How did we go from this:

To this:

To this:

I know the calendar says it’s been two years, but it feels like time is going much faster. I still can’t believe my baby is two.

This is where my sister would say that Adam is my little boy and Luke is my baby, but I disagree. Adam will always be my baby. Luke will always be my baby too, though since he’s only 7 weeks old I don’t have to argue that point with Stacy yet.

Tonight I finished one of Adam’s birthday gifts. I am a big fan of gifts that are made by hand and these have the added bonus of being educational as well as fun to throw at Dave.

They are counting beanbags (I got the idea/tutorial from one of the craft blogs I read). Adam can use them for number recognition, learning colors, stacking, or throwing at Dave. When he is a little older we can sneak in some basic math as well.

They are about 4 inches square and other than the muslin for the front and the beans (navy beans if you’re curious) I was able to use all supplies I had on hand. The purple on the #7 beanbag is leftover from a quilt Stacy and I made years ago and the orange #2 fabric was also used on Luke’s farm quilt.

It was a fun, quick project and I’m pleased with how they turned out. Dave wants me to do the alphabet now. We’ll see how Adam responds to this set first, but I’ve added A-Z beanbags to my “to craft” list.

And because I know no one comes here to see beanbags, here are a couple of pictures of the boys.

I still can’t believe that kid is going to be two on Sunday.

Yesterday Luke received mail from the White House.

Pretty cool, no? All you have to do is mail a birth announcement to the White House and they send this neat little card back. We did the same thing when Adam was born. They are a nice keepsake to add to the baby book (especially if your children have up-to-date beautiful baby books, mine don’t – but that’s a story for another day).

We also sent an invitation to the White House when Dave and I got married. George and Laura sent a nice note congratulating us (they never did RSVP though). The card was timed perfectly and actually arrived the morning of our wedding.

And in the same vein, I would totally love to have the job of responding to the birth announcements and wedding invites that get sent to the White House. Looking at pictures of cute babies and fancy stationary all day would be awesome.

*I am able to work part-time, from home and will provide my own letter opener and pen. I have excellent penmanship and am willing to submit writing samples in cursive as well as the more informal block letter style. I would require the use of a machine (or an assistant) to seal the envelopes.*

On Friday Dave’s work had a family picnic at a local water park. I took my camera and was happy to sit on the sidelines with Luke and snap pictures of Dave and Adam playing in the water. I had the two of them pose at the entrance (Adam looked adorable in his sunglasses and baseball cap). I mentally cursed the man that stood in my way causing me to miss out on what would have been an adorable shot of the two of them splashing in the water together. Thankfully Dave was able to recreate the moment for me once the annoying guy moved. I even got a couple of really cute pictures of Luke napping in the stroller.

After taking about 20 pictures I realized there was no memory card in the camera – which means all my carefully framed snapshots don’t exist outside of my head. I did manage to get a couple of decent pictures thanks to my cell phone. Here’s one of Dave and Adam enjoying the lazy river:

And even though this isn’t the best quality, I love this picture of Adam running toward me. The tidal wave pool scared him when it started up and so he went right for the safety of my lap. I ended up soaked, but I didn’t mind too much. I mean really, who am I to deny a boy that needs his mama?

Seriously, Adam is one very “loved” little boy. This playground was waiting for him in Grandmama & Papa’s backyard when we got there on Saturday. I’ve been told putting it together was a two-day event and involved a very talented crew of volunteers.

Adam’s already mastered the rock wall and loves to climb up it and then go down the slide (on his belly, feet first). He also really likes to be pushed on the swing.

Some day he will have to share this with his brother and any future cousins/siblings, but for now it’s all Adam’s, and he couldn’t be happier about it. He’s a pretty lucky little guy.

PS – If you click on the pictures it will make them bigger and you can get the full effect of Adam’s smile. It’s worth it.

I told you I was “one of those moms.”  Adam thought it was pretty cool that he and Luke both had the same outfit on and kept pointing out the octopuses on them. Did you know that “octopuses” is actually the correct pluralization of the word “octopus”, not “octopi”? It is amazing (and sometimes scary) the things the internet can teach you.

Also, this week I learned that I have difficulties using the correct punctuation with quotation marks. I just read up on the proper usage on a grammar site; hopefully it helps (oooh a semicolon, look who’s getting all fancy now).

And yes, the homophone misuse in the title of this post was intentional. I love a good pun.

These pictures have been sitting on my desktop for a week now, so I’ll just share them before they get any older.

My boys are pretty adorable.

And that’s not just a biased mama talking, it was confirmed earlier tonight by the lady wearing the eye patch in the frozen food aisle at the Walmart. She told me that Adam could be a model and that Luke is a beautiful baby – and she should know, she used to be a beauty pageant judge.

Despite the eye patch, I think her vision is just perfect.

We’ve all seen them – at church, the playground, a restaurant, or at the very least in family portraits – those poor children whose mothers dress them in matching outfits.

I am officially (and unapologetically) one of “those” moms.

Also, according to my spell check “unapologetically” is not a word. I’m using it anyway – and I’m not sorry.

I fed Luke last night at about 11 and he slept until 5:30. After he ate he spent a few minutes smiling at the window air conditioner (I don’t know if he likes the noise or the breeze it puts out) and then went back to sleep.

He is a rockstar.

In the past two weeks Adam has gone from ignoring Luke to taking a real interest in his little brother. Here he is trying to get Luke’s mouth open so he can see that he doesn’t have any teeth.

He also likes to show me Luke’s ears, nose, hair, et cetera (I like to spell it out, rather than writing etc, it makes me feel like Yul Brynner).

We have to remind him to be careful and not to touch the baby’s eyes.

He is also big on holding Luke and giving him hugs – at least I think that last picture is a hug, it could be a headlock I suppose. For the most part Luke doesn’t mind the increase in attention from Adam.

However when Adam tried to sit on his back earlier and said “yeehaw” Luke was less than thrilled. So I had to have a chat with Adam on who it’s okay to “yeehaw”, and who it’s not. Aunt Stacy (since she’s the one that started it), Uncle Rob, Daddy, Papa (sorry Dad), Uncle Steve, and Aunt Amanda – they are all yeehaw-able. Mama, Grandmama, and Luke are not (I invoked my non-yeehaw status while I was pregnant with Luke and have no desire to change it). Let’s hope, for Luke’s sake, the lesson sunk in.

I did snap that one picture, but it was only because the camera was still in my hand and on (lest you think I am a horrible mother letting one child beat up on the other while I photographed it). I don’t feel too bad though since when I told the story to Dave he told me it was too bad I didn’t get it on video.