Tristan's REAL Birthday

Tristan's real birthday fell five days after his party, so of course we had to celebrate for the whole week! I was SO disappointed when I realized that Brent wouldn't be able to be there for his birthday, or even see him on his birthday, so we tried to make the best of it and celebrate earlier in the week. See my next post for our fun, spontaneous trip to the zoo for some stolen family time. But THIS was his very special day. I tried to pack in as much fun as possible.

Sleepy eyed, sweet little two year old mister. I can't believe that my boy is two. He is so precious, so cuddly in the morning, yet so very crabby when I go to get him. Most mornings, he calls for daddy and he's a bit disappointed to see me show up. He says, "NO!" and lays back down. In spite of that joyous welcome, I still would like to kiss that sweet face off.
After his refreshing cup of milk, he was ready to start his day, but not before he protested the balloons tied to his chair. I told him I'd remove them once I took his picture, but once in the chair, he warmed to the idea.
Ahh, this is the life! Sprinkle pancakes on your most special day.
After dropping Maura off at school, we took a quick trip to Target to let Tristan pick out a few birthday toys. He picked out a cool helicopter and a bubble gun. Fun times. We then went to the park for a picnic with Grammy, Lorie and Alex. Tristan was styling in his shades and bib.
Who better to share your birthday with than your Grammy--especially if she's going to bring the picnic lunch! Thanks Grammy!
This might look like a sweet photo of two cousins, but it's really Tristan playing keep away from Alex. She wanted the Teddy Grahams and he didn't see any reason to share them. Notice that helicopter clutched tightly in his hot little hand. He hardly put it down all day.
We had a little photo session in the beautiful outdoor gardens. Tristan isn't exactly the most cooperative photographic subject, but we did our best. Aunt Lorie brought her nice camera and we attempted to get some "just turned two" images.
Farmer Tristan
Fisherman Tristan. I'm not digging the comb over look that he's got going on. I didn't realize at the time how bad his hair looked. Wish I'd noticed a bit sooner and employed a hairbrush! He looks a bit like a mini Donald Trump!

It's a brave momma that allows her boy to put his feet in the fishpond while in his good clothes and while standing across the pond from him. This could have been all kind of catastrophes, but it worked out OK.
LOVE this baby boy. He just wanted to touch those fishies so badly!
Just a LITTLE closer!!
What a fun day at the park. We packed up and went to pick up Maura and some ice cream! Yum.
One last sniff of the posies and we were ready to leave!
Aunt Lorie came over for steak, baked potatoes, corn, salad and broccoli salad. Yum. Not diabetic friendly, but delicious!! Tristan was most excited about the ice cream and cake. He LOVED having the candle and having us sing to him. In fact, we had to sing "Happy Birthday" three separate times. He grinned every moment while we sang to him. He melted my heart.
The birthday boy with his loot. He was much more interested in opening his gifts on his birthday than he was at his party, I guess because there was a lot less distraction!
OH. MY. This boy was crazy about his remote controlled car. He still thinks it's hilarious to run things over with it and giggles the whole time he's running it. GOOD present!
Cars, the movie, was a big hit too. We have yet to watch it the whole way through, but he asks for it all the time now.

Tristan at Two is a giant. Most people think he's closer to three than two, which is difficult because Tristan still acts like a two year old. VERY much like a two year old. He's into throwing screaming tantrums when he doesn't get his way. It's not uncommon for me to leave him screaming on the floor of a public place and walk away so that he knows that I'm serious about not giving in to him. He generally notices I'm gone and comes running penitently back to me soon afterward. My "favorite" reaction from him lately is "NO! Never EVER!" I'm not sure where this came from, but I hear it a LOT. We're still trying to work on his reactions. I'm not a fan of the screaming, throwing and hitting, so we've been spending lots of time in time out. Thankfully, it's very effective with him and he's learning a lot.

Back to the giant part, Tristan is 37.5 inches tall and 38.5 pounds. That puts his squarely WAY over the hundredth percentile. When we saw the doctor for his two year old checkup, he came in and said, "Tristan continues to make his own growth curve. There's no such thing as anything above the 100th percentile, but if you had to label his curve, he's probably about the 120th percentile for height and 150th for weight. Hilarious--except for my poor back! The doctor isn't concerned about his size because he looks so proportionate. If I double his height at two, he should end up being about 6'3'' as an adult. Brent is so excited!!! He envisions a pro-wide receiver someday.

Communication-wise, Tristan is really exploding. For a boy who was communicating in one to two word sentences at 18 months, he's practically having conversations. He comes out with multiple new words every day. He's using 4-5 word sentences now and speaking more every day. He is a very effective communicator and I understand most of what he says to me. He uses his tenses correctly all the time. He's working on being very polite. He says "Thank you" most of the time and he's really great about asking politely for things by saying "Please Ma'am!" It's hard to resist that and he pretty much gets what he asks for!

Physically, Tristan is VERY active. He's strong as an ox, too strong for his pregnant momma. I wrestle him out of his crib, into his highchair, up to wash his hands, and into his car seat multiple times a day, so when Brent gets home, I allow him to take the lead in Tristan care. Tristan is fast and loves to jump, but he's a bit klutzy, so he falls down and hits his head multiple times a day. Poor baby. He's always coming to me for kisses to fix the "broken" part and for multiple band aids. We joke about Tristan and say he goes from pillar to post. Mostly, he just doesn't settle on one activity for more than a few seconds at a time. It's hard to keep him occupied when he's always in motion.

Tristan is very friendly and much more relational than Maura was at his age. He knows lots of names of people than I would expect. At church tonight, he looked up at a guy who works in the nursery once a month and said, "BOB!" I was impressed! He gives hugs and kisses to many people other than family and he loves having little friends. His favorite friends at the moment are Liam and Carter. He asks to go to Liam's house all the time. He LOVES his Daddy--no one even comes close, except maybe Poppa. He asks to go to Grammy's house all the time--I think mostly because he wants to ride on Pappap's tractor!

Some Tristanisms:"I do dis BY MYSELF!", "Where Nee-nee?"(blanket), "No, Maura! Time out!"(I've had to explain that only Daddy and I are allowed to send anyone to time out.), "MINE!", "MY TURN!", "Go OUTSIDE!", "Jesus book"(when he wants to read just one more book before bedtime--manipulative??)

I love this sweet baby boy--he's not going to win any awards for best new brother of the year, but we love him just the same. Pray for him and for us as we make this huge transition in the next few weeks from him BEING the baby to us HAVING a baby!