Weston's 2nd Birthday

I still can't get my head around the fact that Westie turned two last week.  How did that happen?

We have seriously made August a month-long celebration for sweet West.  His actual birthday was on August 17 and we kicked off the day with a trip to Waffle House for breakfast.

After breakfast - or technically "brunch", although I don't think WH makes the distinction - Ben took the big boys to see Planes with Kyle & Emmerson.  It was Weston's first movie-theater experience; other than a dirty diaper, 2 self-declared intermissions and loads of popcorn and bootlegged M&Ms, I think it went fairly well.

After dinner, we feasted on birthday cake and let Weston open his presents.

This past weekend, we had Weston's party.  We had a joint party with our neighbor Carson, who turned two a week earlier than Westie did.  We could not have asked for better weather...mid-80s, breezy and sunshine.  Per West's request, we had a Mickey Mouse party, and Poppy & Gigi were kind enough to rent us a bounce house for his party.  And Uncle Mikey & Aunt Jenn came in town that weekend too, so that was a real treat!

Being crafty, I couldn't possibly let a party slip by without at least a little bit of Pinterest inspiration.

Everyone wore the Mickey party hats, which turned out pretty cute :)

 Weston's mackin' on all the girlies :)

We caught Westie red-handed (literally) swiping some icing. 

After a day full of fun, friends & family, we had a relaxing evening.  Sunday, Mike & Jenn came to church with us before heading back to Raleigh.

Thanks to everyone for helping us celebrate sweet Weston's birthday!

Treasure Trove

When I was home earlier this week, Mom suggested I go down to the basement and pull out some boxes of my old toys for the boys to play with.

I started opening up various bins vaguely labeled "Missy's Keepsakes" or "Missy Personal" and stepped back in time to the late 80s & early 1990s. 

I found my old jewelry box, still full of costume jewelry...necklaces from old boyfriends, tarnished rings and random silver charms that never made it on to my charm bracelet.  I'd hung on to these treasures in hopes of giving them to my daughter one day.  I guess I'll just hope & pray for nieces :)

And also in my jewelry box, I found all of my baby teeth that the tooth fairy was generous enough to leave behind.  Notice how the dental floss used to pull out one particular tooth is still intact.  And my old retainer was there too.  Really?  Does this make me a hoarder, or just strange?

Not sure why I felt strongly enough about any of these items to hang on to them for decades, but found some embarrassingly dated Express jeans, a single pilgrim-looking loafer and my roller blades.

 

I also found boxes of tapes.  Yes, cassette tapes.  I found ones from the early 80s where my mom would record & send tapes from Texas to MawMaw in NC.  Kind of like voicemail.  I also found one labeled "Missy & Katie's Radio Show." I can only imagine.  I need to find a cassette player so I can listen to these.  

I finally stumbled across the box of my old toys and found all three dozen of the trolls I had collected.  I remember having them displayed around the top edge of my room when I was in elementary school.  I had put a piece of tape in each one's hair and thumbtacked them to the crown molding around the perimeter of my bedroom.  I'm glad my sense of decorating has improved since then.

I also found my two favorite dolls, Cricket & Kid Sister. (I was never super original enough to rename the dolls).  Cricket has a tape deck in her back and talks.  Creepy, yes.  She also seems to weigh about 15 lbs and is bigger than Colton.

And my favorite find of the day was my box of old diaries, journals & love notes.  This will get a post of its own, but here's a sneak peek.

I had the best time reminiscing about the "good 'ole days" and showing the boys some relics from my childhood.  

My almost 4-Month Old

It blows my mind how this sweet little baby is already 3 1/2 months old.  I mean, they say time just speeds up but no kidding!!

We are getting tons of precious smiles, lots of coos and some great laughs from little Colt. He has starting rolling over and can almost put his paci on his own mouth. He is such a laid back, chill baby and is pretty much content just hanging out.  Good thing...not sure how I would be able to juggle all 3 if he was demanding :)


His big brothers still adore him...although West may be a tad jealous every now and then.  Most of the time when I am nursing, Westie crawls up in my lap, too.  Or when I am coming down the stairs, I have Colt up front and Weston riding piggy back.



We've been to the zoo, swimming pool and mountains as a family of 5. Colt seems to be built like West...he's pretty solid and is wearing 6 months clothes already.



Colton's & his first official guy friend, 9-month old Liam (Julie's sweet baby). All of the other babies he's friends with are girls!


We are gradually letting him sleep solo but its still just easier to let him cuddle with me all night.



Ben & I are both totally loving this baby stage right now and we totally cherish this little sweetheart.

And for traditions sake:

Bye-Bye Tonsils

Jackson got his tonsils out last Friday. We had been reading books about it for weeks and spent several days the previous week buying cold treats, picking out movies to watch and Bn & I had been preparing ourselves for the worst.
The week prior, we had a "Mommy/Jackson Date" and went to Build-A-Bear to make a "brave buddy" to keep him company during surgery. We had the best time just the two of us...which is few and far between these days!









{Back at the ranch, this little turkey was playing choo-choos with Daddy.}



The night before the surgery, we made homemade chocolate cake for our "Bye-Bye Tonsil" celebration. Don't mind the powdered sugar tonsils I tried to stencil on the cake.



And one last look at those monsters:



The morning of the surgery, Jackson wasn't so keen on getting out of bed. It was 8am and he did not want to be woken up. Poor Westie, I think he thought we were going to go have another baby...the last time we took a family picture out front like this was when I was going to the hospital to have Colton.



Let me start by saying that I never in my wildest dreams imagined how EASY it would go. Jackson is typically a little over dramatic with boo-boos and so I could only imagine how awful the proceeding week was going to be.
We got checked in and taken back to pre-op and Jackson was cool as a cucumber. No tears, just brave faces and smiles.









They took him back to the OR wide awake and the doctor came out in less than 30 minutes telling us that it went great. And his tonsils were pretty definitely pretty big.



He was awake and talking within minutes and this picture was taken about 1 hour post surgery:



Yes. He was smiling. Not a single tear. Seriously, not a single tear the entire time. He sucked down 2 popsicles and a frosty before we were discharged. He was given the choice of a wagon or a piggy-back ride down to the car and he chose "a wheelchair". He was pretty psyched that they obliged.



We got home around 2 and after eating about 4 cups of ice cream, Jackson fell asleep sitting up, ice cream in hand.



After his disco nap, Jackson woke up ready to ride his bike. We wouldn't let him and it was all we could do to keep him from over-doing it by running around the house and acting all hyper.
Saturday, he woke up around 9am after sleeping for 12 consecutive hours and DID NOT MENTION his throat at all. No complaining, no hoarseness, nothing. He did request pudding for breakfast and after wolfing that down, he decided that he wanted to go swimming that day. And so we did. He jumped off the diving board, swam under water and acted 100% normal.
And on Sunday, our church had a picnic after the service. After eating a hotdog, a bag of chips and 3 cookies, Jackson jumped in the bounce house for 20 minutes. Once again, no complaints or even so much as a mention of feeling bad.
And now, 10 days post-op, we are still doing awesome. We've had a handful of nights where he has woken up with throat pain (which is normal) and I've definitely caught him playing the sick card to get ice cream instead of the meal the rest of the family is eating. But seriously, this was a cinch.
We are so thankful for a sucessful surgery and a hopefully healthier and quieter child!!
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