Outside Photo Shoot

Yesterday, I fancied myself a photographer and decided to take advantage of the beautiful sunshine and took some pix of the kids while we were playing outside.  Here are some of my favorite ones.

This may be my favorite one from the photo shoot!

Check out my sweet boy's ridiculously long eyelashes in the two pics below.

Fun in the Sun

Weather has been so nice here for the past week and we have been outside every single day enjoying it.  Bright blue skies, mild temps, and plenty of sunshine...perfect fall weather.  What's not to love?  Here are some pics from our fun times outside.

 Stella is all about wearing dresses or skirts with tights these days and she doesn't care whether the tights go with the outfit or not.  In case you were wondering, she "pulled" this look all by herself!

  

Des had fun riding the tricycle and pushing Stella on it.

Stella would push/pull her Cozy Coupe up to the top of the hill in our backyard, and then get inside and roll all the way down.

 

 

Kicking the soccer ball and blowing bubbles is always lots of fun.

All About Des

This post summarizes what Des is like these days at the ripe old age of 2!

• He is a Lil' Devil.  When he misbehaves and he knows he is misbehaving, he gets this devilish little look on his face with a devilish little grin that makes it so impossible to keep a straight face while disciplining him.  Des will then look at me with this pathetic little puppy dog face he knows how to make, and will then snuggle me and kiss me in an attempt to charm his way out of the situation.  He melts my heart every time, but I try not to show it.  We can totally see him trying to charm his way out of trouble in years to come.  The below pictures somewhat captures this devilish look he gets.
  

• He is Trouble with a capital T, but that is part of his charm and personality that makes him so fun to play with.
  
• He is very loving and gives us kisses and hugs when his little heart is filled up with love and emotion.  We get lots of kisses from him throughout the day without any prompting.  He also says "Thank you Mammo!" whenever I do something nice for him, again without prompting.  If Stella is upset or mad or crying, he will go over to her and try to comfort her with hugs, again of his own volition.  Stella does the same thing for Des!
• Des is an open book when it comes to his emotions and wears his heart on his sleeve.  He has no problems expressing his emotions, whether it be happy or sad.
  
• For such a ruff-n-tuff boy, he is rather sensitive.  He gets upset if you chide him for something he is doing when he doesn't think he is misbehaving.
• He does not like to hear the word "no" especially from people he is not as familiar with as Mama and Dada.  (i.e., if Amamma or Appachen or Ommy should tell him not to do something because they are afraid he might get hurt, he just hears the word "no" or "can't" and comes crying to me or Dada.)
• His verbal skills are very impressive.  He speaks in complete 5 to 7 word sentences very clearly.  He rarely mispronounces any words.  And what amazes me most is how he uses pronouns like "I", "me", and "you" correctly in sentences.  In comparison, Stella did not talk as clearly or this well at this age and she had a lot more words that she mispronounced.  For example, the other day, Des was drinking his milk in Stella's room and threw his sippy cup on the floor.  The rule in our house is that the kids can only eat or drink in the kitchen.  So I told to him to go put his sippy cup back on the kitchen counter.  Des looks at me and says "No Mama, you put the sippy cup in the kitchen!".  I was floored by not only what he said, but how well and clearly he said it.
  
• He is very imaginative and very good at pretending.  Stella was not this way at his age, but she does a lot of imaginative play now and so Des learns it from her.
  
• He knows his shapes and all of his colors.  He knows all of our first, middle, and last names, including his.  He knows all of his animals and what they say.  He can count up to 13 correctly and he can sing his ABCs but he can't identify all of the letters of the alphabet yet.  It's partly our fault because we haven't been diligent about teaching him and partly because, Des, in true boy fashion, doesn't have the attention span nor the patience to sit through a "lesson" on learning the alphabet.
• He is very independent these days and has been for a long time.  He wants to do everything by himself, from brushing his teeth, to putting on his clothes, and climbing onto chairs and sofas.  Anytime we try to help, all we hear is "No, I do it byself."
• We are not 100% sure whether he is a righty or a lefty, but he sure prefers his left hand for eating and coloring.  So we think that he is a lefty like his namesake, Poppa.  But then when we play soccer outside, Des kicks with his right foot.  So who knows.

So there you have it.  A little glimpse into our lil' Des.  He is so loving and fun and rambunctious and we wouldn't have it any other way.  

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween from Mickey and Minnie Mouse!

 

Stella was very indecisive this year as to what she wanted to be for Halloween.  She initially wanted to be Foofa from Yo Gabba Gabba, then it changed to Magenta from Blue's Clues, then a fairy, and a clown.  When I was in Pittsburgh, I saw this cute Minnie costume and bought it for her, thinking that once she sees it, she would love it.  Stella still held fast to wanting to be a clown and didn't even want to try on the Minnie costume.  But I still kept the costume in case she changed her mind and sure enough, as the days went by, Stella became eager to dress up as Minnie Mouse.  And therefore, Des had to dress up as Mickey Mouse.  I actually made Des's Mickey Mouse costume.  Des was initially not keen on wearing his hat with the Mickey Mouse ears, but we told him that if he wanted to go trick or treating and get candy, he had to dress up and wear his ears.  The idea of getting candy was a good motivator!  He still refused to wear his white gloves that I made for him, but did let me paint his nose black.

Here is Des checking himself out in the mirror of the bathroom after donning his hat/ears.

  He likes what he sees =:)

We then took some family photos before heading out.

Stella and Des were pros when it came to going up to people's front doors and getting candy.  We were surprised that Des was not shy with these strangers, given his heightened stranger anxiety these days.  He especially loved it if they allowed him to pick out his candy.

 

As the evening progressed and the kids accumulated more and more loot, Des's pumpkin got pretty heavy for him to carry around.  We could tell because he kept switching the pumpkin from one hand to the other as he walked.  But he refused to let any one of us carry it for him, for fear that he would lose his prized loot.  If we asked him whether he wanted any help carrying his pumpkin, he would say very quickly "No, that's my pumpkin".  So Des carried his pumpkin all night all by himself.  But he did allow us to carry him here and there.

Mama's two boys! 

When we got home, Stella and Des were allowed to choose two candies they wanted to eat that night.  Des picked M&M's, his favorite...

...and Stella chose Sweet Tarts and Swedish Fish to eat.

We had a great time trick or treating and Stella and Des are already talking about going trick or treating again tomorrow =;)

Desmond's 2 year Checkup

Des had his 2-year checkup today.  He got a clean bill of health and he is on target with regards to his physical and mental development.  His stats are as follows:

Weight = 28 lbs (50th %)
Height = 34.65 in(55th %)
Head circumference = 19 in (90th %)

While we were in the waiting area, Des was mesmerized by the cool fish tank and all of the sea life inside it.  The fish tank had 2 Nemo fishes, one Dorie fish, a starfish, a small lobster, 1 yellow fish and 1 yellow and black fish.  When we were called back to the exam room, Des was not at all happy to leave the fish tank.  He was even more unhappy when the doctor came in and he kept saying "I'm all done.  I wanna go see the fishies".  Des did stop crying once the doctor finished examining him and then he kept asking me "Who's that?" over and over while pointing at the doctor.  Des also got two shots, which he was not happy about.  To make up for his ouchies, he got a lollipop and a jack-o-lantern bubbles at the checkout desk, being that it was the day before Halloween.

Desmond's 2nd Birthday Celebration

We celebrated Desmond's 2nd birthday today, so that Amamma and Appachen (who flew in late last night) could partake in the festivities.  We decorated the night before with streamers and balloons.

I made him a spider cake as promised.

My sweet little boy loved his spider cake!

xx

We sang Happy Birthday to him.

We cut the cake and Des proceeded eat his piece like so (even though he can use his fork like a pro)...silly boy! 

After the cake, Des opened his gifts, although, it quickly became Stella opening Des's gifts for him.

 Here's Des playing with one of his gifts...Hot Wheels racing car set with tracks, a car carrier, and launchers.

We love you so, so much big boy and we hope that you had a great birthday!!!

Happy 2nd Birthday Des!

Today our lil' boy turned 2 years old!  As cliche as it sounds, we can't believe it.  For the record, Mama and Dada don't like our kids growing up one bit.  Why can't we freeze time or be able to go back in time to relive younger days when our kids are grown?

In the morning, the Birthday Boy got a big hug from his sis.

Since Amamma and Appachen were flying in late that evening, we had plans to celebrate his birthday on Sat, the 24th.  But as soon as Des woke up, he told me, "Today is my birthday".  And then he said, "Let me see.  Let me see my birthday, Mama."  I kept asking him what he means by birthday, but he kept saying "let me see my birthday".  I interpreted that to mean that he wanted to see decorations (streamers and balloons) and his cake, all of which I was planning on doing later that evening after Des went to bed so that we could surprise him the next morning.  Needless to say, I felt very bad.  So I improvised and stuck 2 candles on his breakfast waffle, lit them up, and then Stella and I sang Happy Birthday to him.  This made him very happy so I felt a little better about not having any decorations on the actual day of his birthday.

Des staring at his candles, while Stella and I sang to him.

Des blowing out his candles....

...and smiling at the smoke and his candle-blowing out abilities!