Spoiler alert: they grow. They just grow and grow and don’t stop!
Two years ago I was sitting in the hospital holding this fresh little baby (after a whirlwind, lightning fast birth experience!) and then…
…I blinked and he turned TWO!
Although, let me tell you: two is actually my favorite. (12-24 months is not my favorite – it’s slightly more exhausting than it is fun, although I love my babies to pieces at every single age.) The terrific twos are just so much fun! I love that they start to talk more fluently and can have conversations, and they start to really develop friendships with other little toddlers. Also, two is very fun because we can start doing more interesting outings in Austin, like visit play spaces and zoos and museums and restaurants together! I don’t love taking a crawler or a wobbly walker to an outdoor space, but I loooove taking a two-year-old around town with me. Get ready for all the pumpkin fests this fall, Dayton. 🙂
With everything that’s happening in our family in the last few weeks, I didn’t have it in me to plan a birthday party. I was just about to let the whole thing go and do a family cake/presents afternoon, and then a few days before his birthday I was like, “you know what? Dayton needs a party!”
I kept it very very small (my go to is typically just to invite ALL our neighborhood friends, and there are a lot of great families around us and it can easily end up being 50 people! So I only invited a few people near Dayton’s age + their parents) and Dayton had a fun little indoor party!
The theme: Chugga Chugga TWO! TWO!
I literally started planning this thing 3 days before the actual party, and I’m thankful for some sweet friends and grandparents who were very chill about the whole thing and said, “of course we’ll come hang out!” I’m also thankful for Amazon prime and HEB curbside so I could order everything I needed without ever having to get out of my car. How did parents of the 80s/90s do it?? Haha.
The night before his birthday, Nate and I stayed up making THIS balloon garland. With 2 people and a balloon pump, it took about 45 minutes to blow up all the balloons and assemble it. Not bad! I’ve purchased them from professional companies before, and they can cost hundreds when you have them ordered/delivered. This one is less than $10! Now, they can obvious can look much more robust and full when the pros do it. But for a 2-year-old’s birthday party, this cute one was perfect. By the way, this is the electric balloon pump I purchased a few years ago. It’s very small and just sits in our hall closet when I don’t need it.
We set up the wooden train set in the downstairs play room and bought Dayton a new indoor bounce house for the upstairs play room, and let the kids run around and play all over the house.
Grammy and Papa arrived a bit early to take the boys out to a birthday breakfast so Nate and I could get the house tidied. 😉 Thank goodness for grandparents!
Dayton’s new thing is to point to something and say, “mommy, LOOK.” He does this about 1,000 times per day.
“Daddy, LOOK.”
“Ama, LOOK.”
When we were in Utah last week my sister had this bounce house in her back yard (you can run a water hose over it and turn it into a waterslide) and the boys loved it! So I decided to get one for Dayton’s bday, and since it’s way too hot to play outside right now in Texas, we set it up as an indoor bounce house in our upstairs playroom. It’s not too tall and fit perfectly!
Haha, I love the following series of photos:
It took him about an hour of watching other kids play in there before her was willing to try the bounce house, but once he was in he played SO hard!
Nate’s mom (Grammy) and my mom (Ama)! Dayton sure has a lot of love in his life.
“Mommy, look, I’m doing MAGIC!”
A picture with my perfect little 2 year old!
(Milo wanted to be close to the cake at all times.)
“Mommy, LOOK.”
Haha, I love a baby’s expression when everyone is staring at him and singing happy birthday. It’s this look of awkwardness and a bit of enthrall. So cute.
Good job, Dayton!
Big brother is always nearby to help out. 🙂
The boys had an afternoon rest time after the party and then both sets of grandparents stuck around so Dayton could open his presents in the afternoon. Please note that Milo is opening said presents in this photo and Dayton is nowhere to be found. In his defense, Milo showed a LOT of self control around those presents all day and really tried to restrain himself from opening all of Dayton’s gifts. Haha.
Happy happy birthday, Dayton! We love you so much!
