hello again

We are here. We've been here five weeks actually.

We live in a great house in a nice neighborhood, and the boys have already made friends. There are plenty of playgrounds. The zoo is small but beautiful.

But best of all the sea is here, and that is what makes it feel like home.

going away party

A week after graduation we threw a moving party for the boys. I rented out their favorite train for an hour and invited their friends for one last play date.

Everything was perfect.

the food was all G-Friendly

the weather was a bit windy with no chill

the train was the only planned activity

the decorations were simple and cute

the turnout was great

and my favorite part

my favorite of favorite parts -

Both boys had the best time I've ever seen. G was a bit tired, but still love it. And Bo was thrilled the entire time. It made me so happy that he was so happy. I couldn't stop smiling at how much he was smiling.

I love that on this one day, I was the funnest mama in the world.

Kelly's graduation - pretend this was published in May

Kelly graduated from Dental school.

We are getting closer my friends!

Kelly's mom, sister, and brother's family flew out for it. It was so nice of extended family to make the extra effort to come,  we love seeing them and don't get to often enough. His dad was most likely there too, just not physically. We were the luckiest with our seats, just off to the right of the stage, then when the graduates walked to their chairs Kelly ended up sitting just across from us. The boys loved that. As each classmate walked across stage and had clapping, Bo would give a little "wahoo" and sweet G would clap along and laugh. When Kelly walked across the stage, down the steps and back to his seat, Bo yelled the entire time "YAY DADDY!" loud enough that half the audience heard and was laughing.

The graduation ceremony was at 7pm, which happens to be my boys bedtime. But you can bet I had them come anyway to see their daddy graduate. I bribed them with too much candy, which worked until their sugar high crazed the hell out of em.

and they were more than happy to run into their daddy's arms before the ceremony was finished.

I can't blame them, that's what I wanted too.

I knew the late hour would be hard for them, so two months in advance I lined up a babysitter to come pick them up after the ceremony was over. It was perfect. We had the ceremony, took pictures, then Jessika arrived to take the boys home and put them to bed, still a good two hours past their bedtime. We then could enjoy the rest of the evening without feeling rushed to get them home. It was nice to see Kelly's classmates and their families (who we already knew well) at the reception after. It still felt like it wasn't the last time I would see everyone, but it was. Kelly, his mom, brother, and sister and I then took off to eat some real food at California Pizza Kitchen.

It's been a long road. He's worked hard for this. For us.

I'm proud of this man. I love him so.

weekends are the best

sweater weather + a saturday = a family zoo trip, which also = heaven for these boys and exhaustion for their parents

We thought we could go without a stroller, because there was one of each of us for the kids.

but we had to skip B's nap, and he went from full speed sprint to crawling on the ground to sprint again. It's hard enough for little boys to listen when they are rested and happy, but napless and happy.... the stroller is coming next time.

look close and you will see Bo trying to lick Kelly's ear.

he picked that up from 101 dalmatians, and surprises us with it just often enough.

There's nothing like having a little boy sneak up on you and lick your ear.

I love this family.

3

this is my boy and I just love him.

My sweet Jelly Bean turned 3 years old.

This is unreal.

He went from being a dream, a hope, a prayer, to a babe carried by our S, to a baby in our own arms, to a toddler, and now a little boy. He is the most wonderful journey.

His birthday was a conference Sunday, we stayed in and tried to do things he would enjoy.

We introduced him to cinnamon rolls. He doesn't care to try new foods, regardless of how delicious they appear. So we had to tell him it was cinnamon birthday cake with frosting. His horrified response? "But I want chocolate cake!" Good thing I waited to bake that planned vanilla cake. After convincing him he gets two cakes today, he dared to try the cinnamon rolls and enjoyed them.

We continued our little tradition of the birthday boy giving a small gift, to celebrate and show gratitude for their relationships. He handed out bubbles to just a few of his friends who were home, just enough to get the point across to him that his birthday is not all about him getting things. He really like it.

Party hats this year were cowboy hats from our most recent farm trip.

He loved to rip open the presents.
My favorite present to get him this year was a book I made for him "The Day You Were Born"
A very simple story, maybe I'll share parts of it.

We played outside in perfect weather.

Every year I have gotten him a radio flyer. His first year was a wagon, his second a scooter, and this year was a tricycle. I'm so glad it fit. He's slowly getting the hang of pedals.

We ate pizza dinner outside at his request. With G's new lift on soy he was even able to try a soy pizza made with soy cheese. Poor guy still knew it wasn't the same thing we were eating though (and it may or may not have given him a horrible night).

The wind picked up that afternoon and tried to blow out his candles, but between Kelly and our good neighbor Trent, they had them lit long enough for Bo to blow them out.

Yep, that cake is absolutely G-Friendly

Later that night, my parents came over and we sang happy birthday all over again. Bo loved it, he sang right along. Then when my camera wasn't working and I had to adjust a setting, I asked if we could do it again. Bo was more than excited to, he had been singing happy birthday to himself all day and having everyone sing along with him was heaven.

Oh how I love him.

bushwhacker

Last weekend Kelly and I went to his dental school prom.
Bushwhacker,
Mandiball,
or something like that.
It was Prom.

It was held at the Uptown, a good choice, that place is beautiful. So many of his friends were there, I really like most of them. It was fun to visit with everyone, and I'm sad that in just a few weeks we will say long goodbyes. We had dinner and a few short videos were shown. Kelly helped with the videos, one of them was a hilarious dental school version of thrift shop, and we all got to hear Kelly rap, it was amazing. There was dancing, a dessert room, and a photo booth. Even though the place was crowded with so many people we knew, it still felt like a private date between me and Kelly for much of it. It's been a long time since Kelly and I have been on a date like this.

I love this man.

allergist update

Cute boy had an appointment with the allergist. A different doctor than last time (which is a very good thing). He was retested. The good news is his peanut and soy scores looked fantastically low (yay!) So the plan is to try to introduce those things one at a time for two weeks and see how he does. The bad news is his chicken, eggs, and dairy, were obscenely high (boo!) and she encouraged me to keep the epi nearby always. She was very surprised about the chicken, that's a weird one for anyone to be allergic to. 

We tried to introduce soy on Sunday. He ate a few bites  of pizza with soy cheese. Then he was up all night crying. So we gave him a break on Monday and he slept just fine. On Tuesday we tried again, and he only ate a few bites again. He was up crying all night. So now we are taking a break for a couple weeks before we try again. I just want to make sure it's not a coincidence.  Then we will try peanuts later. 

*sigh*

In good news he is finally drinking his Elecare. That nasty stuff gets him the nutrients he misses out on by not eating his allergens. So Yay G!