Things have been very busy around here since I last posted for me and my schooling goals -- dissertation finishing and preparing for the defense. This past week, we had a combination of snow and cold temperatures that resulted in cancelled classes for the boys' preschool AND the two universities were my husband and I work, respectively.
Chaos is ruling, but it's a good kind of chaos.
My little buddy turned 2 years old yesterday! We celebrated by having lasagna dinner for around 22 (my mom's side of the family, Hal's parents, and Luke's godfather's family). He got lots of presents (including a sandbox) and really enjoyed his cake, which he has been asking for for days.
Nathan is so sweet. He's talking more and more and he loves to run, climb, and jump. He and his big brother have such fun together (most of the time). Nathan is a finicky eater -- we never know if he's going to eat everything or nothing on his plate. He especially likes anything sweet, bread, hot dogs, cheese, raisins, and pizza (what terrible nutrition). We work on veggies and fruits, but he has always been very stubborn about food. If he doesn't want it, he's not going to eat it (and the reverse is true -- there is no quicker way to get a crying/tantrum than to take away something he wants to eat).
He loves lions and making animal noises. He enjoys Sesame Street, Thomas the Tank Engine, and he gets excited when he sees airplanes. He gives hugs and kisses a lot and really enjoys seeing Gammy (my mom) and "The Pa" (my dad).
He likes his book Moon Mater the best, but he loves to read and sing, especially before bed. He enjoys the bathtub and loves to say "potty," particularly when his big brother leaves a table at a restaurant to go to the potty. He likes to draw and dance and is just a joy.
We went to Puerto Rico from Dec 19-23 to take part in my brother's wedding. We were so pleased to be able to go (and I was asked to do a reading -- in English, thank goodness, as I have no Spanish). In a complete surprise, my mom's entire family was able to come (there are about 23 of us), and we also had family friends, an aunt and uncle from my dad's side of the family, and several of my brother's friends make the trip.
As you can imagine, we took some pictures. :)
This was the boys' first flight. They were actually wonderful on the flight. Nathan had a hard time before takeoff on the flight from Atlanta to PR, but once he fell asleep and had about an hour-long nap, he did great. Otherwise, we had them watch movies the whole time. Thank goodness for technology. Luke also got to sit in the cockpit! I'll have to find that picture -- Hal took it on his phone.
The first night in PR, we surprised Sylvia with an impromptu shower. This is a picture of Sylvia (in the middle, between my sister and I), and all the girl cousins except for Laura, who was randomly missing at this moment. (She did this so much that it became a running joke to yell "Where's Laura?!" randomly and she got a shirt on Christmas that said "Where's Laura?")
Nathan's first time on the beach! He loved it!!! :) Luke also had a great time. The waves were ROUGH so we didn't do too much oceaning, but we did get to do a bit.
Sylvia's beautiful church during the rehearsal!
In Puerto Rico, it is customary to do a rehearsal, but not a rehearsal dinner. My parents threw a big dinner anyway, and worked with a friend of Sylvia's to make a custom Rupp Arena cake! We also had a flash mob for Sylvia at the rehearsal -- she had posted something on Facebook a couple of months ago about a flashmob and said something about people being welcome to do something like that at the wedding. So my mom wrote a song to the tune of "We Wish you a Merry Christmas" called "We wish you a happy wedding." And my aunts, cousins, and I all got different verses. (Hal and I sang "Your family and friends came from near and from far/to see you get married and drink at the bar" -- and all the guys chimed in to yell "DRINK AT THE BAR!" with us.) It was a hoot. Also, Donnie wore his dress blues to the rehearsal, which was really special.
At the rehearsal dinner on the balcony looking over the ocean!
Me and my buddy at the rehearsal dinner.
Luke was all about talking to uncle Donnie before we got in the bus to go to the wedding.
We cleaned up!
Post wedding happy couple!
My parents with Nathan post wedding. The priest gave Nathan and Luke big blow pop suckers before church. Which Nathan LOVED. And drooled all over.
My mom (called Gammy by the boys) and Nathan dancing in the bus before going to the reception.
Bus Selfie!
Nathan and Hal bonded a lot the last two weeks.
Luke and his new aunt!
He was a MANIAC dancing. A maniac. He even tried to go get the microphone to sing at one point. He was breakdancing and everything. Out. of. control.
Sylvia and my cousin Kaysie. Notice anything different? This is Sylvia's SECOND WEDDING DRESS!
Cake
My cousin Kayla brought Santa hats.
Me and Donnie.
Sisters!
On Sunday, we got Nathan into Gammy and Pa's pool for the first time! He loved it! Luke is getting braver this year, too. He likes jumping off the side!
My paternal grandfather, who passed away right before Christmas in 2002, love Christmas. He made the girls in the family beautiful stables for nativity sets. Now that we are finally settled in a house where we know we will be for awhile, we worked on Christmas decor this year.
I had a nativity set for my grandpa's stable when I was young, but it was lost and broken over the years. This year I looked and looked for a nativity set. I finally found two I liked yesterday. My grandmother would have been pleased that they were on sale.
(There are more characters in the nativity set I bought, but I wanted to be sure that they at least fit in the stable. They do. Phew!)
OK, OK, I know it's not Halloween yet. But I had to share Luke's costume.
Luke
has been obsessed lately with watching rocket ships. We watch the
shuttle launches on YouTube constantly. I think he watched the shuttle
Discovery launch about 50 times the other day.
When the topic of Halloween came up, Hal said, "Wouldn't it be great if we could make him a rocket ship?"
I
had no idea if there was a rocket ship costume. I had no urge to make
one (I have other things going on, after all!). I thought maybe we could
find an astronaut costume, which wasn't ideal because Luke didn't quite
know what an astronaut was.
But we found this costume. It's a
Target costume, and was (even on sale!) more expensive than I would
normally spend on a costume -- $25 on sale. But he was SO EXCITED about
it. And it was the only thing we saw. And I didn't want to think about
it anymore.
So we bought it. And he LOVES it.
In fact, he wouldn't take it off the day we brought it home. Even to play.
(I guess we'll take heart in the fact that Nathan's costume came from Once Upon a Child and was like $2.)
Luke's birthday is TODAY. He is a smart, silly, hilarious, and busy little guy. We are so happy to have him in our family.
Last
night, we had his party at my parents' house. My mom's side of the
family and Hal's dad come to celebrate with us. We had a lasagna dinner
and cake and ice cream. Luke got tons of presents. He was a little
unsure about everyone singing to him, and when his super cool bulldozer
(which was battery powered) took off across the table, making everyone
yell, he didn't like that too much (he told my mom later to put it in
the trash, lol). He spent a lot of time saying "smile" when I asked him
to smile -- instead of actually smiling! What a silly.
This
weekend has capped off a very busy week of moving and Hal's "vacation"
we went to the zoo twice. We bought a family pass to the zoo for Luke's
birthday present (we also got him the movie Cars). Today we went to the
aquarium and did the penguin encounter. The penguin encounter was my
grandmother's mother's day present -- so it was all the girls on my
mom's side of the family, and Luke and Nathan. There are plenty of
photos under the cut!
Luke loved that his cake had toy cars on it.
Cheesing. This is his response to "Can you give me a teeth smile?"
He loves his new slide!
And he is pumped about his soccer goal!
Feeding the giraffe at the zoo was a huge hit.
Nathan is a little stunned at the zoo. It was very warm the first time we went.
At
the penguins! Luke had to go in that carrier for the penguin experience
(it was the aquarium's carrier -- Nathan is in my ergo). He wasn't too
thrilled, but he was very good!
Touching the penguin!
