Shut the Barn Door, John is Two!

My oh my what a year the boy has had. The first half of 2008 was scary as all get out, and then in June John had his first craniofacial surgery. We have all enjoyed over 6 months of no issues with John's Crouzon Syndrome. The second half of 2008 was an adjustment for all of us as we welcomed John's baby sister into our family...and we are continually adjusting. But all in all life has settled down for John so much and we all enjoying him being a normal two year old full of words, tantrums and surprises every day!

We tried to scale back John's birthday this year by just inviting family and a handful of neighborhood kids. It was still CRAZY! The theme was Crazy Hats for John who loves hats so very much. Go figure he refused to wear one on this particular day, that is until he thought he was getting to go outside by putting on his warm and cozy hat. Anyway, we all had a good time. John was a bit overwhelmed with so many people in his house, but he finally loosened up and had a good time playing and eating!

The cake was really fun. I had intentions of making a Yankees ball cap as this is one of John's and my favorite hats. I looked and looked and couldn't find a cake pan that I felt I could handle, so I decided to do a top hat. I so thought this was going to be a piece of cake. It was my first foray into fondant...yea, not so easy. First, I couldn't find black fondant already mixed, so I just bought some food coloring and decided to do it myself. Luckily, Papa and Cita were in town for the whole weekend and agreed to help with the project. So Tate, Papa and I attacked the cake after John went to bed, and Cita had RoryCate duty. I had already baked two chocolate layers and two white layers, and stacked and iced them up, including a little blackberry preserves between a couple layers, and I am quite happy with how the cake tasted. Now onto the fondant. Sheesh, first off, that takes a lot of icing to do a top hat...2nd, black was not my best decision. I should have gone with the super coolio white top hat, but I had committed and it was too late to turn back (pretty sure it isn't safe to bleach fondant). So after an entire container of black coloring and the mixer (with the dough hook) protesting loudly, we finally got it to an acceptable dark grey. And then the rolling began, and the tearing and the seams, sheesh it was a mess, but it was so much fun. I am so glad Papa was there to add comic relief. If I had been left to my own devices the cake would have ended up in the trash and a trip to kroger would have been on the to-do list for the morning. But I am happy with how it turned out, and there will be no question that I did make the thing (but now I have to share the credit ;).



For the record, here are the hats that came to your party John: viking, coon skin, knight, bumble bee, a couple princesses, warm weather and cold weather , cat in the hat, new years eve, Irish golfer, a couple jesters, postal hat, train conductor, pretty girly girl.

So on John's actual birthday we had a great morning before Tate headed off to work. The three of us headed into John's room with birthday hats and John was all smiles. We enjoyed a breakfast of sweet potato pancakes and John opened his presents from Daddy, RoryCate and me. John got a pair of cowboy boots and a cowboy hat. I mean a boy from Texas can't hold his head high without a pair of boots!








This is turning into one massive post, but we finally made it to the doctor for John's 2 year well-check/tummy bug appointment. Dr. D is please with the boy and feels that his growth and development is fabulous.

Height: 36.5 inches (90th percentile)
Weight: 28.5 pounds (50th percentile)
Head: 52.5 centimeters (off the chart)

Totally excited about that weight, this was day 4 into a 7 day tummy bug too!

Ok, so some facts about John.

*favorite activity: "shoot ball"
*loves sweets, he calls them "teets"
*can say "cickett" and "jojo"
*loves baby sister "roro" or "roro-cat"
*has learned to say whatever it takes to get out of the crib, ie "poopoo potty", despite the fact that he has gone on a full blown potty strike
*loves his school class pictures and can name every child...Josh is the coolest kid in school according to John, and I think he has a bit of a crush on Mollie.