Pony RIdes and Time Outs on Your Son's Birthday

Uncle Stephen got into town safely Friday night and Eban and I greeted him happily from the front porch. Eban loved seeing the "moto"!! He wasn't afraid of it at all...just what I thought. Into the house came Uncle Stephen and he received a warm meal just as he entered the kitchen. The only problem was that as soon as he sat down, his little nephew wanted to sit on his lap and eat off his plate.

Saturday we got up and went to the zoo where we saw all sorts of animals. Jackson also liked the zoo while Eban really enjoyed the snakes this time. He calls them "nakes" and while I'm thinking of other things he says...he also calls nose by the word "noke." We also saw a one day old baby zebra and that was pretty spectacular. After the zebra, Eban was close to having a melt down so we quickly ate our picnic lunch of PB&J sandwiches, pretzels and cantaloupe.

Saturday afternoon, we prepped for the big two-year old birthday. Uncle Steve and I did the streamers in the house and outside...they looked quite festive if I say so myself! Sunday morning as Eban got up, we watched him as he came down the stairs to see all his gifts on the kitchen table. Check out the video below as he finally found the word after two minutes of being completely surprised. His word was OPEN.
We opened gifts and he loved his truck, tractor, bus and Grammy Kass' fire truck. He also loved a fire truck card that Tutu created with personalized photos. You can see more videos below.

Around 2pm, his friends started coming in and the mayhem immediately was noticed. Kids were running rampant...there was no structure...you practically ran into an adult or some kid with each step...thank god there were adult beverages present for the parents to relax a tad. Then in came the fire truck cake by Keegan and Lisa. Keegan is an MC for a pastry show on the Food Network and his wife, Lisa, used to be the pastry chef for the Ritz Carlton in New Orleans (I think). Anyway...they own a dessert bar in Denver called d-bar and they created Eban's fire truck cake...the fanciest two-year old cake I've ever seen!! It was beautiful.

Eban immediately reached for it and with my cat-like reflexes, I thwarted his evil ways to grab the sirens and the windshields of the cake. I must have saved that cake from his five-finger grab with a second to spare.
After more chaos, I decided it was time to eat the cake. As we lit the candles, Eban started blowing them out...before we sang happy birthday. He was so over-stimulated by the time we sang, that he just sat there staring off into no man's land. He cheeks were flushed and all he needed was a nap!

Anyway after I felt so bad that we were going to cut into a most lovely cake. So, we made Keegan cut it as I felt as thought we were ruining some piece of art by cutting it. But the cake itself was SO good. After the cake, I decided it would be a good time to open presents...boy, was I wrong.

HOW come none of you who read this warned me about two-year old birthday parties and the present time???!! You're all in trouble. So as Eban is sitting on my lap, he opens up Nani's gift and it's a huge, green and loud garbage truck. He was so thrilled with this new toy! After I told him to say thank you so we could proceed to the next gift was when his official melt down he occurred. He didn't want another toy...he only wanted the garbage truck. So the yelling of NO MAMA and TRUCK ensued. It was not embarrassing at all (I hope you can read my sarcasm in that last sentence)...at least the other moms in the room laughed understandingly at my embarrassment. Ryan quickly took Eban away from the situation to control his temper and basically give him a time out to think about his behavior. I ended up opening the rest of the gifts while Eban was in an extended time out. It was lovely.

At that point, I could hear Seamus whining from the basement. I held his collar while leading him through the toddler crowd and I heard a kid yell "YEAH...PONY RIDES!" I wish I could have seen who it was, but I was too busy making sure that no kid would try to hop up on Seamus now that he got upgraded to a pony.

Now onto a sweet little story on our baby boy, Jack. Uncle Steve keeps teasing him with Grammy Kass' fire truck and he did a little crawl towards it. I can't believe he is minutes from being a crawling monster. He also loves Grandpa Bob's wagon...it's so cute to see both boys riding in it together. Uncle Steve loved pulling through the sprinklers which got them both giggling so much...we hope you like the pictures and the videos.

I think tomorrow I'm getting my first caramel macchiato as Uncle Steve told me I had to try one. Well see if this happens...but I know I could use the caffeine.

SEEING THE GIFTS FOR THE FIRST TIME (OPEN)

UNCLE STEVE'S BUS

TUTU'S CARD

FIRE TRUCK

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE TIRED BIRTHDAY BOY