Happy Valentine's Day!

We spent Sunday getting our valentines ready for distribution tomorrow. When I picked the boys up from daycare on Friday we headed to Target to grab what we needed. Of course everything was picked over, but we did manage to find dinosaur valentines for Macalan. That was his only request. Well I shouldn't say his only request. He managed to find several things that he "needed" to have while we walked through the store.
I decided to make cupcakes for the daycare kids. Grandma Mary gave us a cute heart shaped cupcake pan so I thought we should put it to good use. Macalan had fun "helping" me make and decorate the cupcakes. We have this continuous problem where he feels the need to snatch a lick of the batter and icing so I'm constantly washing his hands so he doesn't spread germs.
The pictures are from last weekend when we did a trial run with the new cupcake pan. Trial run is code for I just really needed a cupcake fix!

On a totally different note...Macalan is putting himself to sleep finally! For a long time he has needed us to lay with him until he falls asleep. As much he thought he needed us, I really needed that time with him too. I love cuddling him after story time and watching him fall asleep, but I know it's better for everyone if he starts putting himself to bed. The past couple of nights we have tucked him in and then sat on the stairs below his room so he can know we are there, but not see us. He has cried a little bit, but overall it's going well. I hope we don't have to sit on the stairs for too much longer because my rear-end can't take that much longer! :)

I'm also including a picture from this weekend of Macalan's "experiment." I caught him unloading tons of stuff from one of our cupboards onto the dining room table. When I asked what he was doing he said, "I just doin' an experiment mom. Will you help me solve this problem?" The kid never ceases to amaze me. I don't know where he gets this stuff! I'm wondering if his scientific question had something to do with "how much crap can I put on the table before mom freaks out?"

Sutton's Walking!

Sutton has been taking 2-5 steps here and there for several weeks now, but this past week he decided he was ready to all out walk! Of course the big moment of him taking some substantial steps were while he was at daycare and while I was at night class. Oh well! Macalan did the same thing to me!
It is so cute to see him toddling around. He seems so small (short) to be walking. He is so proud of himself and he can even walk and drink from his sippy cup! Macalan was pretty proud too. When he was walking around on Thursday night he kept saying "Sutton your walkin'! I'm so powd of you!" :)
This weekend he also mastered being able to change directions without having to hold on to anything. He can also push himself up from the floor to walk (sometimes).
Another milestone for my baby! I'm sure before I know it he and Macalan will be chasing each other all over the place. My boys are growing up too fast!

Interesting toy name

Grandma came to visit today and brought with her some fun Valentine presents. Sutton got a cute little cow that he loves to cuddle and hug. Macalan got a hippo. When I asked him what he wanted to name the hippo he said "Horsey Butt." Nice name bud. When I asked him again what he wanted to name the new toy he replied "The Butt." Butt has been a new word in his rather extensive vocabulary. Great to hear it's making its way into the stuffed animal name circulation. Maybe I'll try to convince him of a new name that doesn't include Butt tomorrow.

Mr. Destructo

Since turning one Sutton has remained, for the most part, his relaxed mellow self, until recently. He is rarely crabby, but his personality is really coming through lately. He has been so silly and giggly. He thinks it's hilarious to head butt anything he can, including other people's heads, which is really painful! :( He likes to hold onto to the furniture and move his feet as fast has he can almost like a particular scene from the movie Flashdance. We've been trying to get him to walk, but the most he has taken is 5 steps. He pretends like he's going to take off and then promptly lands on his tush. Movies are becoming more interesting to him as well. Anytime Cars is on for Macalan he plops down and watches right along with his brother.

Not only is he becoming more busy and fun, he is also becoming more destructive. Yesterday while I was attempting to get ready he (with the help of big brother) pulled all the books out of the book bin and got multiple wipes out of the wipe warmer. I love each phase of childhood and I'd hate to say I want to rush through any aspect of my kid's lives, but I really don't like the "getting into everything stage."

A Valentine Project

Friday night Macalan and I did some watercolor painting together. I found some left over hearts at school and I thought he would have fun painting them. He didn't really get the concept of rinsing off the brush and then getting a new color. He thought painting with just the water was a blast! He can be easy to entertain at times. :) I hung the finished hearts in our kitchen as a garland and it looks pretty darn cute! It's hard to believe Valentine's Day is right around the corner.

Snow fun!

Today was a no school day so the boys and I got an extra day to have fun! I decided since it was in the mid 20s that would be warm enough to venture outside with the both the boys and the dog. Macalan was SO excited when I got out all his snow gear. Sadly, we haven't been out to play in the snow at all this winter.

It only took about 20 minutes to get them both dressed, which included the multiple times I had to put Sutton's boots back on. We never got around to getting him boots that actually fit so the ones he wore were about 4 sizes to big! Hopefully they'll fit by this time next year.

When we finally got outside Macalan had fun throwing snow in the air for Walter to catch and attempting to make a snow angel. We also tried to go for a walk with both of them in the sled and the dog on the leash, but that was just disaster! If any of our neighbors were watching I'm sure they were laughing. Anytime I hit a bump one or both of the boys would practically fall out of the sled, Walter was tangling himself in the leash over and over, and then Mac decided to get out leaving Sutton with no choice but to lay down in the sled since he couldn't sit very well in all his snow gear. We called it quits by the time we got to the next driveway down from our house and headed back to just play in the yard. At one point Macalan was laughing really loud and he said, "What is that sound?" I thought he was talking about the birds, but then he said, "Who's screaming?!" He was actually talking about his own echo. That was tough to try to explain!

Hopefully we'll have more chances to get outside and have fun in the snow. Although I am ready for winter to be over!

No time for blogging

I feel like I haven't updated our blog in so long. Lately there has just been no time for it. Since going back to school after Christmas we have been living crazy, busy lives! By the time we get home it's time to make supper, do bath time, read books, and get the boys in bed. After all of that I'm exhausted and still usually have things to do around house, as well as working on some of my final projects for my master's.

I am happy (and a little nervous) to say that I will be starting my LAST class on Thursday! It's all down hill from here, I hope. I cannot wait to have more free time to be with my family. I can't wait to have more time to just play with my boys. Sutton was born in the midst of my chaotic grad school life so I have been carrying a lot of guilt around because I feel like I haven't been a very good mom to him. Thankfully it's nearly over! I hope to be able to keep up with our blog, but I need to prioritize the things I have going in my life. I don't know how many people actually read my boring blog, but don't be surprised if you don't see a post for a while.

A big goal I have set for when life slows down a bit is finally potty training Macalan! Hopefully I will soon be able to post something about potty training success. He talks a lot about needing to go poop in the potty so he can go to preschool so maybe we're on the road to finally getting it done! Crossing my fingers!