Happy Birthday Gino

Hard to believe but the little man is 2. 

 With a tough few beginning for this little guy, we cherish everyday, and cannot believe where the time has gone.

We started the morning off as any birthday should. Candles and donuts! 

We had  a fun day of treats, swimming, cake and presents.

Funny how traditions get started. Now we need rainbow cake at every birthday. I think Mike wishes he never tested this idea out in the first place.  But this year Giada helped and they made the cake the night before and she was so excited to show it to Gino and had to keep the secret all day.

Party Time. We had some fun at the lake to celebrate this year.  Kids could have cared less about anything other than the snow cones! Gino must have had at least 5!

Gino was too distracted by Mari and Addy to care about our candles or singing. As soon as the singing was over Giada and crew were back in the water.  But no worries, he enjoyed plenty of snow cones throughout the day!

 Paddle boat rides, paddle board, and fishing were highlights of the day. Nico and Branden barely left the dock. Thanks Jeffy for being the fishing guide!

 Raft was a big hit. With all the kids more confident in their swimming, they were on and off swimming around a million times!

Present Time! I only let him open a couple every few days so he can enjoy it and appreciate them.  Giada had a harder time with my plan then he did.  

Looking forward to what this year brings for him.  Already in the last month or so he has decided to be much more opinionated on his likes and dislikes, which comes with the age, but I miss the easy going personality he had! 

2 Year Update

-Height 3.25' - 91% Funny, he doesn't seem as tall as G to us, but he is right up there.

-Weight 27.8lbs - 43%

- Pretty good eater, LOVES fruit and will never turn it down. Hit and miss on meats and veggies. Day to day is always different there. Loves noodles too. 

- Bottle gone without any issue. He was only having one at night. Pacifier is next on the list. I need to get through one more road trip, and surely wasn't worried about that before our long trip to Australia. He only has it for bed and in the car sometimes, but if he sees it he wants it, or at bedtime. This one will be harder.

- Sleeps through the night pretty consistently. As many of you know my kids are not the best sleepers. But now he typically sleeps all night. whoo hoo!

-JUMPING. He loves to jump on anything, into anything, off anything. Sometimes he asks when it is a really far jump, but basically he cannot be trusted anywhere alone.

-Climbing...same goes here. He will move things to climb on top of things.  

- Wakes up 5:45-6 daily. I also don't have kids who sleep in!

- Took this guy awhile to say real words but in the last few weeks it has finally clicked, he says a ton of words now and strings 2-3 together. I still love how he says "Ga-da" for Giada's name. 

-Knows body parts, as you can see above if the video works.

- Working on shapes and colors. Often says white or blue for everything and if it is orange he says "Giants" lol

- Enjoys drawing these days too

- Still naps for 1-2 hrs at some point in the day. But you can bet he is on the go for every other minute he is awake!