Brotherly Love 2

Grant is a hit in our household. Turns out those first couple weeks of indifference have turned into complete infatuation. Calem was the first to come around, and can't get enough of holding [squeezing] him, hugging [tackling] him, and kissing [mauling] him. Isaac has come to care for Grant, too, but in a quieter, more mischievous manner. And through all the in-your-face over-abundance of brotherly love bestowed upon Grant, he absolutely adores his big brothers. As far as he's concerned, the sun rises and sets with those two. No one can elicit the smiles and belly laughs from Grant like Calem and Isaac can. It is so sweet to watch them interact and I just know that the three of them will be best friends for life.

Happy Feet

Grant just has the most precious, most irresistible baby feet on the planet! At birth I couldn't stop looking at them, counting each tiny toe, tickling the soft, wrinkly bottoms of them and wrapping my hands tightly around them. I just adore Grant's feet! So, here is an homage to my littlest baby's wonderful feet.
Look how long and slender his feet and toes are! Seriously, I don't have a foot infatuation or anything, but they are so lovely!
Then he discovered his own feet and was every bit as infatuated with them as I was. There's little that is cuter than watching an infant grab his own feet and stare in wonder as he wiggles little toes and stretches to taste them. And amazingly, he gets not only a lick of the big toe, but manages to stuff the whole darn foot into his mouth!
Grant takes advantage of his lengthy toes and sort of uses them like extra hands. I have seen him grasp a toy with his toes and lift it up a little to be able to reach it with his hands. We've taken to calling him our little monkey. Look at the the photo below, he "claps" with his feet all the time!

Yep, I love many, many things about Grant.
But I really love the little guy's feet. They make me happy.

Isaac Turns 3 - Part 2

Isaac's party cake

A blue-ribbon birthday cake, if I do say so myself! (And don't forget, I have a 3 month old!)

Isaac had a birthday party at home this year with a choo-choo train theme, because he is all about Thomas and all things train. We invited 4 friends, but with siblings included the kid count was 10! So, I decided to create a one-of-a-kind choo-choo train cake with a grand engine and 10 individual cars (one for each child). It was really fun to make, and the kids were really delighted.

The engine is made of one cake made from a loaf pan, one from a mini-loaf pan, and 3 regular cupcakes. I used 3 mini-Twix bars for the coal, peppermint patties for the weals and icing for the rest of the decorations.



I used a mini-loaf pan to make 10 individual train cars and decorated them with mini vanilla wafers for wheels and various treats for "cargo," like Oreos, chocolate chip cookies, red licorice and candy valentine hearts. Surprisingly, there were no fights over who got which car with what cargo.



The birthday boy loved his cake, and it was hard to keep his hands off of it until the party began. I think he looked at it as more of a toy than something to eat. He seemed to really want to play with it, the way he plays with his other trains.

Isaac and his friends enjoyed pizza, veggies and pretzels before indulging in cake. Here they all are at the party table. They are, clockwise, starting in front with the boy in the orange: Aiden, Joey, Maia, Sascha, Maura, Isaac, Calem, and Nathan. And no 3rd birthday party is complete without a pinata. Scott found a Thomas pinata, and you can see how they all waited in rapt anticipation while Scott hung it up. I would say Isaac had a very fun 3rd birthday, and is really lucky to have so many friends. We love you, Isaac-Man! Happy Birthday, and please--can we skip the "terrible three's"?