Gil turns two!

I’ve been trying really hard (a relative term around here) for a really long time (also relative) to write a post about how Elliott and I met and fell in love, seeing as how our fifth anniversary is Friday (yay!) and I thought that would be fun to share with you all. But I discovered that such posts require much digging through the archives of Facebook for All the Cute Pictures and I am running out of time until Friday and since I want it to be a fabulous post that you will enjoy and that I will treasure forever (because that’s how it goes), I am going to take my time with it and instead bring you…

… Gil turns two!

Which happened this past weekend, so it should probably come first anyway.

Before we get any farther, I want to share two Facts of Life that I learned this last weekend with all of you who might not yet have experienced the joy of a little son turning two. I suppose I should not have been surprised about these…

Fact of Life #1 for Your Son: Your older sibling will open all your presents for you.

Your older sibling will also, sadly, blow out all your candles for you. Or, as the case may be, blow out your matchstick. (If your mama forgets to buy candles — even two measly little candles — you’ll be stuck with matches.) And you won’t even get to blow those out. I’m so sorry.

Fact of Life #2 for Your Son: You will get only trains, planes, and automobiles for your birthday. Not a stitch of clothing. Not a single education toy. Nary even a book! But cars and trucks and tractors and choo-choos you shall have aplenty.

I know, I know! You’re so disappointed.

Or not!

Since we rarely get to go to the zoo as a family, we decided to go to the zoo as a family. Parking is tricky on weekends, but we ended up with a prime spot parked right in front of THIS:

Apparently it is only open on Sundays, so we all bought tickets and piled aboard, and I have to say honestly that it might be the best carousel I’ve ever been on. The animals were incredible — dragons and giraffes and lions and tigers and bears, oh my! — and the whole carousel went very, very fast. Like I am talking a lot of centrifugal force. All to the tune of the Darth Vader theme from Star Wars which is not, shall we say, traditional calliope-y carousel music, but it earned it more props for coolness.

Nothing is in focus but the maniacal zebra, but they all look so happy!

Afterwards we went into the zoo and Gil said grunted that he would like to see the gorillas, which makes sense because this is still his favorite book of all time.

We made a pit stop at the orangutans first, where this sweet and shaggy lady sat right by the glass and made eyes at the birthday boy for approximately 15 minutes:

Gil offered her some of his goldfish “‘nack”:

And then we went on to visit the gorilla family, who had just welcomed a very, very tiny little baby into their midst one month before. We tried and tried to get a picture, and I will share them with you because I am so generous and I know you want to attempt to make out that little fuzzy blob attached to his mother’s chest:

Much, much cuter in person, let me assure you. Almost as cute as this little gorilla two years ago.

Home for the most Gil-friendly dinner I could imagine: Argentine flank steak, baked potatoes, green beans, and French bread….

… and then this cake for dessert, which is my new favorite thing to make because it is SO EASY but tastes very expensive, rich, and wonderful. You’re welcome!

And so, all in all, I think he had a good day and almost every dream a two-year-old boy can dream really did come true.

Happy birthday, sweet Gil! We fall more in love with you every day, and we are so so so glad you’re here.

xoxo,

Mama