Two Years and One Week

After the "burst of blogging" that I had before Isaiah's birthday, I needed a little bit of a break. Not being an overly creative person, I was somewhat depleted of ideas.  But, I do want to share with everyone how we celebrated Isaiah's 2nd birthday, twice.

On his actual birthday (02/06 or as the Russians would write it 06/02, which definitely takes getting used to) we had a special dinner.  Aunt Luda's birthday had been the day before, so we invited her for our special family dinner.  We had really yummy hamburgers and french fries--a nice American meal for an American's birthday.  Isaiah seemed to really enjoy it.  But I think that he enjoyed his birthday cake (which, incidentally, was actually a pie) even more.  We only gave him a few very small bites, but with the sugar from the pie and the excitement of the evening, he was awake until 11pm!  We learned our lesson!  He wasn't fussing while he was awake; he just couldn't go to sleep.  Oh well.  We'll know better next time.

Aunt Luda and Isaiah with their gifts.  Aunt Luda gave him a really great book that makes animal noises.  Isaiah helped me pick out the hat that Luda's wearing as her birthday gift.  He really did, I'm not elaborating or embellishing the facts.

Isaiah was pretty excited about this pie, I think...

I LOVE this picture.  Be sure to notice how Isaiah has his arm wrapped around his daddy's neck to pull him closer--this was not prompted, all Isaiah's idea!

One of the few bites of the pie

And finally, he was asleep

Saturday (02/09) we had a larger party to celebrate Little Man's big day.  We had such a good time!  I fixed lasagna for the first time since being here, and thankfully it turned out really well.  I even had requests for the recipe from our Russian guests.  Naturally we had an international group:  Galina Ivanovna (Thomas' language teacher); Ludmilla Zaharovna (my teacher) and her husband Valeri Alexi; Aunt Luda; Aunt Deanna (from PA); Uncle Trevor (from Ireland); Aaron, Danielle and Lydia Miner (also from PA).  Lydia will be 2 in May, and one of the highlights of the night was enjoying watching Isaiah and Lydia play together.  (more of that to come in the future!)  We enjoyed our supper, sat around and talked while the 2 kids played some, had some tea and really yummy chocolate cake, then Isaiah got to open a few presents.  He got tons of books, which are always a good idea.  He also got a guitar from us.  As soon as he opened the guitar, he didn't want to do anything else.  He wouldn't let it out of his hands the rest of the evening!

Isaiah and his aunts hanging out before the rest of the guests arrive

Playing with Lydia--they were both so sweet!

Lydia was a big help giving Isaiah rides on his motorcycle

Then Isaiah had so much fun chasing Lydia.  She would run ahead of him then turn around and laugh and say his name, and he would take off after her!

Isaiah with my teacher and her husband:  Ludmilla Zaharovna and Valeri Alexi

After he opened the beloved guitar

Isaiah still didn't quite understand how to blow out candles, so I helped him out (I wanted cake!).  Maybe next year he'll get it.

And this has to be my favorite picture from the whole evening.  I loved being able to watch Isaiah play with someone his size.  And Lydia is such a sweet one for him to play with.  Thank God for friends--all ages and sizes.

So that was the celebration time.  We had so much fun.  The only thing that could have made it better would have been a few extra bodies crammed into our apartment--maybe next year!