HP Turns Three

I am trying to play catch up here in between my travels.  I just spent 10 days away from my cute bundles traveling to Orlando and then Malta.  I head to Germany again in a couple of days and then Baltimore the week after.  It's travel insanity and I'm grateful to Patrick (and Trish) for holding down the fort. They haven't complained a bit--I'm the one doing the complaining.  I am thankful for FaceTime so I can actually see them and chat with them while I travel....
Ok, on to more exciting things like Heath's 3rd birthday!

Heath officially turned three on Jan 5^th.  He’s been talking about his birthday and his desire for a train cake for over 9 months now, so we’ve all sort of been anticipating the day (and the cake!).  Experiencing his sibling’s birthday parties, we also felt it was time he had a kid birthday party of his own. With his birthday on a Thursday, we were still able to do a smaller family birthday celebration on the actual day (including Trish and Kev of course), including chocolate chip cookie dough cupcakes and his requested dinner –breakfast for dinner, or Eggs McLennon. 

Finny and Kev

Trish extraordinaire pulled off another fabulous birthday invitation and we pulled together a train craft appropriate for 3 year olds.  Lucky enough, Heath loved the train craft so much he did over 5 of them.  We had a sweet group of 9 kids total to celebrate his day and, at last, Heath has his first real kid party.  He loved the attention and adored the train cake--perhaps one of our best tasting yet.

Cake in the making...

Check out the cake master!

Prepping for the party.

To Our Silly Heath Bar, HP, Heath Patrick….

No longer Baby Heath--that’s for sure. You’ve grown considerably over the past year.  Not just in size, but in leaps and bounds in your ability to communicate.  Your language continues to evolve and while we miss “fruck,” it’s been replaced by equally endearing and perhaps less embarrassing new words like, “heeyah” (here), which is a cross between a southern accent and a Maine accent.   I guess your combining your dad’s North Carolina roots with your current rearing.  We moved you to a big-boy bed this year, which you embraced quickly and the paci fairy eagerly flew in to take your pacis to a baby in need. You are learning to share and show others you care, through kisses and hugs and telling them, “I love youuuu!” You enjoy playing outside, reading and always with trains and cars.  While you have an independent sole, your preference is always to be with Lexi and Finny if given the opportunity.  You have a love for “mommy eggs” (egg whites) and are less fond of traditional carbs. (who’s kid is he?)  For that, this year you’ve certainly begun to lose your baby fat and become leaner.  You have a fierce giggle and scream, both used frequently, sometimes interchangeably.  You have adored your first school experience and your very first music class, making your first very own friends and having your own activities.

We've tried very hard to transition away from calling you Heath Bar, but despite our efforts, you still tell everyone your name is Heath Bar Patrick.  You are starting to write your first letters and have mastered "H". Like Finn and Lex, you could spend hours drawing and your creative masterpieces and drawing skills have grown considerably throughout the year, turning from scribbles to actual shapes and intended design.

We love you Heath Patrick and look forward to watching you grow in many new ways this year!

xo
Mom and Dad

Waking up on the cuter side of bed

Heath has definitely turned the corner to becoming a "big boy". Not only did he officially move into his big boy bed this past week, but his vocabulary has blossomed over the the past 6 weeks, turning screams into "excuse me" and "please". His personality is shining through and he's becoming a strong threesome with Lex and Finn. 

Some of his favorite current sayings include, "I so cute" and "I sillllweeee" (I'm silly).

He's become quite the charmer. We look forward to watching him grow.

Two!

Heath is two.  Time does fly.  He was just 5 months when we moved to Maine, and now we realize he's lived most of his life here. Those of you who keep up with the blog will find it no surprise that he weighed in at 35lbs at his two year doctors appointment.  Finn is also 35lbs and almost 2 years older.  He's still on track to be our hockey player - although he's yet to be on skates.

He's still very active and vocal.  He loves boats and trains. His new thing is to run full speed across the room and bowl you over with a big hug.  It's very cute, but if you don't know it's coming, his 35lbs of freight train can also bowl you over!

For his birthday, the cake making tradition continued and Patrick made Heath a boat cake.  You'll note two cakes in the pictures as I decided at midnight the night before to make use of the leftover cake and make my own boat cake.  You'll see there's a reason that Patrick does the cake making in the family.

We spent Heath's birthday celebrating with Trish (our nanny) and Kevin (her husband).  It was a perfect evening with Trish's homemade lasagna (Heath's favorite food) and good friends that have grown to become  just like family.

Patrick's speed boat...

Patrick referred to my boat as a tugboat (sad)

Heath seeing the cakes for the first time! "Doot cake!"

Trish, Kev and the family

I couldn't resist, but to pull some pics to highlights Heath's changes over the past year. Enjoy!

Happy Birthday Heath Bar! We love You!

A little Laughter Along the Way

Perhaps a good New Year's resolution for me would be to do a better job at keeping up with the blog. We'll see how that pans out. For now, I'll do the best I can and provide with you tidbits along the way.

Heath's pronunciation of "Truck" (Fuc#) has progressed. His new favorite phrase is "Dumb Fuc#" (dump truck). Something about the third kid, but we just laugh out loud instead of trying to correct him. You can imagine how this ensues...

He says it, we laugh.
He says it again, we laugh harder.
The kids start to laugh too.
It's a mess and truly poor parenting, but sometimes I think we need some raw humor around here and giggles are good for the soul.

One of The Gang

Heath is finally turning the corner and becoming more of a toddler than a baby.  He seems to understand most of what you say and he even attempts to respond.  Telling you that his responses make sense to a common person would definitely be stretching the truth, but we've formed a basic understanding, allowing us to communicate verbally. We welcome his verbal progression as it's virtually put an end to him screaming out of frustration. Hooray!

Some more of his favorite words include:


Doat (boat) - we are lucky we live by the ocean as Heath gets to see boats everywhere
Kiki (Lexi)
GoGo (Finny)
I'm starting to think his nicknames for them might be better real names for them than their chosen names.

I'll have to remember to share more when they come up.

He's begun to play with the Lex and Finn and they all seem to really enjoy it.  One favorite game is Ring a Round the house.  I find this game particularly hysterical because I remember fondly playing it in my own house as I grew-up.  Maybe everyone did? It consists of the kids running from room to room endslessly (in a circle as our rooms connect) with one person being the chaser and the other two being chased.  It delivers giggles echoing through the house and the more they run, the harder they giggle.  Their giggling is contagious so usually by the end we're all laughing.

Finn and Heath also play cars, trains and animals together.  A very sweet site where Finn actually becomes a leader (I'm used to him being the follower with Lex) and helps guide the play.

Outnumbered

We've been planning and waiting and planning some more for months now for our first "real" vacation in years.

The vacation: Cape Cod. Specifically, Wellfleet, MA.
With our good friends from Chicago who motivated all the way out East
A full week (Sunday to Sunday)
Oh - and with a nanny (now called our babysitter) in tow

(Above photo shows the view from the back deck of our rental house.)

Couldn't be a better idea, right?

Well, we were so excited for the trip that we didn't really think through what it would mean to be outnumbered with our kid to parent ratio. No less, we had 5 kids under the age of 5. Oops! We were blessed with incredible weather, but the Lennon clan was not at it's best, particularly Heath. It was still great to be away and we had a fabulous rental home on the ocean and we were able to spend time with great friends. We also had a surprise visit from my brother, Sunny and Freddie.

Our week was full of beach going, ice cream eating, nights out for the adults (wow!), and bike riding.   I wasn't able to capture many of our outings on film, but here are some I was able to snap at the house we rented.  Thanks to Eric, Keri, Beatrice and Harriet for their patience and friendship!

Darling Beatrice.  

Low tide.  If you look closely you can see a car and two people clamming. They came every day at low tide.

Checking out the sights from the back deck

Irresistible Hattie!

Cheeseburger face!

Best buds enjoying being together again and 7 nights of sleepovers!

 

Cute cousin Freddie

 

I came out on the enclosed porch one afternoon to find this...Had to grab my cheap point and shoot to not miss the moment. 

 

And then it became this....

 

Here's what Lex thought about it...(we love our Lennon boys)