Happy 2nd Birthday Elise!

Today our sweet little Elise turns 2 years old. I’m going to try to refrain from making all the typical cliche parent statements like “I can’t believe it’s already been two years,” but I offer no promises. Since her birthday falls on a Tuesday, Elise gets to enjoy two birthday parties for turning two: one on the Saturday before her birthday, and another on the Saturday after her birthday. We decided to do it this way because Madi is going to be with her Dad on Saturday the 18th and we wanted her to be able to come over with Kristy, Jim and Brenda, so we did a small party on Saturday the 11th just with them. It worked out well because we were able to spend more quality time with them; as expected we had a very nice afternoon playing with the kids, eating lunch, opening presents, and eating cake.

The hardest part about celebrating a birthday in our house for anyone not named Ava is that Ava doesn’t understand that the presents aren’t for her. Actually that’s not completely true because Aunt Brenda was kind and thoughtful enough to bring Ava the nicest outfit to dress up in, which included a tutu, headband, butterfly wings, and wand, but still Ava can’t help but fixate on something that Elise receives. The object of her fixation, and Elise’s for that matter, was a little stuffed tiger whom the girls have affectionately dubbed “Stripey.” Multiple fights ensued throughout the weekend based solely on who was currently in possession of Stripey, but of course if it wasn’t that it would be another thing. Either way I’m glad we have Stripey because for whatever reason, Elise has a particular fondness for tigers.

In addition to opening presents we had a nice lunch (Carne Asada tacos) and some delicious birthday cake. I can’t remember the last time I had a slice of cake but it was amazing. We actually had to split up the leftovers and bring them to our neighbors so that we wouldn’t have any left in the house. Madi didn’t end up spending the night on Friday but was still able to get some quality time in with each of the kids. Enzo was loving her and we ended up getting some great photos of them hanging out together. I’m glad we got so much quality time with everyone and look forward to doing something again soon.

Friday night we all went out for pizza, which was a nice treat considering it’s been about 6 weeks since Jessica and I have had it. We went to Amante, which is our favorite place near the house, and as expected it was delicious. Not unlike our Mexican dinner from the previous week, I ended up getting a stomach ache later on, but it wasn’t nearly as bad this time around, and I blame myself for this one because I definitely didn’t need that 4th piece. My logic was that if I ate the 4th piece, there wouldn’t be any leftovers to take home, and considering how good it tasted, I just decided to go for it. No regrets though; it was something I’ve been looking forward to for a while and it was a nice way to start the weekend.

Sunday was also a fun day because we got to attend my friend Sean’s housewarming party. He recently bought a house in North Seattle and has been hard at work getting it fixed up. He had a band playing on the front patio, which was a big hit with the girls. At one point the band decided to take a break to get some food, and shortly thereafter Ava temporarily disappeared. She quickly turned up ‘on stage’ playing the drummer’s kit. Of course she did; that’s so Ava. Obviously I ran right over there and got her off the drums before too many people noticed, but for the rest of the afternoon she kept saying she wanted to go back and play the drums. As I’ve always said, the world can always use another good drummer, but I don’t think we’re quite ready to bridge that gap. I think it’s cool that she likes it so much though.

Ava also had a little boyfriend she was running around the party with. At one point I found them scooping ice out of the keg bin and dumping it in the front yard. I told Ava to stop doing that and the little boy she was with got really upset at me. He told me his mom wanted the ice and that I was “not a nice man.” He then punched me in the stomach and kicked me in the shin. I was shocked! I couldn’t believe what this snot-nosed little kid just did to me, particularly since I wasn’t even talking to him; I was talking to my daughter. I was tempted to laugh right in his punky little face but decided to take the high road and simply told him, with a straight face, that it’s not nice to hit people and that he shouldn’t do that anymore. He certainly didn’t like me telling him anything and proceeded to give me the stink eye for the rest of the afternoon. And so begins my relationship with the boys my daughters run around with. This ought to be fun.

As mentioned above, we’re going to be throwing Elise’s second 2nd birthday party this Saturday. I’m not exactly sure who all is coming over but I know we’ll be seeing Dana, Brad and Anna, Amy and Tom will be staying with us, plus a handful of friends and neighbors who will be stopping by throughout the day. I expect it to be more of an open house than a traditional birthday party, but it should be a lot of fun. I’m not sure how long Tom will be in town but I know that Amy will be sticking around for about 3 weeks. We haven’t seen her since Enzo was born, and having an extra set of hands will be much appreciated by all. The main thing we’re hoping to get done while she’s here is painting the entire inside of our house. We’ve got most of the colors picked out but we’re having difficulty choosing one of the main downstairs colors. Hopefully we can get that figured out pretty soon and get to work. Ideally we’ll get the painting done now, then we’ll do the floors downstairs in September when Amy and Tom come back for our Labor Day weekend camping trip, and Foo Fighters concert at the Gorge the following weekend. Once that’s all done we will probably do an End-Of-Summer open house party to show off our new digs.

As for our little Weese, she’s just amazing. She couldn’t be any sweeter, but she still has her sister’s toughness. She was definitely meant to be a ‘middle child’ and has totally embraced her roles both as a younger and elder sibling. She constantly talks about how much she loves everyone, and her little picket fence smile is the cutest thing you’ve ever seen. She never goes anywhere without her baby Pippo (the purple Hippo) and she’s always only a step behind Ava in whatever activity most recently strikes their fancy. She gets out of her own bed and crawls into ours on an almost nightly basis, so it’s not uncommon for me to wake up with some little feet pressing into my back, or for her to be laying literally on my face. She and I have recently developed a game where I tell her “You’ll never know how much Daddy loves you” and she replies “I do know Daddy, I do!” We go back and forth with me saying “I don’t know, I don’t think you really do” but she continuously insists “Yes I do. I do know!” Maybe she does. Either way I’m the one writing the blog, so I get the final word; Happy 2nd Birthday sweetheart – you’ll never know how much we love you!

A great shot of Madi and Baby Enzo