Skip to main content

Carl's Second Birthday

I can't believe how time has flown. My little Carl is two years old! This is what we did to celebrate:

1. We pretty much had cake for breakfast. As soon as Soren woke up, he said "It's Carl's birthday!" and Carl started asking for the cake. I made cereal for the boys to eat but they didn't really touch them, what with the chanting for cake. So we made cupcakes right then and there; when they came out of the oven, I served them right away. Carl had picked out the kind the day before at the grocery store: funfetti cake with chocolate frosting.

2. Carl opened some of his birthday presents. Soren opened the rest. From Grandma and Grandpa, Carl got a table and chairs with little dishes for his play kitchen. From Nan and Poppy he got book money. There were also clothes (but he didn't think much of those). He was most excited about his cards, which he opened and closed and asked us to read over and over again.

3. Among the gifts was a really cool toy that Scott made: a wood-and-duct-tape replica of Thor's hammer. It even has the Viking runes to spell "Mjolnir" on it. We have been reading Norse Myths all week in preparation for this gift and it was well received. Now our kids can kick some Joten butt!

4. Soren played with some of the new toys (he may have hammered some of Carl's new dishes). Carl walked around the house with his birthday cards. He especially liked a singing one from Grandma and Grandpa. As a result, we heard "The Mickey Mouse Club House" song a million bazillion times.

5. We took the boys to the dollar theater to see Kung Fu Panda 2. Scott sat in the front with Soren, who asked a million questions. Carl and I sat in the back so we could stand up and walk around and leave the theater at will. I liked the movie, at least what I saw of it. However, I now feel that two years is not old enough for a movie theater.

6. We had more cake for lunch, this time with frosting and sprinkles.

7. After naps, we let Carl pick what we would have for dinner: chicken nuggets! While the nuggets cooked, Scott made a thai noodle salad for me and Carl played with his new toys.

8. We set Carl's "toddler bed" up in the nursery. From now on in, Carl and Soren will share a room and no one will sleep in a crib! Now Carl reminds me at bedtime, "I get to sleep in the mattress."

Just so everyone gets a clear picture of the day, I have a few comments to add: I wouldn't change anything I did, we had a good time, and Carl had a record number of temper tantrums. I suppose he was ringing in the "terrible twos".

Happy Birthday, Carl!
Labels:

Comments

Anonymous said…
Nice post. Loved it. Belated Happy Birthday to Carl. Thanks for sharing.

Take the test Caring For Toddlers and find out how good are you at caring for toddlers.
August 24, 2011 at 1:34 AM
Hannah said…
Sounds like an absolutely wonderful birthday! Even with the temper tantrums.:)
August 24, 2011 at 8:22 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What Works for Us: Room Time

I've decided to do a new series of posts on how I make parenting work for us. Every parent does it differently--which is great!--but I have a hard time keeping my discoveries to myself. The things I do may not work for anyone else but I want to record them and remember them. Hopefully, it will also help me vent my soap-box-y-ness so that I'm not always imposing my ideas on other people. That will be what "What-Works-for-Us Posts" are about. One of the things that we have always done, but has made a HUGE difference in the move from one to two children, is Room Time . When Soren was 6 months old, I started having him play alone (in a safe place) every day for a few minutes. At first it was only five minutes in the port-a-crib but we quickly worked up to fifteen, then thirty. At that time, I used those precious minutes to do housework or relax on the couch. When I was pregnant with Carl, Soren would play alone for about an hour in his room and I would usually tak...
2 comments
Read more

Surrounded by Love

One of my greatest worries about having four children was that I would not be able to welcome and love my new baby as well as I had the others.  Now that he is here, I feel that he is perhaps the most welcomed and best loved of all my sons.  More on that in a moment. I struggled to bond with Leif in utero, in part because pregnancy was old hat to me and in part because life was busy with too many other things.  The new miracle  growing inside of me was the most normal thing about my life.  There were a few good moments that helped me prepare mentally: doing guided meditations during Christmas vacation, my blessingway on January 6th, and a really good conversation I had with Scott about my hopes and worries.  But mostly, my mind was elsewhere. And then there was the birth.  I should have known that it would be a totally unique experience and that it would prepare me for this totally unique child. Needless to say, I'm crazy about the little guy. ...
1 comment
Read more

ABCs

A couple of months ago I was trying to encourage Soren to draw. For 15 or 20 minutes every afternoon, we would sit at the coffee table with paper and pencil. I would draw stick figures and doodles; Soren would watch, his own paper untouched. After a couple of days repeating my usual pictures over and over, I ran out of ideas and started writing the letters of his name. One day I wrote and drew pictures of all the things I could think of that began with S: Soren, snake, superman, spider, stars, etc. The next day we focused on the letter O. It gave me ideas for drawing, which kept Soren entertained even if it wasn't fulfilling its original purpose. A couple more weeks went by and I didn't put any effort into reinforcing the letters. So I was very surprised when, one day while reading a naptime story, he pointed to the page and said very distinctly, "ess". He was, in fact, pointing to an S. And he was very excited about it. So, instead of reading the book, we sp...
3 comments
Read more