Our Baby is Two!

Caleb turned two last Saturday. It was a busy weekend but we squeezed in a little family party after church on Sunday. Thanks to Grammy and Grampy for coming to visit!

Happy Birthday little Bubber! We love you!

Beautiful Snow

Dancing

Happy Birthday to Me

-Wednesday: The kids serenaded me all day with many renditions of Happy Birthday ("you live in a zoo," etc.) Erik took all of us out for a quick supper so I wouldn't have to cook.
-Thursday: Erik took just me out to dinner for a more romantical celebration. (Annie: thanks for the flowers and for watching the kids!)
-Friday: I took the kids to Target to buy my presents. It's not as self-serving as it sounds. We really went so Meg could by a toy she had saved up for but they insisted on taking their money to buy my gifts then rather than waiting for Erik to take them the next day. We had a pretty good system whereby they could select things from the dollar spot and pay for them without me completely seeing the items. Meg sweetly offered to pay for Kate's things since Kate has no money (allowance begins at 4 around here).
-Saturday: While I was out with a friend who treated me to a make up session at Bare Escentuals and lunch at the Buckhead Diner (thanks Cortney!!) Erik supervised the kids who wrapped gifts and decorated a cake. I got a big yellow "permanent" flower and a small pot with forget-me-not seeds (Meg), two varieties of kitchen sponges (Nate), and a pink tiara and mini box of chocolates (Kate), plus other thoughtful gifts from family and friends. Thanks everyone!

On a cleaner, drier note

A few days ago I told the kids to get their shoes on so we could go to Target. Kate came downstairs quite pleased with herself for "tying" her own shoes. I've never thought about teaching her to tie since she has no shoes with laces. Or so I thought. She deemed these too-small hiking boots just the right look for her outfit and dug them out of the bottom of her shoe bin. To her credit the laces stayed put through our whole shopping trip (however she did have to ride in the cart because her feet hurt. Wrong size + wrong feet = bad fit.)

Only Kate...

Let's see. How do you begin a story about your three-year-old sticking her head in the toilet at church? Alright, not really head, just hair. I should have known better than to let her and Julia, her partner in crime, play unsupervised in the bathroom for thirty minutes but, hey--we were busy serving dinner to a roomful of international students at our church's ESL class. I figured the worst that could happen was her usual sink full of water and soap bubbles. Cleaning that up would be a small price to pay for all the work I was getting done and all the fun I figured she was having. So you can imagine my shock (and disgust!) when I checked in on the girls to find water, wet clothes, and socks on the floor and underwear (?!) in the sink. (In Julia's defense, only the socks belonged to her.) Then I noticed half of Kate's hair was wet. That's fine. Then I noticed the water drops on the potty seat. Julia pleaded ignorant, but Kate cheerfully, proudly confessed. I don't know which I'd rather have: a picture of the whole soggy scene or a recording of the hilarious explanation accompanied by Kate's shrieks of laughter (and my stifled giggles). Just as I would compose myself to disapprovingly pronounce how gross and unsanitary it was to wet your hair in the potty a new fit of laughter would overtake me, which Kate saw as confirmation that the whole thing was just as funny as she had thought causing her to crack up all over again. So, we mopped things up pretty easily, but how to get a girl with wet hair home on a cold night when most of her clothes were sopping wet. A few aprons from the church kitchen did the trick--one tied on the front, another covering the back. I snapped this shot when we got home (before scrubbing her down in a hot bath). It hardly represents the episode, but I'm sure you can use your imagination.

You'll Shoot Your Eye Out

Just a little nerf gun fun.