Birthday Pains

Garrett's big 2nd birthday was today and we (meaning Garrett and myself) have had a great day. Parker, on the other hand, has not handled being out of the spotlight very well. Parker was in bed with me bright and early at 6 am and when we heard Garrett making noise around 7:00, I said we should go upstairs and sing him Happy Birthday. Well, that was the first of the water works for the longest day of Parker's young life. He sat at the bottom of the stairs and pouted for 10 minutes and then promptly tried changing the subject of Garrett's big day as soon as we came down.
Garrett isn't getting a big fussy party and tons of gifts this year and I would say poor Garrett but what I really am thinking is poor me. I can hardly stand not spoiling him rotten but when I look around my house and see the baskets and buckets and drawers and closets full of toys and junk, I know presents don't matter. And I know his awesome water pirate table that Grandma and PoPo gave him and Buzz Lightyear 4 wheeler from Uncle Toby and Aunt Katrina are probably way more than any 2 year old needs besides the rest of the fun stuff he will soon get. I just can't resist the face I knew he was going to give us when we asked him, "Are you ready for your surprise?" He lit up and screamed, "Surprise!" over and over. He got trains and a carrying case which goes with his present from Gamma and GDad but I couldn't wait until Saturday... it just seemed too cruel to have those big shiny presents sitting over there for 2 more days.
If only Parker let him play with the new trains he got. We had to put Parker to bed without a book (which is extremely painful as you can imagine) and, 30 minutes later he is still in there talking and probably calling us butt heads (his new favorite word that I can't beat out of him) and yapping about how mean we are and how Garrett wouldn't share his new trains with him.
Any time we try to explain "how things work" to Parker, he blows it way out of proportion lately. If I ask him, "Do you want Garrett to take your new things away and not let you play with them on your birthday, would you like that...?" He breaks down again and says (or screams rather), "Why would you let him do that to me? He is going to ruin my birthday!, He can't take my new birthday toys!" Whoever said boys are less dramatic than girls hasn't met Parker! Good thing Garrett is so easy going and gets over drama quickly.
So, for myself, I sang Garrett Happy Birthday all day long (while Parker was at school) and got to see him shy away and giggle and laugh which made his birthday for me. I know he had fun and he went to sleep saying night-night to Gamma with a big smile on his face. As for Parker...lesson of the day... tomorrow is a new day, we are going to show Garrett how we share so that by his birthday, he will be a big boy and not spoil Parker's day. We'll see how that goes! No school on Friday so we might have another long and painful day of sharing!

Happy Birthday Garrett!!!!

Best Halloween EVER!

I just have to tell about our Halloween this year. The week started off extra spooky this year, literally! Garrett got a stomach bug and was so nice to share it with Parker and myself. We had such big plans for the week. Parker was going to wear his shark costume to school and had his carnival and pizza party on Thursday. I had been planning for a month to host a big Halloween party for my moms club with 20+ kids and 14 or so moms. It was my first Halloween kids party and I went all out. I downloaded scary music to play, had pumpkin cupcakes, treat bags, games, decorations and had been cleaning and getting set up for a week... it was going to be so much fun. Parker and Garrett were all prepared and now know all of the words to Monster Mash and Mr. Roboto... lucky for me, that is all they want to listen to now! Have you ever listenened to Mr. Roboto? Do it sometime. It's awful! Every time we get into the car. It's like 5 minutes long. Really scary!
Anyway, with the curse of the evil stomach bug, all of those plans were cancelled. I'm not sure who was more upset, me or Parker. Luckily, I had plans to take the boys to Six Flags Fright Fest so I just made a big deal about that and Parker moved on from his pouting. I knew he would totally FREAK OUT when he saw the roller coasters. He kept saying we were going to a carnival, I couldn't wait for him to get there! We had planned to go with Gamma and Gdad but the ghost of the stomach bug followed us and cursed Gamma. Gdad was a trooper and took us to Six Flags by himself which wouldn't have been that bad except Garrett gave him such a hard time. He didn't want to sit and wait for Parker and me to ride the rides and he probably felt left out that he couldn't go on them too. The few he got to do, he couldn't get enough of! I have some dare devil kiddos!
Parker wanted to start on the Shock Wave (or Shark Wave as he calls it) which is a double loop rollercoaster that even gives me chills. I told him we would work up to it- no need to scare him the second we get in the gates. But, he never slowed down, not that he ever does! He went from the Bobsled to the pirate ship to the Tony Hawk ride (with 2 adorable 11 yr olds that he flirted with) until we finally made it to the Shock Wave. Gdad went with him and when he got off- he wanted more. I seriously cannot wait until they are both tall enough to do the big rides with me.. eh hem.. for them of course. To watch them have fun...
After I totally drained the life out of them on Saturday, we made it home in time for trick or treating. Garrett wore his Bot costume, long enough to take pictures anyway. In the future... can everyone please remind me to purchase cheap costumes the week before Halloween so I don't make myself crazy and they don't change their minds??? I spent how much time and money on Team Umi Zoomi and Garrett wore his for about 30 seconds. Parker and I had fun as Millie and Geo at least. Yes, Kevin was present... I don't mention him much because Halloween isn't his favorite holiday but he did take us door to door for the candy and took pictures of Garrett's first real trick or treating. Garrett did say trick or treat, at least 5 times at each door actually, it was just before they would get there. Oh well, he was so adorable, no one cared! Everyone thought the boys were aliens and they didn't know what I was, but they thought it was cute. It was the best Halloween yet...so much fun. If you would have told me when Parker was just an infant that it would get more and more fun the older they got, I wouldn't have believed you. But that was before I had willing roller coaster buddies!
Parker was so upset that Halloween is over and was even more upset when he got home from school and saw all of the spiders and ghosts were taken down. He doesn't quite get the concept of "we have to wait an entire year for Halloween" yet. At least Christmas is close. I wonder if Kevin would be mad if I start decorating now???

End of the Season

2010 Fall Soccer
We have come to the end of Parker's first season of soccer. He had a lot of fun and met some really fun kids. He met a new friend, Gavin, who he had a lot of fun with that also introduced him to Iron Man. We are now obessessed with Iron Man and, lucky for mommy, she likes it too because we watch it over and over! And Benjamin from his Dinosaurs class was also on the team. They had too much fun picking on each other. Seems it is more fun to fall on the ball and chase the other kids around than actually try to score a goal. It was unanimous at the trophy ceremony that the kids favorite part of soccer is playing goalie. That is where Parker did the best, mostly I think because he got to be the star of the show and didn't really have many kids around to pick on!

I really can't believe how much Parker improved from the beginning of the season. We were worried after the first practice. I was glad daddy stayed home with Garrett. Especially because daddy says he remembers being 4 and focusing and wanting to be the best on the team. He would have been very dissapointed to see Parker falling on the ball (which made everyone else do it, which is also the first and most important "don't do" of soccer), climbing the fence, bouncing the ball on the other kids heads... I was ready to never go to another practice or game ever again!

But he really started enjoying it and trying harder as the season went on. The only times he had a really hard time were when he saw Garrett on the sideline watching the IPOD, then he was super jealous and wanted to sit out. I don't know if soccer is his calling but we will probably give it another try next year. We are going to take a break from sports until after the holidays and then we are going to try TBall!