Two Year Old Boy of Mine

It's tradition in our family for the birthday kid to pick out their favorite dinner to eat. He's not old enough to tell us, but he is our mac 'n cheese boy through and through, so I consulted my idol, Pioneer Woman, and tried out some home made mac 'n cheese (I can only handle so much of the box stuff, ya know?). This is going to be a staple at our house from now on, I can say that right now. It was SOOO delicious. Nothing at all like the box kind. It baked in the oven and came out with this cheese consistency of fluffiness that had Sterling and I absolutely floored. Good pick, Will, good pick. We fully support your mac 'n cheese tendencies.

I am obviously not a food photographer. Just imagine whatever you need it to look like to be amazing. That's what it looks like.

I spent a good portion of time trying to convince Will NOT to pick this bike cake, because really, ANYONE can put m&m's in the shape of a bike onto the top of a cake. 

"Bike. Mom. Bike."

"But don't you want this cool car cake, Will? It's really awesome!"

"uh-uh" (translation:no)

"It's really cool. Mommy could make it really awesome and stack it just like this. You like cars!"

"uh-uh"

Ruthie: "You could have an Olaf cake Will! Want an Olaf cake?"

"Lo-la!!!!"

me: "You want an Olaf cake?"

"uh-huh"

"You want this car cake?"

"NO! BIKE!"

Ok. Ok. You win.

Upside to this cake, this is the first time I've made my mom's devil's food cake without the center falling. Pretty sure I have Miami and sea level to thank for that, but I'd prefer all the credit, thank you.  Also, the icing was so fabulous that Ruth and Will had to double-dip the beaters once they'd already licked them clean. I take that as a sound compliment.

He was thrilled, so I guess the bike cake was worth it, haha.

I tried to get him to wear his birthday hat and smile in front of the birthday sign. He was NOT having the hat and not having the photo-taking at all, really. Boys.

(Ruthie and Will made crowns today while I made his birthday hat. Thank you, pinterest.)

For a little while, this balloon sort of stole the show. Who knew. We really didn't need to get him any presents at all!

Thanks to Grandma for the little people airplanes and the pajamas! He LOVES the pajamas and the toys!

Big sisters are sometimes a menace.

These Wedgit toys came highly recommended. I will now highly recommend them to anyone and everyone. After only one night. One night and an hour and a half straight of playing with them. Will played with them for a good thirty minutes straight (he didn't even look at his new train set pieces until after that amount of time) and then Ruthie and I looked at the booklet and made all 12 on the manual. I was in love. She was in love. I want more sets. Haha. I think they are so awesome!

The Ikea train is one of our most-played with toys, but we only had enough pieces to make an oval. The kids are getting good enough at it to try to do more things and get frustrated when they don't have enough pieces, so we got a few more additions to the basic set. It was already a lot of fun! Will always sets it up, puts all his Schleich animals alongside the tracks, and pulls the little train along it. Definitely keeps him occupied longer than anything else we have.

We got the circular piece that can be moved depending on which direction the train is coming from. Whole new world.

Cheese!

 Molly was there!

Timber!

Oh Will. My little Will. I cannot believe you are two. 

There are SO many, many things I just adore about you right now.

Today when we picked up the m&m's at the store you were adamant about "Walk!" and then trotted along beside the cart in your 'almost-ready-to-fall-down-at-any-moment-but-always-manage-to-stay-up' run that you have. It never gets old to me. Seriously brought a lump to my throat today thinking about the fact that you are going to outgrow that clumsy unsteadiness. 

Your growing independence makes you even more the apple of my eye. The other day you wanted to walk down the stairs by yourself but I wasn't paying attention, because you used to be scared to. You said "MOM! HMPH!" and then pounded your chest. It was VERY clear that you wanted to do it all by yourself. I fell in love with you all over again in that moment.

Your frustrations and your kisses. So quick to say sorry and come and make up. Your snuggles. You are the best at hugs and the heavy weight of your body is just the perfect fit--outgrowing but just barely still small enough.

Your smell. Oh boys! That sweaty, almost-slightly-pee-smelling, dirt, but baby sweet smell. It probably cannot be loved by anyone except a mother, but I will be so sad when it changes!

Your hands. Still so pudgy but slimming out and getting so much more dextrous. 

Your one-eyebrow-raise when you think you did something extremely funny and you're waiting for my reaction.

How much you love to 'COOK!' Every time I walk towards the kitchen you come at a full sprint yelling "COOK! COOK!" I don't know why you love it so much, but I hope I always remember to encourage and love that about you.

How much you love baby Molly. You love to hold her, you ask to hold her every day, several times a day. You are SO proud when I let you 'hold' Molly while you are standing up. You are always the first to be concerned about her cry and you are VERY insistent about it until we go and take care of her.

Your giggle. Your grin. Your goofy sense of humor. Your play fighting. Your laugh. Your feet that are already too big for you. The (devious?) sparkle in your eye. The way you can sing popcorn popping ('POP!' is requested nightly, multiple times.) and twinkle twinkle by tune only, and you just munge in your babble to go along with the music. 

Your JUMP! It is hilarious! You can only lift one leg at a time right now, but that one leg gets pretty enthusiastic about the other one following suit, and it ends up being this bouncy, unsteady, jaunty affair that kills me every time.

There are so, so many wonderful things about a two year old little boy. I am so thankful for our man Will. He keep all these girls sane throughout the day and oh, boy, does he have his mama wrapped around his finger. Happy birthday!