two.

So the boy is two. My cupcakes were largely successful - this pic was taken at daycare, Pau and the girls. I am so glad they are wearing the old-school hats. I was a little overzealous for his first birthday and bought some and if I recall, he merely chewed off the tips of them. I meant to bring the leftover hats to daycare but forgot because my brain is rather sieve-like these days. So I was thrilled to see Wendy was well-prepared. The other kids sang and Paudie was delighted. By the time his party #2 rolled around with some friends, the singing gave him a jolt and some anxiety, but he recovered. By #3 with my family, he was a crying mess. Ditto on #4 with John's family. But in both cases, he collected himself pronto as the song concluded and masterfully blew out his candle. I was taken aback by how good he was actually - I expected much more spit.

So the 5-day extended bday weekend was good. I loved watching him open gifts - which he has also become quite good at - and he seemed to enjoy each of them. Not to mention each tiny shred of wrapping paper as it came off.

Yesterday when the boys picked me at the T, Pau was being quite whiney because he wanted to go on the choo choo. I told him we would go again soon, and I swear he replied 'okay.' Prior to that he replied 'cool' to something I said. Last night he was saying "I watch tv." The TV thing is getting a little bad. He loves Diego. God knows why, but he does. He has gotten used to me turning it off a few minutes into it, or turning the channel. So last night he runs in the room when he hears Click singing and takes the remote away from me and places it on a table that would require me getting out of my seated position to retrieve. Smart kid.

Oh - and get this. On Saturday he was doing his usual 'want to potty' routine which really means want to get naked. So I put the potty topper on the toilet and placed him on it - and he peed! Just a little amount, but I don't know who was more shocked. I called John over - and then he peed again. I thought - hmmmm, are we onto something? But no. It was just a fluke. I think we have a minimum of 6 more months of diapers ahead of us.

It's very cool out today - summer is clearly over. We are looking at a very quiet weekend which is great - need to decompress after 8 weekends of buzy-ness. This week John finally finished fencing the backyard in - Banjo had run away twice last week. Once he made it over to the T stop which isn't exactly too close to our house. I really have to give props to John for chasing his ass down because I really thought he was gone, and really didn't feel all that bad about it. The next day he only made it across the street when he got blocked in to a fenced-in yard. Man you should have seen me dragging his bum home. I was livid. Then on Weds night he escaped out the frontdoor - but a big dog scared him straight home. Why oh why is he hellbent on running away from us? Doesn't he have a good home? It's so frustrating. The speed is unreal. It's quite a feeling to just watch your dog - the one you just spent $250 on at the vet and then whatever the fence cost - run away from you at lightning speed, through yards and bushes. You just stand there helpless. Jerk.