Big Boy Beeju Turns Five

Pool Party: Saturday, August 8, 2009.

Actual Birthday: Sunday, August 9, 2009.

Celebration at Papa's House: Monday, August 10, 2009.

Darn it. I was just looking through my pics to decide which ones to post and realized that I hardly took any. Blast! Well, I'll post two from his birthday and then a couple of other random shots.

Uh, is somebody excited to open his presents??

There aren't many things better in the world than to watch a young child opening a present, discovering what the present is and just being full of glee and happiness.

Here's the "old guy" taking a rest from jumping on Uncle James and Aunt Shelley's trampoline. He's not as young and vibrant as he was back when he was 4. This guy has always, always been a jumper. Even before he could really walk, he would jump, jump, jump around the apartment back in Chicago. He loves the (hideous) red couch in my front room because it's "bouncy like a trampoline." Beds, couches, floors...it doesn't matter. Just as long as he can jump.

One of the presents that Beeju got was a long alphabet puzzle. Now one of his favorite games to play is having me mix up and hide the puzzle pieces to see if he can find them and put them all together. This shot is him measuring himself to see "how many letters" tall he is.

There is nobody on this earth that I would rather sit and hang out with than my Beeju. He's my best friend. Whether in person or on the phone, we can chat endlessly about this and that and everything in between. Happy birthday, Champ! I love you like crazy and can't wait 'til our next conversation.

Little Nutty Turns Three

Pool Party: Saturday, July 11, 2009.

Actual Birthday: Sunday, July 12, 2009.

Celebration at Papa's House: Monday, July 13, 2009.

I haven't much been in the blog posting mood the last 6 weeks or so, but it's time to try to get back on schedule.

The calm before the storm. This is before the boys came over. The pic on the card is my poorman's rendition of a mack truck like on the movie Cars. Nut and Beeju have both been obsessed with that show for months now. So I made the "Sam Mack" for the card's cover.

Cute little guy was out of his mind with excitement as soon as he walked in the door and noticed presents and a card waiting for him. Here he is peeking inside his card while I scrambled to get a pic or two before the mayhem of present opening began.

After looking at his card, Nutty wouldn't put it down. That boy opened all of his presents one-handed. And as you'll see below, he wasn't about to let go of it anytime soon.

Here's Puzzle #1 finally completed. Nutty's still proudly guarding his card.

After you put the two gigantic puzzles together, you take them apart in a certain order and stack the pieces on top of each other to make this 3-D image of Lightning McQueen. Nutty had moved on to greener pastures at this point (those puzzles took a while!), but Big Brother was enthralled.

This was a few hours later. Nutty was still holding tight to his card. At his insistence, it eventually made it into bed with him. Talk about melting a Papa's heart. My love for that boy knows no bounds. Happy birthday, Sam! Daddy loves you thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis much!!