Mark Turns 3!

At the end of February, Mark turned 3!  It's so crazy to think it's been three years already since he was born and changed our lives forever.  We bought a big used set of Thomas the Train stuff last fall and have been saving some of the add-ons for birthdays, holidays, and other occasions/bribes as needed.  Well one day early in February he was playing in our room and saw something Thomas-looking from the handle hole of the printer box under our bed.  Before I realized what he was up to, he had opened the box and found our stash.  I let him pick one out and told him it was his birthday present.  We even wrapped it so he could open it.  As you can see, he was thrilled and had to show Audrey too.  There is some train track invention in our living room (most often created by Bryce or me) most of the time.  He loves playing with it, but almost always wants one of us to play with him.

To help break up the monotony of Bryce's 12-week surgery rotation, I braved a trip to Colorado alone with the kids.  Thankfully the travel itself was fairly uneventful.  Susan, Brian, Grace, Kate, Joy, and Ryan were able to come out to meet Audrey so we had everyone except Bryce (common theme these days) there to hang out.  One of many fun things we did was have everyone except Audrey go to an Air Force hockey game.  I grew up on these hockey games so I was really excited to take Mark to his first one. The hockey part was okay, but the popcorn and Sprite, and of course, the 'tractor' (Zamboni) were awesome.  At the start of the second intermission, they have a competition where people throw soft rubber pucks, trying to get closest to a target at the center of the ice.  Mark was so upset.  He kept saying they needed to clean up and was very relieved when the youth hockey players picked up the pucks so the Zamboni could finally come out.

While we were in Colorado, we decided to have a little family birthday party for him.  We made a Thomas cupcake train I found on Pinterest.  It was a huge hit with him, as well as Kate (and Grace).

Presents of course were welcome.  Pretty much everything was Thomas or Cars, except for his play doctor kit, which he loves too.

The Wiechmann grandkids:  Grace, Audrey, Mark, and Kate.

The birthday marathon continued after we got home.  On his birthday, Mark, Audrey and I went to Chick-fil-A for lunch and he got to play on the slides.  Bryce had to work fairly late so we just opened a few gifts right before bedtime.  Ironically, Mark was upset he didn't get anything Cars or Thomas.  Somehow the other presents he had gotten earlier didn't count.  Luckily he had received some money from grandparents so we went to Walmart the next day and got some little Thomas and Cars toys and now everything is fine.  It was nice that I could 'give in' with an excuse so he could still be happy.  He does like his tool set now.

We decided that we're only going to do larger friend parties on even years.  But, he had already picked out a cake on Pinterest that he wanted, so we had a very low key party at the church with a few of his friends.  We play volleyball with some couples on a few Saturdays a month while the kids play/watch a movie in the nursery.  So, we all just came a little early and they played a couple of games and had cake and ice cream.  Very simple, but it was fine by Mark as long as he had his '3 Thomas cake'.

We love Mark so much.  He has really grown up a lot in the last little while.  He is understanding so much and his vocabulary/sentence structure often takes us by surprise.  He's showing more interest in learning activities, and will even participate in games with friends.  Most recently, he likes things in waves.  For example, he wants to watch the same movie or TV series for a week or two straight (Cars, Thomas, Mickey) and then as suddenly as it started, he goes to a new one for another week or two.  He still thinks eating is a burden and cries/whines when I ask him what he wants to eat for any meal.  The only nice thing now is we can somewhat reason with him enough to get him to tell us what he wants to eat.  Fruits and veggies are still a work in progress.  Hopefully by 4!  He is a wonderful brother to Audrey and very possessive of her.  He has a friend with a baby sister only a few days younger than Audrey and they both are very clear that Audrey is Mark's and the other little girl belongs to his friend.  It's so cute.  Happy Birthday, Mark!

Audrey at Three Months



 

Audrey has been such a joy.  She is very easy going and content as long as she's within eyeshot of Mark and me most times.  She doesn't have to be held for long stretches of time (which my back is loving), and I can put her in her crib completely awake and she'll go to sleep.  Yes, I wish she would sleep a little longer at night, but that seems to be improving, so I really can't complain.   She eats well, hardly spits up, and doesn’t even blowout her diapers very often.  I'd love to claim it's me, but really, we just feel blessed.



 

Even more so, Mark loves her.  When he hears her wake up he begs me to spring her from her crib.  He loves to give her hugs, tells her she's cute, adorable, tiny, sweet, or whatever else he's heard someone else say about her.  Today he decided to lay down on the Boppy with her.  He grabbed his blanket, Mickey, and owl, and snuggled in next to her.  Then, all matter of fact, he said, "Mommy, take a picture!"  Well, alright.  And, to be clear, Audrey's expression is probably 20% Mark and 80% camera flash.



Mischief

Often while I'm feeding Audrey or busy doing something around the house Mark disappears to find something to entertain himself with. He's gotten pretty creative and is keeping me on my toes.

"Cleaning" the mirror in his bathroom with water from the spray bottle and tissues while sitting in the sink. To make things more complicated he likes to lock the bathroom door. Thankfully we have a key if needed, although he is generally good about opening it for me.

Sitting precariously in Audrey's laundry basket on the edge of the chair. He climbed over the back of the chair to get in there and added my coat for good measure.

Stuck in our laundry bin. He had thrown a puzzle in the middle section so I think he climbed in the outer one in hopes of getting to the puzzle. Instead, he just got stuck until I found him.

Visiting Audrey in her crib. Recently Bryce and I heard what we thought sounded like Mark on the baby monitor. It was early in the morning so I dismissed it since Mark doesn't have a monitor in his room. Around the same time, Audrey started fussing. Bryce went in to check and found Mark huddled over Audrey and talking to her. He had left his room quietly (we have bells on his doorknob) and had gone into her room looking for me since I'm often in feeding Audrey when he gets up. It wasn't malicious, but Audrey wasn't a fan and thankfully let us know she needed help.

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.