A few weeks ago Rush went to a super fun birthday party where they had cowboy hats AND a piñata.  Does life get much better than that??

Ruston hasn’t done many piñatas in his short life so I kept prepping him, telling him to try to get the candy off the ground as soon as the piñata broke.  So when the time came, he was totally ready and grabbed the first thing he could get his hands on.  In the chaos of kids, I saw Rushton fiddling with something for a few seconds and then he threw it on the ground and walked away.  When I saw him up close, his mouth was all black, and on the ground where he had been standing there was a black marker that had been snapped in half and the ink cylinder removed…

I did some quick math and came to the conclusion that he thought the marker was some kind of marker-shaped piñata candy, so he tried to open it by breaking it (rather than pulling off the lid??) and then he put the ink part in his mouth before he realized that it was indeed a MARKER.

A marker.  That he attemped to eat.

WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?!

I have nothing more to say about that.

I can’t tell you how many times I find Hailey sleeping with her bum in the air and her face smashed against the side of her crib.  Poor baby!

Rushton started swimming lessons this week, and I don’t think there has ever been a more enthusiastic 3-year-old little boy in the history of swimming lessons (although this picture doesn’t exactly show it).

We signed him up in a class with his little friend.  Here they are right before their first lesson, smiling for something other than my camera.

Sounds cliche, but Rushton is such a little fish!  He’s very brave going out into the pool (2.5 feet deep, almost as deep as he is tall) and he tries his best to hold his hands in the right positions.  I think he laughs the entire time his teacher helps him swim around the pool.

Rush was hardly phased when he tripped and went under water for a few seconds.  When he finally came back up, he coughed a few times and then announced, “I’n okay!”

The photo below demonstrates his serious bubble-blowing face.  It’s hilarious because he’s still not sure how to blow bubbles – most of the time he just ends up yelling into the water.  So funny.

It is so fun to watch him in a group/class setting!  I don’t get to see that very often.  What a good little learner.  He gets distracted a lot but I think it’s mostly because he’s just so excited to be in a swimming pool.

Head cheerleader for the Rushton fan club:

Rush is such a happy and fun kid.  I’m so lucky to be his mama!  (Notice the giant booger shooting out of his nose.  HA!  You’re welcome.)

My baby is almost one!!!!!  Time to start planning a party.  Consistent with the last few monthly photo posts, I feel the need to reiterate how impossible it is to take a picture of a wiggly baby.

At least Rushton was there to lend a helping hand.

She totally has a thing for stuffed animals.

Aww, siblings.  How sweet, no?

At 11 months, Hailey is climbing up on everything.  She can stand for a few seconds on her own but no steps yet.  Her favorite song is “The Wheels on the Bus” and she waves her hands around while we sing it.  She claps and waves bye-bye.  Seriously, SO CUTE!!  Whenever she notices her bow is on her head, she pulls it down and snaps it on her eyes.  Still no hair to speak of, but even still, I’m baffled by the people who still guess she’s a boy when she’s dressed in head-to-toe pink/flowers/hearts.  Really??  Hailey is an extremely happy baby.  Like, REALLY happy.  I don’t know how I got so lucky – both my kids have been such good babies.  She loves Rushton to pieces – her face lights up when she hears his voice and she tries to knock down his door when he’s taking a hap.  They play pretty well together – Rush tries very hard to share and? Hailey tries to NOT pull Rushton’s hair in her excitement when she’s climbing on him.  How can you not love this face?!

This little one has been up to no good lately.  Between the plastics cabinet…

the bathroom…

the fireplace…

mealtimes…

strolling…

and just hanging out…

Babies are awesome.

I totally give up on hoping for a good picture of Hailey next to a teddy bear.  This was the best one I got:

And this is how the whole photo shoot went…

Good thing Rush was on hand to help out…

IMPOSSIBLE!

(Thanks to cousin Maren for the super cute outfit!)

Once again, I’m several weeks late with Hailey’s monthly picture, but as always, the photos were taken on the correct day but not posted until now.  This is Hailey on February 29th at 9 months. She’s so squishy and happy and busy and cute!  But no smiles this time, she’s too concerned with getting either the camera, the bear, or the paper.

At 9 months, Hailey is doing her version of the butterfly stroke across the floor.  Real crawling is bound to happen soon, but the butterfly seems to suit her movement needs just fine for now.  She’s still a pretty great sleeper – 8 p.m. to almost 7ish a.m. with two daytime naps.  Her favorite things are Rushton, Mom, Dad, and bath time.  Seriously, you should see this girl in the bathtub – she splashes and claps and squeals the entire time.  She’s starting to pull herself up to her knees, but not yet to her feet (but now at 9.5 months she pulls up to her feet a lot).  She’s pretty open to letting other people hold her, but she’s so wiggly these days that it’s hard to hold her for very long.  Hailey has 4 teeth – two on top and two on bottom, and she feels them with her tongue all day long, like this:

Rushton is so cute with her, talking in a super high voice (like I do to Hailey, I guess) and saying things like, “Hi baby girl!” or “Aww, you’re so cute Haywee!” or “You’re sitting up!! Good job!” or “Where you going, silly girl?” or “Hey cutie!”  So often he just can’t help but laugh around her because she’s just so cute and fun.  I love seeing them play together.  I hope they never outgrow their adoration for each other.  Melt my mother heart.

My big boy is 3!  He was very good at telling everyone his birthday is on “two twenty-two” and he even practiced holding up 3 fingers.  No big parties this year (a few small celebrations), but the presents trickled in long before and long after his birthday.  This year Rush got some books, clothes, sand toys, a soccer ball, pens, a kite, and some cars.  Thanks to everyone who called and/or sent stuff.  He loved everything!  But he’s not much for posing for pictures these days, so this is the best shot I got on his actual birthday.

At 3 years old, Rushton talks all the time in complete sentences and he has an excellent memory.  He can count to 10, sometimes to 11, but usually gets lost somewhere between twelve and eleventeen.  He loves reading and has memorized most of the lines in his favorite books.  He can sing the alphabet song pretty well and he knows almost all 26 capital letters and a few lower case letters.  His favorite letter is R and his favorite color is green.  He favorite shows are Super Why, Cars, and Toy Story.  His favorite books are the Llama Llama books, Go Dog Go, Glasses for D.W., and any Cars books.

Rushton LOVES to play with Hailey – he’s usually pretty sweet and gentle with her (lots of hugs, kisses, giggles, and soft pats) but he’s also a rough and tough 3 year-old big brother at times (squashing her, taking her toys just to see her squirm, and squirting her bottle on her head).

He loves to sing – especially Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, The Wheels on the Bus, and the ABC’s.  He loves going to Nursery at church, talking on the phone, playing at the park, going on walks in the big stroller, visiting Dad at work, playing/fixing with tools, and HELPING!!!!  He always wants to help, or fix, or do it himself.

Rush loves to call people on the phone and can even dial them himself.  He knows L is for Laura,  C is for Cecilie, and then it gets confusing, but he totally has it down: M is for Grandma Bain (“Mom” in my phone), D is for Grandpa Bain (“Dad” in my phone), A is for Daddy (when we very first met, Jake saved his name in my phone as “Amazing”), and H is for Grandma Spurlock (Heather).  He also loves pushing the red End Call button, so most phone conversations are cut short.

Rushton is such a happy and sweet boy – very tender with other children, especially younger kids.  He’s very social with other kids, and every time we go to a park, he’s yelling, “Wait for me!  I’m Rush!” before I can even get him out of his car seat.  He makes me laugh all day long and I feel so lucky to be his mother!

Both my boys have birthdays in February, so we partied pretty hard that month.  Jake was first, and now he and I are the same age!  Woo hoo.  But that will be short lived as I turn 30 in less than 3 months…  When did we get so old???

I’m generally the worst when it comes to birthdays, but I was totally on it for Jake this year.   I had cake made and presents WRAPPED, and I even made him breakfast!  I also got a babysitter so we could go out to dinner.  We went to Tex Wasabi – one of Guy Fieri’s restaurants, and I was very pleasantly surprised by how good it was!  Guy looks and acts like such a dork that I had very LOW expectations.

Rushton was instrumental in opening Jake’s presents and blowing out the lone candle.

Jake’s work friends made him a cool birthday card with an LED light for the cupcake’s candle, and Rush tried to blow out the flame all evening.

Happy Birthday, Jake!  I made him the same cake that I’ve made for the last several years - carrot cake with cream cheese frosting.  He got a sushi set, money, Dr. Pepper, and a few other cool things.  Next year’s the big 3-0!