Kai is TWO!

Today was Kai's second birthday. All I wanted was a nice quiet day to celebrate him.

Unfortunately, our day was really noisy. The whining, the yelling, the sound of Jett's hands slapping my legs because he was so angry that I let Kai turn off the TV when he wanted to turn off the TV, silly me.



Yes, so Jett woke up at 6:00 am, crabby on Kai's birthday. At one point, before any of us were even dressed, he had knocked Kai over, kicked him, kicked me, hit me, and called me "bad mommy". So I picked him up and put him in Kai's crib, which he promptly climbed out of. That's when Charlie told me I shouldn't be angry, so of course I thanked him for his sage advice and snapped right out of it.

With Jett whining about the sky being blue and Kai whining from hunger, I scrapped the special waffle breakfast and doled out Life cereal, the usual. As I slammed the bowls down on the counter, somewhere in the back of my head my rational voice reminded me that despite the general grumpiness, we had to give Kai his birthday presents this morning rather than tonight, because I knew already that the boys would be going to bed early. I sucked it up, salvaged what was left of my birthday spirit and handed Kai his presents.

Kai was very cute.





Jett was very excited for Kai to unwrap the present that he picked out for him, I wonder why.



It had that symbol - a picture of a baby face with a slash through it - that Jett understands to mean that no babies can play with it. (Don't ask me - I wasn't the one who let Jett pick out that particular gift for Kai). Jett seemed almost too excited to point out that, "No babies can play with this, Mama. No babies can play with this!" I would say that was very strategic gift-giving, wasn't it?

Thankfully Charlie had the quick wit to tell Jett that Kai isn't a baby anymore. He's a little kid now. What?! Not my baby?! Bite your tongue, Charlie Johnson! Jett was shocked too. He exclaimed, over and over, "You're not a baby anymore Kai! You're not a baby anymore, Kai!" Jett seemed genuinely thrilled by it. (Kai, you are still a baby to me, you sweet thing).

Sharing the race track went ok.



At one point I plunked the boys down in the chair to watch a movie so I could clean up the chaos of the morning. They sat so quietly that I took the opportunity to record Kai's feet, his fingers, his hair. Ah, the baby-ness of my sweet baby. I soaked it in. I started to relax.





But then we went outside to ride Kai's new tricycle (love it!).



We were outside 30 minutes and Jett spent the entire time yelling at me because I pushed Kai over some speck in the sidewalk that he wanted to ride over first. It was insane. I guided the boys back to our front door in order to go inside and start their naps, when Jett locked me out of the building. (Not really - I had a key to the door, but it didn't work the first 5 times I tried it, and Jett was certainly trying to lock me out anyway). OMG. Kai and I played it calm and practiced on his new bike a few minutes before I finally wrangled the door open, but I didn't feel calm. I felt like screaming.

When I finally got the door open I picked up Jett, took Kai by the hand, walked them to the car. I strapped them in their seat belts, put the bikes away, drove the car around to the alley, went upstairs and got the diaper bag and school things, and dashed back to the car. Kai fell asleep in 5 minutes, but I had to drive for thirty minutes before Jett drifted off.

Then we were on to the second part of our day - school. Today Jett's class took a field trip by walking to a neighborhood park. Kai and I joined them because I knew Kai would love it. He loved it, and so did I.

Really, he loved it.

Keeping with the pattern of the day, Jett knocked over some kid (who wasn't even in his class) and hit him while he was down. Jett's saving grace (and mine) is that his teacher saw it and not me - so she handled it. I would have been mortified, except I was beaten down so much already. (Oh Kai, it's your birthday and I'm spending all of my energy on Jett!)

The evening was slightly better. We had chocolate cake and Kai blew out his candle before we even started singing - he knew just what to do! We lit it for him four times, he liked it so much - and then we lit it again for Jett. Candles are a hit! So you know, there were some sweet moments in the day.



The boys went to bed early and fell asleep fast and tomorrow is another day. Happy Birthday, little kid Kai. We love you.