Elliott's Birthday Pah-tay

Here are some pictures from Elliott's rocking 2nd birthday party! As many of you know, we found out poor Elliott is allergic to antibiotics a couple of days before his birthday party, so he looks quite awful in these pictures, so please ignore that! But enjoy Elliott and his darling friends... we had so much fun!

Elliott lets his girlfriend take his brand-new tractor out for a spin. She brought it back in one piece.

Elliott opening his present. He REALLY liked the pom poms and googly eyes on the wrapping paper!

More present upwrapping!

Friends...

More friends...

And more friends!

Everyone enjoying some cake.

Especially Elliott. Chocolate... his favorite!

Elliott blowing out the birthday candles on his cake (these pictures are a little backwards!)

A close up of Elliott's super-awesome Elmo cake. Beautiful and delicious!

Better late than never: Valentines Day

So, I realize that yesterday was St. Patrick's Day... so here are pictures of Valentine's Day! Makes sense, right? Well, actually, my mom reminded me that I promised to post these and never did... so here they are!

For Valentine's Day, I made one of mine and Bret's favorite dishes - bulgogi (Korean barbeque). To our surprise, Elliott loved it, and insisted on eating it with (special kid's) chopsticks just like Mommy and Daddy! (Thanks to Aunt Mia who had the foresight to give these to Elliott when he was still in utero!)

"I actually got some in my mouth!"

"Slippery little suckers!"

Think he'll eat veggies if I give it to him with chopsticks?

Happy Birthday!

HOLY CRAP! My baby is 2 years old. I'm not exactly sure how or when, but my little guy went from this...

to this...

Bret and I shared a wonderful birthday with Elliott today. We did our normal Tuesday thing... gymnastics, then not listening to story time at Barnes and Noble, and then Mommy/ Elliott (& Daddy) lunch date at Panera. Then we came home and had cake and presents!! In the picture above, you can see Elliott loved his chocolate cake... as well as the cool train engineer hat his Aunt Kelly got him!

The coolest thing about today was that Elliott "got" it. He's been asking for birthday cake for about 2 weeks, and this morning I asked him what day it was and he answered, "Birthday!" He blew out all the candles on his cake all by himself, made a royal mess eating it, and then said, "Presents!" when he was done. He "got" it.

Mr. Frog was, of course, present for the festivities. This party was family only... Elliott has a party with all his best buds on Saturday.

Playing with his new Duplo blocks with Daddy.

Mr. Frog joins in the building action too... this is a picture of Mr. Frog getting the block out of the bucket...

... and then Mr. Frog holding it up so Daddy can see.

Elliott's favorite present was a stethoscope, which he called "doctor." He took it up to bed with him when he went for a nap.

For me, it is a little bittersweet. While I relish every small milestone, I can't believe it all passes so quickly! At this major one, I realize my little guy is a baby no more. I wish I could bottle up those little toddler fingers, that squealing laugh, and his wide-eyed view of the world, so that O can hoard it and save it for a day when I might not be able to remember as clearly as I can today.

Well, I guess tomorrow will be just another day. But I'm sure it won't be boring :)

P.S. I didn't want to wait to do a birthday post, but I have lots of pictures I haven't posted yet from the last couple of weeks, so look for those in the coming days!