Pictures at long last

I am swamped. We (Matthew, Andrew, Benjamin, my mom, and I) are leaving for the beach this Friday to stay in my friend Stephanie's cool condo down in Florida. And while a vacation is cool (and long overdue), all of us parents know that it is truly not really a vacation for us, and we often need an additional vacation from the vacation. This week has been super busy already, and we're only three days into it. The next three days are jam-packed as well.

But added to my stress is the fact that I have not yet blogged about Andrew's third birthday party, so I have diligently uploaded pictures tonight while I simultaneously tried to understand paperwork for Benjamin. (Seriously? Why does it have to be so complicated and redundant?)

Speaking of Baby B, he is doing *wonderfully*!!!! He is *this* close to crawling. In fact, for all intents and purposes, he is crawling. But he's not quite doing it right, so I'm prone to wait to "call it." He skipped "army crawling" altogether and gets on his hands and knees. But because his hips are so darn flexible, instead of bringing one knee forward and then his other knee, he'll bring one knee forward and then his whole other leg out in front of him. He'll scoot like that, and sometimes he'll move his other knee again. But other times he just decides to sit back up. It's difficult to work with him on this b/c he usually just bangs his head while we're trying to help. And Natalie (his PT) and I can't help but laugh as he's also making cute noises and trying to eat toys at the same time. I kid you not that everyone who crosses this boy's path is in love with him. If only we could all have that said about us.

Okay, onto the pictures.

Here is Andrew the night before his party, assembling his goody bags.

He loved the pink sunglasses and made me promise that his bag would have the pink ones. I suppose the birthday kid can get a goody bag at his own party. Is that normal?

The cake and cupcakes. LOL As I stated on Facebook when I posted these, I never claimed to be Martha Stewart. Some cupcakes were huge, while a few were tiny. Oh, well.

My ghetto Clifford decorations printed off the PBS website. He loved them, and we later taped them all in a book.

My mom used to hang balloons on our mailbox when it was one of our birthdays. Then she started doing it for the cat's birthday. It started as a joke but then never ended. The cat is now 17. It used to bug the stew out of my brother Justin, so we did it as long as we all lived there just to irritate him. Anyway, here is our mailbox.

No joke. If Benjamin is always smiling for the camera, Andrew is always frowning for the camera. He's not a depressed kid by any means; he's just serious in front of the camera. Here is his expression when I tell him to smile. I am not kidding. (I wanted him to show the personalized Clifford t-shirt that my Aunt Priscilla sent.)

So then I tell him to say something that is bound to be cheery, like, "It's my birthday!" But then that always causes him to move around and I miss important things. Like the "w." And suddenly I have a son named Andre. But he's not a giant or a seal, so everyone is confused. (Let me know if anyone got both of those references...)

Pointing out the various Clifford characters

At birthday party #1 of the day. Eating cupcakes with his friends.

Opening presents with his friends

Evangeline, who has a baby sister due in a couple of months, was especially intrigued by Benjamin. He just wanted her to move the heck out of the way so he could get his red ball.

Ahhhh...the chaos of three-year-olds. With a few babies thrown in there.

Then the friends left and it was naptime. After naptime, it was time for party #2--the family party. Here are Andrew and his cousins (L-R--Davis, Abbie, Ashlyn) on the couch, wearing party gear and holding up how old they are. Can't you see? Davis is six, Abbie is 11, Ashlyn is nine (well, she would be the very next day...), and Andrew is desperately still trying to figure out how to hold up three fingers.

While we got the food ready, the kids played in the master bedroom where we had stashed some of the louder toys...

Looks like these two chose the wrong room in which to nap...

Being silly with the kids (Michael included)

Cake time!

Little brother getting in on the party hat action

Opening his big present from Matthew and me: a Melissa and Doug Fire Chief play outfit.



The cutest thing about this is that Andrew thinks the word firefighter is pronounced fire-fire. So he is always saying, "I'm the fire-fire!" It's adorable.

Okay, the parties were a grand success. Fun was had by all. Here are just some random day-to-day pictures to round out this post. And then I am going to bed because it's late, I'm exhausted, and I have a million and two things to do tomorrow.

Here is Benjamin playing with his pants on the hardwood. He loves to play with burp cloths, small blankets, and articles of clothing, as you can plainly see.

His 11-month picture. I can't wait to post all of them!! Only one more month!

The day after Andrew's party our dishwasher decided to get sick. The repairman came today (a week later), and I was never so glad to see a strange man standing on my doorstep.

Seriously...this is not cool. We used as much plastic and paper as we could (except for silverware), but we still amassed tons of dishes. I think this is just a day or two.

This was taken today during lunch. LOL

To conclude, I have two short videos. **Don't forget to pause the music at the bottom of the page!!**

Here is Andrew reciting his very first memory Bible verse. He has one a week to memorize for Puggles, which is the 2-and-3-year-old AWANA division that he and Matthew go to every Sunday night. (Matthew is one of the adult helpers.)



And here is Andrew today at lunch. After I took a picture of his messy face, he wanted me to "take a picture where he talked." Otherwise known as a video. I love this boy!




That's all for now!!!!