Happy Day

Brody turned 2 this past Monday. We began our celebration early because Matt had to leave out of town and was going to be gone on his actual birthday. Saturday we kicked off the celebration with my mom still in town, and all week he has been spoiled rotten by family and friends. He loves to sing Happy Birthday, but he can't say birthday so he just says "Happy Day." So in honor of Brody I will share a little bit about what it's like to be Brody at two.

TwO iS: joyful SQeaLs at the simplest of pleasures, an ExPlosIoN of new words,

EnDleSs energy, knock down Drag-out FigHts with my brother "Kaabee", InSaTiaBLe aPPeTitE for all things junk - a.k.a. "shhnaaks,"

TeRRiBlE tAnTruMs that quickly change to LaUghTer, BiNkeRs and BeAr bEaRs, fLirTacIouS and FiCkle, and best of all...ChuNkAliCioUsly ADoraBle!

Some things we love so much about Brody right now are:

His love for his blue "bear bear." His Great Grandma Shirley gave him this bear and he has loved it since he was tiny. His favorite part of his "bear bear" is the silk tags on the back. He runs his fingers through those tags and carries it by the tags so much that he won't accept the original bear anymore because the tag is in shreds. Oh, yes, there are 4 additional backups that are rotated, two of which he has determined are frauds because the manufacturer changed the tag and took away the tail!

His incredible vocabulary - some of our favorite are; no way, watch this, I do it, mine, happy day, Baaahney (Barney), Punge Pob (Sponge Bob), Shhnaak (snack), panpake (pancake), I dit you (I get you), I miss you, La loo (love you), and how he says sentences, he says the noun first and then the adjective or verb. So he will say " Kaabee (pause) push" or "bus (pause) big (pause) yellow"

His sweet temperament. Despite normal tooty two tantrums, he really is a sweet boy with a very mild temper. He often says uhhmee (excuse me) if he bumps into anything or toots. He loves to give kisses and hugs, and we swear he is European because he insists on kissing both cheeks. His favorite foods are all junk food - snacks, pizza, bacon, yogurt, apples, rice, sketti (spaghetti), chokit (chocolate), and water. Nothing but water. Occasionally he will splurge on a little chocolate milk but he won't drink juice, he tries to be healthy after all the junk food I guess. :)

On his real Happy Day we woke up and had his favorite bacon and cinnamon rolls for breakfast.

Colby gave him some rides on the blanket. And then we headed off to the mall for a surprise.

Build a Bear! It was fun, but I have to laugh because he was totally creeped out by the floppy lifeless bears (can't blame him). He insisted on holding the display bear until I could secretly swap it for the one we had stuffed. He wanted nothing to do with the stuffing process. Colby did better with it, and they loved the rest of our time there.

We ate pizza at the food court and found the little train to ride.

After the train ride we got chewy cookies at a little place and headed home.

After nap, we finished off the day with presents and ice cream at Amy's ice cream with Auntie Marcie. The boys finally got to see what I have been telling them about Amy's. They do all kinds of funky things to put your ice cream in the cup. This time the girl threw it up about 4 ft in the air and caught it in each of their cups. I have a heard a little rumor that sometimes they throw it across the street run and catch it. Seriously is that not insane? We had so much fun.

It really was a Happy Day! Happy Birthday Brody! We love you!