My baby is 2!

Last week Van turned 2!  I still can't believe it's been 2 years since I first got to meet him.

April 20th 2010                                                                       April 20th 2012

Van has been a bit slow to talk but it's starting to come along at a slightly quicker pace now. I'm guessing that might halt for a while since now he spends a lot of time with our nanny who only speaks French.  He's very much into the "me do it" phase, loves running up and down any and all ramps,  loves book time, loves splashing and making a mess during bath time, munches on dog food (ugh), want to do anything his brother is trying to... has a happy dance when we give him something he wants and loves being outside. He gets pretty peeved when Keenan gets to go walk the dog with his dad and he doesn't.  I don't think he's anywhere near wanting to be potty trained but then we haven't tried and our potty chair is not here yet.  We're hoping to some of our stuff this weekend but we're not holding our breaths on it. 

We kept it small for Van's birthday, part of me felt bad because we've always thrown big parties for Keenan.  We don't have our stuff and we still feel like we just got here played into our decision.  I also failed on his cake, nothing exciting.  It was a box cake with pre-made frosting.  We did have party horns though...

How many can I get in my mouth?

 Keenan and Atwege

 Van is NOT a camera hog in the least.  In fact he usually does anything he can to NOT take a nice picture.  He usually gives the half awake, blank look.  See below

 I tried tricking him by tickling him and snapping a picture.

 Here too, what you can't see is my hand tickling his knee.

 Keenan showing off his slice of cake.

 Van just wanted the frosting... he used the candles as a device to retrieve it.

 The frosting was a bigger hit than the cake... Van didn't want his.

 Our attempts at getting a family picture.  #1.  Van's eating frosting.

 #2  Keenan's being over dramatic and laughing hysterically oh and Van's still eating frosting

 #3.  Back to the blank half awake look mentioned before

 Present time!  Keenan was pretty sure he'd get to open up all the presents.  Van had other plans :)

 Keenan getting to help a little.

Ha ha, now dad gets to put the present together!

 Yay, all finished!  Van LOVED this.  He would get all excited and clap after the cars went down and make sure everyone else was clapping too.

Ugh, I need to get better about bringing my camera out with me.  Maybe I just need to leave it in my purse.  There's so much interesting and fun stuff that I've been seeing that I want pictures of to share;  from the markets, to the view from the top of Sidi Bou Said, The American Cemetary...  maybe I'll get better.