Happy Birthday Day Jakob!!

Today you turn two my Jake. I can hardly believe how time has flown. Watching you grow up has been such a joy! I don't even know where to start...

You are wonderful! You have such a sweet disposition, you smile and flirt with everyone. You are generally a happy boy, you enjoy life and you love your family. You dance to music and make up your own songs. You are speaking in pretty complete sentences, I love listening to you describe your world. You are currently saying, "Wow, look at that..." and then telling us what you see. We love watching you explore your world. You are very expressive and you feel things deeply. With that come some fits...you aren't a fan of being told no. You jump up and down and yell no! or I don't want to! You love to say that, 'I don't want to', to anything we ask you to do. So, we explain that we didn't ask if you wanted to...sometimes a time out helps. I think everyone need sometime to cry, yell and get out their feelings and calm down. It's good for you to express yourself and know that those emotions are normal just not appropriate at all times. Ok, anyway, you are a great kid. We love hanging out with you, taking you places and having fun. You are wearing size 3T clothes and size 7 shoes...you have pretty big feet. You like to pick out your clothes, really you have an opinion on most things. You are loving this Christmas season. You love Christmas Trees, "look, big Christmas Tree" and you talk to them like they are real...you explain things to our Christmas tree and you love to show Teddy the Christmas Tree. Oh yeah, Teddy. You have become seriously attached to Teddy, he's this cute brown teddy bear that I got for my 10th birthday from my Grandma and Grandpa. You have dressed him in a T-shirt and take him with you everywhere. You talk to him and play with him, you love your Teddy! 

You still take a nap everyday for about two hours and you sleep about 11 hours at night (sometimes more). You are sleeping in a big boy bed and have recently learned how to open the door handles in our house so you wake us up by coming into our room in the morning or jiggling the door handle. Now I have to figure out how to keep you in your room, we have those leaver kind of door knobs...which are nearly impossible to baby proof...the baby locks for them require you to glue something to the door...not going to happen. Oh, well. We are trying to teach you to stay in your room. This is why parents keep kids in cribs until they are older...so they understand to stay in bed...you are a little young to understand invisible boundaries but you do pretty well. You go right to sleep at night. I hope that as time goes on you will learn to stay in bed even after you wake up. You are such a big boy, wanting to do big boy things. Except for today, you are insisting that you are one!! Funny boy. 

Well, we are starting a new tradition with you. Every year we are going to ask you some questions. I think it will be fun to see how your answers change over the years. So here are your answers...

Yearly Interview with Jakob:

What is your favorite color? 

Green (you have gone through a few favorite colors but this is your current favorite)

What is your favorite toy? 

Cars (any kind really but you love your hot wheels) 

What is your favorite TV show? 

Bubble Guppies (You love this show and it doesn't totally annoy me, which is nice. You also really like Calliou.)

What is your favorite food? 

Mac n' Cheese and waffles (I think you said waffles because you were eating your birthday waffles)

What is your favorite treat? 

M&M's and Hot Chocolate (you are currently obsessed with M&M's the plain or peanut butter kind.)

What is your favorite drink? 

Chocolate Milk and Lemonade (you kept insisting lemonade but you always ask for Chocolate Milk) 

What do you want to be when you grow up? 

Teddy Bear (Your first answer was a Teddy Bear, you said Teddy's make people feel better, until I gave you some examples and then your said "Firefighter....weoo...weoo...(siren sound)"

What is one thing you do awesomely?

Color (you actually told me this and you do color awesomely!)

What are three words to describe you? 

Smart, Silly and Pretty (The first two I said and you agreed but the last one you came up with on your own...spending too much time with Mommy!)

What is one thing you dislike? 

Having my mouth wiped...(again, I came up with this are you agreed)

What is your favorite book? 

Bible Stories...(I told you to grab your favorite book and this is the one you grabbed!)

What is your favorite band/song? 

This little light of mine (you hold up your little light and sing with me, you love to blow our the light or cover it with a bushel!)

What is your favorite thing to learn about? 

Cars (you love to learn about types of cars, your daddy loves that you know different cars and he loves teaching you about them.)

What makes you happy? 

Being with family (when I asked you this question you said Mommy and Daddy)

What makes you sad? 

When people leave (you mumbled peoples names and said bye-bye) 

What is your favorite thing to do with Dad? 

Work on cars (you came up with this answer quick and your eyes lit up, you started talking about painting Daddy's wheels)

What is your favorite thing to do with Mom? 

Color (this answer surprised me, I'm not sure what I thought you would answer but this makes me smile, we color together all the time and I'm glad you enjoy it as much as I do!)

Who is your best friend? 

Teddy Bear (You love this bear!!) 

It surprised me how well you answered these questions. I asked you in spurts so you didn't get overwhelmed and when you got distracted I let you but whenever I would tell you I was going to ask you some questions you got excited. You were so proud of your answers. I think this yearly tradition will be fun!

Today we spent the day: eating birthday waffles, watching Bubble Guppies, playing cars, coloring with markers and eating a special birthday lunch! 

Tomorrow is your second party, you are pretty excited, you love parties! 

So, here's to you, the coolest two year old I know. We are so excited for all the growing you will do and the boy you are becoming! We love you!

Love, 

Mommy/ still slightly in denial that you are two!!

Birthday Party!!

About a month ago we had a birthday party for you! I was so excited to plan and decorate. For some reason it became a big deal to me. I always want your birthday to be special and separate from Christmas. I LOVE birthdays!! It's like your own holiday, a day to celebrate your life and how special you are!! I hope that we can always do that for you! I apologize that your birthday falls amongst the crazy holiday season but I promise to always make a special time for you! Anyway, back to the party. We had a small gathering family and close friends over and mommy over decorated. Nana made a white chili and Grandma made baked potato soup, both were delicious! 

we decorated the dining area

I made you a birthday banner!

and centerpieces!

These Ikea stuffed animals have gotten so much use. I used them to decorate at the shower, you love playing with them and now they are decorations again! 

A giant Cupcake for you!

Little cupcakes for everyone else!

Sweet little birthday plates!

You didn't quite understand why we were letting you rip paper

You really enjoyed all of your presents

I'm really excited about the musical instruments you got.

You love your Yoda!

starting to get the hang of opening gifts

you were so serious the whole night. I think it was a bit overwhelming for you. 

This Buzz lightyear car is awesome, it has helped you learn to walk and you love pushing the buttons!

when you play with cars you make this cute car noise, "vrooooom".

you got a sit n' spin which you would rather stand on

finally it was time for cake! look at how cute you are!

waiting patiently for cake...in the adorable hat I made you!

you couldn't figure out why we were singing

but you enjoyed the candles

the way you reacted to your cake could be my fault, i have never let you smash food every where or dig into your food like crazy. So when this giant cupcake was placed on your tray you looked at Daddy and me like we were crazy and you thought you weren't allowed to touch it! 

you took these tiny little bites and kept your hands as neat as possible

you wanted to share your cake with everyone, or you just wanted to be cleaned up!

I opened up the cake a little and you continued getting only one hand messy and taking little nibbles

Mommy smashed your hands in the cake to help you get the idea of what you should be doing. You didn't like having sticky messy hands or mommy telling you what to do. You have never been a fan of being shown how to do something. I can't take your hand and write your name, I couldn't nurse you because I had to hold your head! From the first day you were born I could see, "I'll do it myself"behind your eyes. Not a bad way to do things but someday I hope you can learn to appreciate and heed other peoples advice and guidance! 

You had a great party! You were surrounded by loved ones and thats what truly matters. You also got some great gifts, that will help you learn and grow. Lots of books, puzzles, blocks, instruments where you make the noise,  and some fun noise making toys! It was a great day, one that I will remember for a lifetime! You are truly a joy to everyone around you. 

Love, 

Mommy/still trying to organize all of your toys!