A Week of Celebration

It's official; Eli is a two year old! On his birthday last Thursday, we began the day by going to Hermann Park. He has been begging me to ride the train again every time we go, so I told him we would do it for his birthday. I know we did it for his birthday last year, but maybe it will become a birthday tradition for him as long as we live here. Who knows? The important thing is that that's what he wanted to do, so that's what we did. I was babysitting for a friend who has a near three year old, so he went with us. Eli enjoyed playing and riding the train. We also had a picnic in the park. Since the squirrels and birds were eager to eat what we were eating, Eli and his friend had a great time.

Josh was able to get the afternoon off, so we went to the Museum of Natural Science and watched a movie about dolphins and whales on the IMAX. It was Eli's first time watching a movie on the big screen, and he loved it! During the film, he kept reaching out to grab the 3D images. It was cute!

That evening, of course, he opened his birthday gifts and ate birthday cake. Thanks to everyone that sent a gift. He loved them! Sorry about some of the pictures being so blurry. Our camera has problems, and it was causing us trouble during part of the day.

He loved his birthday cake too! Since he loves garbage trucks so much, I made a 3D garbage truck cake for him. He kept pointing to it and saying "garbage." He blew out the candles perfectly in one fell swoop, and he dove into his cake. I guess he decided that when something is that good, face first is best, as you can tell in the picture.

On Saturday, we dyed some eggs, and had a small Easter egg hunt in our house. Earlier in the week on Wednesday, he had an Easter egg hunt in the park for playgroup. He really enjoyed picking up those eggs and putting them in his basket. Of course, he also loved what was in the eggs too!

We had a great Easter Sunday! We enjoyed the many general conference talks, and then we had company for dinner. The missionaries dropped in on us during dessert, so we fed them and then went to a small discussion. They are teaching some women that live in our apartment complex.

I have to share one quick story. I was telling Eli about why we celebrate Easter. I had some pictures of Christ with his arms stretched out to show the marks of the nails in his hands. Earlier in the week, Eli had scraped one of his hands, so he had a small sore on his palm. I was using that to help tell the story of what happened to Christ. He looked at his hands, and then he touched the picture of Christ and said, "Jesus, owie." One of his favorite movies is Finding Faith in Christ. Every time he wants to watch it, he points to the DVDs and says, "Jesus." I'm amazed that at such a young age, Eli knows the name of Jesus and can recognize Him in pictures. He doesn't even know how to say his own name yet! I'm grateful for the teaching moments that I get to have as a mom.