Christian's 2nd birthday

My nephew Christian turned two on September 7, and we celebrated his birthday a couple weeks ago. Chandra's family came over for dinner after church, and we had a nice, low-key dinner.

I hoped to get a picture of Christian and me, and he fortunately cooperated. He is such a sweet little guy. 

My mom had to get in on the picture action, too:

Chandra is such a good mom! Christian is so smart, and it's apparent that Chandra has done a good job teaching him, because he already knows so much. He's been counting for months, and can already count to at least 25. He also recognizes most, if not all of the letters, and is always pointing at letters that he sees on different things. He knows lots of colors. He also loves to sing songs, and it's so sweet when he spontaneously breaks into song. Christian also loves to help with everything. No matter what it is, Christian likes to help. I think it's adorable when my mom and Chandra are caring for me, and Christian wants to be right there helping.

Sometimes Christian gets into trouble, and has to have a timeout. My oldest sister Annette mentioned to Chandra and me one time when we were Skyping that she used to strap her daughter in her booster seat for timeouts, so that's what Chandra does with Christian. She puts him in his booster seat facing the corner at the landing of the stairs for two minutes. Christian usually cries and howls "all done" the entire time. Sometimes when Christian does something he knows he shouldn't, Chandra will correct him, and then he will look at her and give her a big smile and say, "I love you" (except he says "I… love… you" with a brief pause between each word). It's so hard not to laugh when he is so darn cute!

He also loves to play outside. When we went out to try to take a family picture of Chan's family, Christian had no desire to stop and pose… he likes to be on the go, running around, collecting pinecones, looking at the leaves, etc. Chandra had to wrestle him into her arms, and this was the best picture we could manage before Christian wriggled out of her arms and was off to keep exploring.

Christian's birthday cake. He needed a little help blowing out his birthday candle, but I think he was still happy to be sung to, because he clapped afterwards.

I picked out a gift that I thought Christian would like, and my mom and I got it for him. He did a great job opening the wrapping paper, unlike last year, where he was unsure of what to do.

We got him the Little People Noah's ark. I think he liked it, because he couldn't wait to get it out of the package, and then played with it for quite a while after it was open. It's really a cute Noah's ark, and very sturdy, unlike a lot of toys out there these days that seem to be rather flimsy. In the past two weeks, Christian has brought his Noah's ark over several times when he and Chandra have come over.

I just love Christian so much, and it's been wonderful to watch him grow up the past two years. I love all of my 25 nieces and nephews, but Christian is the only one that is local, that I get to see on a regular basis. The other day when he left to go home, Chandra brought him over to kiss me goodbye. After we kissed, he said, "One more!" I happily obliged. 😉 I hope he always loves me as much as he does right now.