For Nathan’s 2nd birthday we threw him a robot-themed birthday party.  He absolutely loved it!  Would it surprise anyone to know that robot party supplies and favors are not readily available?  It surprised me.  I had to order the plates, napkins and decorations online, which wasn’t a big deal but we had to get creative when it came to invitations and signs.  Good thing there’s an artist in the family!

Balloon

Jeremy designed an awesome invitation, which we emailed out to everyone to stick with the robot theme.

Of course, Jeremy designed a birthday shirt again this year.  I don’t have a really good picture of it, but you can get the idea from the photo below.  Hopefully Jeremy was able to catch a glimpse of it on video.

We ordered the cake from Hy-Vee again this year and she did a fantastic job once again.  I took them one of the napkins I ordered for a reference and this is what she created.

When it came time to sing “Happy Birthday,” Nathan decided to play shy again.  If you look closely on the chair, you can see his little booty sticking up in the air.

He wanted mommy to help him blow out the candles.

We were very lucky to have most of the family in from Iowa and Oklahoma to celebrate, along with some good friends.

Nathan was very thankful to receive some wonderful presents.  Among them were a Spiderman scooter and helmet from mommy and daddy, an art easel, a t-ball set, tool bench, some great fun shirts and socks, an AquaDoodle, a remote control truck, play-doh and tickets to see Sesame Street Live in a couple weeks.  He loves all of the gifts and will have a lot of fun playing with them.  Good thing he had a lot of help unwrapping everything. 

Nathan decided he needed to ride his scooter immediately after he opened it.  Here is the inaugural run, with Papa’s assistance.

We eventually had to put it away because it became a source of contention and caused a lot of fighting between the older kids.

Brandon helped Grandpa put the tool bench together.

Stay tuned for video, once Jeremy has time to edit everything.

Thank you to everyone who sent birthday wishes, cards and gifts.  Nathan is truly blessed to have such wonderful, thoughtful people in his life.  Now I’m praying that we can get through this year with a minimal amount of temper tantrums and other such 2-year-old issues.  Here’s hoping!

After we picked Great Aunt Necy up from the airport last Thursday we headed out to T-Rex to have a pre-birthday celebration with Aunt Angela, Tyler and Brandon.  Even though Nathan had been there once before, he was pretty intimidated by the big dinosaurs and didn’t really want to walk around by himself.  It was one of the best dining-out experiences we’ve had in a long time because Nathan didn’t want to leave his seat, so we weren’t constantly chasing after him!

Because it was his birthday, Nathan was treated to a birthday song and treat.  When the clapping started he got really excited and started clapping along…

until he realized that they were clapping for him.  He decided to pretend he was shy and hide his face.

Anyone who knows him knows he’s not shy!

Nathan was very nice and shared his birthday treat with Tyler and Brandon.

After a delicious dinner we took the boys over to Build-A-Dino so Nathan could build his birthday animal.  Nathan chose to build a triceratops and Tyler chose a T-Rex.  Brandon chose a smaller dinosaur that was already stuffed.  Here are some highlights…

We were very glad we got to spend the evening with G.A. Necy, Angela, Tyler and Brandon!  Hopefully the next time we go back Nathan will be able to enjoy himself.

I can’t believe my baby boy is 2 years old!  I know, I know…he’s going to grow up, it’s a natural part of life.  Blah, blah, blah.  Some days I have a hard time believing that I’m the mommy of a 2 year old, but then Nathan screams “no” at the top of his lungs because I told him he needs a diaper change or throws a 10 minute temper-tantrum because he doesn’t like the fork he’s using (true story).  Then I’m snapped back to reality.    For the most part he’s a good boy and he’s getting more fun to play with every day. We can’t wait until it warms back up and we can start playing outside again!

Today Nathan had his 2 year check-up and final round of vaccinations for a while.  He took them like a champ and didn’t cry at all.  He’s a very tough little boy!  Nathan weighs 32.8 lbs. (92nd percentile) and is 36 inches tall (95th percentile).  He has not gained any weight since the 18 month appointment, but his pediatrician isn’t too worried about it because of his size.  He’s really starting to slim down, he barely has a belly anymore!  And, not to mention that he’s kind of been on a hunger strike lately because he’s getting all of his molars.  Dr. Rodgers deemed him very healthy and said that he’s meeting all of his developmental milestones.  He’s turning into quite a little man.