Ben's 2nd birthday -April 2011

Ben turned 2 this past Friday.  Scott and I have been teaching him to say that he's "2 years old".  By the time that his birthday rolled around, he knew that it was a special day for him.  Scott laid balloons in his crib  Friday morning, much to his delight once he awoke.  He enjoyed playing with them for a few minutes in his crib.  Scott got some video of him with them.

Both Scott's and my immediate family came over for a party on Sunday.  During the day Saturday, we talked a lot to Ben about who was coming and he seemed to understand.  He says the word "party", I think possibly because they have holiday parties at school, which largely consists of eating lots of junk food at snack time.  Ben can name everyone in the family, and knows who goes with who.  If I say Nikki, he knows that Jody, Allie and Henry go along with her.  He absolutely loves Allie and Henry, and gets excited whenever we talk about them and especially when they come over on the weekend for a visit.

Ben was very excited when he saw his cake, and had learned to say "birthday cake".  He got very upset though when we told him that he couldn't eat any until after the guests arrived and after we all had lunch.  Daddy tried to console him with an offerring of a spoonful of icing from the side of the cake, but Ben couldn't be consoled by then.  It didn't take him that long to forget about it though and settle down.  When he gets upset because he's not getting his way on something, he cries and screams for a bit and then he usually lays down on the carpet for a few minutes and sulks quietly, sometimes saying "night night".  He rode with Daddy down to Lee's Chicken to pick up lunch, and thankfully got in a nap on the ride back home a little before noon. 

After he and I (mostly I) blew out his candles, he clapped excitedly, which was so fitting and precious to see.  He really looked like he was enjoying having everyone there, especially his cousins.  He knows who the kids are, even the older ones like Chase.

Ben is in a stage where he repeats a lot of the words that others say.  It was especially cute when he repeated "it's party time" several times after we blew out his candles.