Birthday fun...continued

After a good nap- Daddy was home! What better way to continue birthday fun than with a good picnic? Our good friend Ellen sent Sammy this super cute quilt/picnic toy just after he was born. It's fully equipped with a basket full of food, ants under the picnic blanket and some flowers to sniff. Guthrie has been enjoying playing with it while Sammy grows big enough to use it himself.

MMMmmmm. Cupcakes. Guthrie is still fully figuring out how to "pretend eat." He gets the concept that you don't try to literally chew and swallow the food and makes the corresponding yummy sounds, but G continues to actually bite the food every time- the plate too! It's too cute.

Offering a strawberry to Sammy.
Yummy! Watermelon!
Sammy can't figure out why there are so many seeds.
In the car, on the way to meet Uncle Tom and Aunt Tam for dinner at Guthrie's (well, our) favorite restaurant- Dish! Guthrie was playing with Sammy, making him giggle.
Mmmmmm. Sweet potatos. Nothing like some modern down-home southern cookin' to make a birthday right!

Next we headed to Tasty Yo for some frozen yogurt dessert with friends. Colin and the entire Masto gang joined us for the fun. Guthrie didn't eat a lick of his treat. Oh well, Mama was happy to sacrifice and eat G's for him....
On the other hand, Sammy would've been happy to chow on some yogurt. Look at him checking out Dad's spoonful.
Colin thought he'd give the carrier a try- these boys are getting so big!
Next it was time to come home and Skype Mawmaw, Pawpaw and Aunt Leslie. We don't do this often enough. Guthrie was fascinated not only with seeing family live in the screen, but also seeing himself.
Goodbye kisses!
We let the birthday boy stay up well past his bedtime so we could go outside and catch some fireflies. This experience was absolutely hilarious. Once he realized what we were looking for, Guthrie kept running around in all directions, but going practically nowhere with his arms out saying, "Where'd they go?"
Oh! There's another one!
I guess because they were so little Guthrie wanted to whisper when we caught one. He learned to hold his hand open and then blow them away. Only a couple got a little squished....oops.
Laying on the grass, looking up into the giant oak tree in the front yard.
What better way to end a whirlwind of birthday fun than with a good book. Something was obviously quite yummy....
We love you so much sweet boy- you are special and wonderful and bring us so much joy! Hope your day was great!

Birthday fun...so far

We've had quite an adventuresome day already for our special guy! Guthrie seemed to know that there was a little extra excitement in the air, as he woke up almost an hour earlier than usual. I greeted him with a song (sung even more out of tune, I'm sure, after just waking up myself), gave G a big hug and put on his newly made birthday hat.

Yes, the hat is massive. Wasn't really thinking about kiddo proportions much as I was putting it together! I stole the idea from Jessa- if you want one of these for your special little bug, and want it made correctly, you can find one here.

We played with some spools of thread in the dump truck and watched a couple of his favorite short videos online (Feist's 1234 Sesame Street song) until Sammy woke up.

Growing up, my mom would let us choose what we wanted her to make for our birthday breakfast (which was usually waffles or french toast). I want to continue the tradition- Guthrie's special birthday request: rice crispies!
Next, we headed downtown to Imaginon (Charlotte's children's library) for storytime and play. Fun started in the elevator with pushing the buttons. G seems to know what needs to be pushed to arrive at the correct floor these days (when the choice is 'P' or '1').

Even though the reader was very engaging and interactive at storytime, we didn't last through the whole time. There are just too many distractions and fun things to do there. First of all, just outside the wall of windows where we were sitting is a giant crane- G kept exclaiming, "Crane! Crane!" and calling out as dumptrucks, delivery trucks and concrete trucks passed by.
There are magnetic letters on the end of a section of bookshelves that always capture G's attention. He tends to seek out letters he knows- w, x, y, o, a, i, g- collects and rearranges them.

Next in line was checking out the furniture in the little play house.
Guthrie kept stacking the wooden furniture like blocks. It was too funny- a table and chair fit nicely on top of the stove.

Rearranging the stuffed blocks in the performance area.

Driving and hanging out in the wooden car...
Next, we caught the light rail, which is just outside the library, to go to lunch. It's been super hot here, so we were happy to get on the air-conditioned train to travel to our destination!
Our lunch stop was several stations away, so we were able to travel for a good bit of time. At each stop, Guthrie would look up at me with hope in his eyes and say, "more train? More more train?" I realized that it would be essential to count down the stops so he wasn't disappointed when the ride was over.
Whoa, train!
Oh yes, our lunch destination was none other than Chick-fil-A! G sported his hat for a bit again while eating his chicken and fruit.
Meanwhile, Sammy happily played in the stroller.
All done with the hat.
Sammy was hungry so he thought he'd just eat the stroller. This guy is probably also going to be a blankie kid- he seems to find some kind of cloth to chew on anywhere.
Off to enjoy the play area in the restaurant. Here's G getting bullied by a bigger kid...but he still had fun!
Heading up to the slide...
Now we're home and everyone's happily napping, gearing up for more birthday fun!

Ode to Guthrie in silly and sweet pictures before the big 0-2

Doesn't everyone need a balloon, beads, and book when getting his diaper changed?















Yup, Guthrie got a big boy haircut last week! Gosh, in a matter of minutes, it was as if he changed from a toddler to a little boy.