March Happenings

March has been a crazy month! We've kept busy with visitors, art projects, and birthday fun.

Last weekend, both of my brothers came for quick visits. Uncle Redneck (Jimmy) was here on business, and Uncle Jeffy (no witty nickname yet--any ideas?) was on his way out of the country. Jeff and his wife Evie were granted permanent residency in New Zealand and will be living there indefinitely. They both have jobs at wineries and are excited about this adventure. We're excited for them as well, but bummed that it's so far away. I've already put the bug in Steve's ear that I hope to celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary (2012) with a trip to New Zealand, so hopefully that pans out.

Here Delaney is enjoying her Uncle's IPhone. She's a pretty tech savvy kid. The other morning I awoke at 5:09am with Delaney standing next to Steve's side of the bed with his Ipod in hand. She was happily watching a U2 video on the Ipod. Neither Steve nor I had given her the Ipod; she took it off the nightstand, turned it on, went to the video section, and picked out her favorite video. At least the kid has good taste, right?

We had a really nice visit with Jeff. He is admittedly not a "kids" kind of person, and doesn't have any desire to have children of his own. And I'm pretty darn certain that we put the nail in that coffin. Something to do with a 2 year old having a potty accident at the church's rummage sale and her uncle having to hover over the puddle of pee while the mama grabs the crying, pee-soaked toddler while wearing a crying newborn smashed in the Sleepy Wrap... that was a really long sentence, but hopefully it painted a lovely picture for you. So yes, I think Uncle Jeffy is quite content being just an uncle.

This past week was my first full week of flying solo without a grandparent or husband to help wrangle two children during the day. We did pretty well, all things considered. In an attempt to get Delaney away from the TV and her BFF Dora, we made some playdough. The girl loved it!

Concentrating so hard on rolling out the dough

And this is what Baby Jude was doing while we were elbow deep in playdough. He's almost smiling, don't you think?

We celebrated Delaney's second birthday a couple times this week, and we have even more birthday plans coming at the end of the month (Disneyland with the Grandparents!). I asked Delaney what kind of cupcakes she'd like to have with her friends during our park play date, and she said "Elmo!" Thank goodness she didn't want Dora...I'm not sure how that would have turned out.

The finished product

We brought our Elmo cupcakes to the park on our weekly play date with our friends and we all sang to the birthday girl.

She loved everything: the attention, the sugar, her friends, playing at the park...it was a good day for Delaney Marie.

The kiddos really enjoyed the cupcakes, but I'm not sure if the mamas were digging the BRIGHT red frosting. I particularly enjoy this picture of her friend Memphis (in the back) covered in frosting. Hopefully the moms have forgiven both Elmo and myself by now...

And in other news, Delaney had her 2 year old doctor's visit today. She's still a shrimp, but a healthy little shrimp, weighing in at 22.8 lbs and 33 inches tall. While that may not sound like much, she is still on the growth chart (yay for the 5th percentile!), and is following her own little growth curve. Her doctor is pleased as punch with her growth and development, so hooray for Laney Cat!