Two with a Vengeance

Something happened to my child on Feb. 6. He turned two. It was in no way as emotional for me as it was last year, but it was definitely emotional for him. Unfortunately, for most of the day, it was not emotional in a good way. It was as if an alarm went off in his head Wednesday morning that said, "Today you are two. Now things change. Now you get pissed off."

From the morning J woke up, nothing was right. He didn't want to eat breakfast. He wanted to go to child care at the gym instead of stay at home with Grandma (Grandma wasn't upset; it meant she got to take a shower.) He started to cry after he finished eating his banana after I picked him up from child care.

As we were riding in the car after running an errand to the grocery store to get cream cheese to make frosting for his carrot cake cupcakes, he announced, "No caddot cupcakes. No caddot cupcakes." Honestly this didn't bother me; I just thought, "More for me!" I had planned on taking him to his favorite Mexican restaurant (you ask if a 2 year old can have a favorite place to eat? Oh yes!) but he was just so unhappy I didn't want to subject anyone else to his unpleasantness. I asked him what he wanted for lunch and he told me, "Mac and cheese. Not cupcakes."

As we went home to make the mac and cheese, he just began crying and carrying on in the kitchen for no reason at all. He went outside to play a bit while the noodles cooked, but then he came back in and picked up right where he left off. When lunch was finally ready and was placed in front of him, he ate two spoonfuls and decided that wasn't good either. He saw me making the frosting and decided that maybe having a cupcake might be a good idea after all. Given his state, I didn't insist that he eat any more lunch and we sang to him and he licked off all of the frosting. At first it was slow and deliberate, but after awhile, he couldn't stop himself. Once the sugar from the frosting hit his system, he was a changed toddler. I hereby declare cream cheese frosting the cure all to any problem. If you are feeling down, add some powdered sugar to a block of cream cheese and go to town.

We lingered on that cupcake for nearly a half an hour before it accidentally fell on the floor and we had to take a break.

Poor cupcake gets the brunt of it all

After some dancing and a nap, it was time for Take 2 of birthday number 2. Unfortunately it wasn't much better. We opened a few presents, but little things kept happening that upset him-- such as the stacking blocks falling on his head, the new tricycle not steering perfectly, and of course, Daddy not being there (Daddy was home for cupcakes, so that was cool). So, we put J to bed a little earlier and hoped that he would enjoy his second day of being two better than the first.

A tricycle from Mommy and Daddy. I just love Craigslist! (Despite pointing out every tricycle he'd see for the last two months, this only held his attention for about 10 minutes.)

A fancy new drum from Nummi. Not sure if Daddy or J likes it better...

A florist delivered balloons to our house. They were from Auntie L and Cousin L and W. When the florist said, these are for JS, J exclaimed, "Balloons for J!" and ripped them out of the man's hand. Then they almost carried him away. It was pretty funny.

You probably think I'm lying about the day given all of the happy shots posted here. I had one good "I just want to cry all day!" picture, but it's too dark to show up here. Believe me when I tell you that our first day of being two was just a bit on the rough side.