Brothers

Peanut

Well these two certainly are brothers.

As soon as we posted pictures of Dumpling 

we started getting comments about how much these two looked like each other.

Dumpling

While they looked nearly identical at birth,
we started seeing differences shortly after.

Dumpling is a little softer, with fuller features,
Peanut's features were finer.

Peanut

It seems that every day Dumpling looks more and more like himself
and less like Peanut
but sometimes the similarities are overwhelming.


Dumpling

Personality-wise these two could not be more different thus far.

It's sort of hilarious.
This baby is low-maintenance.

So perhaps this one will take more after B
unlike his big brother who has my more shall we say, demanding personality.

Are your kids similar in temperament?
What about you and your siblings?

Peanut's pictures taken by Jylare Anne Photography
Dumpling's pictures taken by Kelly Lombardo Photography

And the next one will be...

Taken on Easter (20 weeks, the halfway point!)

Happy Mother's Day everyone!

This year I'm celebrating with my one little boy.

My silly, sweet, sensitive, dirty, energetic, crazy little boy.

But next Mother's Day I'll be celebrating with…... 

TWO LITTLE BOYS!

Peanut with baby Charlie

As I suspected after watching every ultrasound like a hawk, we're having another little boy.
I knew I saw something there!

So I'm going to be the mom of TWO BOYS,
I can hardly believe it!

The jump from one to two boys seems so hard core.

Double the dirt, double the fun?

Is that how the saying goes?

Meanwhile, I've given up my stash of girls clothes and girls names and girl plans (sigh),
and I'm getting really excited.  I can't wait to see if the two boys look alike or totally different.

  B is over the moon.  He would have been very happy to have a girl but I do recall him starting to talk about having 2 boys before we even had Peanut.

And no, we are not going to be trying for a girl next… are you crazy?
You know we'll end up with 3 boys!
This is it.  2 is perfect and I'm sure we'll have our hands full.

Peanut has been practicing his big brother skills on Boots the dog and Toby the turtle.

He likes to hum the Star Wars theme song to baby Boots to get him to go to sleep.

I need to get a video of that some time soon.

Every infant wants to fall asleep to the Star Wars theme song, right?

\

Soak it all in Peanut, you have about 17 more weeks to be the baby
before little brother comes in and cramps your style!

One Gorilla and a Peanut's view of mommy

I picked up this book at the library without even flipping through it.

I was in a rush and was drawn to the cover illustration.

You can't tell because of the lighting but the pictures are bright, clear and vivid.

The author/illustrator uses watercolors and the result is amazing.

The book is called One Gorilla: A Counting Book by Anthony Browne

It starts as a simple counting book.

Simple in that it's a counting book, but I seriously didn't know the names of half these animals.

Peanut can now identify Macaques in a line-up of monkeys.

And then we get here and I start wondering if lemurs are monkeys.

But then John Mellencamp pops up and declares us all one big primate family!

This is a self-portrait of Anthony Browne, the author but does it remind anyone else of Mellencamp?

So here is where the book gets really fun.

We look at all the different people and ask Peanut which ones look most like our family.

The green circles are who I thought Peanut would pick for mommy and daddy.  

The blue arrows are the pictures that Peanut picked.

We all agreed on Peanut as the little Asian boy in the bottom right corner.

I thought the Asian man with glasses would be B but the one Peanut picked made sense also.

But who do you think Peanut picked for me??

Take a good look.

I know there isn't really a good match for me but I assumed

either a woman with dark hair or an Asian girl.

I was so very wrong.

Every. single. time. Peanut picks this lady.

Is it the red lipstick?  I do love red lipstick, although lets admit that the blue eyeshadow is overkill.

B tries to make me feel better by saying it's the big smile.

What is it about this lady that resembles me…

or have I looked like a blonde crackhead all these years and never even known it?

Peanut's Book Journal

Back in September for some unknown reason 
I decided that I should be cataloging the books that Peanut is reading.
Or that I am reading to Peanut.  Or that we are reading together, depending on how you look at it.

I think it had something to do with discovering the Goodreads scanner on my phone.  I spent an hour that night scanning books in a frenzy.

And so I signed Peanut up for Goodreads and started rating and sorting.

Then I started separating them into bookshelves of holidays, favorite illustrations, etc.  Both for my own references and for other parents who ask me for recommendations.

I couldn't even begin to remember all the library books we've checked out over the last few years.  
I'm glad to keep track now so that I may find and revisit old favorites.
We randomly pick up a lot of books as we pass shelves at the library and sometimes we have a hard time remembering what they were months later.

We don't review books until we've had them a few weeks.  
Like food, I find that kids are sometimes uninterested the first time around.

As we go through and fill out reviews, I've separated them into both "Mommy" and "Peanut" reviews… because we obviously don't always have the same taste.  
Ratings are averaged between the 2 of us.

Sometimes we revisit old books and he really takes to them all of a sudden.
Some books are instant classics for the both of us.




Won't this be great to look back on when he gets older?
Or is it just me in my book nerdiness?

So if you want to keep up with our book reviews
 you can find us on Goodreads HERE!

I'd love suggestions for books to read!

We are always looking for something new and I love hearing what your family favorites are.

Peanut's Promotion

We're finally here!

It's been 2 years and several pregnancies but the 3rd time's a charm!

I'll be 13 weeks on Sunday and everything is looking perfect!
We are very excited!

I'll tell you all about it as soon as I stop throwing up.  ;)

Let daddy take a nap

Daddy is really tired.

Don't wake him up, let's let him sleep for a little bit, OK?

"OK, mommy. "

Parenting means learning to sleep while your kid climbs all over you.

Pics taken Sept 2013

Peanut's Christmas House

It is not enough that Peanut has his own house in our backyard.

A house complete with doorbell, kitchen, eating area and custom shelving by Papa.

One day I came home from work to find this happening.

Papa ran a 50 foot extension cord across the pergola, onto what was once our canopy and down onto the house so that it would have working lights.

And then he made sure it was remote-controlled so Peanut could turn them on and off himself.

They did this all during nap so he woke up to a big surprise.

He was so excited and is still excited every time he goes outside.

Peanut was very impressed with the lights!

Oh and the snow, we can't forget the snow!

Nama then made sure to decorate it with a new Christmas wreath,  plants for the flower pots and a Santa welcome mat to pull it all together.

Peanut ADORES decorations.  

It's awesome to do these types of things for him because he loves it SO much.

Even at night after dinner, when it's too dark to play outside, he likes to turn on his lights and admire his house through the window.

This year is turning out to be so much fun because

 he's really getting excited about all the holiday cheer! 

Besides, who needs to wait for Santa when you have Nama & Papa?

Peanut's 3rd Birthday: Outer Space

I'm not sure if I've told you this yet but Peanut has been obsessed with outer space for the last 6 months or so.  He loves outer space, planets, rockets and Star Wars.

He can name the planets in the solar system.

I had to look this up.  It's terrible but seriously, do you remember the names of the planets in order?

Anyone who names Pluto is automatically disqualified.

Of course, we still wanted to do Halloween so we just threw it all together in a mish mosh.

A Halloween/ Outer Space/ Costume Party!

Instead of elaborate cupcakes I wanted to simplify and do cake push pops.

We started these at 11 pm the night before.
We had a really full day with another party to go to so it couldn't be helped.

If you really wanted to make them cute you could do flames coming out the bottom!

But you don't do those types of things when you start at 11 pm.

Why won't kids every go to bed on time when you have a deadline?

Anyway, cake push pops.  Hmm, I'm going to try these again but I'm not a huge fan of frosting so an entire layer of it is not a perk for me.  AND the boxed cake mix was too fluffy so it fell apart when we stuffed them.  I'm going to work on this process and get back to you.

Cake decorating is really not my thing.  At all.

Frosting cakes is not my thing.

So I made a sheet cake, froze it, cut out a paper stencil of a rocket,

cut around the stencil and then used canned white frosting on it.

Then I cut the circles out of the stencil and stuck them on the iced cake, cut the fins?  (you see, that's how much I know about rockets) off the stencil and stuck them on the cake.

Added sprinkles to the body of the rocket, removed the stencil pieces,
added Dollar Tree candles, called it a day.

This kid.  Do you see this kid?  

Can you feel the energy coming through the screen?

Yup.  He's hilarious.

His parents are AMAZING and made this for me.

2 1/2 weeks before the party I still had no idea what I was doing for the outer space theme.

His mama sent me a message that she would throw this together.

Can you believe that?

Me neither.

This rockets was completely amazing.

It was completely free standing.

Peanut is still using it, he thinks it's hilarious.

I should just set it up in his room in front of the mirror.

Snow White came by and all the little girls swooned.

Her little Mulan was incredibly adorable.

I love seeing all the kids dressed up.

This little boys birthday party was the day before.

These guys met at My Gym and immediately clicked 

so I guess you could say he's Peanut's first friend.
You know, a friend of his own making, outside of the friends that I have introduced him to.

Oh my God.

A little chicken!

I've really been cutting back on the parties
 but as my friends keep having babies, the parties never seem to get any smaller.

Cousin Daniel, always camera ready and without the strained fake smiles I get from Peanut.

Did I mention the RJ stand for Peanut's initials and the 3 for his age.

They thought of everything!

This is why you have little girls.

Her expression is fantastic.

And then I died.

Come on up little batman!

That finger full was all he ate of his cake which is why I don't believe in putting a lot of effort into it :)

My niece and her baby.

She's a parrot!  And my niece made her costume!

Baby Charlie's parents were pirates for Halloween 

and they looked adorable carrying around their little parrot.

Did I mention that both of them have Dawn as a middle name?

I like to mention that to people.

I did not previously know that spider girl existed but I love her.

Peanut was very envious of her brother, Darth Vader.

She's like the spokesmodel for cake push pops.

AND she has the modeling leg pop down.

I swear, every time I pulled out the camera she struck a pose!

Because my friends are awesome, we got a lot of themed cards and bags and presents.

Snow White made this one.

What 3 year old doesn't want a solar system in his room?

OK, my kid is a little odd.

After most of the guests left Daniel and Ryder decided to open some presents.

What this means is that Daniel opens the presents and we try to get Peanut to pay attention.

Peanut would be happy to open one present and then play with it.

Present opening could take days.  Months even.

I made Halloween and Space felt play boards for the kids to take home.

Thank you mom for the idea as I had no idea what to make.
My mom made them look professional.
I'll post about these soon!

And then there was this face.
You want to squish it and kiss her cheeks don't you?
She'll be a year old this month.

When she smiles, she has dimples and then I give her whatever she wants.

He had a great time!

PS In case you noticed, yes he was wearing pajamas the entire party.
They were supposed to go under his costume that he didn't wear.
It wasn't the type of costume that you can climb around in but I thought I could at least get one picture.
He was in it for days beforehand but you know how these things go.

SeaWorld: Dolphins, Dirty Looks & a Drenched Boy

Hello friends, join me on this lovely photographic journey of a day at SeaWorld...

a wonderland of toddler emotions.

Between the excitement of being with cousins, and the constant over-stimulation of an amusement park, it's amazing we made it out without any meltdowns.

Attitude, definitely.  Meltdowns?  Only by mommy.

The Dolphin Show.

You see, shows are odd for toddlers because we sit in venues that look as if something exciting might happen and we wait for 15 minutes before anything does.

That's the equivalent of spending six toddler months just looking around and trying to figure out what in the world we are supposed to be watching..

But then the dolphins show up and you're all like....

OMYGAWD!  DOLPHINS!

I was super impressed that someone was able to train these dolphins to flip over and splash the crowd with their tails.

Peanut was insistent that it was his turn to do it next.

He wanted to sit next to that lady with the tarp.

Which makes me wonder, why do you sit in the designated soak zone and then cover your legs with a flimsy blue poncho?

Dylan was mesmerized.

Either that or he was calculating how to get out of there before he got splashed.

Riding two dolphins is not nearly as graceful or feminine as one might think but she is quite talented.

This was also something that Peanut insisted was his turn next.

This is when we buy stinky fish, wait, we didn't buy that- thank you to whatever auntie or uncle got that for Peanut!- and we try to feed the seals that are fed all day, every day.

As you can see, these guys aren't exactly racing to the edge to receive their treats.

The only logical thing to do is pelt the noisy beasts with your fish.

I'm pretty sure they're just yelling at him and not trying to eat the fish.

Unless you can find this bird.  He wants all the fish and he's not afraid to step on a seal to get to it.

Cousin love.

This was a hug.  Or a tackle.

It depends on how much space you give them and how much energy you have.

If you're tired or hot and you think it might be a tackle but noone is screaming yet, you can call it a hug and actively ignore it.

But really, this was a hug.

The Shamu show starts at 1 pm.

1 pm = Nap time

After a weekend of excitement and random schedules and noise and food and whatnot, naps are important BUT it's Shamu.

We had a whole group and you can't miss the shamu show.

So we did what every parent in this situation does.  We hype it up.

LOOK PEANUT!  IT'S A WHALE!

I look at him with that frozen excitement face plastered on.

You know, the one that involves raising your eyebrows and shoulders, mouth open in a wide grin in the hopes of getting some kind of reciprocation.
I know you're mimicking it right now.
Your excitement face doesn't seem to me working either.

WOW!  LOOK AT THOSE WHALES JUMPING AND FLIPPING!

AREN'T THEY AMAZING!

HAHAHA!  AREN'T THEY SILLY!

.................

AND SPINNING, BABY!  SEE THE WHALES SPINNING!

I clap my hands wildly, snap a few pictures and give him the excitement face again.

Um, what?

This is either the look angry celebrities give the paparazzi for jumping out from behind a bush for a surprise this unwanted picture of you will be on tomorrow's cover
  OR
he's making an obscene gesture.

You call it.

But then some Gangnam Style song came on and I guess he couldn't help but pound his fist to the beat.

He has never, to my knowledge, been exposed to this music.

I'll be honest,
I found his immediate response a bit alarming.
















Of course, daddy decided to go on a big ride with his cousins.
I knew the only way to keep him from a meltdown was the water play area.

This kid LOVES the water.

As you saw HERE.

I kinda wish that you couldn't see this area from all the kiddie rides.
It's hard to keep him away and not something I want to do repeatedly through the day.

But did you see that kid's face?

I cannot resist it.

And 15 minutes later.