2 years

It's official. Our baby is now a 2-year-old. Friday was the big day. I took the day off work so I could celebrate with him every waking minute! He started off by waking up to a room full of balloons (unfortunately I was limited to using our telephoto lens for that shoot and could only get a close-up of his face-- as I was standing in the hall-- but trust me, there were balloons!).

Then he and Mommy made crepes for breakfast. I think this was his first crepe experience and he loved every part of it- though he wouldn't eat any of the parts together, just straight crepe or straight pudding or handfuls of berries!

After crepes, Daddy set up Porter's new big-boy bed . . . because 2 years makes you an official 'big boy.' And because we have a baby coming in 5 months and figured this might be a good time to detach him from his crib!

Then we headed to the mall for a fun birthday Build-a-Bear experience. In our defense, we really thought Porter would like it. But he ended up running around the store, pushing a pink stroller and screaming at the top of his lungs while Mommy chased him and Daddy was left to build the bear (or dog, rather) by himself. It was pretty funny.

After nap time, we had the grandparents and Uncle Derek over for a birthday dinner, followed by a showing of Porter's yearly slideshow (as Porter did a live dance performance throughout the whole show in front of the tv!). This is one of my favorite traditions. Brian makes a slideshow for each year of Porter's life and puts them on a dvd. It is so fun to see the pictures and videos from the whole year. It makes you realize just how fast they are changing. And I love that it gives us a place to show off all the cute little video clips that you record then forget you have. (And I'm kicking myself for not getting a picture of Porter with his grandparents on his birthday. Maybe I'll make them all pose and pretend it's his birthday again next time we see them!)

Porter opened his presents, then we ate birthday cake.

And after everyone left, Porter got to spend his first night in his big-boy bed. He actually did really well! I love that he still sits up and cries for us in the morning to come get him out of bed. I wonder when he'll figure out just how much freedom he really has. Such a silly boy!

Birthdays are so much fun! And I love to see how much more Porter enjoys them as he gets older. I can't believe he's two!