No longer a baby!

Well folks, we officially have a 2 year old!! It is so hard to believe that it was 2 years ago that I got to lay eyes on Harlen for the first time.  Baby boy, you have grown into the sweetest, loving little boy I have ever seen. 

February 12, 2011 at 4:40pm

Harlen at 2 years old - This was taken on February 11, 2013.  Our last family picture with our 1 year old. 

The birthday week started off with a bang!  Grandma took off work to spend the day with her birthday boy and came to the house that morning to pick him up, so that I could go to work (insert supper sad face here).  I wanted nothing more than to take the day off to spend with him, but duty called and I had work that needed to be done.  That morning, when Grandma and I went to wake Harlen up, his first words out of his mouth were "I'm 2."  He knew that Tuesday was "his" day and he was so excited and woke up in the best mood.  Harlen and Grandma went back to Grandma and Papas house to have breakfast together and then went to have some pictures taken as a surprise for us.  I love the pictures and I LOVE that they were taken on his birthday.  Once they were done with pictures, Papa, Grandma, Aunt Cole, Uncle Derrick, Colton and Hudson took Harlen out for Mexican and then to grab a balloon, which we all know is a 2 year old's favorite thing.  After heading home for a nap and some play time, Grandma and Papa brought Harlen to Chuck E Cheese to meet up with us.  Harlen's other Papa, Millie, Aunt Melanie, Uncle Brian and Christy (Brian's girlfriend) joined in the fun and we spent the evening spoiling Harlen with games, pizza and cupcakes.

Harlen went back to daycare on Wednesday and had a celebration there with all of his daycare friends.  I made football cupcakes for them to enjoy (I am not a baker nor a cupcake decorator, but I don't think the 2 and under kids cared what they looked like.)

 

Thursday was Valentines Day and he had a great day of celebrating with his daycare friends, making crafts and eating sweets.  For dinner, daddy took Harlen and I to Frankie's to celebrate.  Harlen obviously had a long day of celebrating already because he was NOT feeling dinner.  Since we were just at a restaurant on Tuesday that had games (Chuck E Cheese) he thought that Frankie's should have them as well and all he wanted to do was play and not enjoy the nice family meal that we were at.  Needless to say, we made it a quick dinner and got out of there just in time because the melt down started as soon as I opened the restaurant door to leave.  Phew! 

 

On Friday, the hubs took the day off of work to hang with Harlen and continue the celebration of his birthday. Harlen decided to start the morning off by swallowing a dime so we are still on the look out for a 10 cent poopy. Gross, but all part of having kids I guess.  Thank goodness that Harlen had his 2 year check up that morning.  Chris was able to ask them what we needed to do to get him to poop this dime out and so we wait.  After his check up, I met the boys for lunch at Chick Fil A and then off to work I went and the boys went home to rest and get ready for the rest of the day.  Once Harlen (and Daddy) woke up from a nap, Chris took Harlen for a walk up the Kennesaw Mountain to enjoy the "nice" weather and get out of the house for a while.  When they returned from their walk, Papa and Millie arrived, and soon after I got home, and we were off to the Circus.  Papa and Millie got Harlen 5 tickets to the Circus for his birthday and we had a BLAST.  Papa and Millie spoiled Harlen with treats, a light up elephant and a fun filled night.  This was the first circus that I had ever seen and we all loved the show. 

 

 

Harlen was AWESOME during the show and enjoyed every minute of it.  It was a very late night for him and he crashed as soon as his bottom hit the car seat on the way home. 

 

Saturday was another fun day.  We got to celebrate Harlen's birthday with all of our close friends and family.  The hubs took Harlen for a haircut and then to home depot, while mommy got the house ready for everyone to come over and celebrate.  We had a great time celebrating and hanging with everyone who obviously loves our sweet boy.  You could tell that Harlen had so much fun playing with his cousins and friends.  The look on his face when everyone was singing Happy Birthday to him was priceless.  Unfortunately, the majority of the pictures from his party are on the real camera so please excuse the lack of pictures that I am posting.  I will post more pictures of the celebration when I am able to upload them from the camera.

 

The last picture is of Harlen and his BFF, Parker, in the bath on Saturday night.  The Howells stayed for dinner after the party and the boys enjoyed a little one on one time playing together and getting cleaned up and ready for bed. 

On Sunday, we were suppose to have his 2 year pictures and family pictures taken, but our photographer had to reschedule because of a sick child.  We will try again this weekend.  Pray they go smoothly.  Instead of the pictures, we got to relax and play with all the new toys that Harlen got for his birthday.  Thank You to everyone that spoiled our sweet boy.

I am starting to introduce arts and crafts into our weekend schedule and this Sunday we were able to try finger painting, thanks to the Howells.  Harlen LOVED it. Here are a couple pictures I snapped of him while painting.

We had a fun day of playing and painting!  He loved it and so did it.  We will be doing this activity again very soon.

On Sunday night, we ventured ITP to visit Aunt Melanie's new place.  She had us over for a very nice dinner and gave us a tour of her new place.  She is going to love living downtown and we are so proud of her!
Here are a couple pictures of Harlen while at Aunt Melanie's.  We brought his crayons and a ton of toys but I think he had more fun having a dance party with Aunt Melanie.

Phew!  What a week that was.  Thank you to everyone who helped us celebrate Harlen's 2nd Birthday.  I know he enjoyed every single minute of this week and will be talking about it for weeks to come.  Love!

Until next time....... we will be searching for a dime :)