Our Little Baby Blog

A Birthday Adventure

I know it's been a long time since our last post, but I was waiting to get all our birthday pictures. I turned over photography duty to Anna's grandfather who visited on her birthday and it took me a while to collect them all. I'll warn you this is the first of two posts regarding birthday festivities because her party didn't take place until the following week.

So... without further delay, Anna's actual birthday recap:

The morning began with a fantastic start. Mike blew up balloons and placed them all over the living room so she would walk into a room full of balloons. Major score! Judging by her fascination with the balloons, we may be better off skipping the presents next year and just blowing up the balloons again.

Anna opened up her birthday presents first. She got some great gifts, including some new blocks, which she plays with everyday now (thank you, Uncle Andy), and a Little People school bus. I totally indulged her girly side with a brand new tutu! The tutu is admittedly a pretty wild creation, but I was excited to give her something I thought she'd really love.

While Mike cleaned up, I made blueberry pancakes for everyone. Blueberry pancakes are Anna's favorite! She read her new Maisy book while I diligently prepped her a plate of yummy goodness. For only being 23 pounds, our little pumpkin can really pack in the pancakes.

Twirling, anyone?

Since it was her birthday, I caved in and let her wear whatever she wanted to that day. What did Anna choose to wear? A pretty dress, of course! (I had to add the sweatshirt since it was FREEZING outside)

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Next up, the Nature Museum. After we got Anna all cleaned up, my dad and I ventured out with Anna to the Nature Museum. Mike had taken her there a few months ago, but she was a little too young to really grasp what was going on or enjoy it fully. Two must be the perfect age because she loved it and talked about it all day long. What did you see at the Nature Museum, Anna? Frogs, snakes, butterflies, fish, turtles... you get the picture.

The butterfly room was the highlight of our trip. It's a great small room that is filled with, well you know, butterflies. Anna ran around that place for at least 2o minutes. I was actually a little surprised how bold she was. It was crowded and she would put her hands together and just dive in between people to get where she wanted to go, with or without me. I thought she might find it overwhelming, but she didn't seem to even care. She just ran from one side to the other and back again. I couldn't even get video footage because she moved so fast.

Anna marches through the butterfly room

Now here is where the birthday plan starts to go awry. I had made reservations at a place called Rainforest Cafe downtown. It's one of those huge over the top theme restaurants geared towards families and I thought it would be a lot of fun. My friend Kate had recently visited there with her daughter and neice and nephew and had given it rave reviews also. But, alas, it just goes to show that one kid's enjoyable meal is another kid's fear-ridden trip to hell.

From the moment she walked in, Anna was terrified. I had prepped her beforehand that this restaurant would have silly pretend animals, but, apparently, that didn't really help prepare her for anything. She clung to my neck the instant we entered the restaurant, which is essentially just the gift shop, the eating area is actually upstairs. But between the rainforest soundtrack and the vines and little animals hanging from the ceiling, it just overwhelmed her too much. We took her upstairs, thinking maybe we needed to sit down and chill out and get some lemonade and maybe regroup. But, by the time Mike arrived there a few minutes later from work, things had just gone further south. I positioned her near a big fish tank (who is scared of fish?), but I think you could see through it to the large animatronic gorillas on the other side of the room cuz that didn't seem to work out at all.

Basically, I ended up handing the lady my credit card and telling her to ring us up for the drinks FAST and then we darted outside. Once outside, we were down to just a couple of options. Option 1: McDonalds next door. Now Anna would have been fine with this, it's kind of a flashy crazy one, but I just couldn't envision the retelling of her birthday story with a trip to Micky D's. Option 2: Go home. Um, same deal. Not fun. OR.... OR... Ed Debevic's around the corner.

For those of you who haven't been to Ed Debevics, it's a cheesy touristy 50's diner where the schtick is that the waiters are very sarcastic and rude to you (feels like mostly actor types who use this as their day job). It's a kinda funny/fun place and they dance on the counter every 30 minutes or so. I wasn't sure how this would go either, but it was the best option.

Thankfully, it went GREAT!

Anna loved it. From the moment they stuck the silly hat on her head, she started grinning and didn't stop. Everything about that place appealed to her. The fact that they sang and danced, the fact that we all wore hats, the yummy greasy french fries and pink lemonade, it was all great fun for her and, therefore, a blast for us also.

Mini ice cream sundae. Hooray!

By the time we got her home, it was getting kinda late so we put our pumpkin to bed quickly. Truth be told we were all exhausted. I went to bed myself very shortly after and left the toy clean up to my dad and Mike.

All in all, the day was just fantastic. It felt like we'd lived three or four days in one by the time it was over, but in all seriousness we had a great time. She had a blast and still talks about the Nature Museum to this day. Given how much she liked Ed Debevic's, I'd recommend it for anyone with a young kid.

And the gift just kept on giving the next morning...

The love continues...