Just Two

Since two is the recognized age when preemies stop using an adjusted age (the age he would have been if he had been born on his due date), Max is now just plain old two any way you slice it! Max had a very nice birthday. He got up early and Mom made him pancakes (his favorite) for breakfast. After he had gobbled up two and a half pancakes, Max played and got to watch a Baby Einstein. It's the only TV he watches and he doesn't watch one every day, so he was very happy and excited by the treat. If you ask him if he wants to watch a "'Stein," he claps and squeals and dances around while saying, "Peese!" every couple of minutes.

Max was less than thrilled about taking his nap and he didn't end up sleeping very long. We just had a small family party, but he enjoyed himself thoroughly. We had pizza and breadsticks (another favorite) before we started in on the present opening. Max did have an unexpected party guest -- Coyote came to dinner! While we were eating, we looked int he back yard and were surprised to see a coyote walking along our back fence. Since we live in a residential area, it was a big surprise to see a coyote in our back yard! I guess Max can skip the spirit quest, since it looks like he already has his animal guide. ;)

After his present unwrapping practice at Christmas, Max was pretty enthusiastic about tearing off the wrapping paper. But, as might be expected, he opened the first present and just wanted to play with his new toy instead of opening any more presents. If two year olds had their way, it would take about a day and a half for them to open all their gifts! We did manage to coax him into opening a couple more presents, until he unwrapped the stack of books from Mom and Dad. All he wanted to do was read his new books (that's my boy!) and it took a lot of persuasion (and some slight of hand) to convince him to open some more presents. He got a lot of neat presents -- some favorites being the Playskool Busy Gears toy from his great aunt and uncle, a wooden xylophone from his grandma and grandpa, and the Press N Go Inchworm from his other grandma and grandpa. Max was delighted to discover that a xylophone "concert" earned him lots of applause, so the little ham would bang away at the xylophone, stand up and turn around, and wait for the clapping to being (grinning all the way). Now we just need to teach him how to take a bow ... ;)

Once again, Max was a big fan of the birthday cake. Mom made him a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting (you can't go wrong with chocolate on chocolate) and he happily devoured his portion of cake and ice cream. We were a little worried when Max stopped shoveling sweets into his face and started yelling, until we realized that he'd tried to eat too much ice cream at once and was having an attack of freeze face. His cake eating skills have much improved since last year, since he managed to eat his dessert without getting a single spot on his outfit.

Max is having a good time playing with all of his new toys, although Mom and Dad are trying to figure out where to put them all! I think it's about time to pack up some of his older toys and stash them in a basement for a month or so. Then we can rotate his toys around so he can have "new" things to play with on a regular basis. One bad thing about having a birthday right after Christmas is that you get all your new toys in one fell swoop. I did tell Max that he might get a "birthday" tricycle this summer. Molly, as you might expect, was less than impressed with all the fuss being made over her big brother (since all attention rightfully belongs to her).