What you do when you are 2.5 years old...

This past week, Wally turned 2 1/2 years old (Feb 12th to be exact). Since Wally and I were in Montana and Joel was in Iowa for Wally's 2nd birthday, Wally and I decided to have a 2.5 (said 2 point 5...we're scientists after all) birthday party with Daddy. It was rather spur of the moment. At 4:30 we jumped in the car and drove to the Dollar Store. There we got stuff for the birthday party...balloons. Everything is a dollar at that store, so we got a couple big helium balloons. One is even shaped like a monkey. Wally picked out some punching balloons that I wrapped for his present. We ran home and made some "heart cakes" and birthday cake. Wally helped with the sprinkles, so there were just as many sprinkles as brownies. He also decided we needed to put marshmellows in the brownies...they just leave big bubbles and kinda disappear...not necessarily recommended. While the cakes were baking, we decorated the kitchen with balloons. Dad was sure surprised when he came home! In honor of it being the first day of spring training (that is when the pitchers and catchers report to training camp), we had hotdogs. Wally was so excited to blow out the candles that we needed to do it twice to get pictures. We took a video, but I had been playing with the camera, so it was on time-lapse...therefore, very shotty worthless video! :(

Wally loves to help Mom cook.

It is hard to tell, but there are actually 2.5 candles on the cake

(#3 is pushed down really far)Wally, Daisy and the monkey balloonPunching balloons are super fun.

They don't hold up long to ballpoint pens though.For Valentine's Day, we had a romantic family outing to the Children's Museum. It is a great place for kids. Wally loves the ball room...a room full of all sorts of great games with golf balls. Wally loves the golf ball rollercoaster.
There is also a pretend farm for little kids. Here, Wally is watering and driving a tractor at the same time.
There is a large section of the museum dedicated to the ABCs. There is a felt tree that the kids can stick felt letters to. Wally only stuck "D Wally's" on the tree. A "D Wally" is commonly known as a "W." Here Wally is singing the ABC song into hollow tube phones. You can probably catch a few letters of the song.

Earlier in the week, Wally went to the dentist for the first time. I came armed with the camera, but he was so good and it went so fast, that I never got a picture. The night before we watched Youtube videos of kids going to the dentist. I think it really helped. He recognized the chair and many of the tools. The tech and the dentist were both great. They had names for each tool and let Wally touch them all before they used them. I have to say I felt like a gitty proud mommy. Here is a video of Wally brushing his teeth with his Thomas toothbrush that actually plays music. I don't remember having one like that when I was a kid!

After all of the fun of the week (and deciding that 2.5 year olds don't need naps), Wally was a little sleepy yesterday afternoon and fell asleep in my arms. It is still so sweet to hold a sleeping child. I wonder if my mom would think it was that great if I curled up in her arms...or maybe there is an age limit.