Finally, Birthday Pictures!

Martin's two years old! Last Friday, February 23, was his second birthday, and we had several celebrations. This kid can party! He had a party at school, a party at home, and a party in the park with all his peeps except Zach, who was home with the flu. He partied with Grandma when she was here a few weeks ago, and Aunt Lissa is also threatening to party with him when we go visit her in a few weeks in Sugar Land, so counting that one, Martin will have had one party to celebrate each 4.8 months of life on this Earth. Heck, at that rate, I should have had 77 parties this year! I'm glad this rate of partying doesn't keep up for too long, because there's no way I could have handled 77 parties.

Back to the birthday boy! Martin celebrated his second birthday with a relaxing day at home with Mom. We played, we painted, we made chalk drawings on the driveway, we watered the plants, we napped, (yes, I napped too. I figured I deserved a birthday treat myself, being that I was the one who carried the little tyke around for the last 2 years and 10 months) and we played the day away. Once Dad got home that night, we had his favorite dinner of hot dogs and beans and macaroni salad, then ate cake and opened presents, which was the highlight of the day, of course.

How old are you, Martin? Two!

Modeling one of my maternity shirts. He looks better in it than I do.

Working on his next masterpiece.

Happy birthday to Martin!

Martin got some sweet loot, but the best present of all was his very own coffee maker, given to him by Aunt Julie. As Martin will gleefully tell you, he LOVES his coffee maker and makes coffee all the time. The coffee maker is actually pretty cool. Martin pours water into the back resevoir, presses the "Brew" button, and the water is pumped into the front and drains into the coffee pot. Voila, coffee! It's every toddler's dream come true, and so far we've managed to just put water into the coffee maker, so it's a fairly clean operation. And the best part about it is that clothing is optional!

Step one: take the coffee pot out of the coffee maker.

Step Two: Pour the water into the resevoir.

Step Three: Press the brew button and wait for your coffee!

On Saturday, Martin woke up to find Vo and Vo here all the way from Baton Rouge. He was pretty psyched to see them, and even more excited when he saw they had brought him more presents, including his very own Ford F-150! After a quick overview of the finer points of driving, Martin hopped in and took that baby up and down the street. Even though he never did figure out how to steer, he had fun giving us all heart attacks as he cruised around.

Holy cow, that thing's as big as me!

After a nap to recharge his batteries, we were off to the park for his final party of the weekend. Gabby, Luke, Vivian, and their families all came to wish Martin all the best in his 3rd year of life, and to do shots of Superfood juice. Good times were had by all. It was a beautiful day and there were at least 3 other birthday parties going on at the same time, which made it seem even more festive.

Martin enjoys the company of his guests, and shovel-fuls of dip.

The official cake of all two year olds.

Riding off into the sunset of another year, courtesy of Vo.

Martin would like to give a very belated shout out to the second-newest member of the Austin-Under-Three crowd, Miss Vivian Sophia Diana Weiss, born January 27, 2007. She's Zachary's beautiful little sister, and you can check her out here. Martin would also like to give a shout out to the NEWEST member of the Austin-Under-Three crowd, Miss Eleanor Jane Cohen, born March 1, 2007. She is the beautiful little sister of Gabby, and you can check her out here.

All this talk of babies reminds me that I ought to do a little update on our own new baby-to-be. At nearly 24 weeks, we're over halfway through this pregancy. We did see the little baby at 19 weeks and everything looked great. We did not find out the sex, instead hoping for another delivery room surprise. This baby is much more of a kicker than Martin ever was, but aside from that, everything seems to be rolling along just as smoothly as it did with Martin's pregnancy, leading me to have a slight hunch that it's another boy. Only 3 1/2 months will tell! All these new babies definitley have me anxious to meet our little babe.

Peace out, Martin fans. Until next time...