Somebody in our house had a birthday...Braden turned 2 years old on Thursday! Last year, he had absolutely no idea it was his birthday. This year, when he woke up I said, "Happy Birthday!" and he kind of just stood there staring at me blankly. I think he suspected something was going on, but it was clear the whole birthday thing was still going right over his little head. He's only two years old, I know, but still...it just didn't seem right for us to be more excited it was his birthday than he was. So I decided to throw a little birthday education into our day.
A few weeks ago we borrowed the book Happy Birthday, Maisy! from the library (in case you are thinking I did this as some sort of pre-birthday preparation, think again) and so he learned the phrase "happy birthday" pretty well as a result (random sidenote: this is most likely because he became obsessed with this particular thrilling tale of a mouse amidst birthday bliss and asked me to read the aforementioned book at least 4 or 5 times a day until I finally realized I could just return the book to the library and the Maisy nightmare could end...so simple, why didn't I think of this sooner?) So I knew he knew some birthday basics from the book...you know, cake, presents, the whole shabang. I reminded him how Maisy had a birthday and we even watched a You Tube clip to see his beloved Elmo having a birthday on Sesame Street. He did enjoy seeing Elmo and hearing the birthday song (he loves the Sesame Street genre of music, all of it) but we weren't really making progress. I also tried showing him pictures of when he was a baby and explaining that he used to be a baby just like his sister Keri is. He seemed interested, but I think he was just being polite. So, I finally gave up and just tried to help him have the best normal day possible.
Here are his presents and his cake:
Here is a close-up of the cake...it isn't really cool enough to need a close-up but I figured I'd show you anyway. If I were really talented, I would have made a cool character cake, like an Elmo cake or something, but I am just not that good at having two kids yet and didn't even finish this one until 7:30 that night! The cake recipe is the one my late Grandma Russell used to make all her kids and many of the grandkids every year, even when they were grown up! When I eat this cake, I feel like I am right back in her kitchen...yum!
A few weeks ago we borrowed the book Happy Birthday, Maisy! from the library (in case you are thinking I did this as some sort of pre-birthday preparation, think again) and so he learned the phrase "happy birthday" pretty well as a result (random sidenote: this is most likely because he became obsessed with this particular thrilling tale of a mouse amidst birthday bliss and asked me to read the aforementioned book at least 4 or 5 times a day until I finally realized I could just return the book to the library and the Maisy nightmare could end...so simple, why didn't I think of this sooner?) So I knew he knew some birthday basics from the book...you know, cake, presents, the whole shabang. I reminded him how Maisy had a birthday and we even watched a You Tube clip to see his beloved Elmo having a birthday on Sesame Street. He did enjoy seeing Elmo and hearing the birthday song (he loves the Sesame Street genre of music, all of it) but we weren't really making progress. I also tried showing him pictures of when he was a baby and explaining that he used to be a baby just like his sister Keri is. He seemed interested, but I think he was just being polite. So, I finally gave up and just tried to help him have the best normal day possible.
Here are his presents and his cake:
Here is a close-up of the cake...it isn't really cool enough to need a close-up but I figured I'd show you anyway. If I were really talented, I would have made a cool character cake, like an Elmo cake or something, but I am just not that good at having two kids yet and didn't even finish this one until 7:30 that night! The cake recipe is the one my late Grandma Russell used to make all her kids and many of the grandkids every year, even when they were grown up! When I eat this cake, I feel like I am right back in her kitchen...yum!
And here is the birthday boy sporting his new hat and sunglasses! Every time we have seen someone with a hat or sunglasses lately, he gets so excited so I thought it would be fun to get him his own little hat and "gasses!". He was so cute when he was opening the presents, he immediately tried to put them both on (actually Children's Place had a huge sale so I got 2 hats and 2 pairs of sunglasses since we will inevitably lose at least one set...so he actually tried to put both pairs of sunglasses and both hats on at the same time...too bad I'm not quick enough with the camera, I was too worried he was going to poke his eye out to get a picture).
Happy Birthday, my Braden!
4 comments:
Cute pics! If he's still obsessed with Elmo next year, Rachael has an Elmo cake pan that she's willing to lend out. :)
Oh so cute! So I went into Nursery for a few minutes yesterday (I can't help myself...) and talked to Braden about his new bed! Well, it went something like this, "Braden! Did you get a new bed?" Braden turned and nodded his head. "Is it a big boy bed??" He nodded again. It was pretty exciting that he knew what I was talking about! I tried talking to him about Keri next but the toys got too exciting...
Happy Birthday Braden!! What a handsome little man :) Great job on the big boy bed to! I'm trying to decide when to tackle that, and I'm really not looking forward to it. So, thanks for the inspiration :)
He is so adorable! Love the "gasses", now he's a true ladies man :)
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