Pete's Party

Peter didn't like his party hat or his family singing Happy Birthday to him

A 2-year-old doesn't understand what a birthday party is, let alone a birthday. But Ryan and I think that any photographic proof/ammunition we can produce right now to disprove Peter's almost certain to happen teenage rant of "You never did anything for me," is enough reason to have a birthday party for a 2-year-old. So we had a small family party a couple of weeks ago (it's taken me this long to finally go through the photos).

My mom generously offered to bake the birthday cake and I smartly and generously accepted her offer (it's not nice to invite people to a party and serve them a cake I baked). We discussed possible themes for the cake but were unable to come up with anything. Peter is one of those rare toddlers that is not obsessed with a particular animal/vehicle/cartoon character. Really his dream cake would be 12 mini cupcakes frosted in 6 different colors; he could spend his entire party sorting and lining up the cupcakes. Then my mom and I realized that there is something that Peter loves more than anything: Big Walter! So my mom made an amazing cake of Peter's beloved dog. We were a little worried that he wouldn't want to eat the Big Walter cake but of course he scarfed it down because it was cake.

Peter was a bit confused about everything. And having 10 adults sing Happy Birthday to him was more than he could handle (apparently our singing voices are worse than we thought). But overall I thought it was a success. We were able to spend time with our families, celebrate an adorable little boy, spoil Peter more, and eats lots of cake.

Peter with the real Big Walter and the cake Big Walter

Hmm, maybe this birthday thing isn't so bad

Yummy cake

Happy Birthday Peter!

My baby is 2 today! Here's a little video celebrating Peter's illustrious life thus far through photos. Enjoy.

When I was putting together this video there was no question of what song to use. "Starlight" by Muse will always be to me Peter's song; whenever I hear it I always think of him and the weeks following his birth. As many of you know Peter had to stay in the hospital for 3 weeks after he was born. Because of this I was pumping my breast milk every 3 hours around the clock. During the first week I often did my middle of the night pumps on the glider in Peter's unused room in an effort to feel closer to him. One night I decided to listen to my iPod while I pumped to keep me awake. As I sat there with one of Peter's blankets around me, "Starlight" came up on shuffle. Even though I had heard the song before and liked it (I did put it on my iPod) this time it was different. Listening to it I felt closer to my little boy who was miles away from me. I just wanted to hold him in my arms and never let go. Since that night whenever I hear "Starlight" I always think of Peter and how much I love him and what he means to me.

E is One!

Happy Birthday E! You are adorable and so much fun. Peter's very lucky to have you as a friend (he likes showing off for you).