Happy St. Patrick's Birthday!

Nolan is TWO today!

Travis's dad has been in town on business, so we all got to spend the day with Nolan to celebrate!

First order of business: pancakes for breakfast.

After breakfast, we visited the Liberty Jail.

My cake decorating skills have an 87% chance of causing recurring nightmares.

At least Nolan recognized who the cake was supposed to be!

This little boy is such a happy little spark in our lives!

He is constantly chattering, cuddly and clingy, but also can be fiercely independent.

He also has more self-control than I've seen in even any older child, let alone a 2-yr-old!

I've let him sit right next to me while I frosted a whole pile of cupcakes, and he didn't once lick the frosting, though I know he was tempted!

Tonight I was trying to get him to bed while he wanted to keep pushing the button that plays music on his new Thomas potty chair, and when I finally switched it off he started to cry, launching a classic late-night 2-yr-old tantrum. I reasonably explained to him why he needed to turn it off and go to bed (you know, like any rookie mom that tries to reason logically with a tantruming toddler. Apparently I'll never learn), and he took a deep breath and sadly said, "Okay, Mommy," and stopped crying. AMAZING! I don't know where he gets that kind of self-control, but I'd like a little bit of that!

I asked if I could take his picture, so he walked over to stand by his toys and "posed."

These past two years have definitely been the hardest and best of my life. Funny how those two things go together! We sure do love our cute little lucky boy!

I love how he's hugging Kate's head in this group picture. Ha ha!