belated birthday

So, I am really late in writing this, but, Abraham's birthday party was a huge success! Most of you have probably seen all the pictures I posted on Facebook from the party, but I wanted to post here specifically about the theme and decorations. I chose a book theme, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, one of Abraham's favorites. If you have kids and haven't read this one already, I highly recommend it. Basically, the hungry little caterpillar eats through different foods each day until he gets big and fat and turns into a butterfly! For the party, I got some great ideas from around the web and tried to do everything as cheaply as possible. I really had a lot of fun putting my creativity and (lack of) artistic skills to work. First up, the invitation. I just printed it out on card stock with images I found online and used a hole-puncher on the fruit. Then I used a little round sponge brush and some paints to make the caterpillar at the bottom.

The invitation

Next, decorations. I spotted this caterpillar and decided an easier/cheaper version would be with balloons. Crazy easy to make and Abraham LOVED it. It lasted for a week or so after his party, until he asked me to dismantle it so he could play with the balloons. Decorations AND toy!

Caterpillar balloons

Then Abraham and I painted some decorations in our version of Eric Carle's style: the sun and butterfly from the story.

Wall decorations and photo display

Abraham painted the butterfly mostly himself!

And I created a photo display with one photo from each month of his two years of life! It turned out so adorable that I MAY still have it hanging up over a month later...

Two years of Abraham

 As our guest book, we asked everyone to sign Abraham's copy of the book. This will be a great memento for him to keep of his 2nd birthday party.

Guest book

Here are the party favors. I saw these cute little lollipops at a toy store that reminded me of the book, so they became party favors. Then I copy/pasted some images of the caterpillar and fruit and printed them out on magnetic paper to make a cute little magnet set based on the book. This was actually a lot more time-consuming than I anticipated, because I wanted to arrange the fruit just right to get maximum numbers on each page and then had to cut them all out afterward. But it turned out really nice, so I'm glad I went for it. Rounded up the gift bag with a little pack of markers from Target.

Party Favors

 

 

 

 

 

Next up, the caterpillar feast! I got this idea from another caterpillar party featured here. Basically, I chose the foods from the book, laid them out in order, and put a little label for each one that included the photo and text from the book. The feast was a big hit with kids and adults alike, and just happened to include many of Abraham's favorite foods. I included little transition cards in between to include the rest of the story.

In the light of the moon, a little egg lay on a leaf.

One Sunday morning the warm sun came up and - pop!- out of the egg came a tiny and very hungry caterpillar. He started to look for some food.

On Monday he ate through one apple, but he was still hungry. On Tuesday he ate through two pears, but he was still hungry.

On Wednesday he ate through three plums, but he was still hungry.

On Thursday he ate through four strawberries, but he was still hungry.

On Friday he ate through five oranges, but he was still hungry.

On Saturday he ate through one piece of chocolate cake, one ice-cream cone, one pickle, one slice of Swiss cheese, one slice of salami, one lollipop, one piece of cherry pie, one sausage, one cupcake, and one slice of watermelon. (We didn't quite have all of these foods, but you get the idea.) Now he wasn't hungry anymore--and he wasn't a little caterpillar anymore. He was a big, fat caterpillar.

Here is the big, fat caterpillar! I found this cake and did my own version. The picture doesn't look that great to me, but it turned out cute. A little less professional looking and more "homemade." :)

Caterpillar cake!

Party activities included a caterpillar tunnel (it had a caterpillar face on the end, but I didn't get a lot of pictures of it for some reason), an apple ball toss (apples hand-painted by my husband in the style of Eric Carle), and my favorite, the "Paint a Butterfly" station. We also had the water table out and some other outdoor toys that were a lot of fun.

Ball toss

Caterpillar tunnel

The "Paint a Butterfly" station got a lot of use. I just printed a butterfly outline on card stock and set out some paints and brushes!

We had a lot of fun celebrating with our friends, and it got me in the mood for more party planning! Why wait for a birthday? The one thing I wish I had done was actually read the book, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, at the party, because it turned out several people weren't familiar with it. To me it's such a classic that I just assumed everyone was familiar with it. But other than that, the party was great. Thanks to everyone who came and celebrated with us!

Abraham spilled some water on the porch while watering the plants then splashed in it a bit and started walking around, making "print feets." I love it!

belief

I love this:

Little by little, wean yourself.

This is the gist of what I have to say.

From an embryo, whose nourishment comes in the blood,

move to an infant drinking milk,

to a child on solid food,

to a searcher after wisdom,

to a hunter for more invisible game.

Think how it is to have a conversation with an embryo.

You might say, ‘The world outside is vast and intricate.

There are wheatfields and mountain passes,

and orchards in bloom.

At night there are millions of galaxies, and in sunlight

the beauty of friends dancing at a wedding.’

You ask the embryo why he, or she, stays cooped up

in the dark with eyes closed.

                                                    Listen to the answer.

There is no ‘other world.’

I only know what I’ve experienced.

You must be hallucinating.

                                                    -Rumi

And then I melted

Last night was a little bit of a bedtime struggle. So it's way too late and I'm lying in bed with Abraham, trying to help him fall asleep. Then he rolls over and gives me a big hug and says, "I love you. We're friends, Mommy."

What a sense of humor this kid has already. I had him all wrapped up in a towel after his bath and then threw him on the bed for fun. He said, "Oh no, Abraham broke all to pieces!"

Then yesterday he was singing "What a Wonderful World" (which he learned at library story time, complete with sign language) and I told him I would be right back, I had to go to the bathroom. He immediately changed his song and sang, "What a wonderful pee pee!" And then cracked up. Who knew potty humor started so early!

Cute talker

You always hear about how routines and schedules are good for kids, especially young ones, as it lets them know what to expect and helps make transitions easier and such. I've been getting some concrete proof of this lately, now that Abraham is so much more talkative and expressive. We've never kept a strict "schedule" with him, just some general guidelines, like, he usually naps about 12:30-2:30 these days. But if I need to put him down a little earlier or even an hour or more late, then he's fine with it. Lately, though, if we're out in the morning, when I tell him that it's almost time to go, he says, "Go home, eat lunch, take nap." He knows the routine and likes it. He'll also tell me if he's ready to take a nap. When he wakes up in the morning, the first thing he says is "eat food." One day we had dinner much later than usual, around 7:30 when I came home from a meeting. For the next week, on days when I worked until 9, he wanted to eat as soon as I got home. Just one exception to our schedule made him think we had changed things up permanently. It's so interesting and cute.

His talking has really exploded this past month. He can seriously narrate events and experiences. When Anderson gets home from work, he asks Abraham what he did today, and Abraham will tell him pretty accurately. The super cute part is that, if he is repeating something that someone else said, he will use a really high-pitched voice. For instance, he might say: "Abraham color floor. Mommy [high-pitched] noooo." Cracks me up.

Other things that are funny:
If he is looking for something, he calls to it saying, "come out!"
He tells me to sit next to him while he's playing, and then says "closer."
He likes for me to pretend that a toy is sad so that he can do something to make it happy.
He's still writing songs but now also sings along to things that we listen to. I wish I could get this on video! But the camera/phone distracts him. Nothing warms my heart more, though, than hearing my 2 year old belt out: "Wilco will love you baby!"

I ran across the idea today of keeping a one-sentence journal, to make it easy, sustainable, no pressure to come up with paragraphs each day or find the time to write. Just jot down a sentence each night that tells a little something about what happened during the day. I like the idea a lot, because there are a lot of random memories that I want to keep track of, but they don't necessarily lend themselves to an entire blog post. Or, I just don't have time to write a long post, even if I have ideas. But if at the very least I jot down a sentence each night, that's something. And knowing me, I'll probably have a hard time limiting myself to just one sentence! See: the paragraph you just read. Here's today's sentence(s):

I asked Abraham if he wanted some pita bread, and he said, "No thank you, mommy." First time he's ever said that. And he absolutely learned just by example, not me trying to teach him manners. So cute! He also calls one of his girl figurines "little miss muffin." Instead of muffet. I love it!

In other news (see? impossible to write just one sentence once I get started), I'm getting all crafty lately. Abraham's birthday party was a big success (I'll post pictures here soon, but you've probably seen them on FB already), so now I want to have a fall party! In all my spare time, I know. I also NEED to write more, and want to some. I've got these poetry ideas, but that stuff takes time and space. You can't write a poem in 30 minutes when you still have to do dishes and can hear a toddler running upstairs. At least, I can't. Maybe some people can. Tell me your secrets! I also want to bake more, especially now that it's fall. In fact, Abe and I made a sweet potato spice cake just the other day, that I sort of made up. I mean, I loosely followed a recipe. But that recipe didn't call for sweet potato. Or any of the spices I added. Or coconut. It was yum and reasonably healthy and real food.

And in kid crafts, I really want to make a quiet book! This seems like such an awesome (time-consuming, difficult, talent-requiring) project that you could really personalize for your kid, and would teach them things while keeping them quiet - a practically unheard of combination! Not sure that I can actually pull it off, but I'm dreaming about it. Maybe by the time Abraham is in high school I'll have one finished...

And that's a wrap! (Maybe next time it will be a rap. Groan. I know. I can't help myself.)