Happy 2nd Birthday to Our "Big Boy!"

Our baby boy is now a "big boy!" Hayes turned two a little over a week ago. We can't believe how much he has grown and how much we love our little man. You never know until you're a parent how much love your heart can hold until it multiplies each day with the love of your child.

Let's see... as far as development goes, here's the update for this month: Hayes had his two year check-up and totally impressed the doctor with his vocabulary and intelligence (I'm quite sure the good doctor acts impressed by every two year old in his office, but he made this mommy feel great!). Hayes is 35 inches tall (if he grows another quarter inch, his head will no longer clear underneath the kitchen island... I'm betting we're going to be kissing many boo-boos on his head until he learns to skirt around it). He weighs in at 28 pounds. I forgot to find out where on the growth curve he falls, but I'm pretty sure he's well over the 50th percentile marks--- a far cry from the 4th and 10th percentiles he started out at birth!

Hayes loves to play hide and seek and shrieks in delight when he's chased. He loves for us to pretend we're snoring or crying, to which he replies "stop crying" (even if we were "snoring") and then urges us to "cry/snore again!" Hayes has started switching pronouns and verbs while he's talking, trying to figure out which is appropriate. He'll pull covers off his head and say, "Here my am! Here my are!" Just in the past few days, he's started saying "I" instead of "my" or "muh" to indicate himself. Tonight he was saying, "I am strong" as he walked up the stairs. It is astounding to watch how much he is learning every day! Some of the things he's learning are just plain hilarious---Hayes is constantly saying things that crack us up. This morning Kyle was tickling Hayes and he said, "Daddy, keep your hands to yourself!" He told me last week, when I was teasing him, to "stop being fresh, mommy!" I know he must hear these things at daycare (one teacher in particular says the kids have been "fresh" if they've had a day of misbehaving).


Here is Hayes opening a few of his birthday gifts:

A really cool drawing board from his cousin Lilah:

A tool bench so he can be like his momma and work with his hands!

We had a birthday party for Hayes the Saturday after his actual birthday. We invited a few friends and their kiddos over to celebrate and were joined, of course, by Betty and Butch who were in town to visit (another post will be devoted to them later). I didn't include pictures of the party guests since I wasn't sure who was comfortable with their pictures posted on a blog. But here is Hayes with some balloons that were a gift from our neighbors:


The party had a "Cars" theme. I thought I'd have at least another year before we'd have to go the commercial character route for a birthday party, but Hayes loves "Queeny" (Lightning McQueen) and fell in love with the "Cars" cake pan at the store when we were shopping for one. What can you do except make them happy for their birthdays, right? (By the way, Hayes has never even seen the movie, so not sure when/where he learned about his "Queeny.") Here are some cupcakes:

Oh, and this is the cake! It took Betty and I two and a half hours to decorate! Thank goodness I had Betty to help! And here I thought I'd be going the easy route by not using fondant like a sis-in-law I know...

OK, so the rest of these are just random pics from the past few weeks.
Beautiful blue eyes:

Hayes loves to visit the local playgrounds. Here he is "walking the tightrope:"

Hayes especially loves the slides and always finds the tallest one on the playground:

Kyle joined in on the fun:

Hayes hasn't been a fan of the camera lately. Here he is after telling me, "no pictures, mommy!"

Hayes loves to play with stickers. He puts them all over himself and us!

Hayes made a Dr. Seuss hat at daycare. Isn't he adorable?

This is a video of Hayes blowing out his birthday candle on his actual birthday. He had a cupcake to go with it. We had been practicing blowing out the candle all week, so he wanted to blow it out "one more time!"