Boden turns 2!

Happy Birthday Boden Kai! Two years seemed to have flown by and I still remember his actual birth day like it was yesterday! It was a gorgeous Okinawa Monday, two of my best friends were my nurses, my midwife was on the deck, I had an amazing labor and delivery, and I delivered this perfect tiny little boy with a true knot in his cord and sunny side up. We had a few days of 2 kids under 2 and although crazy, I love their age gap, it is perfect.

Boden's 2nd birthday day was practically perfect as well! We woke up and went straight to the airport to pick up Mimi and Papa who flew in at 7:30. We then headed to Donut Bar downtown where we each got to pick out a donut to enjoy while we played at Waterfront Park.

Rowan and Boden each picked out this enormous pink sprinkle donut, while my parents and I all shared a maple bacon bar, Boston creme and creme brulee. They were all seriously delicious! Boden ate ALL of the top off his donut and then my mom helped him break the rest into small pieces that he threw to the pigeons. He was SO excited about this and couldn't stop telling us the rest of the day about throwing his donut to the birds, it was so cute.

Since we got to the park so early we were the only ones there for quite awhile which was pretty fun. People started to show up but it never got really busy even though we were there for over 3 hours! It was the perfect park morning. Rowan went down the tall fast slide about 100 times and Boden liked trying everything out!

At 10:30, they turned the fountains on so we ended our park time playing in the fountains which was perfect! I had initially thought they came on earlier so hadn't planned to be there that long, but we were all having a great time so it wasn't a burden at all to stay for hours.

After playing in the fountains for awhile, the kids decided they were cold and laid down on the warm cement to warm up for awhile. Papa joined in for naptime ;)

On the way home we needed to stop at Ikea to get their birthday present (my parents got them the adorable kitchen they have there)...so we drove through McDonalds where they each got a happy meal (I had a buy one get one free, score!) which is a special treat for them...They even got to eat it in the car while my mom and I ran into the store. The other special thing of the day was turning Boden's carseat forward facing! He looks so big now!

We came home for naps and hung out for a bit while waiting for Grant and then headed out for pizza for dinner (request of both kids) and home for ice cream after!

I love birthdays and celebrating my own kids' birthdays is about as good as it gets. Boden sang "Happy birthday to me!" all day long and it was about the cutest thing I've ever heard. When he woke up that morning, he saw his birthday chair all decorated before coming in my room and he gasped and said Happy birthday to me! I was almost surprised that he realized that it was his birthday. That was only the beginning of all the fun. 

Boden amazes me with his vocabulary and is anxious to talk as much as possible (which is a huge contrast from Rowan at this age so it's been a new adventure for us). He will repeat anything you say, loves to say prayers, knows what almost everything is called and speaks fairly clearly (although I obviously understand him better than anyone else and it helps when you hear his phrases in context). He is always running to keep up with Rowan and is a "crazy monkey" (he calls himself this whenever he is climbine or hanging on something).  He is learning to be super sneaky and will hide to try to get into things he knows he's not supposed to. He loves to "wash hands with soap" and gets into everything if you let him. Many days I feel like I just follow him around the house making sure he doesn't get into anything he's not supposed to! He just learned to pedal his tricycle, likes to ride the razor scooter and loves to dig in the dirt. He is fiercely independent and knows how to throw a fit if you help him do something that he doesn't want help with. He is such a fun and loving little guy, we are so blessed to have him in our family!