I cannot believe my son is 2 years old! It seems like I have no idea what life was like without him and to think it was only two years ago. Even though it feels like just yesterday, it somehow also feels like a lifetime ago.
Most of you know my sons story, so I won't go into a ton of details but all I can say is how proud of him I am. He has hit every milestone and then some. He has exceeded all the doctors expectations, the developmental specialists requirements by about six months but they followed up until age one. He has done things that my three in a half year old daughter hasn't done yet. He can throw a ball like a pro, and let me tell you about the fact that he can fully catch a ball at this age. I'm pretty sure he is taking tips from Larry Fitzgerald. He also understands so much and it's just so much fun getting to see himself understand what you tell him to do. Right now he's saying about 2 new words a day which is making each day SUPER exciting! He took a little longer than it took Anderson to talk but I have heard that is a boy thing and also a second child thing. The other day he was holding four golf balls (two in each hand) and all of a sudden he decided to drop one of the balls but he held on to the other three. We were so blown away at that! He has great motor skills to be able to open one pinky and drop one of the balls but ensure that he holds onto the other three at the same time. We are so blessed to call him ours and are so thankful that we get to watch him grow each and every day!
I have created a birth video as part of my healing. I will have a post later this week talking about the actual day he was born, all my emotions, and how the video I made has helped me in this process. Going through what we did, I didn't process pretty much any emotions I would say from when my water broke in May 2016 until he came home on December 3rd. I think even after that I still didn't fully process either because his first year was a whirlwind of helping him reach milestones and teaching him to take feeds as well as figuring life out with two kids and just straight surviving. I am really looking forward to writing that post, and posting it. It will be a emotional one for sure, but we be so helpful for me.
Now about Fitz's second birthday party! Since I feel like the last two years have been a blur and because he loves cars so much (especially Lightning McQueen) I thought "Racing into 2" was the perfect theme! Now for those of you who have kids with summer birthday's or you do yourself, you know it is so hard because there are not many places to do parties at inside and then you have the reality of 110 degrees outside so what do you do with that?! I decided a water party would be the only feasible option. Luckily I was posting about the fact that I was stumped about this on instagram one day and a friend of mine, Amy, replied to me and shared a PVC carwash one of her friends did for her son's birthday party. She said to check it out on Pinterest right away I knew it was the answer to my prayers! I struggle sometimes with the theme and once it comes to me it all flows from there. I was so thankful for her awesome idea and now I just had to put it into action!
Here are the plans that I modified a bit to fit the party a little better, from Design Mom. I wanted two hoses so I have two hook ups on either side. I also did a little bit different hole placement, I wanted some shooting sideways like a real car wash! I also decided to keep the whole car wash one color besides the sponges. The last thing I did differently was the hanging noodles at the end. I really wanted it to seem like a real carwash and let's be honest, I thought it would be fun to have them hit the kids in the face. I bought this Hot Wheels Extreme Roller Coaster for the kids to slide down into the carwash because DUH, we have a need for speed! It also was my present to Fitz so that worked out great as well! I put some stickers on it that I had made so it would resemble Lightning McQueen's car at the end of Cars 3. The carwash was a hit! We also followed the carwash plans of the star sponges and made some extra for a bucket of water so they could be thrown around at each other. I was really excited about those I feel like they held up really well even when adults were throwing them and it was SO NICE not having to pick up water balloon pieces! Between all of that plus another water slide and kiddy pool, we were set for a great time.
I hope you guys enjoy the photos as much as I do!
Please comment below if you have any questions you would like answered on my blog post about Fitz's birth. It'll be posted later this week, but I want to be able to answer questions about NICU, bed rest, hospital bed rest, PPROM, his birth, developmental milestones and how we encouraged him to reach them, what worked for us, etc.
Almost all the decorations are either from Amazon or Etsy feel free to let me know if you need help finding any of them!
Anderson's suit was from Modern Roots Kids Co , Fitz's Lightning McQueen one was from Amazon but it was a little big and was falling off so I changed him into this Rad Revolution suit. Dad' suit was Beau Hudson and our shirts were all from this Etsy shop, Happy Joy Tee Club.
