Ethan's Birthday

Ethan's second birthday was a special day. When he woke up, he had socks on his hands.

Recently we have noticed Ethan enjoying pretending. Often he will use his tool workbench to make me "snacks" like peas or chicken nuggets or water. Tim thought that was pretty cool, so he found a used little kitchen at the goodwill store. I haven't taken a picture of him using it, yet, but here he is wearing the apron that Barb our babysitter brought him.

I was hoping to do something special with Ethan, like go to the park or get an ice cream cone, before we had his little party, but he slept really late during his nap. We hardly had time to run to the grocery store before we had to put the lasagna in the oven. I did let Ethan wear his favorite shirt, the basketball jersey from his cousin Jagger.

By the time Ethan's guests arrived, his grandma and grandpa and Barb and her husband, he was acting a little weird. He was afraid of the birthday hats that he was so excited about earlier, and the balloons that Barb brought him made him cry.

I was prepared that he might not like the lasagna that I made (that was more for the adults as a thank-you to all the wonderful people who help us raise Ethan), so I was prepared to give him chicken nuggets this time if he wanted.

Nothing seemed right for poor Ethan, and we were pretty sure that somehow our simple birthday party was over-stimulating him. I've heard of kids behaving poorly on their own birthdays, but I didn't really think that this day was that much different than any other day. He had taken a loooong nap and hadn't been loaded up on sugar or anything. We were sticking to the normal rules (except for the special chicken nuggets) and nothing all that special had even happened.

Ethan did his best to blow out the candles on his birthday cupcake, but would have nothing to do with actually eating one, or trying ice cream.

He went to the living room and everyone thankfully tried to leave him alone so he could perhaps get calmed down. There were a few tense moments there where he was whining, Kate was crying, and someone was blaming it all on the new play kitchen that Tim had gotten him the day before.

Eventually, we got Ethan to open his gifts (a mega-rescuers book from us, and from grandma and grandpa: a basketball sweater and shirt, train book, and number puzzle) and finally we decided he wasn't feeling all that well. That was obvious, but we confirmed that he had a fever. . . it's still going on today, two days later, but I think he's starting to recover.

Anyway, by the time Ethan was in bed, I was a little bit sad because I had just wanted a few minutes to sit with him and reminisce about the past two years and the day he joined us in the world. Ethan, you are such a sweet boy, and I am so incredibly thankful to have you in my life.