Birthday Boy!

Greyson is two. If you ask him, he might forget and tell you he's one. But with a little prompting, he'll exclaim "I'm two years old!"

There was a lot of lead up to the birthday. We started talking about how he would be a big boy, and he wouldn't drink out of a bottle anymore. Only babies drink out of bottles, you know. We talked about how he would have a birthday party at the playground, and his friends and family would all be there to play with him. We talked about his Jo and Pops and Nana and Grampa Bob who would come see him. He was excited and would even talk about his upcoming birthday party, which would have cake!

The day of, I was prepared and busy. It was all planned out, I had been working hard for days (weeks?) to get everything ready. There was a list of things to be done, and there was family around to help. Unfortunately, Greyson decided he didn't need a nap. Which was the first wrench in my plans, but not an insurmountable problem.

The real problem started at the park. We had a pavillion reserved and lots of decorating work to do. My mom came with me to help set up, and immediately we realized things were not going to go as planned. The wind was so strong, we basically could not decorate. We tied tablecloths to tables only to have them threaten to blow off like parachutes. A patio chair went skidding across the whole pavillion at one point, propelled like a sailboat. I was anxious, I was upset, and I was a little abusive to my poor Mama, but I think I managed to turn all of that off and enjoy the party once it started. Of course the decorations never went up, the tables didn't get set, the gift bags and toys stayed safe in their box, and the birthday boy was late to arrive, but there was food and family and friends and Mike's fabulous dazzleberry lemonade to make me smile.

It ended up being a Yo Gabba Fabulous time. The littlest kids wore their Gabba t-shirts, we played soccer and football and enjoyed the playground with the serious der stuka slide. Most of us ate Muno cake, although Greyson would not partake. It was a fun time, and it was finally over. We went back to the house and opened a few gifts with family afterwards.

On the actual Birth Day, Greyson got up and went to school as usual. I picked him up at 10:30 for a doctor's appointment and his teachers told me he had been feeling puny all morning, just wanting to lay down and relax. Very unusual for Greyson, but he seemed fine at the doctor and in the afternoon. He got a clean bill of health and our wonderful pediatrician pronounced him perfect. She was impressed with his enunciation, and we were on our way with no shots or other trauma to mar our nice birthday.

Mike has been studying non-stop for a few weeks to prepare for his certification tests for work, so Greyson and I stopped at the playground on the way home to give Daddy the chance to study. We tried out the big kid playground at a park we frequent - usually we stick to the tot-lot, but we were the only ones around and we had a blast on the giant play structure. Then it was home for a quick stop and on to Moe's for a Birthday Burrito, G's favorite food. He even ate it like a big boy, no more cutting it up and making a mess of the rice.

Back at home, we opened more gifts, and our living room now looks like a messy toy store. But Greyson adores his Thomas tent, his Hot Wheels, his Tonka "Chuck and Friends" garage, his John Deere "truck on a trailer" with horses, and all of his other new toys. We may have to go strictly necessities for Christmas, where would we put any more toys??!!

I did cry as I put Grey to sleep that night. How did he grow from my tiny little baby into a little man so quickly?