happy day Nicholas!

Waking up with streamers on his door, of course.

My boy is two!

He had his birthday while we were in Utah.

Or rather, he had his five birthdays while we were in Utah.

Kent was going to be gone on Nicholas's actual birthday, so we celebrated a week early,

and then,

nearly every day after that was

also "Happy Day Nicholas!"  according to Nicholas, that is.  We sang the happy birthday song mulitple times a day the whole week.

He loved having us sing to him. 

He loved blowing out candles.

He loved eating cake.

He loved opening up his "predents!"

And balloons.  He loved balloons.
He used to be scared of balloons, especially if they'd get too close to his face.
But not anymore.  He's two now-balloons are fun!

The first present he opened was a magnetic fishing puzzle,
and he was perfectly happy with that puzzle alone.
We'd ask him if he was ready for another present and
he'd just say "no--fish game!"

Even when we told him that his next present contained jelly beans,
he still chose to play with the puzzle instead of open the presents.

So we let him.  It was his birthday, after all.

Quite a while later, though, he felt ready to open more presents.

I love his expression in this one--he really was excited about the car once we got it out of the package and showed him what it could do.

We did the singing/blow out the candles routine four times in a row.  He was just so excited to have us all singing happy birthday to him, and he loved the fact that he could get the candles to blow out. 

He'd blow them out, cheer wildly, and then say "mone more time!" and start singing to cue us to sing also.

It was awesome. 

Is there anything more fun than being a parent?  I don't think so.

A few nights later, on his actual birthday, we let him have another piece of cake with candles.
My brothers had tried to teach him how to hold up two fingers to show how old he was.

He's a bit creative with it. 
This is him showing us that he's
"Two!"

Happy Birthday, my Nicholas.