News On Hand: Birthday Boy

It is hard to believe that two days ago on June 8th, this boy turned two years old!!! The time has certainly flown and somewhere along the way he left “baby” behind. He’s getting to be such a big boy now… but he’s still my baby. We feel very fortunate and so glad that this little boy is a part of our family. We just love him so much.

This birthday boy enjoyed a half bagel for his breakfast with me in our sunny kitchen. Juice helped wash down the antibiotic he’s still on for his most recent ear infection.

We played around for a while in the morning and we enjoyed checking out Miss Spider stories in the view master together. When Lindsay brought him one of the big balloons she’d been blowing up in the next room he was very excited. “BOON!” he called and held onto it admiring it for several minutes.

Nathan wasn’t the only one admiring the balloon. This was a new phenomenon to Scruffles and she ended up chasing the balloon around, playing with it hard until somehow it popped. Luckily there were several other balloons. Then Nathan watched Sesame Street, his favorite with Elmo.

For lunch it was hard to figure what to have. Usually I let the birthday person choose their menu or for little ones I know what their favorite thing is to eat. This is harder with Nathan because the only thing he consistently loves to eat is milk and home made bread. So I let that be my starting point. I made a pocket sandwich with homemade roll dough that I prepared with a slice of ham and some cheese rolled up inside it after it rose the first time. He loves thin sliced ham and cheese. Then I realized I had a couple of sweet potatoes which needed to be used soon and Nathan loves sweet potato slices. So I cut and roasted those as chips with a little bit of olive oil and salt. I had a couple of bananas and some apples for slicing as well; also favorite foods of Nathan. He was very happy and enjoyed his lunch very much and we enjoyed it with him. This was our main meal for the day; appropriate as lunch is generally Nathan’s favorite.

When Nathan saw presents and we told him they were his he was one happy boy. “Happy! Happy!” he said.

First we opened cards and helped him tape them on the door.

Wishes came from near and far with lots of love for a special little two year old. I think Nathan liked this “puppy!” as much as his cousin did who picked it out.

With all his cards hung on the door Nathan could turn his attention to the presents awaiting him. He was so excited and needed no help to unwrap them… except for one very well wrapped gift which siblings had no problem helping him with.

“Legos” he cried as he jumped up and ran over to his big brother with the box for some help to get the package opened. He knew just who to go to. The opened box revealed a Lego camping set complete with a tent, a bear, fish, fire, canoe and one of the two little Lego guys even has little worms coming out of his pocket.

As Kaitlyn catches the fish with the fishing rod we encouraged Nathan to open his next present. The package was sort of big and he found some new sand toys inside. The shovel was something he was very excited about which I can understand since I generally find him with anything he can use as a shovel out in the yard. He loves to dig anything and everything. We couldn’t wait to take the sand toys out to the yard.

Finally Nathan unwrapped his new little T-shirt which is just for him. I think every shirt he owns currently is left from his big brother but this one is special. Tristan said he couldn’t wait to find his Big Brother T-shirt and wear it again. Tristan then presented Nathan with some of his old little trucks; a cute set that all have eyes and bright colors to play with on the mat that Tristan got out of the garage and cleaned up for Nathan to use as well. We told Nathan we needed to go outside and try out his new sand toys.

On the way out to the sand box Nathan got another surprise! A fun wagon! He was so excited. Kaitlyn and Tristan had kept the secret after they spent part of their morning helping Dad put it together.

He jumped right onto the wagon, seen here set up as a bench. Then we moved on to the sand box… empty and cleaned out! We had lots of fun ripping open six fresh bags of sand and dumping them in.

We decided to skip nap time. It was late already and we were just having too much fun. Rides in the wagon began in the back yard. The wagon seat has covers that fold to produce seats for two complete with seat belts or you can put the seats flat and use the lower part as a cooler. He loved fastening himself in all by himself.

Then the ride left the yard and Rick took them through the neighborhood while I stayed home to finish decorating the cake. My order there was for none other than chocolate. Nathan always likes chocolate. I had a few of my own creative ideas to add.

This is my “Garden Cake”. The light colored green cake is supposed to be a hill with a garden on it. Darker green frosting makes stems and leaves, orange frosting flowers and gummy worms decorate the lower half, mini chocolate chips are there to be the dirt and of course the flower lolly-pops are the main attraction. The layered cakes are chocolate. I thought this was cute for him because he likes to go out and find worms and dig in my garden all the time. Once again I think how I really need to learn cake decorating. But it tastes great and my kids love it.

Nathan and his cake

He blew out his candles with no help at all, but one at a time. He must have been practicing at all those tea parties Kaitlyn has been having. I hope all his wishes come true.

This boy saw worms on his cake right away. He knew they were worms and he was very excited to hold one. We showed him how he could eat this kind. Normally he would think this idea is very funny and say “Noooooooo”! But he tried them and loved them.

He loved the worms, he loved the lolly pops and he loved poking a candle into his cake. He even ate some of his cake and a little of the chocolate ice cream which somehow paled in comparison to those goodies on top of the cake.

The layers can be seen here; a large circular cake with two small circular cakes stacked on top with buttercream in between.

Then we spent the late afternoon and evening hours out in the yard with water bottles playing with Nathan. It was hot; the hottest day so far this year, we were full of cake and nobody was hungry for anything more than water.

Tristan went to baseball practice in the evening along with Kaitlyn and Dad. Nathan hung out at home with the girls in the yard getting really sandy and really wet as we played around together. We worked with Nathan on keeping the sand IN the sand box. That will take some time.

Nathan had to try out his new ride alone, sitting in the bottom of it where feet go and he could barely peek out. He climbs in and out all by himself.