Ben is 2!

Well, it is official. My little man is now the big 2! I can hardly believe it has been that long, but it's true. Sadly, I'll have to post photos later. I tried to get ahead and dumped all of the pictures on my computer. Unfortunately, my computer and the wireless internet have a love/hate relationship so it is not cooperating. I guess I will have to use my words to paint a picture.

His actual birthday didn't go so well. It was a school day so I made him go to nursery. That sounds terrible, but they make me pay regardless and it's only one day a week. He's been having a good time there lately, but this week he was a little sad. He is now officially in the toddler room. He has been there before, but never for all day. Plus, I suspect he knew something was up. He is rather astute like that. Anyway, so when I picked him up, he was refusing his fruit and looking like someone had taken his toy. When we got home, he got to talk to Joe and was happy to play. So far so good.

The plan was to do cake and presents with Minh and Brooke from next door and have Joe's family on Skype. That was the plan... Minh and Brooke were late because of a last minute phone call. Skype REFUSED to cooperate. Ben did not like his birthday cake. Oh, well...on to presents! So he opened up a few and played happily. Then I brought down his big gift, a shiny red plastic motorcycle that he can scoot around on. Epic fail! Despite that it is quite wide, I think he felt unstable on it. Between that and the fact that he had only a 45-minute nap at school, he was in a foul mood. Eventually, I put the bike in the other room while he screamed bloody murder. At some point, I got him to calm down and watch tv and eat some crackers. However, when I put him to bed, more high pitched screaming. The kind of screams where you know that is hurting the person who is doing it.

On a funny note, I actually took a 15-second video of the screaming for Joe. I wasn't trying to get sympathy. I was trying to make him feel better. He had been feeling sad about missing Ben's birthday. I wanted him to know that he missed nothing.

Yesterday, I took Ben to a wildlife park. I had already deicided that we would do that instead of a party. When we got up, it was cloudy and a bit wet. We went anyway and the rain managed to hold off almost the whole time. To be honest, Ben was more interested in playing with the stones along the path, but I think he had a good time. It was a small park so we were able to most of the animals. They also had a few play areas, but it was too wet for him to properly enjoy. Just about the time we were done, the sky opened up. I put him in the car with some snacks and headed home, all before nap time. Success!