Happy 3rd Birthday Boozle!

Since we don't live near family, whenever they come to visit we like to celebrate! And since Boozle's 3rd birthday was just a few days away, we decided a birthday trip to the Crayola Factory in Pennsylvania and a dump truck cake was in order.

Choo Choo!

model magic fun

very focused on cutting at Crayola

carrot cake dump truck with cream cheese frosting. yum!

Highlights of my Boozle:

Loves eating pizza, edamame, hummus, cheese, and MILK!

Loves playing with cars (especially crashing them into things), trucks, trains, puzzles, and fire trucks (and imitating their sirens)

Loves going running in the jogging stroller (and being the boot camp trainer that doesn't let me walk, even on a steep hill for a second), playing with Big Baby, making up stories (most include Doc, Mater, and Lightning and their adventures in Morristown), singing songs, painting, coloring, playing the piano, and going to Trader Joe's

Loves making up funny words and songs. Our personal favorite: "The name's Mater, like Mater-tuh, but without the Guido."

Doesn't love to be alone, especially in the basement

Doesn't really love to be with anyone but mama, and usually I don't mind at all

Loves to give hugs and kisses and loves to climb in our bed when he first wakes up to snuggle

Loves giving Big Baby hugs and a "kiss on his teeth" every night before bed

and is the sweetest almost-3-year-old boy we know. And that's a fact.

Crafty Month

Since in the past 2 weeks the highest temperature we've seen has been about 34 and the lowest temperature was today when the high was 27, my babies and I have been getting creative about what to do in this tiny little house. Today's activity was teaching Boozle to sew. Every time I get out the sewing machine he's fascinated by it. When I made the flags for his room, he watched intently as the needle bobbed up and down and went across the fabric "like a train", he said. And since I had the sewing machine out to make my contribution to the pinwheel quilt for this virtual quilting bee I joined, today was the perfect day. He kept asking, "Now are you going to show me how to sew?" And so after I finished up this I Spy quiet activity kit, we started in on our lesson.

I pushed the pedal while he guided the fabric. He lifted the presser foot while I turned the fabric and in the end, a pillow for sleepy Mater Tow Truck's head was born.



and yes, Big Baby now has 4 teeth


my best buddies

January, oh January.

Where did December go? The lights, the smells of Christmas, the joy, not to mention the vacation from work that allowed this mama to have a co-pilot for these babies. It's like Monday: the readjustment to real life from the weekend. Only this is for months. The first day was rough and I took a 2-hour nap while the babies napped. Today, however, the task is to un-Christmasify the house in record time while they sleep.

Last year we bought our Christmas tree very early hoping to get the house decorated before the sweet baby came on 13 December. Sweet Baby had other plans though, and decided to come 9 days early, leaving our house undecorated. Luckily we had Marge coming, and she whipped this house into Christmas shape. Our tree came from the volunteer fire station just up the road. 2 nice old grandpas helped us load it up and were so happy to see their first customers that they gave Boozle 2 candy canes just because. The tree drank about 1/4 cup of water the entire month we had it and by week 2 was a fire waiting to happen. This year we hesitated going to the same volunteer fire station because we thought maybe the $20 trees were just not going to measure up with the expensive ones, freshness-wise. But after considering the convenience option, we decided to walk up there again to pick out this year's winner. After bundling up and securing Big Baby in the stroller and Boozle in the wheel barrow (the highlight of his life!), we headed up the road, only to discover that they didn't open until 1 December that wasn't for 2 more days. Back home we went. Two days later we repeated the same process and successfully chose our tree. Boozle was very confused and kept asking when we were going to find the Christmas tree since the trees were stiff from being tied up and didn't look like normal Christmas trees yet.

Now here we are, over a month later, and it's still drinking water. It seems a shame to chuck it out when the heavenly pine scent still greets us every single time we come down the stairs. I guess I'm just like Marge and I just won't ever give in to the fake tree.

Anyways, we had a great Christmas in Utah and here are some highlights:

trip to the Discovery Gateway Museum. had lots of fun and Big Baby even brought home a stomach virus for all to enjoy

some snow shoveling with Grandpa

fabulous tour of the fire station, courtesy of fireman Paul

We heart Mo-town

We absolutely love the town we live in. There are so many fabulous parks, stores, activities, all over and 99% of them we can walk to. We always dreamed of living in Europe for a few years so I guess this is as close as we'll get for now. At Christmas they decorate the town center with tons of lights, a big Christmas tree, and do free little train rides. Boozle loved it and was confused and disappointed when he had to get off to let the other kids ride.

Happy Birthday Big Baby

Saturday we celebrated Big Baby's birthday in NYC. Despite the chill, we had a great time (along with 15 million other people) looking at the Macy*s windows, checking out the Rockerfellar tree, eating street vendor pretzels, and looking at the gigantic ferris wheel in Toys R Us where you could ride in a Barbie car, a Little People school bus, a Legos taxi, a Little Tikes Cozy Coupe, etc...






The whole day we just couldn't stop talking about how quickly the year went. It really doesn't feel like it was one whole year ago that sweet Big Baby decided he was on his way.

In the past few months he has changed so much. He's finally started to chub up a bit. Pretty much since birth he's been around the 4th or 5th percentile but he finally jumped up to the 9th at his 1 year appt. Maybe now he can start to live up to his nickname, Big Baby.

He loves to crawl around after Boozle and laugh hysterically. They definitely keep each other entertained and are best buddies. We usually get out toys for Big Baby to play with but he immediately abandons them to join Boozle in whatever he's playing with. Boozle's learning to be a very patient and generous big brother.





Just a few weeks ago he decided that he didn't want to ever be left behind so when we were upstairs helping with bathroom time, he started trying to climb the stairs. He's made it to the 2nd stair now so soon we might have to do some child-proofing. He loves to play in the kitchen while I cook and he loves whisks best. (Although at our Thanksgiving beach house in Delaware his preferred kitchen tool was the red egg separator).

His favorite foods are mango, pears, apples, applesauce, steamed carrots, avocado, peas, crackers, french toast (but he still is only a medium fan of cheese- yet another way he wants to be opposite from boozle)

His words: mama, tata (I think it's tack, tack which means thank you in Swedish).

His skillz: clapping his hands, playing peek-a-boo, pulling himself to standing at anything that will allow it, climbing up stairs (!) and so far he's done 2, making us laugh with his funny dramatic faces

Teeth count: 3

Happy Birthday Big Baby!

House Tour: Big Boy Room

After we potty trained Boozle we thought it'd be a good idea to move him into a big bed so he could get up and go if he needed to in the middle of the night. Little did we know that months later, he would be getting up to ask to go to the bathroom over and over right when he first lies down but wouldn't be waking up in the middle of the night when he needs to go. So it goes...

We weren't sure if he'd have a tough adjustment and feel like L (we call him Big Baby) was "stealing" his crib as some people warned about, so we went to Ikea to check out his reaction before deciding for sure. He jumped all over each bed and said, "Can we buy this one? Is this one Boozle's bed?" before we had even mentioned that we were going to buy him a bed. He let us know he was definitely ready.

So the search began. I didn't want a room that screamed little boy. No plastic car beds, no huge train tracks, no blue and red plaid. Those were my criteria. I scoured the internet and eventually, thanks to my super crafty and stylish friend, I found the ONE. I had to modify things, of course, and it's still not 100% done (if you know of someone that loves to sand things, send them my way!), but we love how it's turning out.

The color scheme is: orange, white, and silver so I painted a super cheap twin bed from Ikea super shiny silver and we love it. The bedding is from Ikea and fit perfectly within the budget and the color scheme. The paper airplanes are courtesy of T's mad folding skills and are hot glued to the ceiling. The most fun of all the projects was a tie between the Craigslist dresser that I painted white with silver hardware and the pelmet boxes above the windows. The most annoying project is a tie between the gray slipcover I made for the ottoman and then had to remake again and the darling Craigslist cupboard thing that I've been sanding and sanding because it's coated with 3 hideously-thick coats of peach and royal blue paint.

Farewell

Tonight as I sit here preparing my Sunday School lesson, I am greeted by a chilling wind coming in from the windows. This past week we have finally faced the facts that fall comes early in New Jersey and that summer is over. Sure, they already closed the pool. Sure, the kids all started school. Sure, it is dark at 8pm now. But I just wasn't ready to accept the fact that winter is on the horizon. Scary, dark, freezing, lonely winter. So we've been denying that it's coming. We kept the air conditioner units in the windows just in case another hot day surprised us. But today we finally took them out and relocated them to the attic. This morning after I got back from my run and T was getting ready to go he said he was shivering. I responded with the obligatory, "Don't look at me; it was your choice to move here." And he responded with, "I need some hot chocolate. And it's only September!" He seems to forget that he grew up in Utah. But the cold here is different; it's bone chilling.

Let's be positive and think of the pros of fall coming:
1. Candy corn and candy corn pumpkin season
2. Pumpkin bread season
3. More time for blogging since there's less time for swimming, playing at the park, eating outside, etc...
4. Chilly evenings make knitting seem more appropriate
5. Well, that's about all I can think of. Four is better than none, though.

But at least we enjoyed our summer filled with swim lessons; trips to see cousins, aunts, uncles, grandmas, opas, grandpas, gmas, etc...; horsey rides; learning to eat food; learning to crawl, sit up, roll over; learning to use the toilet; getting a new big boy room... (Just to name a few).


yummy spoon

Nothing says fun like playing with Uncle Ty in the big vinyl school bus