Our Cutie Pa-TWO-tee!!

Tanner is getting cuter and cuter. Every time that I think he can't get any cuter, he does! He turned TWO on June 28. It was such a happy day!

I told Tanner that on Friday it was going to be his birthday. We talked about what we should do on his birthday for someone else. Tanner loves muffins, so I suggested we make muffins for our new neighbors that had been so nice to us. He liked that idea!

We spent several days making muffins. Tanner poured the mix into the bowl and on the counter, cracked two eggs in the bowl and smashed one egg on the counter, and he attempted to stir the mix, which was flung onto Mama. We came up with a good system for getting the batter in the tins. I scooped and he scraped with a knife. We were accurate about 90% of the time! I put rhubarb from our yard into each batch of muffins. The blueberry rhubarb were my favorite because they came out red, white and blue! They were SO yummy!

 The night before his birthday, I told him "Tomorrow is your birthday!" He said "I eat cake and eye-keem. And buhday hat." Who told him about birthday hats? I guess he learned from either TV or his daycare babysitters. They had several b-day parties at their houses while I worked. I am surprised that Tanner knew about birthday hats. It's a good thing I got some from the dollar store! As soon as he woke up on Friday, the first thing he said was "I wanna wear my buh-day hat!" He chose the "gween one" and was so excited. He ran all around the house.

 And even though the elastic string bothered him, he kept the hat on all day long. Sometimes he would say "Hat, ouchie." Each time that I suggested he take it off, he would emphatically reply "NO!"

We delivered the muffins to our neighbor. 

She was really excited that we brought her something and came to visit. When it was time to go, I said, "Hope you enjoy the muffins!" and Tanner remembered that we had brought them. "Oh no! My muffins!" He ran back into the neighbor's kitchen and started pulling the plate of muffins off the counter. He obviously missed the whole part about making them for someone else. He wasn't too happy when I "reminded" him that they were not his muffins.

Tanner also had his 2 year check-up on his birthday. Dallin had his one month check-up the same time. Tanner was so well behaved. He stood on the scale after I showed him how. He watched the nurse and Doctor check Dallin and listen to his heart. When it was his turn, Tanner laid down and looked faithfully up at the doctor while she checked him. Both boys are as healthy as can be! Tanner weighed 26 pounds and was 34 inches tall. He's still pretty small for his age.

Dallin was 10 pounds, 13 ounces and 21 inches tall. At three weeks old we decided to get his tongue clipped because he was still having trouble staying latched on while breastfeeding. Also, all 4 pediatricians that saw it said it was pretty tight. At this check-up, he was doing so much better at feeding. I had almost forgotten about us clipping his tongue until the doctor was looking in his mouth. She said everything looked good!

For the birthday dinner, we ate at Perkins, which is kind of like a cross between Denny's and Marie Calendars. Tanner ate most of Jeremy's hamburger. We had fun.

Then, we went home and gave Tanner his cake. He says cake the funniest way. He elongates the vowel like a southerner so that it sounds something like "cuhhhaaaeeek." He was really excited about it until we added the candle. "No candle on cake!" We said, "This is what you do on birthdays, Tanner. Just wait and see how cool it is when we light it!" As soon as we lit the candle and turned out the lights, he really got mad. He bawled through the entire Happy Birthday song because he wanted that candle OFF of his cake! As soon as we told him to blow it out, he blew with conviction and was very glad we finally took it off. This got me thinking, why do we put candles on cakes, anyway? I don't blame Tanner for getting upset, it seems like a pretty odd place to put a candle. I wonder if he thought we were gonna make him eat the candle. Because that would be pretty crazy.

Once the candle was out of sight, he picked up his fork and chowed down. 

Tanner is an enormous blessing in our lives. He loves singing, drumming and making music with anything that makes noise. He loves to shoot hoops, run, dance, mow the lawn, work out with Jeremy, and ride bikes. He also likes making train tracks and playing with anything locomotive. He will leave his mark with a pen- not a pencil or crayon- all over the house. He will "fix" anything with his tool set. He "helps" with dishes and trash and laundry. He entertains his little brother and always wants to play with him. Tanner is loving, observant, creative, hard working, spiritual and silly. We love our little Tan Man!!