The Big 2

Our little boy had a big week and is now officially two. Justin took this cute picture of him sleeping to show how he has been getting to sleep lately - turning his lights on, with books, drinks, and toys surrounding him. We guess it was just a precursor to things to come.

The weather has been beautiful and being outside so much has been wearing both kids out. Rachel fell asleep like this on her floor during quiet time and when she came out she kept saying, "I didn't even realize I was falling asleep."

Rachel has been so excited about the warm weather and any day that she gets to wear shorts or flip flops she runs out of her room saying, "here is summer girl!" We have been thinking about getting her hair cut for a while and finally decided to take the plunge. To top off the fun, Rachel's recently-released primary teacher, Erin Loftley, was able to give her this cute summer haircut. Rachel loves Erin so much and it made it even more exciting that she got to go to a "big girl" salon to have Erin cut her hair with her rainbow scissors.

Since Ian's birthday fell on Sunday this year, we celebrated a day early with a visit from Grandma and Grandpa and a trip to a new area of the Logan City Airport. They had a fun open house with lots of helicopters, motorcycles, and vintage cars.

They also had a bouncy castle with a slide. Even though it looks like poor Ian is probably ending up with a twisted limb after this descent, he was having a great time and kept going in for more.

Rachel, Grandpa, and Ian checking out a helicopter takeoff. Before we got home we were also able to see an airplane stunt show. It was a fun little outing for the birthday boy.

Ian diving into his birthday goods.

Thank you everyone for the fun presents! We had a very lucky little boy who got books, a great puzzle, sleeping bag, dump truck, fire engine, tee-ball set, hat, clothes, and little race cars.

Rachel decided to practice her photography and she was able to capture this charming moment of her grandparents.

When we would ask Ian about his birthday, the only thing he cared about were "hats". So, we let him pick out some stylish Diego birthday hats and Rachel ended up wearing one most of the afternoon. Here they are playing a little ball on a beautiful day.

Ian was so excited to dive into his race car birthday cake. He even blew out the candles himself after a demonstration by his older sister.

Yeah, I'm 2!

To top off the birthday entertainment, Ian decided to continue cutting his 2nd year molars and to even more problematically get out of his crib. This seriously thwarted Bridget's plan of letting him stay in there until we moved next year, but we had to face reality and get him a big boy bed. He was thrilled about his car bed and even stayed in it the whole first night and for his first nap. Night number two is not going quite as smoothly, but we're hoping that it will be an easier transition than we had with Rachel.

At least he's pretty happy about the change!

Some of the interesting things about Ian at 2-years-old are:

-He prefers almost all vegetables to fruits (the only fruits he will eat are apples, pears, and hidden ones in smoothies).

-He won't eat most dairy products - no cheese, yogurt, or cottage cheese for our boy.

-He LOVES tractors, dump trucks, and garbage trucks, and can find books about them on any library trip. He also knows where any of these novelties are on our walks and usual driving routes before we get to them and will let us know they are coming.

-He cannot get enough of being outside and is always the first one ready to go when we're going on a walk or to the park. He loves asking us, "ready?"

-His favorite songs are "Called to Serve" (which he calls "march" because he marches around the room), "I Am Like a Star", "Army of Helaman", and "Take Me Out to the Ballgame"

-He loves to have us (even Rachel) read to him and will often sit by himself looking at books for almost twenty minutes at a time.

-He is incredibly ticklish and has a totally infectious laugh.

-He is a great helper and helps his Dad clean the bathroom each week in addition to trying to clear his own meal plates and clean up his toys most of the time.

-His favorite television show is Super Why and his favorite movie is Cars.

-He is such a sweet little boy and can easily get his feelings hurt. He gives great hugs and kisses and tells any of us when we leave to go somewhere, "love you!"

(After his yearly checkup we found out his stats were:

weight 28.66 lbs - 53%

height 36 in - 79%

head 20.1 in - 93%)