Happy 2nd Birthday Weston!

You would think after the many celebrations that occurred to celebrate Weston's 2nd birthday prior to his actual birthday that would be it, but I just couldn't resist making his actual day special. We started his day with some chocolate milk and a nice long bath, then we got ready to go and hit the mall where I had to pick up a present for my sister and we also made a See's stop. Weston got a sucker which kept him happy pretty much the whole trip. He ran around the mall and entertained the old people walking the mall for exercise. :) It was cute.
After the mall we headed to Toys R Us so that he could pick out a new toy to buy with his birthday money from grandparents. He was very excited that he had his money in his own pocket. We spent a good hour at the toy store looking at all the fun things and playing with the display stuff. He ended up picking out a helicopter toy and a new tool belt.
Next we headed to Daddy's work and we all went out to lunch together. He got his own meal at Carl's Jr. and ate almost all his chicken stars and drank lemonade. What a happy little camper. By the time we got home he was pretty worn out and we read a couple books then he took a 3 hour nap. That night was pretty typical, just playing and waiting for Dad to come home then we had waffles for dinner and brownies for a treat. We ended his special day with a video conference with Ian's family and some more books. Now we get to start training him to say "I'm 2" instead of "Be 2."

Eating his See's sucker at the mall.

Running around and having a ball at the mall.

Before we headed to lunch, we visited at Dad's work.

Showing off his new helicopter toy!

Rebellion

Today has been a rough mommy day. I usually really enjoy my days home with Weston; he's a lot of fun to play with and pretty good about being obedient. Today we had to get his hair cut so he won't look scruffy at my sister's wedding in a week and a half. As soon as I told him we were going to get his hair cut he started whining about "dont wanna get hair cut" and kind of whimpering. I just ignored him and got him ready to go. I went armed with a ziploc of conversation hearts and the lure of going to the library if he was good. He was so cute trying to hold back tears. He made it until the very end before he really cried. So he got a sucker and a conversation heart and had a ball looking at books at the library and picking a few to take home.
Anyway, we had a nice rest of the morning watching the total blizzard outside and playing and watching Bob the Builder, then came our test: naptime. So far it has gone pretty well in the big boy bed, but today he layed down just fine and 2 minutes later I hear him banging on the door with a toy truck saying "want it open" (the door). I opened it and explained it was naptime and put him back in bed. This went on 3 more times. Finally I shut the door and went and called my sister. "What do I do to make him stay in his bed and take a nap?" She immediately answered, "start taking things away." It's so hard to be a good parent sometimes but I stuck it out and spoke in my strict mommy voice that he needed to stay in bed and if he got up again he couldn't play with potato head for the rest of the day. He screamed for about 5 minutes and then fell asleep where he remains right now (2+ hours later).
This whole incident just made me realize that my baby is not a baby anymore and I have to start teaching him good behavior and be the adult. It is so hard to look at his sad little face and be stern or strict or whatever. I know I know what's best for him right now, but I always just want to give him whatever will make him smile. Anyway, any other disciplining advice? Send it my way! We are headed into the toddler phase of needing "motivation" to do the right thing and it probably won't end until he's off on his own at college, on a mission or married. Wow that's overwhelming. . .

I came in to find him watching Bob the Builder sitting on his "motorcycle" wearing his winter hat.

This is why discipline is so hard . . .who can resist that little face???

Weston's Big Boy Room

With Weston turning 2 in a couple days and the new baby on its way sometime in March, we decided to put together Weston's new big boy room yesterday. He was so excited to see all the fun furniture and is especially in love with his new bed. He actually requested to go to bed last night; no arguing with that! He wanted to nap in his new bed yesterday and slept for over 2 hours and then slept all through the night last night in it too until 7:45 this morning! Yay! So here are some cute pics of him and his new room. Enjoy!

This is how we found him when we peeked in his room after he had been napping for 2 hours.

He was very happy to pose for pics with his new bed after his nap and he loves to say "cheese" now. :)

Weston posing in his new room. We haven't hung the cute matching prints yet, but aren't those curtains adorable?!?

This is just another angle of that half of the room.

Tubby Time

Last post of the day, I promise. I haven't had a lot of time in the last week to blog due to family visiting and then Monday morning we dropped Ian's parents off at the airport and I cleaned up a bit and did some laundry so that I could promptly pack for a little overnighter. That evening we went over to our friends' house to babysit their 3 boys overnight and then all day yesterday. It was a long day and kinda made me not want to have 4 boys, but not too bad. All the kids were pretty good. I was just tired by the time I got home last night and got Weston to bed. Anyway, because of all this going on, Weston hadn't had a bath since Sunday morning (yes i'm a horrible mother), so this morning he had a ball in the tub and even smiled on cue for me to take some pics. I think that these win for my new favorite tub pics of Weston. Enjoy!

New Decor

I finally got the right length panel curtains and hung the white scarf curtain this morning, so I thought I would post some pics of the fun, pretty new curtains in my bedroom. Also, the new dresser is looking completed now that the bum drawer is fixed. Gotta love put-it-together-yourself furniture. :) Anyway, I think it looks great. It will be even better when we can afford to buy the matching dresser to replace my ugly one in the corner by the window! Yay!

I love my new curtains!

Cute bedroom, minus the ugly dresser in the corner and the giant humidifier. :)

Our new dresser

I think it looks great with the room.

Birthday Visit

We had a very fun visit with the folks this past weekend. It was short but sweet. We had yummy dinner Friday night at Cafe Rio right after picking up Ian's parents at the airport. Weston was very excited to see them and went right to both of them. Then Saturday we spent the day shopping for Weston's room and bedroom furniture, sewing curtains, putting together said bedroom furniture and then Ian and I went out to see Juno that night. It was great, by the way. Anyway, Sunday morning we finished off a few things and then did church. That night we celebrated Jim (Ian's dad) and Weston's birthdays. Weston was a bit of a basketcase having not napped until about 20 minutes before the festivities and I woke him up for them. :) He mellowed out and was pretty happy once I convinced him to open his present that was a Mr. Potato Head. He has been playing with it non-stop since then. Becca and Alann came over too and we got some card games going. It just wouldn't be a Bowles family get-together without a rousing game of Mormon Bridge. Anyway, Monday morning we ended up leaving a little earlier than planned for the airport because of all the snow. Quick shout out THANKS to Jim and Denny for all their help with getting our home ready for this new baby and for the fun visit! Check out the pics!


Weston got an Elmo card in the mail from his Great Grandma Bowles that he wanted read to him like a book. :)

Weston and Papa got some quality basketball playing time in all weekend.

Weston still looks a pretty sad, but that's because the fun toys weren't out of the box yet.

He brightened right up when he saw the cupcake with candles! Apparently he remembered this part because in this pic he is already trying to blow them out.

Celebrating his birthday with Papa!

Little crazy boy.

Denny working on the blasted sheer curtain for our bedroom. Good thing she likes to sew (and loves me)!

Weston "playing bowling" Saturday morning. His grandparents thought he was too cute.

Ian and Jim putting together our new dresser we got at IKEA so that Weston can have Ian's old dresser in his room. Yay for finally getting new matching dressers for our room!

Update

Well, I appreciate all of your concern about Weston. I am happy to say that his cough is almost gone and the snot nose is starting to simmer down too. He is feeling much better I think. He still doesn't like his medicine and has another week of it, but he is doing pretty good for a 2 year old and no sticky moments either. The bribery thing really works with him. :)
We are so excited for Ian's parents to come into town this evening. Weston and I are going to go pick them up from the airport and it should be a nice, low-key visit. We'll see if we can get through their whole weekend visit without a major Weston facial injury (ex-black eye, road rashed cheek and forehead, etc.) Ian and I are especially excited to get to have a nice long date night so we can go shop for Weston's big boy room! Yay. I will post pictures post visit. Hope everyone has a nice weekend!