Our darling boy turned two this past Friday, July 4th. Two whole years of the son we affectionately call "Mr. Poop".
Because my sister Kara got married on Jonah's actual birthday, we had a series of parties spread over a number of days. I don't think that Jonah would have complained about this, even if he had realized that we weren't celebrating on his actual birthdate. What kid wouldn't love three parties? His first party took place at our home in Chicago. A few friends from church came over to help us celebrate, and we had a gay old time. It was a lot of fun.
I made Jonah a baseball cake. Baseball is one of his current obsessions, and drawing some stiches on the cake was much easier for me than trying to draw an identifiable Thomas the Tank Engine or excavator truck or something. Jonah was quite pleased.
Jonah was also quite pleased with the Thomas train set sent to him from his god-family in Pennsylvania. He stalled for awhile on the catalogue, though, before he actually started to play with the train set. I'm pretty sure that he's already scheming to get more tracks so that he can build the giant "Island of Sodor" set.
Deacon and Mimi gave Jonah a tool belt and tools. Jonah proceeded to pound on the walls with the hammer (pounding a nail in, perhaps?), but there was so much noise going on in our apartment that probably only the downstairs neighbor really noticed.
Jonah and Josie were hanging out in the boys' room until Jonah had to take a call on his pager...or something like that.
And here's Jonah playing with his dump truck (under his tool belt) and John Deere tractor from Jennie and Josh. This was one of the first presents Jonah opened, and the party almost ended right there. We had to strongly coax Jonah to open up his gifts from our other friends. To the right, Josie tests out Manny's toys. Perhaps to make sure that the pieces won't come loose and he won't choke? I wouldn't be surprised. Josie's pretty thoughtful like that. (Josie just moved to Colorado. We miss you already, Josie!)
On Saturday the 5th, Jonah had a party in Michigan with Gabe's side of the family. Here he is driving his new train engine over a train book. Life couldn't get more perfect for Baby J.
Here are the men from Gabe's side of the family, minus Gabe's brother Andrew: Great-Grandpa Hay, Jasmin, and Grandpa Richard.
I think Jonah is telling us where to put his second helping of chocolate cake and chocolate ice cream, made for him by Grandma Camille. "Right there!"
The "worst" part of this party was on the way home, when we opened up the windows and dared to let the wind get Jonah in the face. It was pretty outrageous. (Admittedly, he may have been upset that his long, luscious locks were "whipping" him in the face. That's the price you pay for beauty, son.)
On Sunday, we had our final party with my side of the family. Here's the awesome carousel cake that my mom made for Jonah (she made one like it for me when I was little). Jonah is fastidiously picking off all the M&M's on the cake and eating them. He can't be bothered to smile for the camera, thank-you-very-much.
Manny quickly commandeered Jonah's bat to use as his own personal chew toy.
Jonah worked hard on his new work bench while Pop-Pop and (Great-)Grandpa Denny lazed around on the floor. Would you believe that he put the whole thing together by himself? (Don't.)
Here's our silly boy on the trike that Gabe and I gave him, complete with a Thomas helmet. His legs aren't quite long enough yet, but I'm sure that before too long, Jonah will be whipping around at terrifying speeds. It's okay with us that he doesn't grow up too fast.
Thanks to everyone who celebrated Jonah's birthday with us! (Especially to the cake-baking grandmas.) I think that we had as much fun as Jonah did, and, as you can see from the pictures, Jonah had a
lot of fun.
