Let's Celebrate!

We had such a lovely month of Mother's Day celebrations, not something we could even contain to a single day! It started and ended with my firstborn bringing home flowers from school (a potted plant and decorated pot for May Day and a single flower in a decorate glass vase for the end of the school year). Then Hubby got me flowers and mini Mother's Day donuts a couple of weeks early and I finally got a chance to post our Mother's Day photos and annual family portraits taken in April to be ready for the special holiday. With all the excitement I didn't even need anything else on the actual Mother's Day Sunday, though we did start the day with Dutch Bros (so I could finally get myself a "Dutch Mom" sticker this year), had brunch at my mom's house, delivered gifts to my in-laws, saw cute drawings and words written by my preschooler, and then spent the evening helping him get his stuck poopie out because that's what moms do.

The month of May was also exciting for other reasons. First, May 1was the start of a promotion! I'm temporarily in a new administration job that comes with a fancy title, a small pay upgrade, and definitely a lot more responsibility. I'm now traveling to different sites each week, handling budget and HR issues, and decorating a new office with new family photos as well. I'm excited for the challenge but still not sure if this is something I want to do permanently or not.

And then, of course, May 25 marked the last day of school for my preschooler! He'll be returning next year since he's still only four, but it was still emotional as he had his first school performance (sort of mostly standing where he was supposed to and singing what he was supposed to) and had to say goodbye to some friends going off to "big kid school." School has been a bit of a challenge since spring break because he's suddenly decided that it's a little bit scary, but he ends up having a good time once he finally manages to say goodbye, so we've signed him up for the summer classes in hopes that he won't get too out of the routine before the fall. And it also means it's time to start thinking about where we want to go for Kindergarten! It's all happening so fast, this growing up thing. I remember blogging about how much I loved him being one year old.

And speaking of one-year-olds, it really is such an awesome, fun age! My second born just turned 17 months and it has been just the best watching him grow. From hugging his big brother when he wakes up in the morning to wanting to eat anything he finds to all the words, words, words! It's absolutely fascinating to me to see a one-year-old talk this much since my first had a speech delay until he was about 2 and a half. While Baby 1 was all about communicating through grunts and pointing, Baby 2 will make clear his desires through mostly single-word demands:

More!

Up!

Sit!

Milk!

Fry!

Donut!

Hep! (help)

Em! (open)

Hands! (to wash hands)

Dog! (when he wants to get close to a dog)

And of course, the parental favorite: No!

He's added a few mutli-word or multi-syllable commands in there as well:

Vwee wee! (TV)

Penguin!

All done!

Hot, hot, hot (followed by blowing on food)

Uh oh!

And then there's other helpful words like hi, bye, yay, wow, truck, Papa, several body parts, and randomly saying "Happy" when he sits down to eat and a version of "I love you" from the Skinnamarink song (it sounds a bit like "I vuv mmm" but we get the idea). He will also say "Boom Boom" and "Oh no" at the appropriate times in the popular Chicka Chicka Boom Boom book and will say letters "A," "B," "I," "M," "O" and "Y." He will count by going "one, two" or "nine, ten" over and over again, imitating his big brother counting down the microwave, air fryer, or drops of pee on the potty, lol. More recently he's started naming animals and their sounds (he's mastered that dogs go ruff ruff, cats say meow, and horses say neigh), and he will recognize all his immediate family members in photos--Mine for Mommy, Dada for Daddy, Kee-ya for Kuya (big brother in Tagalog), and Te Te (a shortened form of his own name that he came up with). Most recently after repeating the word "heart" in a shapes video on TV, he saw a heart-shaped sponge and said "heart" so clearly! Oh my heart!

That's almost 50 regular words already, and that's just what I'm able to recall right now! He'll also repeat words we say and ask for videos over and over again to help reiterate the words he's learning (like with barnyard animal sounds). He can already recognize objects and animals in books too (dogs and penguins are definitely his favorite). It's so exciting to not only see his intelligence but his personality emerge as he's more of an animal and water lover than big brother but they have similar tastes in videos--though they can't always agree on the same videos to watch! 

Big brother's favorite thing to do right now is record videos on our old phones, and also write and play with letters and numbers, which is what I told the parents of his classmates when they asked what he was "into" right now in order to come up with gift ideas. Big brother had his first ever kids party for his birthday! That's right, I now have a four year old! His birthday was a huge success at an indoor playground with four of his classmates, three classmate siblings, and three little cousins in attendance, along with our close family and baby brother. He went down slides and played in ball pits. He greeted guests and even (finally) ate his pizza and some chicken nuggets. The room was decorated with airplanes to fit a "Ready 4 Takeoff!" theme. And all the presents were so thoughtful--from maps to doodle boards to Paw Patrol toys, everyone took his current interests into account. My favorite part, though, was probably seeing his cake come to life. He specifically asked for a cake with the United States all over it--but not on a map. He wanted one state here and one state there, individual states spread across a single canvas but not in order. I came up with a very crude mock up using foam puzzle pieces and paper plates, but boy did our bakery turn his vision into reality! Seeing him search across the cake for every individual state before his guests arrived made me almost cry, I was so happy to see him so happy with the creation. Four year olds can definitely be particular, so I didn't want his cake to be a disappointment. And it certainly wasn't. He happily ate it, enjoying the funfetti and chocolate filling, which I knew would be his favorites as well. Aside from the pizzas provided being a little small, and baby brother taking a tumble right toward the end, the party was definitely a success.

And the next day was his actual birthday! I got off early from work to spend some one-on-one time with my firstborn. His chosen birthday lunch location was Wendy's, but I also took him to a restaurant afterwards for a Pizookie dessert (warm cookie plus ice cream on top? Yes please!). I had wanted to take him shopping at Kohls or Barnes and Noble after so he could pick out a birthday present on his actual day, but after all the party gifts, and a few surprise extra gifts from my parents and friends who couldn't make it to the party, I decided to take him to the library instead to visit Daddy at work and end the day in a familiar favorite place. We might just have to go shopping again soon though because our first ever trip to Barnes and Noble left me feeling like a kid in a candy store (I hadn't visited since before the pandemic), and he had a blast too!

Now we're easing into the summer months, hoping to do more visits with friends, maybe some swimming, maybe some new extracurricular activities (Back to gymnastics instead of soccer? Piano lessons or coding? Sign language or Spanish?). No family vacations planned this year but I'm trying to convince my husband that Disneyland is great for 2-year-olds even if they won't remember it (Baby turns 2 this December). They can finally walk, they're in awe of everything, and they're still free! But we'll see. We've also got my brother's wedding coming up in October and maybe another family trip to Texas in November. So much to look forward to and celebrate with our little loving family!