A second birthday

We have a thing: Our thing is that we have a two-year-old. I'm not entirely sure how or why but somehow yes. Indeed we do have a tiny human running through the house, dictating life. It's good. Strange to look at pictures of an infant and be like, "That was you. Somehow." and then have this running and talking human right in front of our very eyes.

On Thursday we decided to take it super easy and have a low-key day just the three of us. We started the day with donuts (I mean, obviously) and Maddox of course was enamored with the candles and obviously tried to stick his hand in the flame thirteen times (moms with cameras, gosh dang). He blew them out because blowing out candles is his current favorite thing (appropriate? sure.) and I successfully got some pictures of the entire thing. Also, judge us if you must, but Walmart baker's dozen donuts are the best glazed donuts I've maybe ever had.

After donuts we decided to hit up the zoo. Maddox has been to a few zoos but this was definitely the first time he really knew what was going on and could point out all the animals and tell us their noises. For the record, his "rawr" is pretty cute. We were basically the only people in the entire zoo. I think we saw two other families the entire time we were there and it was glorious. We had uninterrupted time with ALL the animals instead of fighting over the best views. He was absolutely terrified of the tiger and would hold on as tight as possible to us whenever the tiger made her pass by us. Presh.

We had Maddox's party on Sunday. Also, don't be confused by the 500 cups and utensils; we kept it ultra low-key because I just didn't want a big huge thing. We did the big huge thing for the first party and I wanted people to have a chance to actually see and talk to the birthday boy, as opposed to a mass of people standing awkwardly in my house. Not my jam.

So, we did cake and ice cream. That's it. I was slightly concerned about what the theme would be and the various kinds of dessert I could make and how I could make this absolutely adorable because I'm a maker and makers gonna make, yo. But. A month before his birthday I felt totally uninspired about his birthday. But in a good way. Like, not needing to make a big thing out of it and Maddox would be impressed with cake and ice cream and a handful of people who love the shit out of him. And it was still good. He's a big deal and we celebrated him and it was absolutely perfect. He got lots of toys and new books and clothes (praise the Lord! Clothes!) and we brought out the bike we've had forever and got him a helmet so he can actually ride the thing (and by ride I mean so I can push him because he's refusing to learn to pedal). I made him the WILD shirt with the freezer paper stencil method. We put his cake on the floor for him to blow out the candles and Evan opened all his gifts because he was too concerned with the fact that he got bubbles and tissue paper than anything else. [This is a weird paragraph. Apologies.] I am so glad I spent the last few weeks at the park and on walks and reading his favorite book over and over again rather than DIY-ing his second birthday. Also, don't be confused by these pictures, there were actually people at his party. (Hashbrown, no filter.)

Happy birthday, sweets. We love you.