Brooklyn turned 2 on Friday, in case you hadn’t heard ;) Her birthday happened to be Friday the 13th, but despite the superstition, she actually had a really great day!
I work almost every Friday, so I worked that day. I made sure to tell them I wanted to be off earlier in the afternoon though, so I only had to stay until 2 PM. It was nice! Friday also happened to be the very first day of “Daddy Daycare”. We have an arrangement with Tyler and Alisha where the one of the daddies will be babysitting Brooklyn AND Carter every Friday while Alisha and I work. Travis and Tyler have every other Friday off, and their off Fridays happen to be opposite weeks, so one of them is always home on Fridays.
So, last Friday was Travis’s first time to babysit both kiddos at the same time. I think I was more nervous about it than he was, but he was just looking forward to a day at home after a long week at work. He had pretty low expectations for how the day would go, and he said it went great overall! Apparently, Carter takes a bottle like a champ (something Brooklyn would NEVER do!), and he was pretty content all day. Travis said Brooklyn was a little more clingy to him than normal. She wouldn’t play in her room by herself; she wanted to be out in the living room with him and Carter all day. But, he said she wasn’t whiny or annoying about it…she just stuck close by. I think she was pretty interested in Carter and seeing him swing and drink from a bottle. Apparently, she also laid down beside him on the activity mat at one point…haha. Of course, we have no pictures from the day to document anything. Travis’s excuse was that “he lived it.” Such a man! So, I made sure to get a picture of all 3 of them before Carter left just to prove that they all survived :)
How do you get a 2 year old and a 3 month old to look at the camera at the same time? Answer: You don’t! Oh well :)
Anyway, I’m so glad that they had a good day! Travis will be babysitting both of them again next Friday (the 27th), so hopefully that day will go just as smoothly :)
Tyler came to pick up Carter around 3 PM that afternoon, and after I took a shower and Travis touched up some paint in the closet we’re re-doing, we headed to IHOP for Brooklyn’s birthday supper. She really likes pancakes (and we had an IHOP coupon), so we decided that would be the perfect place to take her. It turned out to be a hit!!
Ready to go eat pancakes!
“Let’s hurry up and go!”
While we waited for our food, Brooklyn colored…
…and chewed on a straw!
Brooklyn’s frugal parents actually ordered her a Kids Meal…can you believe it? This pancake was a great choice! She loved the fruit, ate a lot of the pancake, and it came with strawberry yogurt on the side. Yum!
So good!
After supper, we stopped by Cici’s for Brooklyn to open her birthday gift (a balloon and a set of Dr. Seuss books), and we stayed to visit for a while. Overall, Brooklyn had a great birthday!!
Fast forward to Sunday lunch, and we had Travis’s family over to celebrate. I kept the “party” pretty simple, but I did go out and buy a few Doc McStuffins decorations to make it festive. Cici brought steaks and fresh strawberries over, and I cooked macaroni and cheese, green beans, and rolls to go with them. We also had strawberry cake for dessert!
The birthday girl!
So much static! :)
Showing Cici how to take care of her baby doll…
Putting the paci in :)
Ready to eat!
Finishing up with lunch–yes, we ate our steaks on paper plates! They were too cute to pass up…plus it made for easy clean up :)
Some of the Doc McStuffins decor :)
After lunch, we watched a slideshow I’d made with pictures of Brooklyn from the last year. Of course, she loves to see pictures and videos of herself :)
Then, it was time for presents! Brooklyn got her very own “big girl potty” from Mommy and Daddy. She was very excited about this! She likes to sit on it, but so far nothing has happened besides that. I’m not in too big of a hurry to get her potty trained, so we’ll see how this goes :)
Testing it out!
We also got her a new Bible since her old one is so worn out…
She got a couple of other books from Uncle Tyler, Aunt Alisha, and baby Carter.
But, the hit of the day was a stuffed animal Nemo (“Me-mo”) from Cici, along with some plastic Finding Nemo figurines. Brooklyn loves Finding Nemo!!
After she was finished opening presents, it was time to eat cake!
I stayed up too late on Saturday making this cake, but I think it turned out cute. It was pretty tasty too! :)
I thought the Doc McStuffins candle added a nice touch on top :)
First, we sang to the birthday girl, and then we tried to get her to blow out the candle. She couldn’t blow hard enough to blow it out, so she got a little help from Aunt Alisha and Aunt Emily…although right before that, she tried to put out the flame with her finger. Whoops! That child knows no fear :)
Overall, it was a great birthday weekend! The celebrating isn’t over yet, though. We’re celebrating Brooklyn’s and Aunt Jenn’s birthdays with my family next weekend, so that should be fun too. More cake and presents—what else could a 2 year old want? :)
