Baker Turns Two

On Saturday, December 22nd, Baker finally turned two. It is an event that we have been anticipating for several weeks. We are still trying to adjust our schedules and family traditions around having a birthday boy in December. I wish I could say that we've successfully managed it thus far, but I know it doesn't rival the parties we've thrown for Katie (although you'd never know due to Heather's ability to create magic from the Internet and a couple of pipe cleaners). Perhaps we will consider more earnestly celebrating his half birthday when he grows older.

As for now, we had to wake the poor boy from his nap to let the festivities begin, hence the glazed look above. If not it was going to throw our carolling off by an hour. Although it took him a little while to become coherent once he did he was alive.

For those of you who don't know Baker has recently developed a love for anything Thomas (which he calls "choo-choo" in his soft little high pitched voice--perhaps the cutest thing you've ever heard,--except for when he wakes up and says, "Choo-Choo pan cakie, Daddy?"). You can imagine how a little boy who absolutely loves choo choo trains would react to this cake, a cake that Heather made from scratch in about an hour (see previous comment about Internet and pipe cleaners). A modern day McGyver. The kids were in candy heaven.

Except for Baker! When he found out he couldn't eat the cake until after pictures he began to slowly dawn his pouty face, another very cute feature that Baker has perfected.

Finally the time came where he was free to indulge. Here is a picture of him next to the magician herself, stuffing his face with a...? (Can anybody guess the item he choose to devour first? Hint: He takes after his dear old dad.)

Here is another picture, several minutes later, of the entire family. You'll notice that again Baker was not thrilled that right after he was given free reign of Thomas the Train cake (who was making a special delivery from Cavity Land) that he was being asked to pose for a family picture that was at least three feet away from the cake.

After we were done feasting on the cake the festivities began. Heather had purchased special little conductor hats and had spontaneously created three fun activities that the children could do. As the kids were eating cake we put about 70 little black stripes of construction paper in a line (resembling a train track) throughout the house. The kids were told that they were conductors and that they had to follow the tracks in order to discover a special surprise. Along the way they had to do several things that helped the trains continue to function. For example, at one stop they had to "coal," which consisted of rolled up black socks (Thanks poppy for letting us raid your sock drawer), and throw them back into the engine car.

Overall, it was an enormous success, except for one thing. Before going to CA we began to notice that Baker had a slight nervousness whenever he encountered a dog. We informed Grammy and Poppy, who have two dogs of there own, that they made to initially watch their dogs until Baker could warm up to them.

Well, in order to win over Baker, Grammy and Poppy's dogs, being the nice dogs that they are, gave Baker a little gift; a gift that would welcome him to the family. It appears, however, that Baker didn't seem to appreciate their humor. Even though the dog in the picture below was stuffed he about flew out of his chair. I guess we'll have to bill Chelsea and Diego in a few years when Baker is receiving treatment for his paranoia of all things furry ferocious!