I LOVE BIRTHDAYS! I think they are so fun and I love to celebrate birthdays with people. Maybe it's because growing-up our birthdays were really special days because they were usually fun family days. When I was little, I was sick a lot on my birthday-guess the cold March weather always got to me. I remember my kindergarten teacher calling me to wish me happy birthday one year, we always got to pick our birthday dessert, and my parents always played this Sesame Street birthday tape-to which I know all the lyrics-this was still played well into our teen years.
Last year, and this year, I decided that Theo's birthday was going to be a special family day, all about Theo! I think he's too little to have some huge party where our friends feel obligated to bring presents and I feel pressured to be crafty, and I'm.not.crafty. This year, Theo actually kind of understood the concept of what his birthday was. If you asked him when his birthday was, he would say in a quiet whisper, "September" and he can tell you he's two. When he holds up his fingers to demonstrate "two," he holds up his two index fingers, which is pretty cute. Anyways, the main reason he was into birthdays was because our two neighbors children turned 5 within the last month. Our neighbor Neely even brought over some birthday cake to share, and it was all Theo would talk about, so when it came time to discuss his birthday treat, he already was well versed with birthday cake and birthday cookies (someone had a big decorated cookie at playgroup).
I decided this year, since I wasn't going to do a big huge party, I would at least try to make a fancy dessert. Theo requested "birthday cupcakes." The extent of birthday decorations were some balloons, animal plates/napkins/banner and cupcake picks from Hobby Lobby. I bought a book on how to decorate cakes/cupcakes, got some "fancy" ingredients to make buttercream frosting, and I bought some decorating tips. Let's just say, I have FAR from perfected any of this. On my test batch, the "Christmas Red" frosting turned out hot pink, and I didn't really like the taste of the frosting. We scrapped the blue icing we made since the taste wasn't that great. I tried a different recipe for my second batch of cupcakes, but this time the green frosting seemed really runny. My piping skills are a whole different problem. Jill Nauman-come up from Shreveport and teach me to make good frosting and decorate cupcakes! Theo picked the color of the frosting by the way. The first batch we ended up bringing to a neighborhood block party, and most of the second batch went there as well, and out to the alert shack for some of the guys working.
We were lucky Mason was home this year because of work, but he ended up having some things change around and was home for the big day. The "package man" had been bringing lots of presents all week, so I'd been hiding them, and actually several more came this week in addition to the stored pile I had from a few weeks of picking up things here and there for birthday and Christmas presents. Theo and I made pancakes in the morning, and we all stayed home and played all day, had a fire after dinner, and every few hours Theo got to open a new surprise to play with. We got to Facetime with my parents, my sister, and we Skyped with Mason's dad and grandma, so that was a lot of fun for Theo.
I can't believe my sweet Theo is two. Wow! I love him so much. I am blessed to be him mommy and everyday is an adventure. He's so full of personality, talks up a storm, and just has so much fun in life. Oh to be a carefree two -year old! I'm so fortunate to be able to spend these years at home with him, because even sometimes it's exhausting and demanding, it's the most amazing thing, and I'm so grateful to Mason for working so hard so I can be home with our boys, and for being a wonderful father and supportive husband. I'm so lucky.
So, what's up with 24 month old Theo:
We go next week for official height/weight measurements, but my guess is about 28lbs and 34 inches.
-Theo's sleep has gotten better. He's going to bed at 9pm and he usually wakes between 7-8am. He's getting better about going to play in the playroom when he wakes up which allows me or Mason to lay in bed a little longer before having to get up. He naps an average of 2 hours in the afternoon. We've been giving "sleeper surprises" (stickers), which he likes.
-Theo loves to take walks, and he asks to go on them almost daily. He does well walking while I push Woodrow, but sometimes our after dinner walks would take quite a long time, so I got a double stroller this week for $10 at the base thrift shop. It was a great purchase.
-Theo knows all his capital letters (although E,L, and P are sometimes forgotten), he knows his numbers 1-9. He knows a lot of shapes and colors too.
-We got Theo a tricycle as an early birthday present, and he's still be scooting along in the afternoons. He likes sitting on the back step, but he's enjoying riding bikes with his friends.
-What a wonderful imagination! He will read books to himself making up the stories based on the pictures and what we talk about while reading, he talks to his trains, plays pretend with his kitchen gear, takes his Sesame guys to the zoo, or drives them around on his trucks.
-Theo loves to help me cook. It's really fun to share that experience with him. I'm starting to work with him on cooking dinners, and not just baking treats.
-He can finally say yes! So you can ask him, do you want to do xyz, yes or no? Woohoo!
-Ever since seeing a display at Menards he's been into pumpkins, so he asks a lot about pumpkins and scarecrows. He had a really fun time when we all went to a local pumpkin patch/farm
-Also after trying on his snow gear, Theo"s been eager to build a snowman. Soon kiddo, soon. It also helps stores here already have Halloween and Christmas gear out, so he gets to see those things a lot.
-Theo loves to listen to Pandora (Sesame Street/Toddler Station) and he loves to sing. His favorite is Wheels on the Bus.
-He does really well connecting different ideas. I wish I had written down some specific examples, because now I can't really think of any, but he soaks up information and words like a sponge right now.
- He loves to play with his friends, and have playdates, although we're entering a hard sharing phase-especially with trains.
-He has a stuffed bear named Robert that he really likes to take on adventures and sleep with. He also has been sleeping a lot with his daddy doll, and Ernie and Cookie Monster.
-I took Theo to get "new shoes" and what an adventure. Stores sure know how to market the little ones. I feel like all the Theo-eye level shoes were of Cars/Thomas the train or fancy light up shoes. The kid ended up with some grey tennies, but he loves them. He was so excited for his "new shoes."
-Instead of saying upside-down, he says upside-up, lol!
-His hands have developed into little Mason hands, complete with little Mason thumbs!
-Theo refers to himself as YOU. Since Mason and I refer to him as "you" (Can you put this away? etc...) He'll say "Music on you" (meaning turn the music on for him. Pronouns are REALLY TRICKY to teach a 2 year old.
-We made a good listener/big brother sticker chart for him this month. Gram sent some smiley face stickers, and if he got two a day he got some ipad time, and 10 in a week he got a special surprise (a new book, etc...). This has been working okay, but since the month is up, I'm going to try a slightly different approach for the next month.
-Theo soaks up new words and will repeat a lot of what you say. He's so curious about the world around him and he'll talk your ears off!
I can't believe I'm blessed to be this sweet boys mommy, but I love it! Even on the hard days, I wouldn't trade my Theo for anyone else in the world.
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