Happy 1st Birthday Aaron Joseph Myers!

Today is Aaron's birthday and we started off the day with banana chocolate chip pancakes  made by Daddy!  Yum!!!  Then we opened up two very big boxes from Mimi and Papa in Indiana with presents in them for Aaron (he already got his presents from us and his party).  Mimi and Papa got him this great race car set and it was a HUGE hit!!!

Here is a link to a quick video!!!  Just listen to that laughter!  This boy is HARD to get a belly laugh out of so this much laughter says a lot!

http://youtu.be/34E7hVYLrZU

(Please ignore the mess)

Happy birthday to my sweet Aaron!  I will never forget the beautiful day that you came into our lives!  I love you always and forever and more than you can possibly know.

And now I am going to bed because I have to work tonight and I need at least a little sleep before then!

iced coffee!

I saw this recipe linked to in my cousin's blog and I can't wait to try it!

Cold-Brewed Ice Coffee
From The New York Times

Yield: Two drinks

1/3 cup ground coffee (medium-coarse grind is best)
Milk (optional)

1. In a jar, stir together coffee and 1 1/2 cups water. Cover and let rest at room temperature overnight or 12 hours.

2. Strain twice through a coffee filter, a fine-mesh sieve or a sieve lined with cheesecloth. In a tall glass filled with ice, mix equal parts coffee concentrate and water, or to taste. If desired, add milk.

Update!!!

Luke slept the whole night in his own bed without waking up once last night and basically put himself to sleep for his nap again today.  I went up with him and read him stories before his nap and was really worried because he was having a really hard time listening to me and was up and down the ladder the whole time I was reading to him, but I talked to him about having a short nap if he went right to sleep so that we could go to the park after he woke up and I turned on the monitor so that I could hear him downstairs and told him I would check on him in 5 minutes.  I got downstairs and could hear him talking to himself so I reminded him to be quiet and go to sleep and after that I didn't hear a sound, not movement or anything.  I went up to check on him and he was out!  So far he is still excited about his own bed and his own room, but not always about going to sleep.  I am amazed at how well it is going though!

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Also forgot to mention in previous posts that Aaron now has 8 teeth, four on top and four on bottom, and he learned to clap about a month ago.  We are working really hard on signs and for a couple of weeks he was using the sign for nursing all the time, but now he has kind of switched over to saying "NAH NAH NAH NAH!" in a very whiny voice (I liked the sign better).  He watches me sign other things and seems to understand some of them, but doesn't sign them back to me yet.  We will see.  Maybe since he discovered how to verbally communicate that he wants to nurse he will want to skip over some of the signs, or maybe he just needs a little more time.  He now stands unassisted for long periods of time and walks around anything and everything, but he is still scared to take a step without holding on to something or someone.  He loves things with buttons and the other day he figured out that if he pushes buttons on the remote he can make things happen on the tv.  He loves playing piano and will often stand with his hands above his head playing the piano while I cook dinner.  He also really loves to look out windows and his favorite is the window in the door to the office because it is low enough that all he has to do is stand up to see out of it.  He doesn't mind climbing on the couch either, but he loves the window in the door.  One of these days I am going to have Greg video him when I am giving him a drink or something else that he loves.  The look on his face is just too much.  He always gets this big grin as soon as he sees me filling up the cup at the sink and then he just beams at me, then the cup, then me, then the cup, etc.  When I offer it too him he usually does at least one bashful turn of his head away from the cup while still grinning as if he can't believe he is actually going to get a drink and then he beams back at me and then takes a drink.  The whole process is too sweet and always cracks me up.  One other fun thing with Aaron, today I watched him play with a toy car on the floor, and I don't just mean turning it over or banging it like he does with most toys, he actually pushed it around on the floor while he crawled around with it in his hand!  Looked so much like a little boy instead of a baby!

Growing up!

Luke got a kite from Gammy and Papa for part of his b-day present from them so yesterday he was begging me to go fly it with him.  Unfortunately there wasn't any wind in town so we called up Gammy and she said there was a nice breeze at their house so we could come on over!  We went out to the pasture next to their house and the kite was really easy to fly and the breeze was just enough and not too much!

The kite is named Toothless (How to Train Your Dragon) but since it doesn't look anything like Toothless from the movie I think Luke was a little confused.  He choose the name, but he kept asking us questions about it and I am not sure that we ever really answered his true question because I am still not sure what it was.  (-:

Luke wanted to run around on the yard while Aaron and I sat on the porch so I took a few of Aaron and I.

Luke running!  I wish I had that much energy, but am glad I don't crash and burn the way he does!

After supper I talked to Dad about taking my loft bed from college home for Luke.  I had talked to Luke about it before and he seemed really excited about having a cool place to sleep and we thought if we put our other twin mattress on the floor under the loft it wouldn't be too high for him but it would still be extra cool and maybe convince him to try sleeping in his room instead of in ours!  He has slept on his own bed before, but it was always on the floor in our room and always before he would wake up at about 2 am crying and come to our bed for the rest of the night.  Anyway, we took the boys home, unloaded the seats of our new but still very old minivan (thanks to my uncle Ken) and then I went back to Mom and Dad's to get my bed, then to Wal-mart to get some cool bedding, and then home to set it all up.  It was 10:30pm by the time I got it all home, but we just couldn't loose our momentum so we put it all up and I got the beds set up and this is the final result...

Luke actually did fall asleep in his new bed very easily, probably because it was so late!  He also stayed in his new bed all night long!!!  He woke up 3 times, at 4 and 4:30 for just a few minutes each time and each time I went up to check on him and then told him I needed to go back down stairs to take care of Aaron but that I would check on him in 5 minutes, and when I went back up he was asleep.  He was perfectly ok with me doing that both times, just nodded his head sleepily and put himself back to sleep.  The third time he woke up was 5:15 am and then he came down and told me he was hungry.  I suggested a banana or yogurt and he suggested both so he had both and then he went back up to bed and put himself back to sleep!  After that he slept until 10am!  

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Now, you might ask what I was doing up at 4-5am and the answer is simple, I work nights and I was on call so I was hanging out downstairs and chatting with a friend from Australia on Facebook. (-:

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Anyway.  I am so proud of my little boy and how he is growing up.  I know we do things a little differently than some, not so differently than others and I have no regrets about the way we have done things but I also don't feel there is anything wrong with doing things differently from us (given there is no abuse of course) as long as it works for your family I am happy for you!  With Luke before very recently I don't think he was ready for this step.  There were times that we talked about it and even tried it in the past, but on his part there was always pure terror at the thought.  For a few weeks though now I have been getting clues that he might be ready, less fear and more excitement when talking about it, more maturity in other areas, being able to do more and play more on his own, etc.  Halfway knowing that in the back of my mind I found myself staring at his beautiful sleeping face each night when I came to bed.  I am so proud of him for the way he is growing up, for what a sweet person he is, for all the changes I see in him each day as he learns new things, but it is bittersweet for me too, knowing that for the most part one phase of our lives together is over.  I know he will probably still come to my bed sometimes at night, it might even be a while before he sleeps in his own bed most nights, but from now on he has a room in our house that is separate from mine.  He wants more privacy for things like going to the bathroom, though not for bathing yet, etc.  I know it has already been a long time since he was my baby, but in a way this was one of the last parts of his babyhood that lingered.  So yes, I know he is 4, but it was still bittersweet for me.

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To celebrate his accomplishment and because it was 80+ degrees outside today we went to the (can you guess?) Zoo!!!

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We had a great time and came home exhausted.  Luke even put himself down for a nap in the loft bed!  We will see how tonight goes!

Luke-isms...

Before bed last night we were getting pj's on in the bathroom and Greg started cleaning out the sink since it was clogged.  He started pulling out some hair and he said, "Laura I don't think this is my hair!"  Luke and I looked and it was obviously longer hair (mine).  Luke said, "Mommy, I think something died in there."  (me lol) "Nothing died in there Luke.  Why do you think that?"  "Because they left their hair in there!"  I told him that it was my hair and nothing died in the drain but he was sure that the hair was too long to be mine.  Still not sure if I convinced him or not.

Birthday Celebrations!!! (finally caught up!)

First 2 pics are from the day before Luke's birthday (March 2).

The night before Luke's birthday he and I went shopping and got a few things that he wanted for his big day,   like the kind of cake he wanted, doughnuts for breakfast, and ice cream, pop, you know junk they don't get everyday!  So the morning of Luke's b-day he got to eat doughnuts from Larry's favorite place!

March 3!!!  Happy Birthday my sweet boy!

We had a fun day, I hid his presents around the house and used string to make a path all over the place for him to follow when he got up that morning.  We spent a good part of the day just playing with all the presents he had gotten from us and from Mimi and Papa (in the mail and just in time!  Thank you Mimi and Papa!)  Later in the afternoon Luke and I made his cupcakes together.  He helped with pretty much everything except the stove and the icing, including putting 2 of the 3 eggs in by himself (1st time he has tried and he did a really good job!).

While waiting for them to bake he and Aaron took a bath together... 

Such a ham!

Then when they had cooled enough I iced them and let him put on the sprinkles.  He had decided to have ice cream that night for dessert instead of cake so the cupcakes were for sharing with Sunday School the next day.  Here is a link of Luke and I talking about his b-day and I totally embarrassed myself singing to him.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DjTtxHeVng 

These next pics are from Church the day after Luke's b-day.

Aaron climbs on everything now, including up my arm so he can stand on the back of the couch and look out the window....

These next pics are from the 10th, getting ready for the boy's joint b-day party today (the 11th)  Again Luke helped me make cupcakes, though this time I did most of it.  Greg helped out a lot by taking him shopping for a few last things we needed but when I was all done frosting his cupcakes I let him do the last 4 with the extra frosting in the cake decorator.

These are what the cupcakes looked like before I put the cookies on them.

All the rest of the pics are from today....  First!  Cupcakes!!!   Thanks to Abby for the idea!

We had their party at the bowling alley and they each were given a bowling pin with their name on it and a balloon.  Unfortunately Aaron had a fever for the 2 days before the party so he ended up staying at my mom's house.  He wasn't the only one who had to miss because they were sick.  My cousin Austin was home sick as well as two of Luke's friends from Sunday School!  Hopefully everyone will feel better soon.

We went bowling last year for Luke's b0-day and he could hardly wait to get to go again.  It was so much fun watching him and the other little kids, they had such a good time.  They are so enthusiastic about it, I wish I had taken a video!

I think the bigger kids and grown ups had a good time too.  Luke invited my cousins, Addie, Eli and Katie as well as Austin who wasn't able to make it, and they all came even though they are quite a bit older!

We bowled 2 games but took a quick time out in the middle for cake!

Luke and I chose items for a goody bag for each of the kids.

After the party we dropped off all the kids and met back at my parent's house for a little party for Aaron.

I love how when you give Aaron something that he likes he looks at it and then looks at you and just beams for a minute or two before reaching for whatever it is you are giving him.  He does it all the time, and it is just the sweetest, melt your heart, kind of smile.

Here is a link...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrPo77WQGYc

This is for Addie, Eli and Austin, Luke is pretending to be Darth Vader with the bouncing ball you guys gave him!  

And this is for Katie!  Luke LOVED the bubble bath you gave him.  I think your smart momma remembered how much both the boys love their baths.  It works REALLY well, better than any of the others we have tried.  A big hit!