NOLA

We are starting to have conversations more and more with Peyton. Most of the time, he completely shocks us with what he comes up with. Yesterday, he started talking about airplanes, and then he told us he was going on an airplane.

Mommy: Where are you going on an airplane?
Peyton: New Orleans (This came out of nowhere for us - how the heck does he know this stuff?!)
Daddy: Oh yeah? Who are you going to New Orleans with?
Peyton: Daddy! Me and You, Daddy!
(How come Mommy wasn't invited?!)
Mommy: Who are you going to see in New Orleans?
With some prompting, he names all of his grandparents: Lollie, Pops, Gramps, Lulu, and Papa.
Peyton: And Blackie! (Of course, yes, lets not forget the dog! He hasn't stopped talking about Lulu and Papa's dog since he visited in March - too funny!)

Unfortunately, we don't have any plans to come to NOLA anytime soon. He'll have to keep dreaming!

Peyton's 2nd Birthday

Peyton's birthday has lasted a very long time. He got to celebrate with the Ragas family at Chuck E Cheese a few weeks ago, then he got to celebrate at the park last weekend with all of his little pals, and then we took him to the NC Zoo for his official birthday on April 2nd. I guess its no wonder that he woke up the other morning and wandered around the living room saying, "Presents, 'r you?....Presents, 'r you?" over and over again.

The weather was beautiful for his party at the park, and I learned a very important lesson: It is far less stressful to have a birthday party at a location other than your own home. It took about 15 minutes to set up, and about 15 minutes to clean up. The kids had a great time running around the playground, writing on the sidewalk with chalk, and eating cake. Way better than spending 2 days getting ready for the party and 2 days cleaning up afterwards, and much better than fighting over toys in our living room, that's for sure!

Here are a few fun pictures from the party:

Peyton and his pal Camden


The shelter with all of the food

Peyton and his girlfriend Amelia

My friend Laura made the cutest cake ever for the truck-themed party. As you can see, Peyton thoroughly enjoyed it!

We had a blast at the zoo on Peyton's birthday. Again, the weather was gorgeous and it was a perfect day to be out at the zoo. Peyton loved seeing all of the animals and making animal noises. I'll let him tell you all about what he saw (my apologies for letting him talk while he was eating. Its the only time he's sitting still long enough for us to have a conversation with him and catch it on camera). You'll hear that the highlight of the day was not actually seeing the animals, though.



Some pictures of our day:

Peyton and his monkey friend



Playing in an ostrich egg. Those things are huge!



Checking out the elephants



Peyton and Daddy hanging out by the giraffes


I'd say it was a fun and successful trip to the zoo. This was Peyton before we made it out of the parking lot to drive home:

Doctor Mommy

This was a conversation Peyton and I had at dinner tonight:

Me: What's Daddy's name?
Peyton: Patrick (although it takes a trained interpreter to understand this)
Me: What's your name?
Peyton: Peyton
Me: What's my name?
Peyton: Doctor Mommy
Me: Jessica
Peyton: Silence....then Doctor Mommy
Me: Jessica
Peyton: Doctor Mommy
Ok, I give up. We'll work on this later.

Singing Fool

Peyton loves, loves, loves to sing. One of his favorite songs to sing is one that his Lollie taught him, the blackbird song. He has even been working on the hand motions.

The Little Chef

I think that we may have a budding chef on our hands!


Peyton and his pal Amelia made yummy cupcakes today at Mrs. Lauren's. I can only imagine the patience he had to practice in order to wait while Amelia had her turn to make the cupcakes too.

He looks quite serious, reading the instructions very carefully.





And then he got to taste his creation!

Breaking News: Important Dates!

So, I never thought the day would come when I could actually say that I have a defense date. All those years of many experiments gone wrong, a few experiments gone right, a million worms sacrificed, data analyzed, tears shed, its finally coming to an end. Sort of. I won't quite be finished in the lab, but I'm defending. Mark your calendars.
Monday, March 29th at 2pm.

For those of you more interested in the graduation ceremony itself, I will receive my hood on Saturday, May 8th.

P-E-Y-T-O-N

Peyton has gotten really good at recognizing letters and saying his ABC's. Each night in the bathtub, we play with foam letters and practice spelling things. This is a conversation that we have nightly:
Me: P-E-Y-T-O-N What's that spell?
Peyton: TOBI!
Me: No, it spells Peyton!
Peyton: No, Tobi!

I guess when we were home at Christmas, he wandered into my sister's room and started reading the letters on a wall hanging in her room - T-O-B-I. At the time, we were really impressed that he recognized and could say all of the letters correctly. We told him that spelled Tobi. So, now he thinks that everything spells Tobi.
Ok, well, I guess we'll keep working on this.