Happy 2nd Birthday, Oscar!

I'm writing this post on Oscar's 2nd Birthday! The past 2 years have flown by, it's hard to believe Oscar is officially a toddler.

Since his birthday this year falls over Labor Day weekend, we decided to have Oscar's bday party 2 weekends ago.

We celebrated at Deanna Rose Children's Farmstead, where we rented out one of the farm's "party corrals."

The weather was beautiful, the company was wonderful. We had such a great time. Thanks to all of our friends for making this day so special. The picture above was taken by Auggy's dad, Matt. I just love it.

Disclaimer: My voice is really loud on the bday videos. Sorry. I was really excited and it was really loud, so I got even louder. Plus, I'm trying to sing, talk and record at the same time--not a pretty combination. At times, I darted around too quickly with the camera, so you can't see too well. Again, I was really excited.

Here we are singing "Happy Birthday." You can't really tell, but Oscar's friend, Noah, is running up to try and grab the cake. Too funny!

Here, David sweeps up both boys to avoid any cake catastrophes.

Don't know what we would have done without the Kaseys. Karen, Ben and Noah arrived 30 minutes early to set up with David and Oscar, while I stayed home as long as possible with Otto.


Karen missed most of the party because she was either setting up, cleaning up or taking care of Otto. Here Noah is trying to help Karen feed Otto.


Brandi-Sterling's mom-took the shot below. She also helped Oscar eat his cake.

Here's Oscar's girlfriend, Christalyn. This was a happy reunion because Christalyn no longer goes to Oscar's school. =(

Here's Sandi-Wyeth's mom-helping out with Otto. Her husband took this pic. I love it.


Here I am enjoying some rare cuddle time with my cutie. We're probably watching Elmo.


Oscar loves this "I'm a Little Airplane" video on Sesame Street. We rewind it again and again for him.

Oscar likes to pretend to be an airplane. Daddy's good at this game.


Oh wow, look at our living room. I don't see the point in cleaning it up, because it only takes Oscar 5 minutes to return it to its crazy state.

In the two videos below, we were watching TV when a commercial came on that made Oscar dance. I can't remember the commercial, but it's playing some kind of club/techno music that made Oscar get down with the get down. I kept rewinding it for him so he'd dance. This boy has so much energy.

The animals are still crazy about their Oscar. Courtney rarely leaves his side. Especially when food or boogers are near/on his face. Oscar's grown used to having to swat her tail away from his face. (sigh).

Sasha, on the other hand, makes an excellent playmate. One of Oscar's biggest signs of affection is to "give" you his toys for a little bit. Here he is giving Sasha his beloved trains. These trains were a gift from our neighbors, the Hazletts. Their boys used to play with them all the time and now Oscar is doing the same.

He never "gives" his trains away for long.

One of Oscar's bday presents was a sidewalk chalk set from Meghan-Mabel's mom. He's had lots of messy fun with the chalk already!

Oscar still LOVES his bubbles too!

Here he is being silly in the bathroom. Oscar gets a kick out of shutting the door on us.

Now, for the Otto portion of the blog. Look how big he's getting! Otto had his 4-month appt this month and he's in the 50th weight percentile. Wow!

We went to the see the GI specialist at the local Children's hospital and he's not so sure Otto is allergic to cow's milk products, but most likely allergic to my breast milk. He says he'll grow out of the allergy eventually and says it's still safe for me to nurse Otto. So, I'm eating milk products again. =) Otto has good days and some fussy ones, he's now on Prevacid for his reflux, which seems to be working better than the Axid.

The one drawback of Prevacid is that it needs to be taken 20 minutes before breakfast and 20 minutes before dinner. Do you know how long that is to a hungry baby? If I were a poet, I would write an agonizing poem and title it "Waiting for the Prevacid..."

On a lighter note, Otto is cooing lots lately. We love to hear him "talk." It's much more soothing than his usual crying/screaming.

Otto really enjoys bathtime. Lately, I've been trying to coordinate his baths with Oscar's. You see, David and I are always dividing and conquering when it comes to taking care of the boys. Bathtime is a good time for us to spend some time together.

I keep trying to catch Otto's smile on camera, but he's fast. As soon as he sees the camera, he stops smiling.

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the Baby Bjorn carrier. Don't know what we'd do without it.

Here's Otto playing with his Fisher Price gym. He's starting to touch his toys now. Everytime you push the dangling animals, the gym makes a nifty sound. I think Otto figured this out.

Get ready for some extreme cuteness. Otto is ticklish on his belly and under his arms.

We all enjoy tickling Otto--even his big brother.