TuRNiN' TwO!

Collin turned two last Sunday but we did our celebrating on Friday, since Trav would be out of town on his real birthday. (I must note that this is extremely ironic considering he still won't let HIS parents live down the fact that they were frequently out of town on many of his birthdays growing up. The irony would have continued when he realized not only would he have been out of town, but he actually would have missed his birthday altogether. Since he loses a day in his trip to Tonga, he would leave L.A, Saturday night at 10pm and arrive in Fiji on Monday at 5am, completely skipping Sunday. That didn't end up happening, but more on that later.)

My original thought was to just have a glorified playdate for his "birthday party", but after I sent out the evite and started looking online... well things just evolved, I guess.

This is the picture I used for his invitation. The title was "Someone is Growing Up!"

I let him help me in the kitchen all morning. He was the official "pourer" of any ingredient. And of course he loved to stir. Big mistake. Now I can't cook anything in the kitchen without him dragging a chair over and announcing "Help!"

It was a {Curious George} themed party, so here is his monkey cake. Like I said, having a theme was not in the original plans, but when he saw this monkey cake on the computer he got so excited that I figured what the heck. He's so obsessed with Curious George so I knew he would like it.

We had Chef Pisghetti pizza (nothing special about the pizza, just appropriate for the theme of the party), Banana Pudding (Grandmother's famous recipe. Oh my, it takes a while to make, but it was worth it.), and "Monkey head fruit kabobs", topped off with banana splits for dessert. And I made small loaves of chocolate chip banana bread for each family to take home as their party favor.

The kids played "Pin the butterfly on the poster" and actually did pretty good with it. They liked putting on the {monkey mask} blindfold. I thought it was weird that it wasn't "Pin the tail on the monkey" but then I realized that George doesn't have a tail!! Weirdness. He's a monkey. He should have a tail. The winner (Miss Maddie) got a package of Curious George stickers.

Then we scooted the kids to one side of the basement while Rach and I hid 24 monkeys from Barrel of Monkeys for them to find. They each got a cup and with some help from parents, found the monkeys hidden all over. The two winners got to take home the Barrel of Monkeys game.

Blowin' out the candle!

 I wish I had gotten a picture of him with Grandma Evans (you can see her in the background). She flew in Thursday night to help while Trav is out of town. It was fun to have her there for the party! When he turned 1, Uncle Christopher was in town, so we'll see who turns up for #3! :)

The party guests:

top to bottom: Ryden, Lily, Kadence, Maddie, Gavin, Collin, and Elsie.

Collin loves his friends. I can't tell him early when Gavin or another friend is coming over, otherwise he heads straight to the back door and says their name over and over (like 200 times) while pounding on the door, until they actually come.

After his nap, he opened up his presents and he got spoiled for sure. He loves the playdough, glove with velcro ball, bath toys, puzzles, fire truck, and books. Grandma brought him some fun toys and he is in 7th heaven. Especially since she actually plays with him! Mom needs to do that more.

On his actual birthday, it was a mad dash to get to church on time to teach my lesson (daylight savings stole an hour from us the night before) and when we walked in, our old bishop saw him and commented on how he was getting so big. I started to agree when it hit me that it was his birthday!! I had completely forgotten. That night during his bath, my family called and sang happy birthday so I put it on speaker phone and he was absolutely thrilled. His face lit up and after they were done he clapped and did a little jig right there in the tub. So they sang it again! Silly family. :) Thanks for remembering!

He had his 2 year doctor's appointment on Tuesday and his stats are:

26lbs (16%)

33 in. (25%)

Looks like I have a shorty on my hands! If he's like his dad he'll have a growth spurt around 18 or 19. If he's like me, he'll shoot up between 8th and 9th grade and tower awkwardly above everyone else. I'm thinkin' he'll take after his dad.

A few things about Collin at 2.....

*He is ACTIVE!! This kid doesn't stop moving. People make comments about it all the time. When he's feeling especially stir crazy, he'll just run from room to room- back and forth for no apparent reason. For like 20 minutes straight.

*He loves to talk, we just don't always know what he's saying. He's pretty good at repeating any words we give him, except for Grandma. It comes out "Cop-e". ??? I love that for fish he says "pish".

*He is an affectionate fellow. He loves to give hugs and kisses and you won't get one without the other. If you just give him a kiss, he will yell "Hug! Hug!" with arms outstretched until he gets a squeeze.

*He LOVES Curious George. Did I really need to say this? He will watch countless hours if I let him. He has the episodes memorized and will laugh and giggle or say "pop!" all of a sudden and then something will pop on the t.v. He knows when it's coming.

*He's kinda of a momma's boy, but still loves his dada. He just needs some time to warm up to him when he gets home from school.

*You'll frequently find him with his finger up his nose, but I have a hard time getting mad at him, since I probably taught him that. :)

*He is not potty trained, but will grab his crotch and yell "poop!" when he needs a change. What more can ya ask for?

*He loves balls and throwing things. When I pick him up from a friend's house, they will usually comment on how much he likes to throw. And not just balls. Anything. You have to watch out when he's in the room. I got pegged in the nose so hard a couple weeks ago, I thought something was broken.

*He sleeps about 11 hours every night and takes a 2 hour nap. He can't climb out of his crib yet and I am supremely grateful.

*He's got a mean lookin' scowl he'll throw your way and it makes us laugh. He doesn't even usually use it when he's mad, just to be silly. He'll tilt his head down and pull down an eyebrow and give you a "look". I need to get a picture of it.

*He's big into telling you what he {can't do}. Like if he sees a package of cookies on the table, he'll get your attention then wag his finger back and forth and say "uh, no no cookies. no no" very matter of factly.

He's pretty much everything that can drive me crazy one minute then melt my heart the next. Even though he can throw a tantrum with the best of them, he's really a good boy at heart. I'm so grateful he made me a mother 2 years ago!

Trav left last Saturday morning, so Thursday night I tried to do a fancier dinner. Ok, it wasn't really fancy, just more expensive. I've gotten on a {homemade mac n' cheese} kick, and didn't know what to serve with it, so I tried making a brisket. Yes, you read correctly. It was actually a pork brisket instead of beef, but it was delicious. I cooked it in the crockpot after rubbing it with liquid smoke and a plethora of spices. It fell off the bone and was oh so good but oh so bad for you. I made Trav take a picture because let's be honest, who would have thought that I would ever cook a brisket?

Then on Friday night we went out to Cheesecake factory. It had been a whole month since I had pictured my Navajo Taco and French fries dipped in ranch during contractions and I finally got it! Di-vine. No wonder it popped in my head during labor.... heavenly food comes with heavenly babies. :) And that was my {Last Supper} with my hubbie until next Wednesday. I made him take our camera with him even though he said he won't remember to take pictures. If he knows what's good for him, he'll remember. So my next post won't have pictures, but I'll do a little update on the Tonga man.