Jones turned 2 on April 4. Two. How unreal is that? When I got up on Thursday morning, I thought back to what I was doing on April 4, 2011, two whole years ago. While I can barely remember what I did the night before nowadays, I can clearly remember that day. We had thought we were going to induce on April 6, so I was thinking I had a little more time to prepare. I had developed a pain in my side over the weekend, and I mentioned this to my doctor when he came to check on my that morning. Well, turns out that the pain meant my liver was enlarging and my preeclampsia was morphing into HELLP Syndrome. The only cure for this is: delivery! So, the doctor got everything ready for me to be induced as soon as possible, and I called Alan and all of the important people to let them know we were proceeding ahead of schedule, and we got down to the business of having a baby. I was 36 weeks and one day pregnant. Jones made his debut at 8:11 p.m. with a loud wail that impressed all of the nurses and doctors in the room, and brought relief to all of us since bringing Jones into the world had been fraught with more complications than we had planned on. I remember feeling totally overwhelmed by feelings, with a large helping of disbelief that we had us a baby.
A year later, I couldn't believe a whole year had gone by and we had a one year old! Jones was just learning to walk and babble and eat finger foods and drink from a sippy cup.
And now it's two years later, and Jones is definitely a two-year-old, and definitely all boy. When people ask me how Jones is doing, I like to reply, "He's two." If the person I'm talking to is a parent, they totally understand and get a little giggle out of that description. He's so busy, all of the time: running, jumping, climbing, talking and babbling, playing with toys, giving hugs, giving kisses ... I can hardly keep up!
We started off April 4, 2013, with a birthday cupcake:
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| Cupcakes for breakfast are awesome! |
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| Augie is all about birthday breakfast cupcakes. See the cupcakes on the counter behind him? Yeah, I went to get Jones ready for school, and when I returned, three of those cupcakes had been eaten by Spoiled Labrador # 1. Yes, 3 cupcakes. Spoiled Labrador # 1 ate the baby's cupcakes. Augie has no shame. |
He had a big day at school, and brought cupcakes and Capri Suns for all of his classmates and they all sang Happy Birthday to him in music class that day.
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| My big boy! |
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| Birthday hugs! |
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| Birthday kisses! |
This was followed by dinner with Grammy and Papa, and Nana:
And then we had the big birthday bash on Saturday!
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Alas, I did not get a picture of everyone singing Happy Birthday to Jones,
or him blowing out his candles, but his cake was super cute :o) |
We had a cardboard box party, and thankfully the weather was great, so all of the kids got to hang out outside and play in the cardboard boxes, and the bouncy castle, and just generally enjoy the fresh air.
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| A maze of cardboard boxes, hand-graffitied by Mama, Daddy, and Nana! |
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| Mattie May going though the maze of boxes! |
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| Jones, playing/working on sharing with Molly Mc and Reynolds |
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| Mama, Daddy, and the Birthday Boy! |
The Spoiled Labradors were sequestered from the party, but they got to watch, and they were a big hit - I think a lot of the kiddos don't have big dogs at home, so they were fascinated by Aug and Layla, and wanted to pet and play with them, and of course they obliged by sitting very close to the fence all day to allow for little hands to reach through the chain link and pet them. One of our guests brought their brand new lab puppy (at our insistence, naturally - what more could you ask for at a two-year-old birthday party than a lab puppy?!). It was so cute, the kids loved it! I think Aug and Layla were jealous ... and Alan and I could barely remember when they were puppies!
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| She handled all of the attention really well :o) |
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| A true dog lover! Shout out to Julie for capturing this precious picture! Amy, the puppy's mommy, said that when she walked through the house with the puppy, Jones saw her, pointed at the puppy and said, "I want that!" Ha! |
We had a cookout, and the birthday boy barely had time to eat! He preferred sneaking bites off of Nana's plate and Tee's plate:
Jones is an expert present opener, and people were so generous, it really was just kind of mind-boggling. We opened presents for quite a while ... it took a longer time this year, because everything we opened, he had to stop and play with it before we moved on to the next gift.
And now, a general smattering of pictures I managed to take (you will note that Jones is wearing three different shirts and sometimes no shirt at all in these pictures - he played hard, and spilled a lot, so we went through several wardrobe changes, which I guess is a sure sign of a successful party).
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| The birthday boy and PePaw! |
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| Charlie and Molly Mc and their respective parents |
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| The Whitt Family! |
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| Me and my bestie, Jessica, and our kiddos, future roommates and besties at the U of A :o) |
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| Nana, PePaw, and Tee with the birthday boy! |
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| Uncle Patrick, Aunt Sarah, and Mattie May with the birthday boy (in between wardrobe changes) |
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| Granddad Richard, Grandma Betty, and Daddy with the birthday boy |
It was a great party, and a lot of fun, and a great way to celebrate a special little boy.
Jones, we love you so much! Happy Birthday! It's been the best two years of our lives, with you having made our family complete! We love you, buddy!
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