Happy 2nd Birthday, Jarom

Our little boys is growing up so fast. It's true what they say about life speeding up once you have kids. Now that Jarom has been in our family for 2 years, I have a hard time imaging what life was like before him. I love his big, round cheeks and tiny smile. His shaggy hair and especially his dainty and oddly about-to-run-over-the-edge-of-the-world run. I love the smell of his sweaty hair and his unbrushed teeth. He is my child, my flesh and blood, and I love him dearly. Even when he poops in the bathroom sink.

Surprised you with that one, huh? He's only done it once, yesterday on his birthday and I surely hope it's the last time. He said he wanted to poop in the potty so I sat him down on his little one. He generally likes his privacy so I left him to do the dishes when I heard him crying. When I opened the door I was greeted by an unexpected image: Jarom sitting in the sink covered in poop. He had climbed up onto the sink to turn on the night light, sat down (probably to play with things in the medicine cabinet as he'd done in the past), and proceeded to have a rather impressive bowel movement in the sink. A thorough scrubbing of both child and sink was a perfect ending to his birthday. Anyway, I jumped ahead of myself. Here's some pics from the more upbeat part of the day.

I usually lay in bed after Iz leaves and wait till I hear the boys get up before facing the reality that it's time to wake up. This day the boys were sitting in the dark on the couch when I came out. Jarom's first words were "Keahi woke up first" probably because Keahi usually informs me which of them got up first and woke up the other. Keahi and I sang two versions of happy birthday to Jarom and the boys ate blueberry muffins for breakfast--courtesy of Costco because I don't bake in the morning...or much at all. Keahi sweetly gave Jarom a piece of his muffin and Jarom returned the favor. Off to a good start.


Our friend Nicole and her 2 year old son, Caleb, picked us up to go to the Bronx Zoo. Nicole bravely (though possibly a rash decision) decided to trust Keahi's directions to go on Tillary st to go over the Brooklyn Bridge even though her GPS had a different route in mind. While the GPS determinedly directed us to go back, we plowed ahead and got there just fine. In retrospect, since on the way back we followed the GPS instructions and had to pay a $5 toll, it was probably a wise decision to go with Keahi's directions.

Three boys in the back seat is a zoo in itself. I wish I had snapped some pictures of them reading books, squealing just barely within audible pitch, and swapping toys smoothly--after a rough start of the gimmies. I ended up counting to 20 and then switching them around like musical chairs.

At the zoo, the boys ran around like crazy animals themselves and enjoyed every minute of it. I think the highlights were the carousel, the Bangali Express Monorail (on which the driver gave a couple of shout outs for Jarom's birthday), Jungle World and, of course, the Skyfari.

That night for dinner we had one of Jarom's favorites: dinosaur nuggets and saimen. I love how easily he's pleased. Then when daddy came home we had cupcakes and ice cream and opened his mountain of presents. I got him the wagon of blocks from Ikea and the awesome Melissa and Doug puzzles (for 50cents each!) and the rest is from his very indulgent popo.

The next day we got to watch our friend Caleb for the morning and we had a blast. Singing time and book time were quickly passed over for puzzle and truck time and Jarom and Caleb did pretty well with sharing. After we got Keahi from school we headed over to Prospect Park for some fun. I love how much energy these boys have.