Holy cow Batman + bonus material (basically our life in pictures as of late)

 It would an understatement for me to say that dress up is a huge part of our days lately.  Its basically an all day, every day occurrence.  Often Scott is in some type of costume before he even puts clothes on for the day.  He is quite the little actor and comes up with the fiercest faces for his characters.

This gem was written on the sidewalk in our neighborhood on one of our recent morning walks.  Nothing like a little sidewalk chalk motivation.

Last week we had this done:

What you ask?  Recessed lights.  Up til now we had no lighting in either our entry or hallway.  It wasn't too bad unless you came in at night and it was pitch dark or stumbled down to the kitchen in the night and missed the step up because the wood is so dark.  So its basically awesome.  We also had the guy move the light switch in Owen's room.  It used to be behind the door on the far right wall which was beyond annoying.  Now its in normal spot.  Annoyingly though I have not broken the habit of going to where the switch used to be.  Now we are waiting for quotes on some other electrical jobs, most importantly (in my opinion) moving the TV above the fireplace, it is beyond awkward where it is currently.

More dress up!  Super baby!

"Don't worry guys, its just me, Owen"

Auntie Kel and Uncle J. gave the boys a superhero fort kit for their birthdays and we have had so much fun setting up super secret hideouts everyday!

I told Scott "its the adventures of super Scott."  He said "and super mommy".  Melt my heart.  The highest compliment is being promoted to superhero status!

Owen had just woken up from his nap and was immediately given a cape and brought into our hideout, he was a little stunned at first:

We have been to the park of course and last week met a few more boys around our boys' ages.  I know I say it often but I just am in love with our neighborhood.  So many kiddos, so many little boys to play with.  We seem to never be without friends at the park.

 And I guess I have to say that Owen is officially walking.  He probably still crawls a little more than he walks, but he is walking more and more and further and further every day.

Early morning pirate's life.

Sunday my mom and I had a girls day of antiques, lattes and lunch (9021Pho in Westlake, highly recommend).  We explored all the antique markets at the Whizin center in agoura, they were all pretty pricey but SO MUCH FUN!

My dream hutch at Bungalow.  It housed their selection of Annie Sloane chalk paint.  My inner crafter is ITCHING to do some projects (chalk paint an old dresser in our room in up first....probably not for a few more years because who am I kidding, paint a dresser with a 3 year old and 1 year old in da house? Not super realistic, but a girl can dream, and make lists, and buy supplies(?) right?!)

Treasures galore!

Thanks for a great day Mimi.  Looking forward to our next day out already (I'm feeling Rose Bowl flea market in April, put in on your calendar)

Mommy Wars

I'm a bit of a blog-a-holic.  It probably started when Scott was born (a little after I started writing our little family blog as a way to keep in touch and journal our growing family) during the hours and hours of breastfeeding.  It was fun to pull up other people's blogs and read about people going through the first months of motherhood, just as I was, or escape from the booby and poopy talk for a few minutes and read about crafting, cooking, or fashion (non nursing bras, what are those?).  I read blogs of current friends, people I've sort of lost touch with over the years, and blogs of people I've never met in real life.  Its a fun way for me to decompress.  So if I read your blog, thank you for sharing, I always take away great things from what you say (and if you read mine and you have a blog then I definitely read yours!).

The other day I was reading a blog, not one of my regulars, and it was talking about toning down the holidays a notch.  Her point was great:  do we really need to make every stinkin' holiday into the biggest deal ever, probably not.  And we definitely don't need to be going out and spending heaps of money and buying gifts for our kids for everything from valentine's day to the 100th day of school (which I only knew was a thing because I had seen it on pinterest).  I see her point absolutely.  But the way she presented her point was just a touch nasty.  Maybe this is what she is known for, what makes her blog famous.  I don't know, I'm not a regular.  But to me it just seemed that she was snarking on the moms who do this stuff.

I don't think I'm one of those moms, but I do have my fun.  One year for valentines day we did heart shaped pancakes, not because I felt like I had to just because I had seen it on pinterest (and seriously Apple: pinterest is a word now, get on board, stop autocorrecting me to interest, sadly I think I type the word pinterest more than the word interest) but because I was in the mood and had a little extra time that day.  This year, we did not have heart shaped valentine's pancakes (well technically we did at school that day) because whoops, no time.  I did not feel like a bad mom.  My kids and husband did not feel unloved (at least I'm pretty sure, babe if you read this and really really need heart shaped pancakes every year on valentine's day we can, by all means, have that discussion).  When I do do the silly fun holiday things, we enjoy it.  Sometimes I probably enjoy it more than anyone else in my family, but thats ok too.  I do not pass judgement on those who do more or less than we do because, frankly, I don't care.

And if I do read your blog and you celebrate something fun (like the 100th day of school or Dr. Seuss's birthday) that we didn't, I love hearing about it and seeing your pictures.  Maybe we will celebrate it next year, maybe not.

My point is there is no reason to snark on the moms who stay home and have perfectly cleaned and decorated houses, and craft every day, and try a new pinterest inspired recipe every week, serve their children a beautiful spread of lucky charms, green eggs and green milk on st. patty's day, and have an entire pin board dedicated to elf on a shelf. (And just in case you weren't sure: this is not me, I was crossed of the list at numero uno: perfectly cleaned house. LOL.)  They don't make you or a me a worse mom.  I don't think that if I make heart shaped pancakes and we go out for valentine's day hot chocolate at starbucks that my children are going to be selfish and bratty and think they deserve special gifts and treats every day (something this blogger made a point of).  I think there are many other choices we make every day that determine our children's expectations of us.  There are plenty of ways to make special occasions fun without spending a lot of money, but if you want to hit up the dollar section at target this week for something new and different, more power to ya!  I think its important to do fun, out of the ordinary things with our kids every once in a while, we are makin' memories here people.  For your family it might be Dr. Seuss, for mine "International Donut Day" (because that's a thing and how fun is that??!!!)

Don't get me started on the other things moms are pitted against each other about.  Childbirth, vaccines, children's diets, parenting, cosleeping, breastfeeding, preschool style.  Its absolutely ridiculous.  At the end of the day I have never met anybody who has parented so differently than I do that we couldn't be friends, or frankly that it even made an impact on our friendship at all.  I think most of this mommy war business is played out in the media (can I tell you how much I am still loving not having cable?!?!  Loving.  I feel like I am hardly exposed to any of this parents trashing other parents malarky, let alone all the other depressing crap that's out there).  As parents it is our right and privilege to raise our children how we want and I think a blogger, or reporter, or whoever who is out there trashing other parents for having fun and being crafty, well they are just big fat meanies.

So happy National Ravioli Day (March 20th) and if you went all and made ravioli from scratch with your kids in your beautiful kitchen and anthropology inspired aprons, I hope you took amazing professional quality photos and will post them on your blog with a how to because that does not make me feel like a bad mom and I think you pictures are neat-o!  (Also, I looked up the Ravioli Day thing, see there is always something to celebrate if you want to!!)

St. Patty's Fun

 We actually did nothing to celebrate St. Patty's day except wear green.  But we did go to our friend Matthew's 3rd birthday party which was a blast!

We started with astronaut breakfast and some playroom time...

The party was at an indoor play ground which was awesome (one I had never been to, and we have been to our fair share, we will be heading back to this one for sure, super new and clean!)

Owen had his first ball pit experience!

"OMG, BALLS!"

 The party served as a mini reunion for some of my childbirth class yoga mamas.  These four couples were all in the same childbirth class with our first babies, then we all got pregnant with our second babies at the same time (all the second babies were boys!) enabling us to take yoga all together again and even a childbirth refresher class with our beloved Robin.

Scarlette, Ruslan, Masha, Ferris.  Mike, Dominic, Matthew, Alex. Me, Owen, Scott, Brian. Beau, Michelle, Dexter and Ken.  (this was mostly for documenting memories for my sake)

We got home in plenty of time to bbq some chicken and steaks and the boys to play with some sweet new trucks outside.

Chicken...

Party Time

 Saturday we hosted a small low key party for the boys' birthdays.  I probably wouldn't have done a party except that we did a first birthday party for Scott and I didn't want to not do one for Owen, and if we did party for Owen, Scott's is so close that he would have wanted one too, so why not just party on the same day (since we would be inviting all the same friends anyways!).  Grandma, Gpa, Mimi and Papa came early to hang out and open presents with the boys.  They all pitched in and got Scott (well and Owen too, when he's a bit bigger) some dress up clothes.  Scott is so into dress up and pretend play.  He got an astronaut, pirate and police man costume and gear.  He's obsessed.  He wakes up and puts on at least helmet of some kind first thing.

Astronaut Scott

Owen got a big truck and his own swash buckling sword (to defend himself against Pirate Captain Scott of course) amongst other things.

Yo-Ho!

Highlight of the day for Owen was probably the balloons!

Scott wanted a Monster theme party, so thanks to pinterest I was able to come up with some fun, cheap, DIY monster decor.

Favors were monster puppets and bubbles

I love and hate pinterest sometimes.  These lollipops took me longer than is a reasonable amount of time to spend on any birthday party decoration, but I thought them came out cute, too bad the boys probably didn't even see them.  Thank  you fellow mommies for noticing them and making your kids take one! HAHA

Beau and Brian with their littlest boys.

We lucked out with PERFECT weather for a backyard/front yard/indoor party.  We put the bounce house out front and opened the side gate so people could hang out anywhere and it actually seemed to work out great!

 Sebastian and Jacob "I'll show you my belly if you show me yours."  Haha, these boys did yoga together before they were even born.

Scott ran around in full pirate garb for most of the party.  Good thing there were plenty of swords to go around.  The only casualty of the party was that the new pirate swords were left in the bounce house when it was deflated and picked up.  I realized this in the middle of the night when it was too late and of course Scott asked for them first thing the next morning as well as where he bounce house was (he was having a hard time with the rental concept).  Bummer.  We will be on the hunt for more pirate swords!

After pizza (requested by the oldest birthday boy) salad and snacks we sang happy birthday and everyone had cupcakes.

Owen didn't have one single smidgen of cake or frosting (secret mommy victory) which was probably for the best because I think he is fighting a cold (and sugar is the kryptonite of our immune system, if you want some statistics I will give them to you, nerd alert!)  Maybe Owen can try some cake at the next birthday party we attend, birthday season ain't over yet folks.

We did not get one great family picture the whole day but I like the one below, mostly because my hubs looks like a  GQ stud!

 Party night went until about 8 pm (started at 3).  We had planned on putting on a movie for the kiddos around 7 and letting them stay up to watch but none of them wanted to.  They were having too much fun in the bounce house, running around, slaying dragons etc. so we just let them play until 8, then they started dropping like flies.

The next morning we opened some presents (aka Christmas in March).

Scott trying out his new skates.  He was actually amazingly good and coordinated with them and insisted on having them on level two (actually rolling, not locked in place).  He landed (hard) on his booty a few times (I know a good pediatric chiropractor, wink) but no major injuries.  Before we try them again we will be investing in wrist guards!

Thank you friends and fam for coming to celebrate our birthday boys!  We are so blessed to see the love you all give to our kiddos!  Thank you for being in our lives!

Hair cut

As promised, Scott's new 'do!

O.N.E.

 So much for the cute chalkboard shot.  That's over.

 Commence chalk smearing.

Our sweet little baby is one.  Time flies.  Time flew.  I can't believe he really isn't a baby anymore.  And look at how big he looks!  Oh my!

We are so in love with our littlest guy.  He makes us smile every day.  He and Scott are the sweetest brothers to each other and it just melts my heart.  Someone once described how having your first baby you just fall madly, unconditionally, irrevocably in love and you always wonder how you will fall in the love the same with your second, but then you do, of course, but what is just as special is watching your children fall in love with each other.  Falling in love with that is a whole new thing.  And precious beyond words.

Owen is the happiest baby (now toddler??!!??), he only gets upset when tired and/or bedtime shenanigans (but that's a whole different post).  He plays all day and loves hanging with Scott.  Now that we have been having such amazing weather he's really started enjoying outdoor water play (he's always liked the bath but that's really not the same thing).  I'm very excited to hopefully start both boys in swim lessons here soon.

Owen is a great eater.  Still not a true walker, but will walk all over with a toy, chair or hand (even Scott's hand).  He has 6 teeth, I keep thinking a few more will pop through any day with the amount he has been drooling.  He loves trucks.  He loves playing ball and will roll the ball and chase it or roll back and forth with a friend/sibling/parent/relative/cousin/stranger?  all day!  Not great with a sippy cup but I'm not worried about that since we are still nursing and doesn't look like we will be stopping in the near future.  Still hates bananas, but has come around to blueberries and other fruits with skins.  So far we haven't noticed any food reactions (but are not planning on doing dairy or gluten) but strawberries have been questionable.  His favorite people are still Scott and Daddy (the other day Brian came home for about 5 minutes to drop some party supplies off and then had to run the borrowed suburban back to his office so he ran out the door and hadn't picked Owen up yet because he was planning on being back for the day in 10 minutes, Owen stood at the garage door in full break down mode for 5 minutes, heart broken!).

Tomorrow is the boys birthday party and next week we go in for 1 & 3 year well baby check ups so stay tuned for party pics (pinterest, I love you and I hate you!) and kiddo stats.

Love you sweet Owen, thank you for this year of blessings!

Oh and in other news we shaved Scott's head today, pics of that soon too!