In the Tarves household, it is not every day that Alex turns two.  In fact, I think at this point he’s probably about 103 by now, that is, if you count the amount of times we’ve put a candle in a bowl of ice cream while singing and signing happy birthday to Alex…and Linda…and chair…and piece-of-rice-on-the-table, etc. etc. etc.

Well this year’s birthday party was a great success! (Okay, number of hands of those who just said, “Great Success!” a la Sacha Baron Cohen to yourself.  Yeah, I thought so.)  Anyway, so this year we opted to save ourselves and loved ones from being subjected to one of those toddlerific, migraine-inducing, palaces of fun, and have a shin-dig at our house.  We banked on good weather, and the gods of smiled on us that day, because the weather was beautiful.

All our favorite peeps came for the festivities, from 11am to 11pm, Whoot! Whoot!  (Really folks 11pm?  He’s two!)  We borrowed Great Grammy’s bouncy house, played on the swing set, ate pizza, hummus and Mexican dip. We had all the ingredients for a rip roarin’ good time.

The overwhelming theme of the birthday festivities was Winnie-the-Pooh, so Mommy went a little overboard and bought every Winnie-the-Pooh decoration on the market, and decided to make a beehive cake from scratch (which turned out to be delicious btw).  So of course when it came time to sing happy birthday to the little fella, we were all excited as we know how much Mr. Alex love himself some Happy Birthday! ©.

If one could pictorially represent the emotion of pure fear, I think it would look like a photo of this poor child sitting in front of flames whilst his loved ones yelled at him in unison.  What a joyous tradition.  At least the consolation prize of cake and ice cream, would lead us to a  sugar-high-induced marathon.

After running his uncle around, and around, and around the house we attempted to interest the child in opening his presents.  The valiant attempt by Mom and Dad, to round out the birthday festivities with a present free-for-all, was no match for the inevitable crash.  Falling asleep in Daddy’s arms before the last guests bid their final farewells, was evidence enough that we don’t need to go anywhere to have a good time!

P.S.  Thank you notes are coming.  We promise!

Since Alex has been an Obama man all along (long before he could really make coherent sounds, he would say “raaaaccckkkk” when we asked him if Obama or Clinton would win the Democratic Primary), we thought it fitting to post the transcript of Obama’s inaugural address since it marks such an amazingly unique time in this country.

Neither Stephanie nor I were alive for a time so depressing and fully unhopeful; with Americans everywhere lacking a sense of trust in their Government, lacking a sense of patriotism, and lacking any real connection to each other. Obama represents, if nothing else, the promise that things can get better and we can again return to the glorious place we once held on the world stage.

Plus, he’s our brand new funky president.

Yesterday was Alex’s first opportunity for a vertical Halloween. If you remember last year, he spent most of it laying down, projectile pooping all over the furniture. So, we found probably the most adorable costume in the history of the world at Old Navy, and made him walk around in it. We stopped at a few of the neighbors’ houses and collected some loot, but mostly, we just wanted an opportunity to watch him try to toddle around in his costume.

This weekend, we celebrated Alex’s first birthday with a big picnic party at the park. Since swinging is Alex’s favorite thing to do other than poop, we thought this would be the perfect venue for such an event. Naturally, Alex ended up being sick that day, since he’s sick all the time now that he started going to day care; but he was a trooper.

We had picnic-themed food like ants on a log, bug juice, and sticks (pretzels) and had fun singing bug songs. Some of his friends from school were there, and his great-great-grandmother & great-grandfather both came all the way from Florida!

This past weekend we celebrated Stephanie’s first Mother’s Day by spending the day at the park. We had a picnic lunch, played on the swing and slide, and then watched some people play soccer while Alex cruised around the grass. Since we forgot his hat, he had to wear an extra pair of pants on his head.

When we got home from the park, daddy made mommy a special macaroni & cheese (recipe here) since she likes it so much and then gave her a photobook he made with all kinds of pictures of our family. You can view, order, or share the book here. (Note: this link is only good for one year.)