Stethoscope

Mark LOVES Bryce's stethoscope. Whenever he sees it he insists on a thorough check-up. He'll bring it to Bryce and lift up his shirt. Seriously. The reflex hammer and tuning fork are a close 2nd and 3rd for the coolness factor, but the stethoscope always wins.

Bryce usually takes his stethoscope to the hospital in his backpack. When Mark saw his backpack today, he asked for the stethoscope. Bryce replied that it wasn't in his backpack because he doesn't need it for psychiatry today (it was the first day.) Mark interpreted psychiatry as 'stuck in a tree'...cue video.

And yes, we did have a baby (Audrey) that I need to post about and I have a LOT of back posting to do. No guarantees when that will be, but I will do it soon so stay tuned.

What Does the Doctor Say?

We're glad Mark knows why his dad is now MIA. But, since it's a little hard to understand if you don't speak Mark:

Cathi: Mark, where's Dad today?

Mark: At the Hospital.

Cathi: At the hospital. What's he doing at the hospital?

Mark: (no idea what he said)

Cathi: Is he learning how to be a doctor?

Mark: Doctor.

Cathi: And what does the doctor say?

Mark: No more monkeys jumping on the bed!

Life Through April

I keep waiting for some free time to do some photo editing so I can post on the blog. Needless to say, it's not coming, so instead of getting REALLY far behind, here's a glimpse of the past few months.

January 2011

For a few months, this was Mark's preferred way to watch a show.

A few of us have been doing a playgroup switch. Once a week for two hours one of us gets five children between 18 months and 2 1/2 while the other girls get 2 hours of free (or at least one child less) time. So that meant 24 free hours for 6 hours of chaos. On this particular day, cell phones were in. Good thing we have a ton of old ones.

Mark's favorite sandwich: peanut butter and Nutella.

February 2011
Mark discovered water wasn't necessary to enjoy the bathtub.

Bryce and I painted Mark's big boy room (he's not there yet so it's just the spare bed/toy room). We went with a sports field theme.

Valentine's Day 2011
We had a Valentine's party at the church for a bunch of the smaller kids. They colored, played, shared valentines, and ate lunch.

Mark's Birthday 2011

As a passing thought, I suggested to my dad that he and my mom come out the weekend of Mark's birthday. My dad is an accountant so anytime around Tax Season is a little crazy. But, to our surprise, they were able to come. We went to the aquarium and the big Air and Space museum hanger near Dulles airport where they have all of the planes, helicopters, and even a retired space ship. It was pretty cool, although Mark got bored. He did like the toy car from McDonalds though.

Papa and Omi with Mark

We opened 'family' presents while my parents were here. Mark loved his Cars book for his Tag Jr, playdoh, Thomas pjs, and the Little People airport.

We got him a little cup of ice cream from Baskin Robbins. He was a little nervous about the candle, but figured it out. Notice the taxi and helicopter from his new airport had to come too. For at least a week the first thing he'd say when he woke up was "Airport?".

Mark's Birthday Party 2011

I didn't want to be worrying about a party with my parents here so we had a few of Mark's friends over the following weekend to celebrate his birthday.

Bryce and I got ambitious and made this Lightning McQueen cake. It took a pretty long time (30 minutes of which was trying to make frosting red, not pink), but overall, for our first 3D cake, we're pretty proud of ourselves. Thank goodness for all of the over-achieving people on the internet who not only make these kinds of cakes, but blog their every step.
Mark's not much of a game kid, so we didn't really do any. We played a short find the ball under the cones game and ring around the rosy. Otherwise, the kids just played with our toys while the adults hung out, ate, and chatted.

A few Cars decorations

March 2011

The strap around his waste is to my purse. He'd been rummaging through it and got stuck.

I attempted to do a little photo shoot a few weeks back. It's rough, but here are some pictures of Mark at 2 years at the park in our apartment complex. He asks for the 'slides' almost daily.

Easter 2011

We had planned to have an Easter egg hunt at our complex's park like we did last year, but too much rain and chilly weather made the ground super muddy and the spiders abundant. So, we decided the best move was to do it at the church. Each child was able to collect 10 eggs. Mark didn't listen to the rules, so I rehid some when he exceeded his quota.

Mark was thrilled to find the eggs contained candy. He ate a few marshmellows and jelly beans and thought he was in heaven. There was a group picture taken with a lot of the little kids, but Mark, of course, didn't want anything to do with it. He was willing to sit close by with his eggs though. This soccer ball one is his favorite. He slept with it for a few days.

Last year Reese attempted to steal Mark's basket, but as she was stuck in a Bumbo, she was limited in her success. This year however, she had no problem snatching it away.

The Easter bunny knew that it's sometimes a little busy trying to get ready for church so he didn't hide Mark's eggs this year. He did, however, fill the eggs to the brim with all sorts of things that Mark never gets to eat. When Mark couldn't get the eggs open, he decided shaking them was nearly as fun as eating the candy. Of course now he knows that it's what's inside that counts. He will let jelly beans marinate in his mouth until they more or less melt. It's nuts and I'm sure all of our dentist/hygenist friends are cringing at the thought.

Success!

We've been discussing the need to get rid of Mark's pacifier for the past few months. He had chewed a nice sized hole in it so we used it to our advantage. About two weeks ago it 'broke'; well, half-way. Last night it 'broke' again and is now no more than a stub. He's still not sure how he feels about it, although he did throw it at me tonight. Then again, that may be because we refused to let him take Mack (the big Cars trailer) to bed with him. Regardless, we're on the home stretch to being paci-free.

I've been on quite the blogging hiatus, but I promise to post soon, especially Mark's 2nd birthday. Yes, it was back in February, but the important thing is we did celebrate it.

Don't You Hate It When Your Kids Get Sick?

Best Buddies

Although Mark has a lot of little friends out here that he loves to play with, Caleb has always been his favorite. It's probably because they are both boys and close in age, but it could also be that Amy and I get along so we have forced them to play together. Whatever the reason, they just love to be around each other. When ever I ask Mark if he wants to go see Caleb, he practically drags me out the door. Since the Blooms are moving this summer (the downside of having so many students around here), we decided to take the boys out for some fall pictures....back in October. It was wet and cold, but the leaves were beautiful and the boys had fun.

Throwing leaves

Looking for 'fish' (or so we told them)

Knuckles

Cute faces

They didn't like our artistic vision in this one.

And, this is typical- Caleb fully participating in the song Amy's singing while Mark is more interested in a rock, leaf, or anything else other than the activity in front of him.