Happy Birthday, Mommy! Would this not make your birthday if you walked into a surprise party and saw this? Mommy's boys gave her the best birthday party she has ever had: cake, balloons, streamers, hats, and presents. 
Alden sang a very precious version of Happy Birthday. After he sang, "Happy Birthday dear Mommy" he reached over and gave me a big kiss on the cheek! I could never get a birthday present again be happy after that.
Poor Alden! He was so excited that we were having "birthday decorations" until he found out it wasn't his birthday. Poor baby! I still remember the first time he went to someone else's birthday party and had to face the harsh reality that he could not open the birthday present. He had a brief meltdown before deciding that maybe it was okay if it was someone else's day as long as we let him in on the party. 
Imitation is the most sincere form of flattery. Alden put on my tennis shoes, grabbed the diaper bag and told me he was going to sewing class. Of course, I usually wear pants to sewing class.
Of course, if you are going to sewing class, you need to get your car keys and drive over. Alden was more familiar with his dump truck and felt more comfortable driving it to the class instead of Mommy's SUV. Amazingly, the SUV keys work to start the dump truck as well! Glad I have that as back up in case of car trouble.
Alden has learned a new trick from Daddy: how to open the dog cage and let Lucy out. At first, it was just to chase her around the room or play in her water bowl. Now, it is to trade spaces with her. As tempting as it is to just let him lock himself in the dog cage as long as he wants, Lucy was feeling a little displaced.
A one time event you say? Please. This is Alden. If he does it for us, he will do it again to show it off to someone else later.
I think that Helen might have given him a "treat."
A big thank you hug for his doggy treat.
Baby Spencer is sitting up! Well, for about a minute at least. He is great sitting up until his eye catches a new toy or interest. Then, he forgets about keeping stable and falls over. He totally cannot be trusted on his own yet.
But he is excited about it!
First cracker! Who needs teeth!
For anyone who ever wondered if my child can actually sit still...he can. Books will do it every time. Alden was very excited to get to hear a bit of Dr. Seuss and Llama, Llama Red Pajama (a favorite) at Barnes and Noble storytime. Wolfie also enjoyed the story. What perfect photos don't show is that about thirty seconds later, Spencer decided it was time to eat and would not stop crying. Even when I let him have dirty, germy car keys I cringe at letting him touch, or worse, eat. All eyes on us, I have to convince the enthralled toddler to leave his favorite book with minimal protests to accompany the screaming baby all the way through the store to the front door. This did not go over well. Mommy ended up carrying one miserable boy and pushing another miserable boy as fast as she could to the car. But, nonetheless, we will cherish the peaceful photo. And, let's admit it...who was really at fault here? The hungry child? The two year old not wanting to leave storytime early? Or the mother who took the hungry infant and two year old to the book store at lunch time seriously hoping that it would just work out?
Alden was pumped to find out that Thomas was at the Railroad Park. This is when we realized that Trains do not have to be bright blue with a number one to be Thomas.
Rope climbing. Alden's new phrase is, "Show me how." He is so curious about everything. He asked Daddy to show him how to climb up the rope wall.
Random. This is just a random girl at the park who clearly Alden wanted to welcome with open arms. What is really random about this was that her mother just brought her over and sort of left her with us and walked off. For a long time! This is what Joey gets for striking up conversations with everyone he meets. Eventually, her grandmother came to get her and take her home. I guess Alden had a playmate, so it wasn't bad to do a little free babysitting at the park.
Mr. Chill
We seem to hit all of the typical boy stages and interests. It really is a testament to the nature vs. nurture argument because I certainly never introduced Alden to dinosaurs. However, here we are. In major, dinosaur-a-rama. So, we had to go to dinosaur day at McWane Center. I actually made Alden a dinosaur t-shirt because you got a big prize if you wore something with a dinosaur on it. I am so glad that I spent time doing that. Guess what he got? A stamp.
It is so very cool to use markers and decorate your dinosaur mask. This took Alden about 1 minute.
Alden spent time digging for fossils. This took him maybe about two minutes.
Alden loved the giant plastic dinosaurs. Now this took him about 20 minutes. The digging for fossils, mask making, coloring contest, homemade shirt, and actual dinosaur bones were nothing compared to the plastic blow up dinosaur. Next time, I am going to Party City and we can just have dinosaur day in the backyard.
Not my only child enthralled by the giant dinosaur dolls. Of course, who can blame Spencer. This is really about all Spencer got to do at dinosaur day.
Or, maybe not. I forgot about eating your toes.
Taking self-portraits.
Playing in the dress up house.
And taking a ride on the truck driven by your big brother. Now, this kind of vehicle I am not worried about these two boys driving around in by themselves. I just hope that one day Alden doesn't suddenly loose interest and jump out from behind the wheel leaving Spencer strapped in and helpless in the back seat of a real car.
Alden is really at a funny age. You have to laugh about ten times a day at what he says. I know I should take the time to write all of this down, and a lot I do, but some of it is just in context and would never be as funny later on. Here are a few of the things we hear:
*"Mommy, open, open [the curtains]! I went to sleep, and I woke up, and they changed colors! The leaves are yellow! Soon, they will be red. Oh, it looks like rain. There will be puddles."
*To every single person everywhere we go, "What's (s)he doing?"
*"Ouch! I'm hurt. I need to go and see Dr. Linda." What's wrong? "I need an x-ray." What do you want to see? "I want to see her face."
*Every time we go in the sanctuary at church, "Where'd Jesus go?" I had told him that it was Jesus' house. Now, no matter what explanation I give him, he can't figure out why he can't see him there. He then gets distracted and looks at the windows and asks his standard question, "What's Jesus doing?"
*We are looking at Halloween costumes. He starts listing, "Cat, Witch, Pumpkin...Fossil." Yes, the fossil would be a skeleton.
Besides sitting up a little, Spencer has found his voice. He screams all the time just to hear himself. Alden and Spencer sometimes have echo screaming matches.
In the quest of my family to absolutely ensure that I have no life independent from the four walls of my house and three boys who live inside of it, Spencer has decided he will not take a bottle. Period. So, please no one have a funeral, a wedding, a new baby, or a vacation opportunity unless it occurs between 6:00 pm and 12:00 am hence this is the only time I can be assured we can be separated without threat of starvation. Here is our 7 month photo with our bear. Although, this photo looks nothing like him. If I hadn't taken it, I am not sure I would have believed it was my child. Why didn't I retake the photo do you ask? Because the bear and chair are upstairs and Alden was downstairs...alone...with the dog...any more questions? Don't worry, he has not succumbed to second child fate yet. We have more.
This year, we had a very successful trip to the pumpkin patch. I am glad that the memories and photos will last longer than the pumpkin. R.I.P. Pumpkin patch pumpkin, lovingly picked with our friends and lovingly carved later at the neighborhood pumpkin carving party. We will remember you fondly on Halloween.
Nay, I digress. We started the morning with an 8:30 breakfast at the Cracker Barrel that included six adults and four and a half children under the age of two and a half. Lots of high chairs but everyone ate and no one got kicked out. I thought that was pretty great! The patch was yet another half hour from breakfast and Joey and I enjoyed two sleeping children in the backseat of the car for the ride. Alden has begun to request various classical music pieces when in the car. I love this for multiple reasons. One, it gives me a break from various children's songs and the Music Together cd. The other perk is that it also puts him to sleep! The one exception is his complete and total obsession with Rondeau's Quintet. Literally, we play this a hundred times a week making me constantly feel as if I am attending a wedding.
Getting these four to pose for a cute picture is always an accomplishment. It is fun to see this photo keep growing bigger!
To abuse a pun, "Our Little Pumpkin."
A very bumpy and dusty hayride out to the pumpkin patch.
Discovering the pumpkin was "too heavy for me!"
A moment of exhaustion and ponder. With so many choices...
Alden showing off his perfect pumpkin. This is as close as Alden got to the bails and bails of hay for climbing, running, and jumping children. It seems this is a perfect environment for our energetic little man, but he had to be content with watching Anna crawl around behind him. His father, I am sad to say, has become a hypochondriac and was too worried that the hay may cause an allergy flare up and forced us to skip this portion of the pumpkin patch. Alden was cool with that which gave him a gold star for the day in my opinion.
More to do than just pumpkins and hay my friends! Alden's highlight, it turned out, was getting to ride Pepper the horse.
There was also a short tractor train ride. Perfect for Alden and Ben.
What would any good pumpkin patch be without a petting zoo?
I just had to include this one. This is a shout out to Matt and Elizabeth Mitchell for getting Alden plastic dinosaurs for hisbirthday. They foresaw how much we would love these before any of us. What they didn't see was that they are the perfect toy for baby brother, too! Where as Alden loves the Pterosactylus and Spencer the Apatosaurus, they shared and played together! This is the first time both boys are playing with the same toy next to each other in perfect happiness. Ahh! No begging, pleading, or time outs for big brother to please share with little brother. No, "No, Baby Spencer, No!" followed by the prompt jerk of said toy from little brother's tiny clutches followed by screaming and Mommy scampering to find another toy for tiny clutches while yelling at big brother to share. Just playing. Let's hope there are many more moments like this in our future. One can hope and pray at least.
