PARTY!

Our Stephen? Yeah, he's a party animal. We really didn't know how much he really understood about having a birthday party, especially since he'd never had one before, but we'd been talking it up since it's originally scheduled day in December, so it evidently sunk in. He was beyond excited all afternoon waiting for his fun.

Here is the birthday cake I made him, complete with robots.
The really exciting part of Stephen's party was our fun on the Tumble Bus! It came to our house for about an hour, and the kids got to swing, slide, jump, and crawl through tunnels to their hearts' content. After a disastrous outing to Gymboree last fall, this seemed like a good solution for a winter birthday party - the Tumble Bus had visited at Church School a few times last spring and summer, and Stephen had really enjoyed it, so we thought it would be good.

Stephen had a few minutes to himself on the bus while we were waiting on his friends, and we discovered that Stephen likes to hang. He first attempted this position - hanging like a possum. The woman in the picture is Michelle, and she owns the Tumble Bus. She was super nice!

He also like to hang on and have Daddy help him swing...

This little boy is Miles, and he is in Stephen's preschool class. He was just so adorable, jumping on the trampoline and clapping, while smiling at his dad...

Yes, more playing on the bar. Miles was the only one of Stephen's classmates to attend, but he brought along his brother and sister, and it actually worked out nicely to only have 4 rowdy kids in our house anyways!

ZIP LINE!! This was fun! Michelle asked me after a while if I thought the kids might like it, and I said I thought they might... I completely underestimated HOW much Stephen and Mason (Miles' brother) would love it! I think they spent a good 15-20 minutes taking turns on the zip line, and Mason even got brave enough to go on his own, and backwards!

Stephen had some help blowing out the candles, but I don't know what he wished for...

I think, all in all, Stephen is a fan of birthday parties. It was a lot of fun!

A visit to the Cardiologist

This morning, Stephen and I headed back to the cardiologist for his 6 month post-op check up. Yes, I realize it was more like 8 months, but we just couldn't get in to see him until today. Anyways, everything has healed perfectly. The device is still exactly where the surgeon left it, and there is not leakage. Stephen was extraordinarily well-behaved, and charmed all of the nurses and techs with his smiles and hugs. Stephen especially loved his ECHO, and enjoyed getting to hear his heartbeat. He thought it was funny when I likened it to a drum beat! The gist of our visit is that we don't have to go back for 2-3 years, and Stephen has absolutely no restrictions!

I was too busy with Stephen to take any pictures while we were there this morning, so I'll leave you with some more park pictures from last weekend!

In this last one, I think it was pretty clear that Stephen didn't want me taking any more pictures, as evidenced by the eye-rolling! What is he - 4 or 14?!?

Joy

Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year

Since this is the first post-Christmas Blog post, I guess I should start WAAAAAY back at the beginning of our Christmas celebrations - picking out our Christmas tree! We went to the tree farm, and cut down our tree.


The next day, we decorated! I don't have any pictures of the process, but I do have one of our little helper...

While decorating, we had some eggnog. Stephen had never had it before, so I let him have a sip of mine to see if he liked it... it was a shock to everyone, I'm sure, the he did (ha!). He drank almost all of mine, and then his own cup as well.


On Christmas Eve, before we headed out to Church, Stephen opened some of his gifts. He really liked the books he got from his Aunt and Uncle...

... and the book/playset from Cars that he got from his parents. (This picture was taken shortly before he dropped the book on his toes. Stephen didn't nap that day...)

As you can see, he was a little upset (although he was happy about his Backyardigans video game)... Stephen was a little clumsy after not napping, and had fallen a few times.

He still managed to look super cute for Church, though! The shirt/tie/sweater vest combo were a birthday gift from Grandpa Rick.


Stephen opened his gifts from Santa the next morning.

One of his favorite gifts was a camera from his grandpa. He took these pictures of his new train tracks that Santa brought, as well as the Christmas tree, and Granddad John and Grandma Janet.

We had a fun holiday, and a really nice vacation, save for the cold and pink-eye that got passed around our house for 2 weeks.

Cookies and "Camping"

For Stephen's last week of school this semester, we decided to make some cookies using Grandma Deb's "special" cookie recipe, and Stephen shook the sprinkles onto them. With his Grandaddy's help, he sprinkled the cookies, and half of the kitchen floor. His teachers LOVED the cookies.


We also took Stephen's Plasma Car over to OCU for a spin last week He really loves that toy!!
And Stephen has spent some time "camping" in his gift from his grandparents. He loves to sit in his tent and look at books, but he especially loves to read his birthday cards in there. Silly boy!

Four!

On Tuesday, we celebrated Stephen's FOURTH birthday! On Wednesday, he started running a fever from what we THOUGHT was a mild reaction to the 3 shots he'd had the day before. On Thursday, he woke up from a very short nap with a fever again, and a stuffy nose. On Friday, I had to reschedule the Tumble Bus for his party, which was being rescheduled for January, since Stephen was now sick with a full-blown cold. Disappointing, to be sure, but Stephen was a VERY happy four year old earlier in the week!

He is already on the mend (and today is taking his first REAL nap in almost a WEEK!), so he should be feeling better to try to visit with a jolly, rotund man in a red suit later this week.

Fist Bump!

Stephen has decided that the "fist bump" is far cooler than giving high fives. All you have to do is ask him to give a fist bump, and he'll do it! Sometimes he'll just keep doing it and doing it, though... obviously, he likes this "big boy" greeting quite a bit!

It only took a few times demonstrating this for him to get it. Erik and I have both noticed that it doesn't take Stephen QUITE as long to figure out how to imitate motor skills as it used to. Hopefully this means that he is getting better at his motor planning!