First Fishing Trip is a Success!

Colored pancakes! (and a syrup triangle!)

Desmond's Panda Party!

Desmond is TWO!

I admit we phoned it in a little when choosing his party theme, but he was such a big fan of Kung Fu Panda that we just decided to go with it.

Here is his fun day in pictures:


First, the invitation. As usual, I spent entirely too much time on this. In all of his recent pictures, he is dirty or has food on his face or has boogers, so we tried to get him to pose for a suitable invite photo. 76 pictures later, this was the best we could do.

As usual, Anita Schmitt made a gorgeous and delicious cake. (Always my favorite part of the party.)

Kung Fu Panda stuff proved surprisingly difficult to find, and 99% of it was for Kung Fu Panda 2, which came out earlier this year. But since I couldn't find much from the original movie, and because I knew I would be the only one who knew (until now), we got Kung Fu Panda 2 stuff. The banner is one. Plates & napkins were also technically from the wrong movie. Oh well.

Happy Birthday banner, which was hung in Desmond's

bedroom (long) after the party.

Bulk Chinese takeout boxes 

+ Kung Fu Panda (the orignal movie!) stickers 

= great party favor holders.

 

Plenty of people came to celebrate with us.

And of course, the movie played a couple of times during the party.

Patronized a local Chinese restaurant for our party fare. It was good, as usual.

Kung Fu Panda (2) plates. 

And more takeout containers for people to bring home leftovers. Which no one did.

The birthday boy ended up eating alone in the corner, but he was cool with that. 

Note the Thomas the Tank Engine pajama top, which he would NOT take off. Grandma had made him a really cute t-shirt with pandas embroidered on it, which he liked very much and wore several times - just not for his panda party. I guess that's being 2 for ya.

He eventually got some company. 

Presents!!

This guitar ended up being perhaps the best present of all. Who knew?

Panda Pillow (from Grandma & Granddad) immediately became Desmond's actual bed pillow.

Cake!

The aftermath.

Hey, look! It's Dexter! In pajamas! 

Note his absence from all previous pictures. He had a high fever for the whole party. He tried to tough it out for a bit, but instead threw up on the couch in the middle of the party. He spent the rest of the time in his room watching a movie on the laptop. Dad and Mom and Tootsie took turns keeping him company. His fever broke right as the party was ending, and he was good as new.

What a mess.

But the birthday boy sure is happy. :)

He looks sick, doesn't he?

Post-party cake? Don't mind if I do!

Finally, a simple thank-you note:

The Bath is So Bright...

...they've gotta wear shades.

A Tiny Surprise

Perhaps I should have expected this.
Desmond also (quite proudly) put his socks in the trash can today. Little stinkers.

Desmond is 23 Months Old!

So big!

And happy! Most of the time, anyway. Being almost 2 still has its inherent challenges.

Teeth: Still 16. No sign of those last 4 molars yet.

Height: Tall. Judging from the way he fits into the clothes we've pulled out for winter, he's considerably taller than Dexter was at 23m. He's also the tallest in his class (and the oldest, so maybe that's not so surprising).

Weight: If anything, he's lost a few ounces this month, thanks to what we hope is just a standard toddler-esque finicky appetite. (see below)

Sleep: Much better than last month, maybe because that last canine is mostly through now. He has now realized, though, that he is able to climb out of the crib. Mostly, he only does this in the morning when it really is time to get up. On two occasions (so far), he has gotten out because he didn't want to nap. The most recent time, I put him back in his crib, and he just stayed there, upset, until he fell asleep. Please, if there is a god, let her keep the boy in his crib longer. A lot longer.

Food: Still hit or miss. He eats a good variety of food, just not too much of it, and not on our timetable. He will wander the house while the rest of us eat dinner, and be fine for the rest of the night. The next morning, though, the first thing we hear when he wakes up is"Behfist?" in his cute little squeaky voice. Waffles are still a favorite. He will pull them out of the freezer himself and eat them cold. (We do offer to toast them, but he apparently prefers them cold.) French fries ("Foo Fize") are also a big draw. We try to limit these and/or do baked ones at home so his arteries aren't completely clogged before kindergarten. But if he hasn't eaten much in a few meals, Foo Fize are a good bet to get him to the table.

Words: Desmond is dazzling us with his exploding vocabulary. He throws around 3-word sentences like there's no tomorow, often with very clear subjects, verbs, and objects. ("Alligator... bite... yooooouu" or "Not nice, Dehter!" or "Mow waffuh peese?")  "No!" is still very common, now often accompanied by a sincere stomp of his right foot. Interestingly, he isn't much on saying, "yes," even when the answer is yes. He'll just repeat what you say in a little high-pitched squeak and smile. ("Do you want more milk?" "Mouh meelgh?")

Books: Books are falling out of favor slightly, in that he isn't much interested in reading them during the day, and now he's so tired at night that he jumps at the chance to go to bed even if we've only done one book. Also? He likes to sleep with some books. Doesn't even really look at them, but he just wants them in the crib with him. If there are no books, he might climb out of the bed, get one, put it in the crib, then ask you to put him back in his crib (since he can climb out, but not back in). Fascinating.

TV: Yep. Still loves TV. "Watch... panda?" "Watch... fish?" "Watch... Yo Yo Gabba?" <-- that last one should be "Yo Gabba Gabba." Fun.  We'll just throw his love for iPhone games and videos on the computer in here, too. ("Mommy phoam?" "Daddy... phoam?") And yes, these things usually need to be fought over with his big brother.

Colors: Refuses to learn pink vs. purple and has regressed on white. (Black things are now "white.") Red and green are getting better, though.  We've tried to do some sorting by color, but he won't even sit still long enough for a demonstration. Stubborn.

Bikes: He still LOVES his tricycle! He and Dexter take turns on the big wheel and tricycle. Desmond still refuses to pedal with his feet. Apparently this is developmentally appropriate, but it's still frustrating because I really think he could do it if he would just listen to us for 10 seconds while we show him how. There was a lot of outdoor biking this month, and the basement is perfect for it on bad-weather days. I hope that continues to be a worthwhile activity as we go into winter.

Other Likes & Dislikes: Making messes, mostly. If he sees a neat pile of something, he can't resist scattering it about with whatever force necessary. He likes playing with the wooden trains and train tracks. So much so that he and Dexter sometimes get their own mini-loops, since taking turns is excruciating for both of them. He also loves driving cars around on the furniture and flying airplanes around the room. Very cute. :)

Jumping on Dexter's bed before bath and running around in his hooded towel after bath are both also seriously fun. He has a favorite bath towel - an alligator taking a shower. (Apparently it's actually a crocodile. We aren't going to correct him.) It's pretty sad when it's dirty, because flashing it will get him to cooperatively get out of the tub every time. And when you DO show it to him, his little face lights right up.

Another long-favorite? The penguin bath toy from this set. He's loved it for a loooooong time, but the toys are starting to get icky. It's going to be sad when we have to say goodbye to penguin.

Dislikes? Nothing specific. Hates everything when he chooses to (bath, diaper, dinner, trains, tv, shoes, whatever) and loves them when he chooses to (again, bath, diaper, dinner, trains, tv, shoes.)  Sometimes we actually work up a sweat wrestling a diaper onto the kid because he's trying so hard to get away. Other times, he says, "New diapuh?" in that squeaky little smiley voice and lies perfectly still while we do the change.  It's the same for bath, food, various toys, getting dressed, everything. Part of being (almost. ALMOST!) 2, I guess.

Zoo!

Since, from these posts, it seems like we never do anything fun on a "regular" day, here are some photos from our trip to the ZOO!!! 

It was a gorgeous day, but - thanks, we think, to that night's scheduled "Boo at the Zoo" activity, it wasn't very crowded. Double-win!


We got off to a bit of a slow start, as Desmond insisted on pushing the stroller. We had parked probably 1/4 to 1/2 mile from the zoo.

Eventually, we reached a compromise to help get us there in a timely fashion.

No way did these little people have enough stamina to see everything, but we did pretty well. One of our first stops was the hippopotamus tank. There are some hippopotami just off camera to the right, but the fish were pretty fascinating.

Zebras!

We also saw some of the other usual suspects - lions, giraffes, and primates, among others. We had lunch by the flamingos. The gorilla statue was pretty fun.

The highlight of the day, however, was the train ride. We need to find a place where you can pay a single fee for unlimited train rides. THAT would be an exciting day.

Desmo waved to everyone he could see.

Dexter's M Party!

Ever since Dexter started receiving m&m's ("two m's!") as a reward for successful potty usage, they have seen a dramatic increase in popularity around here. While we were visiting Tootsie and Pop in August, Tootsie, Dexter, and Desmond had an "M Party" - siting on the sofa eating m&m's together. It was then that Dexter enthusiastically decided that his birthday party should be an M Party, too.

Easier said than done - would you believe there is almost NO m&m-branded stuff out in the world anymore? Just big things like towels or boxer shorts - not really stuff for a 3-year-old's birthday party. Somehow, though, we managed to pull it off.


The invitations:

The day started off with his "big" present - a big wheel from Tootsie & Pop. We wanted him to have a chance to enjoy it before the party craziness started. Desmond also got his big birthday present - a tricycle - a couple of months early so he could enjoy some time with it outside before the weather got horrible.

While they were riding around and having fun, party setup began in earnest.
There was an m&m bar, featuring eight different varieties of m&m's  - plain, peanut, peanut butter, dark chocolate, pretzel, dark chocolate peanut, coconut, and almond.

Favor bags were set out - just a small m&m plush doll and some fun size packs.

We had a couple of games. Memory with m&m images and "Guess how many m&m's in the jar" - with 3 jars (plain, peanut, and peanut butter).

Paulina tries her hand at m&m memory.

At the end of the day, Mary Klein won 2 out of 3 with an exactly correct guess of 333 m&m's. Emma won the third, but she didn't really want to brag about it.

Given the lack of availability of branded merchandise, decor was quite a challenge. We burned through a LOT of ink on the home printer, making all of these little cards with the m&m characters on them.

But what mostly saved the day, as you can see in many of the photos, was Granddad's lending us his m&m dispenser collection. The one next to the cake (within reach of many little fingers) saw the most use.

Other than the m&m sampler bar, the food was unremarkable. But we had to throw in the theme just a little bit anyway.

There was fruit punch. Dexter rrrrrreeeeeeeaaaaallllllyyyyyy liked it. Can you tell?

People! Lots of people came to the party! We had a lot of fun turning everyone into a walking m&m.

Dexter opened a BUNCH of presents!

CAKE!

And ice cream!!

And m&m characters made out of rice krispy treats! (They were better than Desmond makes it seem. Pretty much every kid gnawed on one for a while.

OK, some kids ended up taking turns gnawing on the same character. Sharing is good, right?

HAVE to include this picture.

He wouldn't let us put the m on the front of his shirt, so we sneaked it onto the back. Desmond also lost his left shoe very early in the day, and it never made its way back onto his foot.

Dexter wound down post-party with some of his new toys.

And we managed to get Thank You notes made, written, and sent within about 2 weeks. Woot!

All told, it was a great party. People had fun, the cake was delicious, and there were a LOT of m&m's left over. But most importantly, Dexter was happy. :)

But really. From now on? Only parties with themed merchandise easily available. Geez.