Shout Hooray!

  Little Ben turned two on Sunday.  Two!  He has a little trouble holding up just two fingers at a time, but seems to be getting the hang of it.  He's really good at saying two (he's not much of a jabberbox, so that's no small feat).  He was pretty excited about his birthday - especially the presents. 

 

The big box was a new sand and water table, which became a mud table about 12 seconds after the children began playing with it.  Because he spends hours playing in our sink and the flour and sugar containers, I had a suspicion he would like this present.  I was right.

 

Ben is quite fond of puppies, so we had a little puppy theme for the party.  We served some of the snacks in (previously unused) dog dishes.  Annie thought this was the most hilarious thing ever and spent the whole week giggling about how surprised the party guests would be. 

 Dad was in charge of decorating the cake this year because Annie (who is quite the party planner) insisted on paw prints and sadly, paw prints are outside the range of Mom's artistic abilities.  Pretty much anything but flowers and hearts and butterflies, the things I used to doodle in my notebooks, are outside the range of Mom's artistic abilities.

 Ben caught on pretty quick and blew those candles right out.

 

Notice the change of clothes in the above picture?  Things got a bit messy out at the mud table.  

 

It's a good thing we are well-stocked with play clothes around here.  He will need a new set every few hours. 

Ben at Two:

-A big-time snuggler.  Seriously the best ever.

-Still smaller than our other kids.  

-Not much of a talker, but he's getting there.

-Loves boy things - especially if they have motors.

 -If you ask him his name, he will say, "Bum."  Makes us laugh, which means he will probably continue to do so for a bit.

-Adores his big brother Cole and his Daddy.

-Loves Daisy.

-Finally likes reading books - we were starting to worry.

-Is a champion mess-maker.

-Does not care for nursery at church.

-Usually sleeps through the night, which may seem like an odd thing to note about a two-year-old, but since he only began doing so in January, it's noteworthy.  

We love you to pieces, Benny!