gold confetti

Friday, February 16, 2018

Sully

You guys....my baby boy turned 2 today. My chunky thighed, rock solid, gap toothed, fearless, block-footed, smiles for days, big bellied, loud, car-obsessed, dirt throwing, happy, mischievous, cuddly-when-he-wants-to-be, sister-lovin', Daddy's best friend, Mama's boyfriend, blue eyed baby is not a baby anymore :(  He is 2. And I know he's still young. He's still a toddler.  But he's not a baby.  He hasn't been a "baby, baby" for a long time.  But now he looks like a little kid. He is growing so fast and wants to do EVERYTHING himself.  He is in charge of all of us and he knows it! He can throw a fit with the best of 'em and man, the terrible two's really are TERRIBLE.  But then he looks at me with those eyes and he speaks in his sweet baby voice that he only uses when he wants something and even though I know I'm being manipulated, I just turn into complete mush and give in.  Which means he gets his way all the time. Way too often.
He is so special to me! I am completely obsessed with him.  He LOVES his Daddy the most and Piper second best.  Piper and Sully, together, are the worlds' cutest little humans.  Their relationship just melts me because they truly adore each other. Piper laments over how adorable he is at least once a day.  She cheers him on with all of his milestones and can't wait to play with him when she gets home from school.  And when he sees her each day his face lights up! There's nothing sweeter! Lucy loves him too- that's her baby brother.  But Piper and him have something special!
 I love watching Daddy with him as well.  They are just the best buds that I always envisioned when I pictured my son. Because even though we both technically "made" him, I almost feel like he was a gift I gave to Shawn, since I am the one who carried him and nourished him in my belly for 40 weeks.  Does that seem weird? I don't know...probably. But I know Shawn wanted a son so badly someday and when we found out that our last baby would be the son he always dreamed of, it made it that much more special to "give him" to him. It looks weird to type.  It's not something that's easily explained! But between his relationship with Shawn and his sisters, I get to witness remarkable moments every single day that make my heart take flight.  This little boy gives that to me every single day.  Do you know how special that is to me?? I can't get enough of him!
The days are NOT always easy with him, don't get me wrong.  But there is so much of him to love and he makes me laugh just enough that the bad moments seem to slip away after he goes to bed each night. And yes- I still go and hold his hand while he peacefully dreams in his crib every night.  I will him to squeeze my finger the way he did when he was a newborn, but those days are long gone now.  However, he still sleeps with his hands curled up, so I slide my finger into his palm anyway.
Speaking of sleep, he also recently stopped sleeping on his belly with his buns in the air.  I love it how babies do that and I wish it never ended....but it does.  He still has a crib because he is a night-owl.  Meaning, he wakes up in the night a LOT and Shawn and I don't want him getting up and playing.  He has all of his toys in his room and until he can sleep soundly ALL through the night we are keeping his confined in his crib, hehe!  He likes his crib though, so it's not a bad situation at all!

His favorite things are: trains, cars, tractors (anything with wheels, big or small!), fruit snacks, buckets of water with cups in them (he can spend hours just pouring water from one thing to another- it's his latest obsession!), the trampoline, slides, throwing rocks and dirt, running around and around, shoes, cough-drops, gum, Elmo, the movie Cars, wrestling with the dogs, playing peek-a-boo, playing "chase," being outside even when it's FREEZING out, climbing all over mommy and daddy when we lay down, eating chips, yelling "NO!" and  "MINE!," and digging in sand. This Spring we need to get our sandbox cleaned out and re-stocked for him! He will love that! He still hates getting his diaper changed, he hates when I take things away from him that he's not supposed to have, he gets REALLY mad when he has successfully snuck one of the girls toys and they find out and take it from him, and he loves making messes and breaking things.  I guess all of that means one thing: he is a rowdy little boy and a typical brother :)

Sully has us all shamelessly kissing the ground he walks on.... what are we to do??!

There is a good chance, though, that The Terrible Two's might harden our hearts towards him a little bit this year though, so I'll keep you posted. ;-)

For his "Two-Year-Old" photo shoot, I wanted him totally in his element having fun. The best place to take a rambunctious, dirt-loving two year old is to a construction sight! Tractors and dirt as far as his legs could take him! That place was heaven to him! I let him get dirty and I snapped away! It was a perfect and FUN afternoon!
This morning we brought Sully his traditional Breakfast-in-crib :) He thought it was so cool that all of us walked into his room at the same time singing. He loved it! It was pretty dang adorable!
Before the girls went to school we let him open one gift in front of them- a sink from Nana and Pops Smidt that has real running water.  He was SO into it! He played with that thing for hours today! It was awesome. Definitely a winner!!

He then helped me bake his cupcakes (and by help, I mean he just kept sticking his chubby fingers in the batter and testing it out for me;-) ).
While he napped, I picked up Piper from school and it was time for the rest of his presents! He received a new T-Ball set, a pretend motorcycle, a bouncy donkey thing, a new swim suit, an adorable retro Radio Flyer tricycle, and a velcro ball catch/mitt set.  He was royally spoiled! Thank you to everyone who contributed to his birthday! I wasn't able to get a picture with him and all of his gifts together because, well, he's 2.  Tasmanian Devil, remember??
We had Taco Bell for dinner (with Cars decorations, naturally!) because that's his favorite! And he literally inhaled it. He ate a cheesy roll-up and cheesy fiesta potatoes in less than 3 minutes. It was awesome! Cupcakes came next, and then a BIG, extra bubbly bath in Mama's tub.  
He facetimed Ninny and Baba and Grammy and PawPaw and had a great day!

Sully baby, I love you more than all the leaves on all the trees.....and after you go to bed tonight and are in a deep sleep, I'll stand over your crib in your darkened, quiet room and my heart will break...and I'll quietly sob.  Because my heart beats outside of my chest; in you.  You have my whole heart and I love you more and more every single day.
Happy Birthday sweet boy.

Wednesday, February 7, 2018

A new month!

The end of January and the beginning of February have all passed by in a blur because for most of it I was sick.  I think I had the flu? Not sure, but it was so bad and it's still lingering. I haven't been that sick in a LONG time! Shawn had to take work off for 2 days to cover for me because I literally could NOT get out of bed.  So, through most of this stuff I was fighting off sickness and pretending to feel like myself because I didn't want to let anyone down! Life goes on whether you're sick or not!

The girls and Shawn got to go to a Hockey Game and the best part was, it was Tulsa Oilers vs. Idaho Steelheads! How cool is that?! I have never been to a hockey game that WASN'T the Steelheads playing! I wanted to go, but it was after Sully's bedtime so I had to skip it. It was SO much fun for them though. I cant wait to start getting to do things without worrying about bedtimes someday..... The Oilers mascot waved and hugged the girls, they saw a few guys get thrown against the walls and Shawn said they loved that! They got ice-cream and Lucy caught a shirt that was thrown! Fun night!
Lucy learned to ride a bike without training wheels 2 weeks ago, and for that I wasn't sick! I don't have pictures though, because unfortunately I took a zillion videos and no still pictures, except for one before she got going. But I was so proud of her because she has been TERRIFIED to learn to ride without training wheels for 2 years. She is a nervous child and this was huge for her! Her 2nd weekend of trying she got it and that meant she was rewarded with a Slurpee. I'm so proud of that girl! Now she needs a new bike!
Everything else from that point forward is fuzzy because I was in a flu-haze! We had Mornings with Mom's at the girls school which was hard but after close to 3 days in my bed I managed to get up and show up at the school for 45 minutes. Then I went home and slept again.
Lucy earned an award for having good Hallway manners, which is a big deal for a rambunctious 1st grader ;-)
Sunday was Shawn's birthday and at this point I was feeling much better.  Well, enough not to cancel the party we had planned. No way could I do that to Shawn! Not only was it his birthday, but it was the Super Bowl! We invited a few of our friends over and can you believe I didn't get any group shots of the adults? I have been so bad about taking pictures with my friends here in Oklahoma. I just never think about it anymore!  
Anyway, we finally had a year with good commercials! It's been SO long since I've seen a Super Bowl with any great commercials, until this year. FINALLY.  The only thing that would have made it better is if the Saint's had made it through the play-offs and played on Sunday. That would have been amazing for Shawn's birthday, but they had a sad loss a few weeks back! 
Shawn turned 34 so he is officially in his mid-thirties! He said he feels so old, haha!! I love that man and hope that even though I wasn't myself 100%, he still felt special on his day. 
Shawn asked for bacon, sausage, and cheesy hash browns :)
Yesterday was one of my favorite men in the world's birthday, Pops Smidt! Love that Pops of mine more than he knows. Calling him and chatting with him on the phone last night was the highlight of my day. I love his animated stories and his upbeat attitude and how excited he was about the Bloomin' Onion he ate at dinner :) :) I hope he got Chicken Lips and Pirate Juice with his meal and I hope he took all he could eat and ate all he took! Hahaha, if you know Pops, you know just what I'm talking about! 

Next week is Valentine's Day and Sully's 2nd birthday so thankfully I'll be healthy by then!

In other news, we filed our taxes and got enough back just enough to pay off the cruise we took in December. We kinda did that backwards, but it was worth it to pay interest on that for a few months. We won't have any leftover money from tax returns but it will feel good to get a good chunk of debt paid down!

Happy Wednesday everyone!