Ian Turns Two!

Happy Birthday Ian!! Today our little boy is two. This doesn't come as a surprise to us. We've actually thought of him as being two for a while, as he has been talking and acting with great understanding of the world around him. (In fact, since we started teaching him how to respond to questions about how old he was several months ago, we've been telling him he's two, just to make it easier). We were quite low key in the celebration arena (Ian, after all, doesn't really understand what's going on and had no expectations), but we spent the day doing several things Ian likes. First, we took a family walk to our local construction zone. Instead of just sitting on the sidewalk across the street, at Daddy's suggestion we climbed the stairs in the parking garage nearby so we could get a good bird's eye view of the work the cranes were doing:

We came home and Ian had a snack of peas and yogurt. Here he is making himself a birthday hat:

And thinking that he's quite silly:

Next, we headed to the library to return books and get new ones (Ian was pulling more books off the shelves every time I turned around!). We also caught the Saturday morning storytime, at which Ian colored a cookie picture he was rather excited about. Next, a long nap (as Ian woke at 4am this morning saying he was hungry and thus was very tired). Then we headed out to our local diner, Elmo's, for Ian's birthday dinner. He had three jelly container appetizers (his standard), then a hamburger, raisins, one piece of bacon, and some broccoli. We picked up a little cake on the way home in order to stage some birthday photos. Here he is with his birthday cake (he insisted on sitting on the table for this photo, remembering that he had done so for the photos with Daddy and cake last month):

With mommy, starting to lose interest in the photo session:

And with Daddy, past the point of waiting to eat his cake:

Doug helped Ian get the idea of blowing out candles:

He liked the cake, although he didn't finish his piece (we appreciate his ability to know when he's had enough, especially when it comes to desserts):

Here he is telling himself happy birthday in a silly meandering sort of way:

And, the birthday boy live:

It's definitely been a big year in Ian's life, in which he went from baby to child. Can't wait to see what the next year brings!