It's time for a birthday party!!

 

We celebrated Brock's 2nd birthday with a few of his friends (and Mommy's friends too!) this morning. I tried to showcase Brock's construction-crazed theme right from the entrance!

It was fun to decorate the house. I saw this on Pinterest and thought it was adorable.

Birthday Zone!

Cousin Andrew made this and had it framed for Brock's new big boy room, but it was the perfect accessory to display for the party! We love it and Brock can't wait to show it off in his new room! Everytime he sees it, he says "Hold it." (he wants to hold it) :) The animal train is from Cousin Katherin from Germany - sorry Katherin, another year the candles didn't make it in the train. ;)

We invited some friends from his preschool, some from MOPS, a neighbor, and the family I babysit for - it was definitely plenty for my little overwhelmed boy. I understand he's not used to all these people playing with his toys and being in his home, so this was a little much for Brock. After about 30 minutes he finally relaxed enough to play with his trucks with some of the "big girls" and have snack with his buddies Kanoa and Elijah from school.

Brent hanging with the guys....

Then the best part! It was time for cake!

Bob the Builder white cake with strawberry filling

I knew the singing thing would be trouble - he didn't really like it when it was only Brent and me singing to him! He slouched in his chair to get away from everyone singing to him, but then he blew out the candles like a pro! His favorite part!

And because he did so well, everyone clapped and cheered - oh no. Brock had "forgotten" about all this attention and now he "remembered" how much he didn't like that.

After a little time away from the table, he calmed down enough to go back and have his piece of cake..... but it was definitely a foreshadowing for the very near future.....

Brock didn't make it much longer than this. He finished his cake - and when I say cake, I mean frosting - and then he was done. No more playing, no more friends, no more "Happy Birthday". We said good bye to a few people and he went up to bed. I heard him for 45 seconds and then he was OUT. Yes, the birthday boy crashed at his own party.

After a nice two hour nap, he woke up his usual self. We opened the presents from our friends and he was a happy boy again.

Mega Blocks truck from the twins - Kanoa and Elijah

Hand-written card from Ashley, our neighbor across the street

Cute Jake the Pirate Bank from Siena

Wrapping paper for Oscar

And the coolest present ever that you can't buy at a store (well, you'd have to buy the pieces to put it together, but you know what I mean....) This is from my friend Amy and her two girls. We were talking about sensory boxes at MOPS last week and she told me she made one for her little girl. I thought it was such a great idea and it's been on my "to do list" for over a week. Well now I don't have to make one! Filled with different beans, a dump truck, two medicine cups and pieces of egg carton. Brock played with it for over 30 minutes - and actually listened to me about being careful to keep the beans IN the bin!

Final thoughts - So happy to celebrate Brock's birthday with some of the wonderful friends he and I have both made over the last year, but I'm also very happy birthdays only come once a year. Next year Brent and I decided we'll have it at Chuck E. Cheese and let someone else prep and clean for us! :)

Brock is TWO!

 

We went for Brock's two year-old well-check appointment today. Brock is 36 inches tall (90th percentile) and 31.2 pounds (75th-90th percentile). Yup, the stats prove what we already knew - we're going to have one big boy! He was really great for his appointment - even showing off his vocabulary for the doctor! Unfortunately, he was due for one shot so that made him a little sad.... but all was good once he discovered he could pick out his own stickers on the way out!

And since it is always nice to see some comparison pictures, I've included Brent and myself at Brock's age.

Brent (age 2) with sister Brandi, 1975

Vanessa, February 1983 (age 2)

Happy 2nd Birthday Brock!

 

We started Brock's birthday off with a concert at the local community center featuring Baby Caspar Pants. Yes, a funny name, but for those of you not in the Seattle area - this guy is a mega-star in the toddler to grade school age range!

He liked it after I told him, "Look Brock, he plays the guitar just like Papa!" But as I figured, he was very content watching the show from the comfort of my lap. He's my little observer. Maybe next year he'll dance and jump with the other kids. (To be fair to Brock, we met up with some of my MOPS friends and their children and his little friend Lizzy sat in her mother's lap too! I didn't see many one year olds out there dancing!)

Please forgive my awful looking cake - the frosting job was slightly rushed - who cares - it was just for us!

After meeting Daddy at Red Robin for Brock's birthday dinner, we came home to have cake and open presents!!

He's been practicing for the candle-blowing-out moment for over a month now!! ....We may have done it a few extra times too since he loved it so much.....

Then it was time to open presents - the first present he chose was from Grammy and Grandpa and oh my goodness was it a winner!

Oscar was checking it out too!

He has since carried it upstairs for bed and back downstairs in the morning almost every day.... the big excavator even comes with us on car excursions (with the little excavator)!

But back to Brock's birthday....
He received an awesome book from Uncle Brian and Aunt Nancy - Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site.... are we seeing a theme here?

Brock also received so many birthday cards, birthday wishes, and other birthday gifts - he's going to be one well-dressed little boy! (And yay - he can pass down all these adorable clothes to baby brother!)

Brent and I are in disbelief Brock is already two - it really doesn't seem that long ago when we brought him home from the hospital! But Brock is so much fun now. We can have a conversation about what he did or what he saw.... granted his sentences are two and maybe three words, but he understands so much and is learning so much every day - it is such an amazing thing to see. 

Oh and one last story I shared with some.... Monday last week we were driving to our ultrasound appointment and to pacify Brock in the back seat, I asked him what song we should sing. His reply, "HOT BABY!" I immediately turned to Brent and asked him what in the world was he teaching Brock?? I had no idea what he was saying so proceeded to sing another song. Later that night when we put him to bed, I said, "Brock, only two more days until your birthday." Then his response - "hot babee." Ahhhh... he's trying to say "Happy Birthday." And he smiled. Okay Brock, we understand now and we think it's adorable!!

Baby Eason 2.0

We went for our 16 week ultrasound today. Since I am labeled a "higher-risk pregnancy", they want to check me at 16 weeks AND 20 weeks - so that is nice - we'll go back in four weeks and see baby again.

A 4D picture this early shows how skinny baby is!

Baby looks great! Technically I am 16 weeks 6 days today and baby was measuring about 5-6 days ahead - so taking after Brock, going to be a little bigger baby. :) Everything looks great and the best news is that the placenta has moved! I was diagnosed with placenta previa at 13 weeks, but it has now moved to the back of my uterus so that is awesome!

A belly picture is not going to happen too often, but Brock's pose was too cute not to share!

Brock "smiling" :)

Brock is also being super cute about baby brother. We ask him where baby is and it's about half and half whether he points to my actual belly or to my boobs. Oh well, he will get it eventually when my belly is the bigger part. ;)

We are starting to ask him how he's going to help Mommy feed/dress/change the baby, so it was the perfect opportunity to help feed the baby doll at school last week. What did he feed baby? Pizza, of course!

And yes, that is shaving cream in his hair - too much fun at preschool that day!

Starting to feel a little more real how Brent and I are going to be parents of TWO in about 5 months!!

Brock has some news to share!

 

Brock is going to be a BIG BROTHER coming June 2015!! See how super excited he is!! We all are!! It was a wonderful Christmas present to get such great news that we were having a healthy baby BOY! Brock is going to be a big brother to a little brother! :)

Things are going great with me. Somehow in the last week I completely popped out and am now sporting a little belly! I feel great, although I sense picking up Brock and carrying him around is going to end in the near future.

"I'm the big brother!"

Yay for a busy, yet very exciting 2015! We are so looking forward to celebrating Brock's 2nd birthday this year (in two weeks actually!) and seeing more of this little guy in my belly (and then out of my belly!). My brother Brian is set to marry his beautiful fiancee, Nancy, over Memorial Day weekend and how excited we are for the many showers and other events leading up to the big day! And then next Christmas, Santa will be bringing presents for two little boys! Our hearts are full! :)

Papa visits Seattle

Brock wearing his Mickey Mouse sweater his Great-Grandmother (my Dad's Mother) made

 My dad came to visit us for a few days after Christmas. It worked out perfectly for him to come at this time and still celebrate a bit of the holiday with us.

We opened some presents that he brought with him, but most importantly my Dad and Brent worked together to put together the new kitchen helper/tower - his big present from Papa! One of Brock's favorite things to do is run over to the kitchen chair and yell "Help, Help!" because he wants me to pull it over so he can stand up on it and help Mommy. The Learning Tower allows him to safely climb up and stand on a platform with a railing at counter height - to either help me with preparing snacks/meal or to have a meal himself or to do some coloring at the counter. He loves being this high and seeing what I'm doing! Thank you Papa!

Brock & Brent walking around the Clam Lights at Coulon Park (walking on a pier out on Lake Washington)

Even though both Brock and I were still recuperating from our cold, we managed to get out and do some things.

Enjoying "Celebration Lane" at Bellevue Mall - music and snow falling from the buildings!

On Monday morning we headed in to Seattle to check out this new Starbucks Roastery. In case you haven't heard about it, you can read more information here. Very nice and new and the food was pretty good - although about 15% more expensive than a typical Starbucks!

Behind Brock are the big coffee roasters

Brock says "You better not take my cinnamon bun!"

Papa showing off his Starbucks Roastery mug

Small hot cocoa mug for Brock - he LOVES his hot cocoa

We had originally talked about doing the Roastery for lunch and so very glad we changed it to breakfast - this was the line at 10:45am when we were leaving - wrapped around the building!!

But of course we had fun just hanging out at the house too!

My Dad left out on the red eye right as Brock was heading up to bed. Sure enough, the next morning Brock went running in to "Papa's room" yelling his name. Papa? Papa?  Sorry Brock, Papa went home to North Carolina. Sad, but sweet to see him (and Oscar!!!) miss him so!