Pictures From May

We had a Dr. Seuss themed birthday party for Luke, complete with Cat in the Hat cupcakes. On my list of Things I Don't Ever Want To Do Again At 3 AM: Rolling two million mini marshmallows in red sugar.

"I wish these fool people would quit singing so I could eat my cupcake."

Of course, he blew more spit than air, so his friend had to help him out. And this right here? This is why we do cupcakes instead of a sheet cake.

Fuzzy picture of a happy, blue-faced boy

I made him smile nicely for this picture...

...which he agreed to, but only if he got to "roar like a dinosaur" for the next one.

Of course, I had to get Weston in on the hat-wearing action

This play kitchen is Weston's favorite toy ever, possibly because he gets to throw all the pots and pans and play food around and make an enormous mess.

...And here's his other favorite activity. Common thread: mess-making.

And speaking of making a mess...

This was at Luke's friend's birthday party. His mom had made some cloud dough for the kids to play with. Instead, they dumped it all out onto the grass and then, Weston decided that the bin was just the right size for him to sit in.

This was at the same party. Best baby pool I've ever seen. Deep end, shallow end, slide, and sprinkler.

I know the lighting is awful, but oh, how I love that smile. (Yes, he's wearing a pony tail. In retrospect, I should've done this for Luke's bday party and called him Cindy Lou Who.)

Pictures From April

The first time he climbed anything. And so it began.

The snake that was lying across from my car at a park. Of course, Luke insisted that we needed a picture.

 

Gotta love a sleeping baby!

Apparently, the food was taking too long...

Sometimes, this is what happens when I ask him to smile.

He was very interested in my mom's jewelry when we were in DC. He put on as many necklaces and bracelets as we would let him, and then sang "The Itsy Bitsy Spider," at the top of his lungs.

Who needs new toys when you can have the packaging that the toys came in???

Pictures from March

And as promised, here starts the onslaught of pictures.

I was looking back and realized that I haven't posted pictures since the beginning of March--could it be?! So this post has pictures from the rest of March.

Here's Luke, sitting on the engine of a train at a children's museum near us. This was taken less than four months ago, and yet, he looks so small in this picture, compared to the way he looks now.










We went to the beach in early March. We like to off-set our beach trips from the busy, summer season because (a) less crowded beaches and (b) cheaper rentals. We rented a beach house that was a block away from the beach with two other families and it was amazing. Just what we needed to get us through the remainder of the winter.

Of course, sand-tasting was a must!

I think he looks like Stitch (from Lilo & Stitch) when he wears sunglasses.

The aquarium had a "penguin day," where kids dressed up as penguins got in free. Of course, we missed it because we went the day after penguin day, but hey, I'd already made the costumes and Luke was excited about wearing them, so why not?




 

The aquarium had a petting pool. I pretended to pet the rays, but in reality, I was too chicken. Luke and McMoose, on the other hand, were not.

Strawberries for breakfast!

                    

You'll notice who had already finished all of HIS strawberries.

One afternoon, McMoose, Luke, Other Baby, and Other Daddy went off to explore the creek in our backyard. (On a related note: as soon as we saw this creek, I knew that this is the house McMoose would want to buy, specifically so he and the kids could explore it someday.)

Hello. My name is Pack Mule.

                                                        

Playing through the screen door!

There's still some baby left in him yet...

Standing Man

Here are a few more pictures from last month

This was the first time Weston pulled himself up on a piece of furniture.
Which would make this the first time he pulled up and then tried to let go. (It was soon followed by the first time he pulled up, tried to let go, and then fell on his face.)
As it turns out, standing is great fun. Especially standing and chewing on furniture. The other day, Luke observed that, "Weston is like a doggie...he just chews on everything!"
So very pleased with himself.

Winter Weather

A few weeks ago, we had our first--and presumably, last--snow of the season. It wasn't the six inches I was unrealistically hoping for, but it was about an inch and it did stick enough that we were able to go out and play in it. Usually, I get very excited about the mere possibility of snow--and usually, I'm disappointed because they always seem to predict more snow than we get. This time, the week before had been so warm and spring-like that I flat out didn't believe the forecast, so it was a very nice surprise when we actually did get snow. Luke absolutely loved the snow and stayed and played in it for far longer than I thought he would...and then, woke up the next morning and played in it some more. Raleigh being what it is, it was upward of 50 degrees that next day, so it melted much faster than he might have liked, but he did get some good snow play in while he could.

I told him to find a winter hat...this is what he came up with.
Weston: dressed, ready, and utterly unimpressed.
Why, yes, I did borrow McMoose's ludicrously puffy jacket. And why not?
McMoose let Weston feel the snow. I believe his reaction was, "I am touching something cold and wet. I do not approve."

There wasn't enough on the ground at this point to make a decent snowball, so Luke just got some off the cars instead.
McMoose's rendition of a firebird. Quite the artist, that one.
I'm not sure who brought the bucket out--I suspect it was McMoose. But making snow castles was great fun, according to Luke. Step One: Run crazy circles around the car, collecting snow in a bucket:
Step Two: Plop!
And not pictured here is Step Three, which is also known as The Most Fun Step: Stomp!