Happy 2nd Birthday, Joshua

Happy Birthday, Buddy Boo!

Joshua got to celebrate his second birthday over a period of days as visitors and presents arrived one by one for several days...we were afraid he'd start to think everyday was his birthday. The celebrating began the weekend before his birthday, when Papa, Gigi, Aunt Janelle, and Uncle Jeremy came to visit. Uncle Marc (a new Jacksonvillian) joined us for lunch and cake.

The fire truck from Papa and Gigi is a new favorite toy

Josh is really into choo-choos right now, so I wanted to make a train cake. I was fully prepared for him to not notice the cake at all, but he loved it! For days after, whenever anyone said, "Happy Birthday", Josh's first response was, "Eat...choo-choo...cake."

Joshua got to start out the morning of his actual birthday with a banana split. Daniel fondly remembers doing that growing up, so we're continuing in the tradition.
For dinner that night we had Josh's favorite food - HOT DOGS! (Whenever he's pretend cooking and I ask him what his making it is ALWAYS hot dogs!)
Opening his gift from us - the wrapping paper is Elmo in a fire truck, does it get any better for a 2 year old boy?
The gift is not as cool as it looked in the store, so it will be getting returned for something more worthy. Thankfully he's not really old enough to miss it and has lots of other new toys to play with.

This second year of life has been an eventful one for Joshua - learning to run, gallop, jump, TALK...getting a baby sister...losing a tooth...first stitches...and many more things I'm sure we're forgetting. We love our little guy and delight in how much of a BOY he is...he loves to be outside, make VROOM, VROOM sounds, play trains, get dirty, go to the beach, and explore. There's new challenges now as he begins to assert his own desires (demands?), but we are so blessed by our boy...his sweet kisses, reminders to pray (especially for Gigi), zest for life and all the extra laughs he brings to everyday. What a great 2nd year, BIG boy!