Summer Fun

This weekend we finally had typical July weather. The only way playing outside was possible was with the sprinkler which he totally enjoyed.

Happy Birthday Alexandria!

On Saturday we went down to Old Town for the Alexandria's annual birthday celebration. There is usually a band, some kids games and fire works. This year there was a problem with the vendor so no fireworks. It was fine for us since Hunter was so hyper that we couldn't stay for them anyways. We went with Rachel, Todd, Reagan and Addison and met up with Hunter's friend Eli and his mom Alex. Hunter really enjoyed the music and playing with the kids, but thought it was a fun game to run away and have us chase him. We could only stand that for so long!

Happy Birthday to Me!!

We had Hunter's birthday party on Saturday and it was such fun. We had a full house, about 20 adults, 8 kids - Eli, Isabella, Clare, Michael, Reagan, Favio and Nora (not pictured) and 3 babies (Annabelle, Addison and Madeline). Hunter was in heaven with that many kids to play with.












We really lucked out because the weather was perfect. Hunter was so excited when everyone started singing happy birthday. He loves all the attention, plus singing and cake, what could be better.

Mom went a little crazy with the cake, but it actually turned out well and Hunter really liked it. He is so into trains lately it was an easy choice.

We ended up opening gifts the next morning, which was a good idea. That way he was able to play with each gift and open them at his own (slow) pace! He loves them all and is so entertained when he is at home now. Big hits were the trains, golf set, watering can, and trucks. A big thank you to everyone who came to celebrate!

He is also a big hit in the neighborhood these days thanks to Gigi and Papa who gave him a Cozy Coupe Car and Uncle Patty and Dave who gave him a ride on John Deere Tractor!

I'm 2!

Hunter celebrated his second birthday last week while I was in Paris for the air show. The mother's guilt was worse leading up to the trip. Kerry and Hunter had a great time, spending a lot of their time at the park and eating ice cream. I just can't believe he is already 2! How time flies. He is such a fun kid these days, talking up a storm and running everywhere. He loves the park, Elmo, and anything that moves. (His latest facination is with tires. Driving on the highway he frequently says, "Look at all the tires!") We are very fortunate to live on a street with two other boys Hunter's age, so they play outside most evenings after work.

On Monday I took Hunter to the doctor and he managed to grow a bunch since his last visit. He is 35" tall (65%) and 28 lbs (50%!) Not since his 3 month check up has he been in the 50% for weight. All the ice cream must be paying off! Although he still won't eat veggies, he has increased the foods that he will eat which is so helpful. He will eat most fruit now, loves hummus, anything sweet and anything fried! We are still working on a well balanced diet as you can tell.

He has learned so many things in the last 6 months. He recognizes his letters and numbers, knows basic shapes, can count to 10 or 12 depending on the day, knows all the basic colors, and can sing the ABC song and Twinkle, Twinkle, (sometimes the ABC song turns into Twinkle Twinkle.) In spanish he can say hello, goodbye, shoes, shirt, hair, (I didn't know that one and had to find out what he was saying) water, milk and probably other words I don't know.

He has also grown into quite an opinionated boy, deciding most mornings what he will wear, within reason, what he will eat for breakfast and the shoes he will wear. When he doesn't get his way a tantrum usually ensues.

The big news this week is that on Tuesday he went to the potty twice at daycare! He loves to sit on the potty and use toilet paper, flush etc, but this is the first time anything has happened. Hopefully this is a good sign for things to come but we will have to wait and see.

Tantrums and all he is a great kid, and we love to be with him. The things he says just crack us up. "There we go," "Good job Hunter," "And then cake" (or ice cream or elmo, basically whatever he wants that he can't have at that moment.)

A Zeoli Visit

We had a great visit from Kelly, Darin, Dominic and Luca a couple weeks ago. The boys all got along so well and have a great time. Hunter was totally in awe of Dom and Luca and spent most of his time watching them. Darin commented that Hunter was a quiet kid! I guess it is all relative. We managed to only get a couple shots of the boys playing outside as they were leaving, which I will try to get my hands on and add to the post. (Kelly sent me a bunch, but boy is it hard to get them all to look/stay still/and smile in one pic!)

Kelly just announced that she took a job in a suburb of Richmond so we will get to see a lot more of them in the next year. I am so glad the boys will be able to spend more time together. I love that Hunter has cousins that he can play with!

Picasso?

I am constantly trying to come up with new activities to occupy our very active boy. I went with my mom to her church's yard sale a couple weeks ago and was pretty successful. We bought a plastic Little Tikes easel that I thought would be perfect to keep on our patio so Hunter could paint and draw.

I bought him finger paints and decided to let him go at it this weekend. Well, I forgot to think about my son, when I purchased them. Since he hates getting his hands dirty, when I told him what to do, he looked at me like I was crazy! So as you can see we decided to use a paint brush.

He seemed to enjoy him self for about 5 minutes before he found it more fun to try to paint the patio door and the grill cover. Well at least he was occupied for 5 minutes!

Mick's Birthday

Hunter has been able to celebrate a lot of birthday's recently. When Patty came to visit in late March, we celebrated hers, then my moms last weekend and this weekend Mick and Joyce came to visit and we celebrated his. Hunter loves singing happy birthday but most of all he equates a birthday with cake. And he loves cake!

Hunter really bonds with men/boys very quickly. He wanted "Uncle Micky" to do everything for him, push him in the stroller, put him in his seat for meals, sit with him at breakfast, it was so cute. Their visit was too short but we all had a great time. Hope they are back soon!

The next visit will be from Kelly, Darin, Dom and Luca at the beginning of May. They are in town for Darin's niece's baptism so we aren't sure how much we will get to see them, but hopefully the boys will be able to play together a bit. It has been so long since we have had all the boys together.