April 9th, 2009: Happy 2nd Birthday, ETHAN!!

I have a 2 year old!! When did this happen?!?! My tiny, beautiful, little baby boy who needed constant care and attention is now a studly toddler with growing independence. He can walk, talk, run, CLIMB, feed himself and play. He is down to one nap a day and I think a big boy bed is in his near future. Amazing.

Ethan's 2nd birthday was last Thursday, but other than putting him in his "Birthday Boy" shirt, we didn't do much to celebrate it. Sean and I both had to work all day and then Sean had mutual. Soooo... we postponed all of the festivities by a day and celebrated on FRIDAY!! I used a vacation day and Sean had the day off so we all got to be together. The "fun" started first thing Friday morning, but let me back up a little bit.... Thursday night, I stayed up way late to bake Ethan's cake, decorate the dining room with streamers and balloons and then wrap all of his presents. Also, Ethan's new trick is being able to safely climb out of his crib (which is on the lowest setting) without even falling. He's got some good upper body strength! Now, with all that in mind, I woke up Friday morning to what sounded like scotch tape being pulled (in large quantities) from the tape dispenser. I jumped out of bed and ran to living room. Sure enough, there was Ethan with the roll of tape I'd left out from the night before. Also, on the floor I saw this:

One of his presents, opened, with the contents all over the floor. "Oh no!" I thought. "He got into one of his presents!" Remember, still a 1st-time mom here... very naive. Then I turned toward the dining room... Oh, the horror!! Little stinker opened all but one present!! I couldn't believe it! In fact, I stood there in disbelief for a minute or so trying to decide whether to laugh, cry or re-wrap his presents for later. I couldn't laugh at it just yet, so I took a picture (always thinking about my faithful blog readers!) and took Ethan to get his diaper changed - only after I stopped by our bedroom to tell Sean, "I am NOT liking your son right now!!"

After our eventful morning, Ethan and I got ready to go to his doctor appointment for his 2-year wellness check. I'll post more on that later... complete with some of the doctor's comments and his stats. Then we went back to the house to pick-up Daddy, got Lizzy on our way and headed to IHOP for brunch - actually by then it was lunch-time, but we all had breakfast food so we'll just call it a late brunch! Once we were thoroughly stuffed with pancakes, eggs, bacon (Ethan loves bacon) and other IHOP goodness, we headed to the FedEx depot to pick up Ethan's package from Nana and Papa!! [FedEx screwed up BIG TIME with both the Birthday and Easter packages that Lynnie had sent for Ethan. They were sent different days, but both had correct addresses and FedEx managed to get both wrong. The birthday box got the wrong house number and the Easter box got the wrong street. Ethan didn't know the difference, but Lynnie (understandably) was pretty ticked that they didn't get the Birthday one there on time.] Since we were in the area, we decided to check out the kid-friendly hair salon my friend had recommended. They have cars for the kids to sit in and a DVD player to help them sit still. We didn't have an appointment, but they got us in right away. Ethan got his first big boy haircut in a salon! (Scissor cut only - no buzzing!) I couldn't get over what a difference it made. My little baby's growing up!

We dropped off Lizzy and headed back to our house so Ethan could nap and Sean and I could get the house cleaned. Naptime was apparently NOT on Ethan's agenda and he repeatedly used his new trick to climb out of his crib and then play with the toys in his room. It was an uphill battle. Finally we let him get up for a while, but by 5:30pm he was running on fumes. This time I put him down in his crib and stayed in the doorway - he'd only climb out when I shut the door and walk away. He was out cold in 5 minutes and finally I could get some work done. I finished cleaning/organizing our laundry "room" (it's more like a big closet) - which had meant moving the washer and dryer to clean the floors and walls - the hose from the dryer had loosened at the bottom, so a bunch of lint had built up everywhere. Not a fun job, but it looks great now! Then, while Sean made a quick trip to the store, I picked up the living room and dining room and got to work making the frosting for Ethan's cake.

That night my family came over to help us celebrate! We put Ethan back in his Birthday Boy shirt and he got busy opening all of his presents from us, Nana & Papa and Gramma Julie & Grampa Greg. His new "Maynerd" (aka Mator from CARS) truck was a hit! He also loved his new books, matchbox cars and clothes. Here's the loot... Toys on the left, clothes on the right.

This shirt (from my mom) pretty much says it all, though!!

I ended up baking a 3-layer silver white cake with vanilla buttercream frosting. Not bad, huh? Here's the big moment: singing Happy Birthday to the birthday boy!

And other highlights...

Trying to take off the birthday hat - he he he!!

Enjoying mom's homemade birthday cake.

Opening presents.

This boy loves his trucks. He's graduated from just one in each hand and now tries to take them all... reminds me of Gus Gus with the cheese cubes on Cinderella!

Opening "Maynerd"!

Fire Truck! Big Trucks! Digger Truck!

Bring on the TERRIFIC twos!!