My baby is growing up...

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU EE-EE" is Ethan's new favorite phrase....yes and his birthday was like 2 weeks ago! He's still really into his birthday - he loves to sing about it, talk about it, pretend about it, and on and on.... He had 3 wonderful birthday celebrations for his turning 2 - one with my side, one with Joe's side and one with just us (mommy, daddy and Judah) LOTS OF FUN!

Here's some snipits of Ethan's birthday festivities:

Ethan had a combined birthday party with his cousin Kayla (2 days older than him) that was Elmo themed...let's just say there were A LOT of Elmo-ness going on there! We had 4 tickle me Elmo's (all going at once of course) and lots of Elmo cupcakes for desserts! Tell me what kind of 2 year old doesn't like a chocolate cake? MINE. Ah well, he sure does love his fruit!
Then on Ethan's actual DAY of birth (June 9th) we spent the day as a family.
We packed a picnic lunch of Ethan's favorite foods and went to the park for some playtime. Ethan loves to play outside and would probably stay out there for hours if we let him! For his picnic lunch we had wraps sandwiches (Ethan's fave) and pretzels (another fave) and STRAWBERRIES (another major fave!) Yummo. We gave Ethan his gift from us at the park and then he proceeded to play with them for a loonngg time there.


We gave him new sand toys - bucket, shovel, molder-things, rake, etc... and he LOVES them! It doesn't matter if it's the beach or a sandbox or the park - anywhere that there is sand Ethan is one happy camper. He now likes to fill the bucket up with water in our driveway and mix it up with a shovel making "noodles" - love the creativity!



Ethan had another birthday party on Joe's side -because Ethan didn't want to eat any of his Chocolate Elmo cake I thought I was so smart for making a cake with Strawberries on it and in it...well at least he ate the strawberries off! Silly boy. I was pretty impressed by my cake; yummy double decker with strawberry filling and delicious frosting! I'm drooling remembering it....

The theme for Ethan's party was 'cars' - he came home with tons of matchbox cars (which he LOVES) and plays with constantly! I made him a mini cake with strawberries and a little red car on top!
Ethan came home from all his parties with lots of wonderful gifts! It's always fun to get new toys to play with:)
Oh my little baby is growing up so fast! I feel like I was just prego with him and now he's 2! Next thing you know he'll be driving - awhh:) I've loved every minute with my little man and can't wait to see what the next 2 years will bring! Happy Birthday to you Ethan!

Laundry

A little note about laundry....

It seems as though with each kid you add to the mix it TRIPLES your laundry needs...why? I haven't quite figured that one out yet - all I know is that I'm doing a load a day and if I take a day "off" then I pay for it later! I just threw a load in the washer and see that I have a load of towels staring at me from the bedroom...hmmm didn't I just do a load yesterday?

I'll chalk it up to having a messy toddler and a spitter-upper baby! It is nice to see the pile of laundry temporarily disappear from the floor- and smell the scent dryer sheets and fresh blankets.

At times like these (when I feel like all I do is start/switch/fold/put away laundry/repeat) I am reminded of how blessed I am to have all that I have! I have a washer and dryer at my instant use; I have laundry detergent and dryer sheets in excess, and that I have clothes and blankets to wash! I am truly blessed and have more than I deserve!

LET'S GO DO SOME MORE LAUNDRY! WOO-HOO!

Face to Face

Bumbo chair + Judah + Ethan + markers = fun! Judah tried out his Bumbo chair the other day and both Judah and Ethan LOVED it! Judah enjoys being able to see what's going on more and Ethan enjoys to see Judah sitting up like a big-boy! Win-win for everyone:)
I love this picture of my two boys - I like to think they're having some deep, heart to heart discussion...

I have a feeling this wonderful Bumbo chair will be used more and more as Judah's neck gets stronger (he has a BIG head - I don't blame him for holding it all the time!)

Mother's Day

Happy (day late) Mother's Day! I had a wonderful Mother's Day yesterday - my amazing husband created these "dollars" for me to use (effective date Today --> no expiration!). The one with Ethan's cute face on it is a "Day Dollar" that I can use for time away without either boy to do whatever! And the dollar with Judah's precious face on it is a "Diaper Dollar" that I can pull out when there's the occasional blow-out that I don't want to change! What a great gift:) I can't wait to use either of them (and I have like 15 of each!!!)

I woke up to the normal crying/hungry Judah but after feeding him I got to SLEEP IN! wow! and then at 7:30 (which IS sleeping in now) my 2 big boys (Joe and Ethan) came in carrying a tray of delicious breakfast food...Ethan on one end and Joe on the other (brave move Joe!) -- I was treated to a yummy breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast and Juice:) My big boy Ethan ate with me in our room...in his highchair though - we didn't really want scrambled eggs in bed!

Also, on the tray there was a diaper that said "DO NOT TOUCH ME!" - I momentarily thought Joe had given me a dirty diaper..then realized I was about to have a DIAPER FREE DAY! woot woot! What a nice break for a stay-at-home-mom with 2 kids in diapers!
The bucket with flowers is from my dear Ethan - he did a little art project on Mother's day afternoon with his other cousins...too cute! It melted me heart to see him walk up to me holding the flowers with a big proud grin on his face! awwhh.

So, I had breakfast in bed+no diaper day+cute flowers from Ethan+coupons for kid-free-time+coupons for dirty-diaper-help+so much LOVE from my family! WONDERFUL MOTHER'S DAY! Oh and I even got a little mommy's stash of delectable chocolates to boot!

Leap Laugh Love Learn (and repeat)

This afternoon was quite the afternoon. whew. As soon as a looked away for a second mr. Ethan got into some sort of mischief... here's a selection of mischief he achieved for your enjoyment:

I was gifted some chocolate today as an early Mother's Day gift (yumo!) and Ethan discovered it...

He then brought me to the table and showed me how he climbed up on the chair and reached into the ever tempting box of chocolates - he was able to open the individually wrapped pieces too!
He wasn't too pleased with me after I took away his chocolate fun... don't worry he found more mischief to get into within a few minutes!

I was sitting on the couch cuddling (a very crabby) Judah when I looked down and saw Ethan's hands:
uh oh mom. Ethan had discovered my stamping kit and somehow managed to open it and get into the contents...how fun. This is the mess he made:
After cleaning up his hands and the mess on the floor I smelled an odor...a disgusting odor...."Ethan did you poop?" "NO NO NO" --- I don't know WHY anyone would want to stay in a diaper like that...ick. So, I changed his diaper and found this stray stamp mark:
You just have to laugh right? ha ha ha:)

This afternoon I go to LEAP from my chair (to prevent further chocolate consumption or ink destruction), LAUGH at the mess that was made, LOVE the little mr. that was responsible, and LEARN that my almost 2 year old is getting more curious (and to not leave sweets or ink accessible!)

New View

Last night my little Judah discovered rolling (back to front) - he loves this new position and the new view it gives him. He'll just lay there on his tummy with his head up and look around - taking everything in! He's been working on his back -> front roll for a while now and last night when he FINALLY did it the look on his face was PRICELESS! He rolled over - picked up his head - looked right at me and SMILED so big I thought his face would brake! I could see in his happy eyes him saying, "look at me mom! I did it! I did it!". Now, there's no stopping him - you put him on his back (like most people do with babies) and within 30 seconds he flips his cute little self over.

Today he realized he can connect his rolls and go back -> front then front -> back...uh oh. Watch out - here comes another mover!! Bye bye to the simplicity of putting Judah down and knowing he will be there when I come back...Hello to keeping the floor clean(er) and rolling around! Whew - time flies. I feel like I just gave birth to this little man yesterday!

All Wrapped Up

Ethan has been asking for me to "wrap up" his Monkey and to "wrap up" himself lately - it's way too fun! I had to find a big enough blanket to wrap my big boy:
He thought this was hilarious and has been continually asking me to 'wrap Ee-ee up' (he refers to himself as "Ee-Ee" can't say 'th' yet...) Ethan's been role playing a lot lately - his newest 'baby' is his stuffed monkey. He liked me to swaddle his monkey and then he plays with him like a baby: holding him, giving him a paci, putting him to bed, etc...

and putting Baby Monkey in the baby swing:

I think it's funny to see Ethan mimic what he watches all day (ME!) - today he decided he needed to 'feed' Baby Monkey....you see where this is going...he pulled up his shirt and and held Monkey just like Mommy holds Judah....too funny! Don't worry though - I'm going to explain that Daddy's don't feed babies that way and direct him to a bottle....I was laughing too hard to do that today! Ethan loves to be an activities director of sorts; today he asked me to swaddle Judah - then swaddle Baby Monkey - then swaddle Ethan! I did and this is the cuteness that transpired:

Then Ethan decided it was time to get out:

So, all that was left were these 2 cuties: Mr. Judah and Mr. Monkey:

When Judah's not all wrapped up he loves to be a little squirmer; he can successfully roll front to back and is SOOO close for turning back to front. He gets stuck on his arm; I think as soon as he realizes to lift that huge noggin and roll over the arm there's no stopping him!

Never a dull moment in the Mancuso household!