Theo's 2nd birthday celebration

Yeah, it was a month ago, so sue me.  I have thought about posting pictures from his birthday every day since his birthday and eventually I started thinking, what's the point? So much time has passed.  But this is my virtual baby book and I want these pictures here to look back at one day.

Theo's birthday fell on his Thursday this year and we had plans to celebrate the following Saturday.  We wouldn't dream of not celebrating on his actual birthday so it was just reason to extend the fun for a couple extra days.

First picture of my 2 year old boy.  Yes, with a sticker on his chin.

Theo had breakfast at Ihop with his friend. 

Took them to the library for some fun with puzzles and books. 

It really was so much fun!

Mommy MIGHT have even let him have sprinkles at snack time.  

And it MIGHT be a new obsession of his.  Whoops. 

Mama made some cupcakes for her big boy. 

There was a nap of epic proportions. Like the kind you have to wake him up from so he can open presents. Rough life. 

Excited to see what's in this box from Grammy. 

And of course it wouldn't be a birthday without a trip to Chuck E. Cheese!

Baby brother's not too sure about this plastic bib. 

Digging into his little cupcake.

It was a pretty perfect birthday, for not even having a party!

Friday, he had his 2 year checkup, which went just fine.  He's growing. He's healthy. He's smart.  Nothing we didn't already know!

We had a laid back day on Friday and were happy that daddy took off work to hang out with us.  Saturday we had a little lunch party with R's parents and sister and her family.  We decorated with a Doodlebops tablecloth and balloons.  It was stress-free, simple, and just the way I wanted it to be. 

On the menu:

Roasted asparagus

Cheese and potato casserole

Chicken cordon bleu with wine sauce.

YUM.  (And yes, these are all foods that Theo loves!)

There were lots more presents and lots of stickers. 

Here comes the cake! (DQ didn't have Doodlebops. Boo!)

Surprise...the cake was a hit!

After everyone left and we had time to play with all his new toys, Theo wanted to blow bubbles with his new Chuggington bubble toy.  Funny...he carried this little toy around for days after his party. 

It was a special few days.  But every day with my little boys is special.  At the end of every day, after the boys are in their jammies and ready for bed, after I've gotten my share of hugs and kisses, I must say... I am one happy, lucky mama.  

~C~

Project 365 (mar 19 - apr 4)

Days 79-94

Fail again.  I don't know what's changed, exactly, but the time I have to spend on this blog is withering away.  I've had several things I've wanted to write about but couldn't find an hour here or there to sit down and do it.  One thing that has changed is the weather and we're spending a lot more time outside.  I got to enjoy a nice week off work and we spent as much of it outside as possible.

Another big change is coming.  We've been meeting with a realtor and home stager and getting our house ready to list.  Finally.  We've only been talking about it since before I knew I was pregnant with Dexter.  We're finally ready to take the plunge.  Keep your fingers crossed that someone falls in love with our house the way that we did and that we find one we love just as much in perfect timing.

79/365: Happy boy.

80/365: Zoo day and the animals were out!

81/365: A cutie niece and a very sleepy Theo at the park

82/365: More cute niece

83/365: Theo got a B&N giftcard for his birthday and was pretty happy with his selection! A coloring book with crayons. 

84/365: Feeding Uncle Joe's alpacas with Grammy.

85/365: my laundry nightmare. It's never ending. My couch looks like this most of the time.

86/365: me catching daddy catching Dexter being funny. (See? Laundry is still there, but at least some of it got folded).

87/365: Words with Friends.  Addicted. 

88/365: Theo discovers the beauty in driving with the windows rolled down...

89/365: and the red puffy eyes that follow.  Apparently our dear boy has seasonal allergies! :(

90/365: Dexter decided to get a mouthful of teeth over a two week period.  Ouch. 

91/365: One of our home staging projects completed: Paint the wall in the laundry "room" green.

92/365:  Project 365 FAIL number 2.  I was too busy to take any pictures on Sunday 4/1/12.

93/365: Theo playing with daddy's video game steering wheel. 

93/365: Another home staging project...to hang a mirror over the couch.  And I'm ready for the Pacers game!

94/365: we love coloring!

So that's what we've been up to.  What have you been up to? 

~C~

TJ & DJ (no, we don't call them by their initials)

I have two boys - and their names are Theodore Jack and Dexter Jay. 

Honestly?  I never dreamed I’d name my kids those names.

For the longest time, I loved the name Vivienne and thought for sure when (not if) I had a girl, she’d be Vivienne Margaret (Margaret after my paternal grandmother).  By the time I found out Theo was a boy, I’d marked Vivi off my list because Brangelina named their little girl the same thing.  They copied me.  I had it first.  I didn’t want to fall in their footsteps…or the footsteps of a bunch of people that named their baby Vivi because Brangelina did. That's it - off the list.

Before Jackson became hugely popular, I loved Zavier Jackson, but R wanted it to be Xavier Jackson.  I didn’t want the “X” pronunciation and we could never agree on it, so we dropped it.  Jackson was R’s grandfather’s name.  After X/Zavier died off, there was Owen.  I had several years of wanting a baby Owen.  Then, all the sudden, there was an Owen at every pool and playground and toy store.  Again, off the list.

By the time I finally got pregnant, I didn’t have any baby names picked out.  It seemed like quite the ominous task, choosing names that this kid would carry with him for life.  I knew I wanted to incorporate my late father’s name somehow.  No lie, we were watching Cosby Show reruns one night when I said “Theo.  Theodore.”  I don’t know what it was about the name, but it felt good rolling off my tongue and it sounded right with our last name.  Within about 2 minutes, we decided our baby (if he was indeed a boy) would be Theodore.  Within a week of finding out his gender, we were calling him Baby Theo.  It fit and it stuck and there was no looking back. It took us a few weeks longer to decide if his middle name would be Jack or Alan but we ended up choosing Jack.  No one knew my dad by his middle name, Alan, and Jack just seemed perfect. 

Dexter was a different story altogether.  It was harder, and partly because we didn’t know if the baby would be a boy or a girl.  I got it in my head that I wanted the name to have a “Th” blend in it.  Like Samantha.  Or Meredith.  Or Edith.  Edith?  Yeah, Edith.  That was the name we ultimately decided on if the baby was a girl.  We’d call her Edie and her middle name would be June after R’s grandmother.  I entertained the idea of naming a girl Arizona (after my maternal grandmother) and calling her Zoey.  R wasn’t a huge fan.  Oh, and we fell in love with Mallory for a few weeks but decided against it because of my nephew named Malachi, who gets called Mal, Mali, and every other way you would naturally shorten Mallory. 

After exploring ALL “th” options for boys, I realized it just wasn’t going to happen.  So we went off in different directions.  Harrison (but R didn’t want him to be called Harry).  Griffith (too cumbersome rolling off the tongue with our last name).  I loved Calvin, but with Theodore's name, I thought it was too close to the Chipmunks' Alvin.  Crosby (too much like Cosby? as in Theo Huxtable/Bill Cosby).  Also, R is a huge Pittsburgh Penguins fan and while I couldn’t care less, he didn’t want everyone to think he named his kid after Sidney Crosby.  Think we over-thunk it?  Maybe so.

When Dexter was born and we heard the words (and saw the evidence), “it’s a boy!” I looked at his little face and thought, he looks like a Crosby.  But for whatever reason, by noon that day, we’d decided he was a Dexter.  We chose Jay for his middle name after R’s father.  We liked Jay and June both because they started with J and had one syllable like Jack, and {bonus} had family significance. 

It's funny how there's a million and one names out there and you can choose any one of them - but your baby is exactly who you named him for a reason.  I just can't imagine calling my little guys anything but Theo and Dex. 

I love baby names.  TaIking about them, thinking about them, and choosing them.  I would love to name a dozen more babies, but that means I’d have to take care of them and pay for them too.  There are no more vacancies at our inn for now, so I’ll have to be content with my two boys and the names that we chose for them. 

no regrets here,

~C~

I'm linking up with Mama G at Growing Up Geeky and Mindi at Simply Stavish this week for Toddle Along Tuesday.