Hap Birf to you, dear Zach! (as sung by Zachary)

Zachary is officially no longer a baby. He turned 2 on Saturday, which is what I define as the age when babyhood ends, although I don’t know if I can actually stop calling him Baby. Since he was born I’ve been getting emails from various kid sites and the subject lines have been “your baby at 6 weeks; your baby at 9 months; your toddler at 15 months, etc”. On Saturday I got an email entitled “your preschooler at 24 months.” I don’t think I can make that leap to preschooler just yet. He’s still well into toddlerhood in my mind.

So Saturday was an absolutely perfect (although a tad too hot) summer day, and we celebrated Zach’s birthday with a party in the park. His friends Nicholas, Isabel, Kiran, and Nadia were able to join us. We played on the swings, in the sand, and running all around. Unbelievably, the park was empty for almost the entire party, so we took over the whole seating area. It was very nice. It’s so funny and cute to see Zach with little friends and to watch them interact.

Because of the timing of the party (mid-afternoon) we opted to not have a meal, but we did have snacky foods and, of course, cake. Kevin feels very strongly about homemade birthday cakes, and we went back and forth on what we should make. I had originally thought Zach’s birthday party theme would be puppies because he loves them so much, but in the end we went with a beach-y sort of theme instead. His invitations were photo invitations and he was clearly on the beach in the photo, so we continued with that thinking. Kevin initially wanted to make a sailboat cake, but my idea of a sandcastle cake won him over, and I think the end result came out pretty well. Kevin baked the cakes and I cut them out and decorated them. It was actually pretty fun and easy to do.

Zach got some great gifts at his party, and has been playing non-stop with them ever since we got home that afternoon! I think it’s time to start packing up (and putting away) some of his younger babyish toys, and finding room for his more mature toys. Lately he’s into toy foods, pretend play, and trains, as well as bubbles and riding toys.

There was a lovely breeze when I was trying to light the candle on Zach’s cake, and we ended up not being able to get it to stay lit. So we sang Happy Birthday without having a lit candle. We thought Zach would join in the singing – he sings that song several times a day – but instead he got a little shy and smiley instead. He did enjoy the cake (and the gogurt which got all over him) as well as his Elmo juice box, and sang it privately at home to us later.

Happy birthday to my baby Zachary! No matter how old you get, you’ll always be my sweet baby boy.