Beep, Beep!

My friend, Kristie, made ten of these Lightning McQueen cars for her sons' 3rd birthday party that we attended recently and she let us take one home. Isn't she crafty?! I think that is the coolest party favor ever and that wasn't even the real party favor!
Nikolas and Luke had hours of fun playing with their new car at home the next day. Now the pressure is on to make something similar for Nik's Thomas the Tank Engine party I am beginning to plan.
We'll see how that goes.

The Nikolas Express

Nikolas has a slight obsession with all things train, so I brought out a train painting kit I had found a while back to keep him occupied with something other than television while I made dinner. As the paint was anything but "kid friendly" I had to put one of my old t-shirts on him and then clip it together with a chip clip. He thought that was pretty cool. I think it reminds me of a hospital gown. I was a bit leery in giving him unwashable paints to paint with, but by the time I realized they were unwashable he already knew it was a train he would get to paint so there was no going back then. At least, not without lots of screaming, which was NOT what I wanted to deal with then. Instead, I gave him stern directions on where paint does and does not go, (there were a lot more of the latter) and he did surprisingly well. I only had to clean paint off the scanner and Lukas once.

It was apparently an exceptionally difficult task to paint a whole train as he sat on the couch with his head on his hand and his elbow on his knee and kept repeating, "Hard Day.

Hmmm, kind of sounds like a certain Daddy who comes home and tells Mama about his, "hard day". He loves to mimic Daddy often and will run to get his pen and paper and tells me he is doing his, "homework". Kind of freaks me out with how closely they pay attention to everything we say and do.

Yoda Would Be Proud - The Saga Continues....

Luke I'malmostawalker continued his training and has now become a true Jedi in Training Pants. He shall now be known as:

Luke I'mawalker.

He is now ready to join his brother, Nikolas the Ridiculous, in defending his mother, Queen I'mtheMama, while Darth Papa is visiting another galaxy for the next 5 months.

He definitely looks confidant,

but life as a new walker can be tough, even for a little Jedi.

Don't worry Luke, even Master Yoda lost a battle or two.

Brotherly Love

Little Lukas is becoming a real little bother, I mean, a little brother to Nikolas. They are starting to play together, in the loosest sense of the word, but at least they are interacting and acknowledging each other now. Sometimes, however, Nikolas isn't so sure about this other little boy disrupting his "kiki cuddle time".

At first Nik thought it was funny and was laughing while he was saying, "Off Baby!" .
(At what point do we stop calling Lukas, "baby" and start calling him by his name?..........
Probably when the next baby comes, eh?)

Nikolas stopped thinking it was funny when Luke started thwapping him in the eye repeatedly and sat on TOP of Nik's neck. I did intervene at that point as Nik started groaning like he couldn't breathe.

And the winner is........ Lucky Lukas!!!!

He may have cheated with the hammer.

Nik's New "Crib"

Nikolas has a new big boy bed that he is excited about, however, don't call it a "bed" or you will here some rather loud disagreement coming from one little almost three year old. Apparently, it reminds him of his crib, which was white and had the same similar looking bars on it, so Nik thinks it is a bigger version of his beloved crib.

Whatever floats your boat, Nik.

Or rather, crib.....



I am pretty proud of myself for finding this bed as it matches the rest of his room so well, and the best part is that it was only $15!

Yep, garage sale last summer. I only went to maybe three garage sales in 2008 which makes this find even more amazing.



* Warning! Naked baby alert coming up!!!


Little brother Lukas loves Nik's new bed! We put him up on it after putting it all together and Luke crawled from one end of the bed to the other over and over again. It was super cute:) Of course, anything he does is super cute and especially when he is naked.



I am noticing something as I look at this picture..... he really has quite a large melon on top of that little body. Hope he grows into that....

Bubble Soup

Going to the dentist has been one of those "things to do" that I have been avoiding ever since Nikolas turned two last March. As many know, my little man does not do well with new places or new people, especially when those people are touching him, so I had been imagining lots of screaming involved.
Strangely, our time at the dentist was exactly opposite of what I had imagined. He was a model patient!!! The dental hygienist even commented on how well he did for being two.

Here he is just after sitting in the big chair. Naturally, his kiki came with us. I love that he has a "lovey" other than me. It would have been rather cramped sitting in that chair with him:)


Truly, the props go to Barbara, our dental hygienist. She came in and was calm and quiet and not in his face. Then she asked him if he wanted "bubble soup", which peaked his interest. I don't know if "bubble soup" is a trick of the trade, but if it isn't, every dentist needs to know how to make it. It consists of spraying the water from the little sprayer they use to rinse your teeth and the air they use to blow out the water from your teeth and mixing those into a cup.
Water + Air = Bubble Soup

Brilliant!!!

Nik thought it was delicious and wanted more. She even let him make his own:)

The Verdict after all was said and done: No Cavities!!! and the dentist said he has great enamel.

Phew!!! I was really expecting something more along the lines of, "Looks like he has been soaking his teeth in sugar, lady." So thankfully, those 1 or 2 times a week we brush his teeth are working:} Heehee, better increase that before our luck runs out....

Happy Birthday Little Luke!

Lukas turned ONE this month!

It seems like it has been forever that he has been in our lives as I can't imagine life without him now, and yet it also doesn't seem possible that he is already one year old. He is still very much my little baby though, especially since he has yet to say a word and is not quite walking yet. His pediatrician assured me he is well within normal for a one year old as I was expressing the differences between Luke and when Nik was one. Apparently Nikolas was an overachiever, whereas Lukas, well, not so much..... I guess they are actually following the old "first born, youngest child" syndromes.

We had a small family party and had fun watching Lukas dig into his cupcake. He really liked the frosting! ( so did mama, I think I ate around 6 of them in two days!)

I made Lion and Monkey cupcakes for the Jungle themed party and they turned out ever so cute. They were pretty tasty as well:)I saw the ideas on a few different blogs and decided to try it out. I have always wanted to make cupcakes with the frosting squishes, (I have no idea what else to call them), ever since my mom made me a cookie monster cake with the squishes all over the whole thing. Truly, that is what makes a cake go from ho hum, to Oh Yum!

Parties for one year olds are humorous. A bunch of adults all stand around a baby who has no idea what is going on, then a candle is lit and placed in front of baby who up until this moment has been kept 5 feet away from all things fire. Then everyone starts singing "Happy Birthday" to baby who at this point usually begins to cry and then everyone stands there waiting for baby to start devouring a too large piece of cake, a food which, up until this point, had not been deemed healthy enough for such a little baby until he hit the magical age of one and suddenly it is cute to stuff baby with large amounts of sugar and ice cream.

Even more humorous are two year old parties, where suddenly, one year later, it is NOT cute to smear frosting and cake all over your body. How very strange we parents are.....