two - twenty four months

happy birthday!  daxton is officially two years old!  what a wonderful two years it has been!  our precious boy is growing fast and its just amazing to watch him develop from a baby into a little boy!

at daxton's last birthday he wasn't even walking and now our boy just runs and jumps all over the place.  if we go outside he takes right off and runs as fast as he can.  he's hardly ever still.  he recently decided to become a dare devil and now he likes to spend his afternoon doing tumbles off of the couch (head first) onto the floor.  he does it slowly so he can control the fall, and then as soon as its complete he does it again - again - again!  dax loves to throw things.  he unfortunately doesn't know the difference between throwing a ball and throwing a toy truck, but we're working on that.

last year i wished that my baby would eat pho, and this year he did.  not just once (confirmed no fluke) - but on multiple occasions.  he's definitely not as adventurous as i had hoped, but he does eat more than macaroni and cheese.  right now he's still in love with spaghetti, yogurt, smoothies, clementines, popcorn, pizza, crackers, and veggies disguised as "fruit" - i still sneak pouches in with mixtures of veggies to get some nutrients in him. 

dax's favorite toys are choo choos, rockets, toy dishes, toy food, cars, trucks, along with light switches - on, off, on, off, on, off - you get the idea.  (that all goes back to the adventurous thing where he likes to climb on any chair that he can find to reach the switch.)  he likes to make noise - singing, babbling, talking, and banging anything he can find on the thing that makes the most racket.  he gets such joy out of making noise that we bought him a tambourine on his birthday.  hopefully he'll continue to make a joyful noise.  yesterday he strummed will's guitar for applause.  he would strum some notes and then peek around waiting for us to cheer and clap.  we continued on with this for about 20 minutes until mommy's throat was too sore to cheer.  he probably would have kept up the concert all night.

daxton is full of a loving spirit.  he loves all people and appreciates the interactions he gets from all people in line at the checkout.  he hams it up and makes sweet faces to get them to talk with him and then he'll give them the "sassy eyes" and lay his head across the handle of the shopping cart as if to act like he never solicited any of this attention.  he knows what he's doing.  he still gets us with his "awwwwe" as he leans in for a smooch and a hug.  he loves to greet daddy every afternoon with full on smiles and lots of hugs and attention.  he's totally a daddy's boy.

for daxton's birthday day we both took the day off.  when we heard daxton rousting on the monitor we dawned our party hats and headed into his room singing "happy birthday" while dancing.

daxton danced around his crib and bounced from one side to the other while we sang every rendition of the birthday song that we know.  after about 8 versions daxton reached for daddy to lift him into his arms.

don't mind husband's bed head - this is real life people.

we continued to dance and sing around the room until it was time to hand over the passie and get a diaper change.  daxton had a birthday breakfast with his typical yogurt and fruit along with a buttered biscuit.  (biscuits are his new found love.  he normally never likes bread, but i think this may call for a trip to the cracker barrel.)  after breakfast we opened some gifts that had been mailed.

aunt sheree and uncle arnold sent dax two thomas the train books.  he was in love with them and especially has a fondness for the one that is a tiny view finder.  he spent most of the day on saturday shining it on every surface.  today i showed him that you could even shine it on your shirt and he thought that was pretty amazing.  

after the presents were opened and the dust had settled we took him upstairs to unveil his tiny little kitchen set from mommy and daddy.  

we played with the kitchen for quite a while.  dax prepared us some food, tested out the faucet by washing some dishes, and opened and closed the stove and cabinet about a hundred times.  we think its going to be a winner.

after we all got cleaned up we headed down town for lunch and an afternoon at the marbles kids museum.  we took dax to get some pizza for lunch.  it took a little longer than he had hoped for, so he ate quite a few snacks while he waited - but he did enjoy the pizza when it finally arrived.

after the pizza we walked across the park to get to the museum.  dax loved being able to do a little running on his own without any hand holding.

daxton was getting a little fussy by the time we made it to the museum.  he's used to nap directly after lunch.  however, in order to be able to go to the museum - we had to go pre-nap.  we weren't sure what we were going to get, but it all worked out very well.

daxton checked out every exhibit in the museum.  he had particular fun at the basketball hoops, the trampoline, the kid's kitchen, the dance room, the pirate ship, and the piggy money bank.  he ran and played until he could play no more.  we enjoyed every second of watching him smile, learn, and explore.  when he was all tuckered out we carried him back to the car and he fell asleep on the way home.  

poor fella napped for four hours.  when he finally woke up he wasn't feeling so swell, but we knew he needed dinner so we'd planned to take him to a diner for a milk shake.  we thought that would make his throat feel better.

unfortunately he did not want to try the milk shake by straw or by spoon so he totally missed out.  however, he was very captivated by the dinner served in a truck.  although a dinner of french fries (he passed on the grilled cheese) is not very healthy, you only have a birthday once a year.  poor fella coughed all the way home and then got his meds and went straight back to bed.

we've got an appointment at an ENT on wednesday, so we're hoping they've got some suggestions for our poor fella who has chronic ear infections and a continual runny nose.  i suffered from similar issues (and still do somewhat) so i know its no fun to have reoccurring ear nose and throat problems.  we pray we'll figure out the cause of all of this (suspected multiple allergies) and get to work addressing the cause so he doesn't have to suffer like this any more.

we're so thankful for all that this past year has held for our little precious boy.  he's a bright light in our family and we still miss him while he naps and cannot wait until he wakes up.  he's fun, he's smart, he's kind, he's handsome - and we just thank God for every day he's in our lives.