Sixteen

Milo is two!

Despite the obvious number two candle and constant reminders of how many years the Bum has resided on this earth, Milo still insists that he is sixteen. And no pointy party hat for this guy. When picking up a birthday present for a friend yesterday, Milo decided on this “Uncle Ryan Helmet,” which he proceeded to make much less intimidating by covering it in stickers sent from Grandma and Great Aunt Barb & Great Uncle Steve.

Disappointment? The realization that the fire was gone after Mom & Dad helped blow out the candle. Luckily, since we had discovered Milo’s disappointment in this phenomenon last week on Andrew’s birthday (there were actual tears shed after Andrew blew out his birthday candle… also the number two candle since I was too lazy to go out and buy the nine), we had back-up fire in the form of a candle lit on the table. Catastrophe avoided. No tears shed on b-day number two. Andrew came home early from work to make Milo’s birthday cake… delicious!

I had been planning to have a little birthday party for Milo this year since he has a good little group of friends now from playdates, playgrounds, neighbors, and my friends, but since his b-day landed on Labor Day weekend this year, we discovered that most everyone was going to be out of town.  So instead, I decided to treat Milo to a fun-filled morning of pretty much whatever he wanted to do… which turned out to be quite a random bunch of activities. First, we went to get Mom some coffee since he woke up so early and I had been up with baby all night. Okay, that wasn’t Milo’s idea, but… when we were there (on an absolutely beautiful unseasonably cool morning I might add) Milo was THRILLED that the violinist who sometimes plays for tips in front of the coffee shop was there on HIS birthday. I think he thought he was playing just for Milo. At Milo’s request, we sat and ate bagels (and drank coffee) and listened for half an hour to this teenager play Irish folk music. He was really good! And Milo never sits still for that long. I was impressed. Milo put a dollar in the violin case and said “thank you” before we headed off to ride a mechanical horse for 50 cents (okay, I let him ride it twice) which almost bucked him right off. Cool ride. Then we went to the toy store and Milo played on their sample train table for a while as I picked up a gift for his friend. After that, Milo requested the playground, where he attempted to work the see-saw by himself. No joke. He sat on one end, then got up, ran to the other side, and sat on that side, etc. It took him a few tries before deciding that it was a bust, and ran off to play with some big boys, whom he impressed with his “falling-down” skills.

Really, it may not sound like much of a morning, but Milo was all smiles and had such a good time. Poor Oliver spent most of the time trapped in the Ergo-carrier, and got a little sweaty toward the end. But, like most little siblings, he was just happy to be brought along for the ride.

Even without a birthday party, Milo was spoiled from afar by family and friends. His top favorite b-day items are a VERY loud toy electric guitar from Gram and Andrea; a game Andrew and I love to say out loud called “Bathketball” (yeah, go ahead, say it out loud a few times- guarantee you will giggle a little) which is exactly what it sounds like, from Gina-mom, Michael-dad, Katie, and Austin; the climber Grandma sent a few months back which is still getting much use of course; and a real Wilson baseball mit from Katherina. Andrew and I decided to get him a little mini-razor scooter as well, which is a relatively cheap way of getting your two-year-old’s skull cracked open (not making light of this, cousin Ava!). Birthday number two? Success. Now if we could only get Milo to admit to his real age….

Stay tuned for a couple of videos of Milo on his b-day. I have no idea how to upload them to this new site yet. Andrew? Help!