Lou at TWO

Lou is two.  TWO.  I can hardly believe it.  We are officially out of baby jail.  

Things Lou loves at two: carbs, french fries, broccoli, trucks, trains, cars, books, baths, bubbles, slides, Norah, basketballs, saying no, television, diggers, fruit snacks, jumping on the bed, running, throwing, jokes, toots, Mickey Mouse, pirates, school buses, cookies, pretzels, jumping, cousins, singing, hugs, talking very loudly, forts, body slamming, dog-piling, and strawberry yogurt.

Things Lou doesn't love at two: sharing, taking turns, balanced meals, consistent sleep, brushing teeth, peeing in the potty, not being allowed to drink soapy bathwater, stuff on his hands, sitting at the table, and staying out of time out.

We celebrated last Sunday by taking the kids and the cousins to Chuck-E-Cheese.  There are a lot of things I said I would never do as a parent and I have done just about every one of them.  Going to Chuck-E-Cheese was high on that list.  It was about as bad as I expected, but Lou loved it so that's what matters.  He didn't have much use for any of the games other than skee-ball.  Boy after my own heart.  

We decided not to do a party because I was convinced Baby Junebug would be here on or before Lou's birthday.  I mean, look at this poor woman: 

(As of 8:30 pm on February 28, she's still cooking.  My bets are for March 1.)

Anyway, since we didn't do a party we got him a fancy cake.  My colleague at work has a cousin who is a pastry chef and does custom cakes out of her home.  I asked for a fun Bob the Builder cake. This is what I got:

It was unbelievable.  The level of detail was amazing.  That's all hand rolled fondant.  I mean, Bob had a tool belt with a tiny wrench and hammer.  I couldn't get over how awesome it was.  I hated to even cut it.  (Her business is called My Sweet Austin and you can find her website here.)  It was amazing.

I think this photo is hilarious.  He looks like a little mouse.  He was really into the pizza.

Thank goodness for people who love you enough to brave Chuck-E-Cheese with you.

As an interesting FYI--Chuck-E-Cheese now carries a gluten free cheese pizza.  It is not made there, so there's no issue of cross contamination and it's baked in an individual sealed wrapper.  It was Norah approved.

Megan and Trevor were great sports and helped the little kids play games and amass tickets.  I think they had more than 500 tickets by the end.  It earned them a tiny plastic car and some smarties.

Today, on Lou's actual birthday, we gave him our gifts and then it was a normal day--kids went to school, BVZ and I went to work.  Norah made him a card.

We got him a basketball goal, which he loved.  He is pretty good at it and loves to dunk.  He likes to move fast.  The kid is really athletic.  If he follows the path he's on he will never be a football player (which is totally fine with me), but I can definitely see him being great at baseball and/or basketball.  BVZ likes to remind me that he was the MVP of his high school basketball team.  I like to remind him everyone at his school was white and he was the only one over six feet tall.

We also got him a little toy piano.  He loves it and when he plays it reminds me of that guy from old school Sesame Street episodes who would get frustrated and beat the crap out of his piano (I don't think he's a character anymore--very un-PC).

He got to eat french toast with whipped cream for breakfast, oatmeal cookies at school, french fries and strawberry yogurt for dinner, and leftover cake for dessert.  His culinary dream come true.

I can't imagine our family, or this life, without this guy.  Happy birthday, Lou.