The McMahon Family

Let me explain.  I know it’s a little early, but I have good reason.  Since we’ll be traveling for Thanksgiving this year, we HAD to put the tree up last weekend.  If we had waited till we returned, it would have been too late and better early than late, I always say. 🙂  Okay, I don’t say that, but in this case, I believe it’s true!  Shannon wanted to try something new (I believe he calls it stop motion).  At first I balked, as we all know how I feel about change, but I think it turned out nicely.  I also figured to keep it interesting, since it’s really the same thing every year, variety will be nice…occasionally. 🙂

Christmas Tree 2010 from Shannon McMahon on Vimeo.

Mac cranked out 10 ‘Thank You’ cards after his birthday. I was so proud of him.  Not only did he write the inside of the card:

he also wrote each person’s name on the front.  This is A LOT of writing for him and I am so proud that he even did it with a cheerful heart.  🙂  I didn’t have the heart to make him write each gift that he was thanking the recipient for and I was going to write it in there, but I just couldn’t ‘spoil’ all his hard work and put me in there.  This was all him. 🙂  So if you receive one in the mail, please know that he’s thanking you for his birthday present.

Yes, that's a chair stacked on top of toy bins.

Mommy:  Mac, what is this?  What are you doing?

Mac:  I’m trying to reach my sticky hand! It got stuck on the ceiling.
I’m a little short, can you help me?

Patrick is so different than Mac.  Tonight proved that again.  At two, not only does he recognize more than just a few letters and numbers, he can color in pictures wonderfully (quality is equally good left handed or right handed!) AND tonight he drew his first real picture!  I mean, not to compare him to his brother…but he’s so advanced compared to his brother!!

Right handed

Left handed

"I make you a picture! A rainbow!"

I really can’t believe that it’s been five years since we got Mac.  It feels like he’s always been with us, yet just like yesterday that I was heading to the hospital to have him.  I just love my sons’ birthdays.  It sends me back to the wonderful memories of their births – two of the best days of my life.  If I could skip pregnancy and the first year of babyhood, I would have a million kids.  I LOVED labor and delivery.   It is truly the weirdest, most wonderful thing to experience.  And to think that that little baby is now five!  So strange how time goes so extremely fast once we had kids.  So here he is…the five year old!

We started the party evening with dinner at El Toro!

Once we got through colic with Mac, he was the best baby and well behaved toddler imaginable.   Around three, things changed.  Now, when Mac has a bad day with his attitude and I’m at my wits end, I feel like a horrible mother.  Not only do I not handle it very well, I blame myself for him being the way he is.  (Again, that’s a whole other post for another time.)  Then there are the days like his birthday…he was the most grateful, thankful five year old I’ve ever seen.  And I’m reminded how wonderful he is and that we’re doing okay with him.

It was a yellow and blue themed car party!

He was a little hyper before guests arrived.

"It's the game I've wanted!"

And of course, you can see the rest of the pics here.
See Daddy’s pics here (Happy, now? 🙂 )