Phew, February is a pain in the ass blast! Jonah is old enough to be fully aware of what birthdays mean so he was pretty excited! He chose Spaghetti alla Carbonara for dinner (Mark’s specialty) and wanted white cake with sprinkles so I made a small single layer cake using a half recipe. I think all birthday requirements were met with food, gifts and cake! Oh, and BALLOONS! Lots of balloons!

Raise those hands for Carbonara!

His favorite meal.

Taking time to read the card. Enforced.

Smiling for cake!

Lucky for Jonah, his birthday fell on a preschool day so he got to celebrate with his friends at school. We brought blueberry muffins and strawberries and then some other kid totally one-upped us and brought cupcakes for her own birthday (which was over the weekend). I don’t think Jonah saw any slight in it though. Birthday interview to come!

February is Official Stewart Birthday Madness Month and we started off with lots of Valentine’s candy and sped right to birthday cake for Corbin! For his official birthday meal he chose pancakes so we made breakfast for dinner.

Birthday Boy and his balloons.

Balloons!

Excited to open gifts

Cars!

one of the four times we had him blow out candles so that everyone could get a picture!

Here’s a video that we took, kind of like a birthday interview but with questions he could actually answer. And of course, Jonah is there to interrupt or fill in any blanks for him.

Namely, a section of his bangs. Mysteriously disappeared. Mark finally got him to admit to a small cutting. I guess we need to more closely watch where the child scissors are at!

Last weekend was really nice for February so we took a little jaunt down to the sculpture park. The kids loved running around and there were some great train sightings for Corbin. Love soaking up the vitamin D when possible!

And that was January of 2012! So much for my plan of writing more, keeping up and instilling a better sense of calm around these parts! We did a quick trip to the Bay Area to see Jim and Judy and I have more to say about that (and pictures, though, seriously, could someone help me with my focus? So. Many. Blurry. Pictures.).
For now though, I’ll leave you with a picture of a Dragon Dance that we just happened to get a perfect view of for lunch after trekking around way too crowded the International District. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. I need to go no further than 7 Stars Pepper.
The kids loved the fireworks and dancing and were mesmerized for most of our meal. A great (and peaceful) lunch!

Dragons

Dragons and Fireworks

Jonah has started calling Corbin “Corb” but since he’s still not great at his “r” sounds it comes out like “cobe.” It’s pretty cute. I occasionally call him “CJ”, at least enough that he does actually respond.

I’m not sure if either of the kids will grow up with nicknames except for the pet names I personally call them. I call Jonah “jojo” and have since he was a baby. He doesn’t seem to mind. Yet. My dad calls him “JJ” and after the last time we visited him Jonah asked why. I guess he hadn’t put two and two together about his first and middle name beginning with “J” but it all clicked when he remembered us talking about how Corbin is called “CJ” sometimes because his names begin with “C” and “J.” What a fun conversation, seeing him put the pieces together!

Seattle has basically shut down in the midst of a few inches of snow so we’ve had some forced at-home time, with no school, band, meetings, etc. The kids seem fine with the “vacation” schedule though and have enjoyed some snow time and lots of extra art projects at home.
We are supposed to head out for a quick trip to the Bay area on Saturday though so I hope the snow is gone by then!

I can’t ever get pictures of them next to each other without them wrestling so this is a flash moment in time.

One of our favorite pastimes. Waiting for the garbage or recycling truck.