Party Boy!

Today we celebrated (5 days late) Luke's 2nd birthday.  Luke is getting so big, so fast, but is such a delight to all of us.  

What do we love about our newly 2 year old Luke?  Everything.  He loves to play hide and seek, whispering "hiding....hiding..." and then yelling out with a laugh of delight "FOUND YOU!" when he spots you - making you laugh along with him because it's all just a bit too cute.  Luke is picking up words and social skills quick as can be, counting "1...2....4" on his fingers as I do his domes up and yelling "plane" as he cranes his neck on hearing one fly by.  Luke makes me laugh even when he has poos - he spits out "Poo - YUCK!" with such a disgusted tone and look of 'gross', and then walks to the nappy area with his legs as far apart as possible - I don't think he will take long to toilet train!

He just loves sirens too, and will say "weee-eww-weee-ewww" whenever he spots a siren, or what he thinks is a siren but is actually just a taxi, a car or a tow truck!  So i had to make him a siren cake of course, and topped the simple design off with one of his presents - matchbox NEW ZEALAND police cars and St Johns Ambulance!  It was worth the silly cost of the cars to see his face when he spotted the cake.  "WEE-EWW" he said with a shrill laugh of delight to everyone who was nearby.  

Gramps started the festivities off for us, by turning up early with hot cakes and muffin splits for breakfast, getting me out of bed in my flannelette PJS to join everyone at the table.  Marty whisked everyone out to swimming lessons next, giving me a quick moment to prepare for the party.  

I love having everyone over at my place, the house feels so warm and everything is so relaxed (normally!) as the kids run off together and us adults sit back with a coffee for a good chat.  We had all the family round today, including our closest friends who are family to us.  Luke loved it all, calling out "BRIANNA! 'NONA! NANA! GRANMA!  GRANNY!" as he pointed to everyone he loves all in one room, making them all feel welcome as he gave them a grin or a cuddle. 

He was spoilt for presents, setting him up for a new era of play with duplo and dress ups.  Check his face out when he discovered that the police car toy makes real siren noises! Once that toy was opened, he wouldn't put it down.  He pushed the siren button and then went "oh!" in surprise, then looked around the room at everyone, laughing and laughing in his delight.   

He also went very wide eyed to see the box DVD set of his all time favourite movie "The Wheels on the Bus" appear.  He has watched the original several times a day for months now, I was almost as excited as him to have 2 new  versions of this awesome toddler movie in the house! He turned around and checked that it hadn't disappeared when daddy popped it down behind him.

Happy Birthday my little Lukey-Duke.  We just adore you and hope you enjoyed your day of YOU. I had lots of fun watching you dress up in all your new fun clothes:

Luke loves dressing up.  He calls it "Show you!" Just yesterday, Marty came home to find him as a Knight, slaying the mummy dragon with his sword (wand!).  He thought this was the funniest thing in the world, Marty captured just a little of our fun on my iphone video....

And lastly, because I am crazy (well yes, just look at my behaviour in that  video!) Jaimee had a friend over straight after the party to stay the night.  Actually, maybe I am not crazy but rather sensible  - three girls kept each other very busy and happy for the afternoon while Marty was out at Wild Alpha.  We finished off the day watching Aladdin in our PJS over popcorn.