Boo-boo lip

Don't you think it's funny how kids just seem to innately know how to manipulate our hearts? Brennan has developed the cutest boo-boo lip when he doesn't get his way and has been flashing that thing all around lately. It makes me want to eat his face. Not really. But I might accidentally squeeze him too hard and make him cry more.

Even when his crying and pouting is totally off the reservation and I'm just about ready to scream, one look at that lip and I'm a goner. How do they know how to do that? Is it some sort of learned survival trait so parents don't abandon their kids when things start to get ugly?

Climbing like a gecko at The Children's Museum

He also started upping the ante on his pouting cuteness the other day. He woke up a little too early from his nap and was a little sensitive while I was trying to feed the kids their snack of smoothie pops. He was having a hard time eating it as an actual pop and got a little frustrated and upset. I tried cutting it up into chunks in a bowl but he was still struggling. I was trying real hard to be patient and figure out what he wanted so I could help him. Everything I tried to offer was met with a whiny "no!" and more tears. Eventually, since I was obviously not getting it, he decided I wasn't worth his time, crossed his arms and turned his back on him. Little did he know how adorable this actually was. I tried to sneak a picture of him on my phone but he just kept putting his hand up and turning the other way.

Who knew it would make my heart melt to see my child pout?

Food, trucks, cake, more food and lots of family

Well, dang-it. I'm behind again. I'm sure this is not a real shocker to any of you. I am just now getting to uploading pictures and writing about our fun birthday weekend celebration two weekends ago. But it was so much fun I really can't skip over it, so I must write so that I can move on with life over here.

First of all, the kids were so excited for everyone to get here on Friday. They completely wore themselves out and were snuggling on the couch right before the first crew arrived.

Naturally, we started the weekend celebration with food. Pizza from Jockamo's - Yumm! And, like every other party we had way to much and finished the last few pieces yesterday (they were in the freezer so no one got sick eating it almost 2 weeks later).

The next day began with more food (of course) and a trip to the bowling alley (which involved beer and more food). I was super excited because for once I planned well enough and prepared enough ahead of time that I got to go too. I know you're probably thinking that since this was just a small family gathering there shouldn't have been a need for much planning or preparation but I tend to get excited about food and get a little carried away.

Of course this is an appropriate dress to wear when its 30 degrees in March, but she just had to  be fancy.

Birthday boys sharing a secret

Right before the big meltdown. We knew it would come since it was past nap time, but unfortunately someone forgot to bring a paci and it was quite a long ride home. Whoops!

I'm not really sure who won. I wasn't really paying attention to the scores and Brennan had pretty much given up halfway through the second game. But I think everyone had fun. And we all learned an important lesson. Don't leave the house close to nap time without a pacifier.

I believe this was supposed to be during quiet time, but someone started a game of balloon bellies.

And there was plenty of Mario action.

Finally, after we had all stuffed our faces, the boys got to open their presents. Bren's were a little more interesting than Tate's. Here he is opening his tunnel with a little help. I'm not sure who was more excited, Kaelyn to give it to him (she talked about it at least once a day the entire week) or Brennan.

He really loved all of his presents and has been playing with them all pretty regularly. So I guess everyone did a good job. And no huge new toys taking up lots of space in the house, so Mama's happy too! :)

And then there was cake! I cheated a little and just made one cake into two smaller cakes so each of the boys could have their own. Two full cakes would have been way too much anyway.

Gracious! I can't believe this boy is 14! I still think of him when he was Bren's age. I think he might stay 2 in my mind forever.

And I went for an easier version of the dump truck cake I made for Kaelyn on her 2nd birthday. This one just involved smearing peanut butter filling on chunks of cake, plopping on the back of the truck and pouring chocolate ganache over the top. Oh, man. My mouth is water looking at these pictures.

And I was able to make him his own little personal dump truck.

Say "cheese!"

Brennan's favorite present might be a new pair of pajamas. Yes, I actually think he gets more excited about these Superman pajamas than any of the toys. He calls himself "Super-Brennie" and points repeatedly to the "S." He wanted to wear them the very next night and has worn them immediately the night after they get washed ever since. Which means Kaelyn has been wearing her Supergirl pajamas a lot and they've been jumping off the couch before bed. Bren must have been too fast to get a good shot, but Kaelyn actually slowed down a minute to pose for me.

Luckily for us, Nana, Pop and Care-Care were able to stay a little bit longer and celebrate with us on his real birthday. And, thankfully they got him some of his own tools so he won't try to pick up the real hammer any more when we're doing projects around the house. I was pretty sure we were eventually going to end up with (another) hole in the wall.

Since it has been six months since we went for K's birthday, we figured another trip to the Columbus Commons was in order.

Bren ventured up the climbing apparatus this time. Though he was more hesitant than we expected with his monkey tendencies.

Luckily he had some help from his big sister,

and Dada.

Somebody wasn't quite ready to leave when it was time and had to practically be pried off his spinny thing. I had learned my lesson and packed a paci this time, but luckily we got out of there without having to use it.

It wasn't nice enough to take the kids golfing, but we did manage to swing by Dick's later on the way to dinner for some green time.

Birthday dinner at Red Robin! Yummm!

I'm not really sure why neither of them could manage a normal smile here.

What's a birthday without a second round of cake? I think he was having a hard time waiting to dig in this time.

We are so glad that (almost) all of our family was able to come from far away to celebrate with us. The kids really love having everyone here and so do we. We are so fortunate to have family who are willing to travel to see us and we hope that we'll always get to be with family for special occasions.

By the way, I didn't count but I think there are at least 30 pictures in this post. That's not too many, is it? Do you think I should add more? (Cause I definitely could.)

As you turn two

Our dearest little tiny Brennie,

You are growing up so fast. You are both a delight to watch and mystery to be solved (or not). You're giggle lights up my world, your cry breaks my heart and your screams of defiance make me want to pull my hair out.

As you turn two today, I want to take a few minutes to remember what your life is like right now.

Despite your sister's best efforts to do all your talking you are talking more every day and I love hearing your little voice shout with excitement, "Mama, watch dis!" I wish I could bottle it up to take out and open when you are sixteen and saying, "Leave me alone Mom!"  You can count to five now and for the past couple weeks have been able to hold up two fingers (sometimes with assistance) to tell people you will be two. You are starting to recognize letters and correctly identify some colors. I think you can get all the colors right when you actually concentrate and try. Yesterday, waiting in Kaelyn's preschool dropoff line, you excitedly called out, "Two Bees!" At first I questioned what you were saying. It's February, there are no bees out. And then I realized you saw the two large "B"'s on the side of the school.

You love to sing and dance. You get excited to do Dance Party that Maya let us borrow for the Wii, but for some reason you never actually dance to this. But you do love to dance to jingles on commercials.  And we catch you singing all the time. Not little kid songs. You can most often be heard singing along to Mumford and Sons "I Will Wait" but you also try to sing along to several other of your favorite hit songs.

You are truly a little boy. You love to run and jump and climb and ride your bike. You love trains and cars and trucks. You love playing these with your big sister but for some reason she just can't always understand the joy you get from pushing a truck around the house. "Playing trucks is boring" to her but you would happily push them around for an hour saying "vroom" and occasionally crashing them into each other.

You are communicating better and sleeping better (knock on wood) so we are blessed with fewer tantrums than 6 months ago. I'm hoping we are already on the down-swing of the terrible two's (which inexplicably seem to start well before the age of two). But you still know how to make we want to throw my hands up in the air and lock myself in my bedroom sometimes. Life is never dull but frequently unpredictable with you around.

You still love your paci. You like to cuddle with your pup-pup and blanket too, but paci is really the only thing that comforts you when you are too tired, get hurt or are really upset about not getting your way. This will be changing very soon, but for a few more days (maybe weeks) we'll try to appreciate the cuteness of your little pleas for "pa-see" when you are upset.

And you are still as snuggly as the day you were born. I remember after the first night in the hospital with you one of the nurses brought you back to the room and said you were the snuggliest little baby. I thought "whatever, don't all babies like to be held and snuggle? how can you tell he's more snuggly than the rest?" But I soon found out how right she was. I will truly miss your snuggles when you outgrow it.

There's so much more I'd like to remember about life with you at two, but since I'm already wiping tears from eyes I'll stop here and end by saying...

Happy Birthday Brennan! We love you so much!