Isaiah's 2nd Birthday

On Saturday my baby boy turned 2. TWO! I can't believe it! I feel like we just had him, and at the same time I can't believe there was ever a time when we didn't know him. The season between turning one and two is such a fun time, talking and exploring and their personality showing through more and more. 

While Isaiah is a bundle of energy and super passionate about expressing a wide range of emotions, he has so many little sweetheart characteristics about him too. He is SUCH a good listener. He loves to help clean up, and has a really orderly side to him. He likes to put things in a line, keep all cabinets and doors closed, he picks up dirt off the floor and throws it away.... He walks around with his hands in his pockets half the time like a little man. He asks questions and talks all the time, and him and Drew have the cutest conversations. He's very agreeable to most things and doesn't mind taking a time out when he's having a melt down... I can sit him in any random chair and tell him to take a time out until he's ready to be nice and he will immediately quiet down and sit there for a few minutes until he's attitude has changed. Then he gets down and comes and tells me sorry and he's a new boy. He tries to do everything Drew does and it doesn't take much to impress him. 

Story behind his two year pictures: 

I told him I was going to take him on a date and started getting him all dressed up for his pictures. He started freaking out when I tried to put socks and shoes on him, and freaked even more when the long sleeved shirt was being put on... he was begging for his sandals and baseball t-shirt. I calmed him down and showed him pictures of himself last winter wearing the same long sleeved shirt, and he finally adjusted to the idea enough to even let me put the bow tie on him. Shaun took Drew to the park while I took Isaiah to the ice cream shop, and the whole way Isaiah kept saying, "Miss, Drew, miss, Drew..." He doesn't know life without his big brother, and no matter how much they fight and compete, they love each other so much, and if any other kid messes with either of them they stick up for each other. 

By the time we actually got to the ice cream shop I think he was starting to enjoy himself, and he DEFINITELY loved his ice cream cone! 

I gave him a quarter to take into the shop and he was sticking it in his pocket in the picture below. 

This one and the next one are my two absolute favorites from the first part of pictures. They are such genuine smiles and capture his personality so well... 

Can't wait to get the one below blown up and framed to hang in our house. 

 After ice cream I took him to ride his favorite little horse toy outside by a barn. He rides this thing every day and loves it. It belonged to his great-grandfather when he was a little boy. 

This is so him, no shirt, sport coat, hat on backwards... 

It was warm out so the sport coat didn't last very long... 

The next thing to go was the hat... 

Love his intimidating little expression in the one below! 

And another typical Isaiah smile.... 

Those are really just a select few of my favorites, there were so many cute expressions captured and I'm so pleased with how his two year photos came out :) 

Last year I wrote three posts pertaining to Isaiah's birthday... One for his actual birthday, one for his party, and one for his one year photos. This year I'm kind of combining them all... So here are some pictures of how we celebrated his birthday and his little family party that night: 

We took Drew and Isaiah to Dutch Wonderland for about 4 hrs in the morning. They wanted to ride the airplanes first. 

I video taped off and on during our day but this ride I just had to watch them myself without the camera... Isaiah wasn't too sure about these frogs that went up high and kind of hopped up and down... he looked pretty serious and was hanging on tight the whole time. Drew kept leaning over to his saying "Isaiah isn't this fun!!??!" It was so cute :) 

Little hand crank choo choos. What I love most about this picture is that you can see the mural Isaiah drew on himself the day before his birthday. I figure if he wanted to keep his picture on his leg for his bday, I wasn't going to clean it off. So his right leg looked like a purple and green spotted dalmation all day. But he was quite proud of his artwork. 

 Below: Watching The Frog Prince show at the park, peanut butter cracker in each hand. He had already downed a whole apple. (He LOVES apples, and eats them all the way down until all that's left is a tiny circle containing the seeds... like, the top and bottom and stem of the apple even disappear.) 

Annnnd I took the one below before I realized he had actually gotten his head stuck between those two posts... typical Isaiah. 

 It was a really fun morning spent together :) 

Then that night we had our families over for a little more celebrating. Shaun's mom and dad couldn't come because his mom is in the hospital right now, and it wasn't the same without them. (Please keep his mom in your prayers that she can go home soon, she hates being in the hospital!) 

I made a yellow cake with cream cheese icing and cut strawberries on top. (When we picked out the cake mix at the store the day before Isaiah hugged it to his chest all the way until we got to the check out aisle.)

Our menu, written in Isaiah language:

 (Translation: Pizza, pretzels, watermelon, grapes, lemonade & cake) 

We also had  awesome cookies made by my sister, who should really go into business and open a gourmet cookie shop.... I believe the name of these was brown butter nutella stuffed sea salt topped cookies.... They were SO GOOD. 

Present time! :) 

Isaiah got a really cool pop up Peter Pan book from his aunt Nan. She even painted a picture inside his card for him. (Isaiah loves Pan) 

 Opening his gift from Drew: a bag of chex mix (one of his favorite snacks) wrapped in a snow man bag. Hugs! 

 Present from mommy and daddy: Hard backed collection of Winnie the Pooh stories (he is pretty into pooh bear too and loves to name all the characters. "Robind, Pooh, tear, wabbit, eyah, owl, roo, tang"

Present from Mommom and Pop: Kiddie Coaster set up in our basement... They've loved playing with it! 

Snuggling my birthday boy! 

He was ready to blow out his candles right away!! 

Our traditional picture:

The four (soon to be five!) of us: 

Digging in! He always does a good job with his cake... Although at the end there was still cake left on his plate and it was his strawberries that were all gone. :)

I love taking a little extra time to make my boys feel special on their birthday. :) 

Now we just have Drew's birthday to celebrate and then baby boy #3 will arrive and put his big day on the calendar too!