The Day Barrett Turned Two

Barrett's second birthday was the day before his birthday party. I promised myself I would spend the day with Barrett focusing solely on him and not on his party details, even if it meant staying up too late and doing way too much the day of his party. (Which of course happened!) I know I will read this next year when he is turning three, so I am telling myself now to not plan his party that close to his actual birthday! I turned my OCD off and immersed myself in Barrett world all day. I woke up to him asking for Mommy on the monitor. I ran upstairs and immediately sang happy birthday. He danced and laughed in true form. We got ready and headed to Barnes & Noble to play with the trains. I got some coffee and a sandwich to share with him. He had some goldfish and didn't like the sandwich, so I got a to go box. He got out of his chair to be by my side and spilled his entire cup of goldfish. He got so upset that he bent over and angrily started spreading the goldfish all over the place (insert wide-eyed, what in the world do I do face here). Public meltdowns are the worst. For so many reasons that I could talk about for way too long, so I'll just leave it at that. All the parents who have normal children that throw wild fits in public understand, and for those who have never experienced this from their own child- it sucks way worse for the parent than it does for the other people watching. This experience actually wouldn't even be considered a meltdown to me. It was comical watching him get so distraught over some spilled goldfish. I see a lot of myself in Barrett and it has made me a different person. He is easily worked up and makes mountains out of molehills quite often. I want him to learn earlier than I did to take negativity of any kind and find some way to make it positive. He is so passionate about everything and I want to nurture his personality, but also show him that crying over spilled milk will never get the milk back. Back to his outburst: I had the rest of the goldfish in my purse so I filled his cup up and calmly told him he could have more if he would go sit down. I cleaned all of them up and put a smile on my face. We finally headed over to the trains and there were a lot of kids there. Usually when we go, he is the only one, so he was over the moon to get to play with other kids and of course talk to the adults. After a while of Barrett being super sweet with all the kids, someone came to ask us if our kids wanted to have Spanish storytime. I had no idea this was happening, but we definitely tried it out! Barrett sat right beside one of the little boys he had been playing with when the girl started the story. This didn't last long because Barrett is Barrett and had to do his own thing. He got on the stage and climbed into the chair behind the teacher facing all the kids and adults. He sat up there most of the time! He is such a stinker! I couldn't resist taking a picture. All the other kids sat quietly in their spots....not my strong-willed, independent Barrett. Once Steven got off work we spent the rest of the day swimming, eating pizza, and listening to music outside. Na picked up the cake for us and brought over a little cupcake for Barrett. We lit a 2 candle on it and he loved it! Pops came over too which always makes Barrett happy. God made this boy just for me and Steven, and I wouldn't change one thing about him.

After Barrett went to bed, I stayed up late making these Mickey Mouse cookies. I love the way they turned out!