Happy Birthday to my sweet baby!!! I can’t believe he is already 2 years old! I feel like it has gone by so fast, but at the same time it is hard to remember our life before this sweet boy. After his rough entry into the world, we feel SO blessed to see him healthy and thriving. We celebrated his special day today with our families and he had a great day. His absolute favorite thing to do is play outside and today he was blessed with a beautiful day! Before I go into details about his party, here are a few things about our sweet E at 2 years old:

• He runs everywhere he goes. He is constantly trying to keep up with the two older boys. After waiting a long 17 months for him to walk, I am thrilled to see him running.
• His vocabulary is still pretty limited. He will mimic what we say, but does say a few words on his own – mama, daddy, Se for Seth, Tarter for Carter, flower, ball, baseball, basketball, please, thank you, nana, papa, bye bye, shoe, ow (for a boo-boo), uh-oh. His only two word phrase is “where mama?” My older two were a little slow in vocabulary development as well, so I am not too concerned about this little munchkin. He’ll get it!
• He appears to be my most strong-willed child. He is very stubborn and will throw a fit if he is not happy about something. He knows what he wants and he is willing to fight for it.
• He is pretty aggressive with his older brothers. I really think this is just a matter of survival. He learned to defend himself pretty early on. He can pretty much take Carter and Seth down if he wants to.
• He has also been known to bite and pinch. I think we have pretty much stopped this, but it has taken a lot of time-outs and punishment. Thankfully, he has saved this for family members only and not out and about among our friends.
• He is still such a snuggler. He loves to be held and rocked at night. He gives hugs and kisses constantly to anyone that will accept them. And they have to be kisses right on the mouth so beware! 🙂
• He LOVES to play outside. He goes and gets his shoes constantly throughout the day and says, “side.” He also loves the cicadas right now. He’ll pick them up off the ground (dead or alive) and bring them to me. He is ALL boy!

Here are some pictures from his special day:

First, a few family pictures before the party begins (all the boys wore Mickey Mouse shirts).

We always take a picture with Mommy and Daddy for his birthday journal.

Singing Happy Birthday to Ethan. He wouldn’t touch his cake. Didn’t eat a single bite. 😦

Opening presents.

Playing with his new pirate water table. Carter helped Zach put it together this morning. The boys are going to LOVE this.

Playing with the super cool sprinkler Grandma and Grandpa gave him.

The boys love the bubble machine that Uncle Craig and Aunt Kasey gave Ethan. It blows tons of great bubbles!

Spending some time on his big wheel (from Nana and Papa) in the house. He was driving all over the place -loves it! This boy got some awesome gifts.

After the party we went to the creek in our neighborhood. It was Ethan’s first time. I thought he would be a little overwhelmed and scared. Wrong – he walked right in and started filling his bucket with rocks, dirt, and water. The boys had SO much fun. I feel like I am a good “boy mom,” but I draw the line at the creek. Too many bugs for me!

My baby getting right in there!

And the last event of the day – dinner. He chowed down on his corn on the cob, hamburger, and pasta salad. I guess he had worked up an appetite!