phrase (Example: "Help, please" is "eh, ee," repeated in the same pitch as he heard it.)
• get disturbed by seeing things that are not complete - like a semicircle (versus a whole circle)
• get disturbed when things are out of place, like writing in a library book or writing inside the tunnel of the playset at the gym... This is ironic because he is generally the one who writes where he's not supposed to!
• become impatient (his teachers at school confirm this)
• get really excited to flush his "poopies" down the toilet
• get upset if his snack is mixed: fruit snacks cannot be combined with pretzels
• attempt to put two words together to form a phrase - most are simple, like "Bye-bye, Mama" or "Bye-bye, Daddy."
• say that everything is "lella" (yellow) (We are working on those colors. They are hard to learn!)
• play independently, even in a group of kids

Interesting Facts:

• His left ear tube is out. Good times. The right one is still intact as far as we know.
• He is finally not crying when I drop him off at the gym.
• Walker grabs our hands and drags us to show us things or to get us to help him with something.
• He's able to do the "sprain" dance like Lainey when she was his age (turns in circles, puts more weight on one foot than the other).
• He likes to hop and ribbit like a frog. Crazy boy. Especially when I'm reading The Princess and the Frog to Lainey...this book inspires Walker to start ribbitting and hopping around like a frog and, of course, Lainey immediately hops up and joins him. This leaves me reading the book aloud to myself!

Mommy's Favorite Things About Walker:

• his smile
• the way he follows Lainey and will play and play and play with her
• how he says "Memmy" when he's really trying to say "Mommy"
• how he says "Daddy" now instead of "Da da"
• when he sings
• the way he puts his head on my shoulder when I hold him
• when he insists on saying "nigh-nigh" to Lainey and me before going to bed
• his sweetness and shyness
• when he sits in my lap
• his love for his rocking chair and books
• He seems content. At birthday parties or at playdates or at the park he'll just kinda do what he wants...play with the other kids, play independently, or hang out by me. His sister is always with her friends.
• when he shakes and clenches his little fists and just can't stop smiling when he's excited about something

Happy, happy birthday to the sweetest little boy I know. I hope you have enjoyed your playtime at the gymnastics place this morning and your birthday lunch at Chick-fil-A. :) You even got a balloon. You so love balloons! Thank you for bringing such joy into our lives. We love you!

Snow/Sleet

Tonight we experienced a little snow/sleet here in Plano. It's guaranteed not to stick to the ground, but we went out to see it anyway. (Don't judge us by the lack of clothes we put on the kids - I promise, it was just for a minute!) Lainey declared that it was "wet and cold and tickle-ly" out there. :)

Wedding Swimming Ballerina Princess

That's what you would call this outfit, too, right?

Saturday...

A few random pictures!

 I think Walker might be close to crying in this picture...he doesn't look too happy. I think he was squished.

 I think Walker's getting good at giving me a strained, "fake" smile. He's so ready to get the picture over with these days (so he can come around to see what it looks like on my camera screen).

I think he was cold. :)

Donuts with Dad

I think this picture is a little out of focus. Anyway, Lainey had Donuts with Dad this morning and since Ben had a meeting at work, Bud went in his place! So here's Lainey and Bud...and the fancy tie that Lainey made for Bud to wear. :) This was the only picture I could get - too much going on in the hallways at preschool! Not to mention a wandering Walker who would not stay put. :)