Malcom's Birthday Party

We had Malcom's birthday party on Saturday, and it was SO fun! It was really simple, just some friends, food, and for the kiddos I made little train boxes that they could color and wear. Our good friends Erin and Andrew brought their great dane puppy, Atlas, too!!! Malcom loves dogs (or what he calls "woof woofs"), he had such a great time and most of my favorite pictures from the afternoon came from the two of them as they played. I'm so glad Ben was willing to take over the camera for the afternoon, I was really tired by the time the party started. We have a ton of pictures, so I'm only going to post a few (relative term.. haha), and not any of the other kids because I'm not sure if it's okay with the other parents or not... plus it cuts down drastically on pictures I can post, which makes my job that much easier. :)

Malcom and Atlas! 

Here he is coloring the side of his box train:

Wearing it backwards:

The front of the train:

 Ben's fabulous sister Betsy and Malcom. She came early to help us get the food together and decorate because she's stinkin' awesome. Sadly for us, she's graduating in April; we already miss her. :(

Betsy and Becca (my bro Kevin's wife). I have the best in laws EVER, on both sides! We're lucky like that. 

 Did I mention that our friend Erin cut Malcom's hair for us on Thursday? She's amazing. Seriously, everyone should go to her for all of their hair needs. :) We kept it just a little longer on top (you wouldn't easily notice it if we didn't style it)... now we can make Malcom into a thug if we want to. Haha, it's too fun!

I forgot to to take pictures of our cake! Dang it. That's okay, we can always make more. Last Christmas my mom sent us a silicon train cake mold, and it's the coolest thing ever! The mold is super detailed, and after many, many, many attempts we found that pound cake was the best at holding the shape and showing detail. Since we didn't want to have to spend the time to decorate it, we just served it up plain with sweetened strawberries/glaze and whipped cream (just like a strawberry shortcake). It was great! Ben and I want to try making the mold with different colors of jello sometime. Wouldn't that be fun? 

Thanks for everyone who showed up to have some fun, and for the few presents Malcom got (though you really didn't have to!!). He's been well occupied in the last few days, it's a wonderful thing. :) Now I have to clean the apartment up from the weekend. Oh my. I tell you what! This place is a complete disaster, and sadly most of the disaster areas are on the floor. Booo!!! I can't wait to move around like a normal person again. Soooon!!! We have a doc appointment tomorrow, hopefully I can report on some good news. We had Malcom exactly at 38 weeks, and that's this Thursday. I was induced early for a few little issues, but I was super close to going into labor on my own anyway. This time around everything's been much easier health-wise, but I still wish I could get induced early. It was soooooooo nice!!! Any pregnant woman can tell you that the last few weeks are so uncomfortable. Ugh. I just have to remind myself that it'll come soon enough, and then I'll miss the ease and quiet of just having one little kid to chase after. I don't remember a ton from Malcom's new born days due to the lack of sleep that just comes with babies, but I do remember that I once had a dream that I went back to the doctor and put him back into my belly so that I could have some peace and quiet.. So strange, haha!

Anyway, back to cleaning the apartment. Wish me luck!

Malcom Turns 2!

Malcom turned the big T-W-O on Wednesday!

I know I'll be saying this during all of his birthdays, but I just can't believe how quickly time goes by. Honestly I don't want to think about how fast he is growing up because it turns me into a blubbering basket case. Ridiculous! For now I'm going to blame it on the crazy pregnancy hormones.

Anyway, we decided to hold off on most of the birthday celebrations until Saturday, when we're throwing a little party for him... plus he's two and has no idea what a birthday is yet. Ben and I took him to the duck pond  for the first time since last fall, and it was just such a fun time seeing him chase, then run away from the ducks. After that we went to Porter Park where Ben pushed him around on his longboard (another one of Malcom's old favorite activities from before the snow came and made life really boring). He also had a great time just climbing on all of the playground equipment and swinging on the swings. We're all so glad that the snow has almost completely melted away!! We've all been caged up for farrrrr too long!

We're due for a good photoshoot with the boy- but here are some pics from his special day. Enjoy! I know it's been a while since I've posted any pictures.

Malcom spots the ducks!

They're a little scary at first...

 Haha! What a funny animal!

Oooo, what is that in the bushes? We should sneak up on it and see.

Another duck! 

Longboardin' it with Pops.

Spying and keeping a look out for sneaky dad. He can pop up anywhere, anytime!

Swings!

Whew, that's all for now. Love to all! Happy birthday little man!

Babies, Cars, & School

We've only got about 4 weeks until I'm full term and I tell you what, I'm definitely feeling it. I can't wait to be done! This little boy has really been enjoying my ribs over the past few days... uuuuggghhh... I swear they're bruised after all of his stretching, jabbing, and just hanging out up there. I'm feeling huge! I'm pretty sure having to chase a silly little toddler around isn't helping. Malcom's going through this phase where everything has to be dumped on the floor, especially things that are usually put nicely away (like his bucket of smaller toys and his going-out-somewhere backpack). Until now he's been a pretty clean kid, only playing with a few toys at a time and helping put them away when he's done. This week, not so much. I wish he would have waited a little while longer to go through this stage! I had to pick up so many toys today, so many times, that I nearly cried when he dumped even more in the middle of the living room this evening. I hate bending over, so much. I can't stand the floor being covered in toys though... so I guess we'll just have to deal with it. *sigh* One thing is for sure though: this baby and I are running out of room!!!! Just 4 weeks (I only count till 38 weeks, since that's when I had Malcom and it just sounds SO much better than the full 40!)

Our car got the alternator fixed today! Woohoo! Workin' car. Workin' "new" car! Three things we have discovered about it:

1. Fog lights!!!
2. Steering wheel tilt!
3. Dimmer dial for the dashboard lights.

We're pretty stylin' these days, it's true. :)

Malcom got his first little boy underpants last week. So cute!!! Is that weird? So potty training is still going well, and that's good. We're still working on a few things, but I'm proud of how well he's doing.
He's turning 2 in just 3 weeks!!! I can't believe it! We want to throw him a little birthday party, I'm just not sure if I want to commit to anything much more than cake and ice cream at this point. I'll be 37 weeks by then! I don't know, we'll have to see I guess.

Anyway, I don't have much else to post. No pictures, sadly! My laptop's hard drive decided to die, so it's out of commission right now... Thank goodness for Ben's Mac (and for him being out of school this semester!)

Speaking of school- Ben gets to register on Monday. He only has 16 or 17 credits left!! Yay! These are going to be beastly classes though, so I'm totally okay with him taking two semesters to finish. It'll be nice to have a little extra room to fill up his schedule on his last semester as well, just in case there's a surprise required class or something. You never know! Anyway, it's exciting to see the end so near! December is only 9 months away! That doesn't seem so long.

Looks like it's bed time for the Malcom. Gotta go! Love to all!