Mr Pants Turns Two!

Ok, I'm going to attempt to squeeze this post in while Joshua is taking a 4+ hour nap. (He's finally conquered his fear of climbing out of his crib, and he's become a total maniac about it. I heard a crash yesterday during his nap and he had knocked over his entire dresser, plugged in his space heater and locked himself into his room. I panicked and try to not hyperventilate when I asked "um, Joshy, can you open the door for mama?" One second and a giggle later he opened the door. He was really proud of himself until he saw the look on my face, and acquiesced to attempting a nap again. So I'm horrible, and yes I have screws, and yes I am nailing that dresser to the wall...well, actually Cameron is going to do that. Wow. Thats a long aside.)

Ok, my dad and I started off Little Man's birthday by going to the grocery store at 10:30pm the night before, demanding that they find the girl who blows up balloons even though she was out on her smoke break, and then fighting with some old guy to find the perfect cantaloupe.

Next morning my dad and I woke up at like 6 am to make the traditional Taylor Special Occasion Apple Pancakes. (Got my recipe from Smitten Kitchen here, and Holy. Moly* where those pancakes good.) Well Joshy pants woke up at 6:45, very disgruntled, and very unhappy when the whole house started singing "Happy Birthday" to him. He glared at us from the stairs, and then basically just laid down on one and cried. It wouldn't be a birthday if someone didn't have an emotional breakdown...amirite?! Well, he gave in and chomped on the pancakes, and then we took him to the zoo. You have to understand that I made my dad take care of him the entire time at the zoo (I'm pregnant! And it was like 90 degrees out, and hello, I'm selfish!) and my dad was the one who took all the pictures there, so I don't have any. Joshy's favorite part of the zoo was the stairs (he's 2) and when the giraffe almost gave him a kiss. My least favorite part of the zoo was the heat, and the feral roosters running around the grounds. You knew I'm scared of birds, right?

Well, we all took a good nap. We all did. Glorious. Joshy woke up happy, but refused to eat all the hotdogs we grilled just for him! Because hello! Hot dogs are so 23 months. We let him open his presents and he was all hyper-focus from there on out

Playing with the cool dump truck Grandma and Grandpa bought

Oh, and they bought him a buildable train, and a bunch of toy animals at the zoo. what did we get him again?

Yummy cake!

In the process of organizing his toys

No, for real. He lined up all of his animals, and this is him crawling to find more cars to put between every animal. Pattern master?

We were so glad to have Grandma and Grandpa in town for Joshua's birthday! And thank goodness they were there too, because Cam and I realized, hello this is only his 2nd birthday, and we can totally phone it in. Seriously. We spent so much money on his first birthday, that this year we just took him to Target and let him pick out what he wanted. I think we spent $8 on presents for him (toy cars from Cars, and a ball.) We are awesome parents. Good thing we have 2 great sets of grandparents.

This is what Nana and Papa bought for Joshy. A golf set! How adorable is that?

So once daddy got home, Cam taught him how to swing and they sat there and practiced together for 45 minutes. 45. Minutes. They are made of the same stuff, those boys.

Now I guess I should do the obligatory "all the cool things my kid can do." I'm at a loss though. What I really want to do is make a meme of Josh thats like the Barney Stinson "All my friends are getting married and having babies, but I'm just getting more awesome" but instead have a pic of my little guy that says "All my friends are talking and reciting the alphabet, but I'm just getting more awesome." BECAUSE IT'S TRUE!!!!

Joshua has been an awesome 2 year old (knock on wood, throw salt over your shoulder, make the sign of the cross.) It seems like things are beginning to click with him, and he is actually saying WORDS people! Not on command, only when he feels like it. well, actually he'll say "Bye, see ya!" to everyone and everything and every time he walks away from you. He kinda talks like Cartman from South Park, without the super deep voice. Its pretty cool. 

He's just a mini-me of his dad. Basically I gave birth to my husband's personality and I'm trying to parent it. So yeah...we're figuring it out. He doesn't feign attention, he'll only participate if he's really interested. And he is OH SO affectionate! I love it!

And woops, he woke up!

Happy Birthday Little man! We love you!

*the use of a curse word here would be much better to explain how good those pancakes were