The Slade Family: Happy 2nd Birthday, Daniel!

Dear Daniel,

Happy happy 2nd birthday to an amazing son! Your birthday was two days ago and we had a big day filled with fun and going, going, going! :o) We were at a Master Plan college retreat in Durango speaking Saturday night so you spent your birthday with about 50 college students who pretty much all love you so it made for a great day! We all sung "Happy Birthday" to you that morning before breakfast and you tried blowing out your candles that were placed in a piece of yummy chocolate sheet cake... You "blew/spit" on the cake a few times before your friend, Shelby, finally had to help you blow the candles out! Then you enjoyed your chocolate cake for breakfast... hopefully you won't get used to that at all. Once a year is fine with me! :o) You played outside with Daddy that morning, throwing sticks to the Kostreva's dog, Jenny... Then you went on a walk with Daddy and swung on the big porch swing outside the lodge, where we were. While all the students were in on a talk, Daddy, Mommy, Lydia and you played outside in the beautiful weather which was so much fun! You had a few bites of chimichanga for lunch and then on our drive back to Grand Junction we stopped in Ouray at a coffee/ice cream shop where you had half of a yummy cookie. :o) (Yes, you had WAY too much sweets, my dear little boy!) Once we got back we headed over to your Aunt Amanda's where you played outside a bit before your Uncle Bryan took you and Daddy to Murdoch's to look at the little chicks, duckies, and baby turkeys I think... I heard you really enjoyed that, especially seeing some kind of blue turkey or duck or something! Lol. ;o) After all that we headed over to the bowling alley where your Uncle Wayne works and you played your first two games ever of bowling! We met all of our family and lots of your friends there for a fundraiser for the March of Dimes team we are putting together to walk on Saturday in memory of your cousin, Makaio. You really enjoyed bowling and did awesome pushing the ball down the ramp! You got quite a few strikes - much better than Mommy, that's for sure! :o) We had pizza for dinner there, although you ate more of Jessica and your friend Connor's French fries than your pizza! Such a silly boy! That was your birthday... a long day full of fun and you slept REALLY REALLY well that night which was very nice for Mommy and you!

Your birthday party will be Sunday which will be a lot of fun for you I'm sure! You are having lots of your little guy friends over - Connor, Colsen, Miah, Ezra, Liam, just to name some of them... - and many of your little girl friends too! We are having a construction party for you and it'll be fun to watch you play with all the trucks in the sandboxes and build things with your tools and all the other fun things we'll be doing! (I'll write about all that later on I'm sure!)

I can't believe you are already 2 years old, Daniel! I was thinking back to last year and I can't believe all the things that have changed since then! Not only do you look so much older and taller and skinnier, but you also talk so much more (and I can actually understand you much of the time now!) and you have learned SO many new things like how to walk, run, go down a slide by yourself, swing by yourself (even in a big swing), do puzzles, say and recognize almost half of the letters in the alphabet, say all the main colors, recognize and say the name of most shapes, dance (you've always been a dancer, though... even before you could walk you would move to the beat of a song), and be an amazing big brother to your little sis! Those are just some of the things you've learned since you were a year old!

You are around 29 or 30 pounds now... goes up and down depending on what you eat before we weigh you. ;o) You LOVE to eat and now that you are down to only two milks a day, you have been eating much more each day! Snack time is definitely your favorite time of the day when it comes to eating, so I have been having to get very creative with what I feed you for snacks so you get more healthy foods somehow! Your favorite snacks are crackers, pretzels, or fruit, but little by little you seem to be eating more veggies as snacks which is great!

You moved into a booster seat for meals a few weeks ago... We bought you a sweet "Cars" booster seat and you love climbing in and out of it and sitting up with us "big people" while Lydia sits in your old highchair.

Some of your favorite things to do during the day are playing outside (you are getting much more independent at play time out there which is nice for me to get some things done or be able to read while you play), reading lots of books or being read to (you could be read to for hours - you LOVE books!), playing with sister (lately you have loved playing with your Thomas the trains and your barn and animals... she sits beside you and plays with whatever you share with her), matching colors or shapes with all of our activities (you are doing SO great at saying your colors and love stacking pictures together by color or shape), helping me wash dishes (now that is a fun and messy, or should I say wet, time!), helping cook (you drag your chair all over the kitchen helping me with every step of cooking), coloring, playing with your play dough, watching your new favorite show - "Leapfrog Letter Factory", and so many other things! You definitely stay super busy all the time, that's for sure!

We love you SO much, Daniel! I'm excited to see what all you will learn and how you will grow this next year! You are such a joy in our lives and such a wonderful big brother and son!

Love,

Mommy

P.S. Here are pics from your first week of life, first birthday, and second birthday! :o)