2!

Two years ago today, I became a mom. I am so grateful for Elliott and the joy he brings to our family. Brian and I are so blessed! Elliott is so pleasant and gets excited about small things, like sitting in a cardboard box pretending its a train (I found him in a box in the garage doing this very thing this week.) He loves to read books and will bring an endless supply to Brian or I, or he will even sit down to read by himself - we have only lost one lift-flap book when he decided to rip all the flaps off one day. But he learned that lesson and if he sees a scrap of paper on the floor, he'll point and say, "rip books, no no." He is such a boy and loves trains, airplanes, helicopters, dinosaurs and dogs. He loves watching Elmo and Thomas the Tank Engine DVDs. He is a smart little guy. I have been teaching him how to count and we got up to four, but then he suddenly started counting, "one, two tree(3), door(4), six!" I don't know where he picked up on six, since I am trying to teach five, but it's so cute when he does it.

Anyway, as you can tell, I am fascinated by everything Elliott does and says. I am constantly amazed by his perception and ability to understand more. I honestly love spending all my time with him and love being his mommy. (I also love when he points to Disney princesses and calls them mommy!)

We celebrated Elliott's 2nd birthday by inviting our family over for a pizza party. We decorated with Elmo and all day Elliott kept saying, "Happy Birthday Elmo." He was super happy to share his day with his buddy from Sesame Street.

This streamer curtain was a hit with the young and old, but nobody ran through it quite like Elliott.

We are so glad to have family close enough for our kids to be friends with their cousins. And Elliott has awesome other cousins that are easy to play with even if we don't see them as often. (Love you all!)

Yay for cousins!

Last year, Elliott wasn't interested in opening gifts, but this year, he was excited and knew what to do. (I still helped him though - I was excited too!)

Nigel is 7 months younger than Elliott and has started playing with Elliott more and here he is cautiously getting closer to play with the presents too.

At this sight, I said it was like Christmas morning, but Saffy responded with, "only for some people." Wise words, yes it was only like that for Elliott since he was the only one opening gifts, but he shared nicely with his cousins. Thank you to all our family for the gifts and their presence (hee hee) here today.

Brian's mom found Brian's treasured bunny Chester that Brian played with as a child. I've heard stories of how his siblings tortured him by pretending to chop Chester up and boil him on the stove and drove Brian to histerics. But Chester has survived all these years and now Brian has him again. Lorraine and Arden also bought Elliott his own bunny, so he can be just like his daddy.

My boys and their bunnies.

I made carrot cake since Elliott loves it the most. I am no cake decorator, but I managed to make a small cake for Elliott and make it look a little like Elmo, although later when Brian added a celery mouth, it helped.

I made a larger cake to blow out candles and serve to everyone.

I think Elliott's favorite song is the happy birthday song. I will catch him singing it all by himself then pretend to blow out the candles and eat the imaginary cake. So he was more than prepared today. He sang along.

He did start blowing the candles out before the end of the song, however.

Then he blew them out one by one until he got them all.

It was a great day for Elliott and for all of us. We all enjoyed our families visiting, and are very grateful for any reason to host a party at our house. Elliott may be a little bit more spoiled after getting so many gifts, but the priceless treasures are his and our relationships with our families. We have so many good examples and such a great supportive family. (Even though my mom couldn't make it with the snowy weather, Elliott talked to her on the phone, showing her his trains and books and playing with her, it was like she was here too!) It's special moments like this that remind me how important family is. I am glad we are one big, eternal family!

And happy birthday Elliott!