Thomas turned 2 today! It was such a fun day hanging out with him, opening presents and taking him to Chuck E Cheese. We went to Chuck E Cheese pretty frequently (well for celebrations) when I was a kid and I thought a two year old might enjoy it. Plus for the same price as a normal lunch in Anchorage, we got lunch and two hours of fun. I'd call the whole day quite the success. There are a lot of photos in this post, so I'll try to explain the events just using the captions on the photos to save some time and reading effort on your part. :)
I made this awesome balloon chandelier for him the day before and had Matt sneak it into his room last night. That backfired a little when he woke up in the middle of the night (he's not feeling 100%), saw the outline of the balloons and flipped out. Luckily, when Matt came in and turned the light on, he saw the scary shadows were just balloons and giggled at them. So not scarred for life (hopefully)!
He absolutely loved hitting his balloons and running into them. What toddler wouldn't?!?
Unfortunately there was an incident. I took the balloons downstairs while we ate breakfast, then we went back to his room to play. We had hung them from the dome on his light fixture and when I tried to put them back up there, the dome slipped off and shattered all over his floor. The exploding glass and balloons was heart attack inducing, but luckily neither one of us got hurt (he was still out in the hallway telling Eliza to "go!"). He was pretty upset at me for breaking his light though...
Inspecting his birthday banner!
His cupcakes yesterday were homemade "funfetti", so I had to buy sprinkles and thought since we had a huge tub of sprinkles, why not add them to the pancakes?? He approved! In this photo he was testing the temperature of his pancakes and deeming them "hot".
So he blows on them to cool them off. That's one thing he's gotten pretty good at!
Another new skill - helping dad make coffee. He can turn on the grinder, start it and turn it back off. The he hands his dad a filter and helps dump the grinds in. Obviously he doesn't drink coffee yet, so this is truly a labor of love for his parents. And adorable!
Sitting on his first present of the day. Like his birthday shirt? I made it from a swatch of tie-dye felt I found at Michael's. I like making him stuff from my limited crafting skills! Also note the Elmo socks - his favorite (from his Granny!)
This rocket ship is made by the same company as the airplane I bought him for his first birthday, so I thought it would be good to add to the collection. He loved it! (And I love toys I find that are actually made in the US - shockingly hard!)
This photo is from his birthday last year. He absolutely hated when we tried to put a birthday hat on him. He didn't even want me to wear one. There are several "melt-down" photos because we kept trying to convince him that party hats are awesome. He never agreed...
So while the rest of us wore party hats, we never got Thomas to keep one on. Henry goes along with it, though his expression is pretty skeptical.
Since we had so many extra, Matt finds other ways to wear them than just on his head.
And you might be able to tell here that Matt was saying "Don't let go!" realizing he was about to be whacked with a party hat. I think Thomas actually put it back instead of hitting his dad with it. What a nice little guy, huh?
On to Chuck E Cheese! Thomas was a bit overwhelmed when we first got there, but he warmed up to the idea pretty quick. First he just wanted to help put the coins in the slot, but then we managed to get him to help play some games.
Of course, Chuck E Cheese knows what even the littlest of kids like - he loved this "game" where you dial a number and a Chuck E Cheese character talks to you on the phone. Woooo.... ; )
Matt got in on some race car driving while Thomas helped by holding his tickets.
Break time for lunch. The pizzas were about as good as I remember, which wasn't bad. Even the little guy approved of the choice of toppings. I think he actually ate the bell peppers even though his momma was picking them off. Sorry - green bell peppers are not made to be eaten. Gross!
He tried his best to help with skee ball, but didn't really get the concept. He sure liked the fact the games had balls though! I distinctly remember them being wood though, now they are plastic... Henry was strapped in his baby carrier for most of the visit, but unfortunately Matt didn't manage to get a photo of me playing skee-ball with him strapped to me. I'm sure it looked pretty silly!
Thomas was very intent on this game, it required shooting little balls and trying to get them through holes. I don't think they scored very high, but he liked it!
This one - he did not like! He was excited about sitting on the horse - until it started moving. To his credit - it was shaking him around pretty good. Matt ended up finishing the game for him and he seemed to be having a blast on it.
I remember spending so much time at the end of the day counting tickets to see what I could get in prizes. Now they have machines you feed the tickets into and it gives you a printed receipt to take to the counter. Kids these days have it so easy!
We picked his prizes for him and got him a bunch of stickers and a crazy straw. On the drive home, Matt told me to look at him in the mirror. He had stuck stickers on his face and was content with them staying there. Also note the yellow bags in the far back - those are the summer tires we need to get put on the car. Last day for snow tires was April 30th - whoops!
By the time we got home, he was passed out and still had the stickers on his face. Only now we noticed he had them on his hands too. This boy loves his stickers!
More presents before dinner - this one was the only kitchen set I could find that wasn't rated 3+. I was pretty excited because he loves playing with my kitchen stuff, so I figured he would like his own set. And he loved it - he was pretend feeding us with the spoons. We avoided actual contact with the spoon since he had already stuck it in his mouth... "/
And after dinner, more present opening! We tried to spread it out over the day to make it more exciting. Henry even seems more excited about the party hat this time. :)
We decided to open the last presents and eat cake while chatting with his Granny and PawPaw on Skype. Here the boys are looking up at their grandparents. You've got to love the wonders of modern technology!
Thomas loved his helicopter that Tom (his namesake or whatever the term would be for the person he is named after) sent to him. It's a model of the Eurocopter that Tom flies for the Army - UH72 Lakota. Don't tell Thomas, but this one is likely going to be hanging in his room, not readily available for play. Well at least until he's old enough not to break it accidentally!
The Elmo birthday cake! Still the same red problem as the cupcakes, but this time Thomas said "Elmo" as soon as he saw it. And it didn't even have the black on the eyes at the time. So success! How could I resist buying the Elmo pan when he loves Elmo so much (and I had a 20% coupon!)?
Blowing out the candle on the cake. Well trying to, I think Matt helped him out so he wouldn't end up blowing spit all over the cake. Good call, Matt!
But he wouldn't put his bubbles down to eat his cake. I think he loves bubbles almost as much as stickers!
And this is about as messy as he got. Matt's mom was asking me if I was worried he was going to ruin the cute shirt I made him, but he actually didn't get any cake or icing on it. This kiddo can be a neat eater when he wants to be! Which is usually when I want photos of cake all over his face... Oh well!
I'd call it a pretty successful birthday! He seemed to have a fun filled day and I don't think he had a single meltdown all day - so at least for the day he turned two, we avoided the "Terrible Twos!"
Love you Thomas and we're so glad we've had you around for the past two years! You're turning into quite the awesome little guy! :)