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It’s true!  Today is Little Man’s second birthday.  He was born on inauguration day.  Here’s  bit of weird trivia:  Our other baby was born in September, but at the exact time that former president Jimmy Carter was in the hospital – the same hospital, mind you – for a little health scare on his book tour.  So we have a presidential theme going on with our family.

We’re not doing much for Little Man’s birthday (he’s only two, after all), but this morning he “helped” me make some brownies (he mastered the art of pouring things into the mixing bowl.  He even helped me stir!), and then we went to the Cleveland Children’s Museum.   I left the baby with the sitter (thanks F!), and spent some alone time with the birthday boy.

In the museum, there’s one room with has rotating exhibits.  Currently, they’ve turned it into a giant sandbox, complete with a Sphinx sand sculpture (they’re calling the exhibit Egyptian Sands), plenty of shovels, buckets, toy alligators, tunnels, see-saws, chairs (for the adults), and so on.  He spent about an hour playing in the sand.  Jumping, pouring, digging, dumping.  Oh, was he a happy boy.

It’s amazing seeing  him play and interact.  He’s a big watcher, this one.  He loves to observe other children, other adults, check out the situation, and then make his decision.  He’s always been like that.  He also loves to jump.   Jump jump jump.  We played a little game where I covered his feet with sand and then he wiggled them out.  To be amused by the simplest things; it’s the best!

After we came back home, I thought it would be fun to decorate the brownies together, but really, he just wanted to eat them, so I decorated and he munched.  It worked for me.  That’s life, right?  We have to be flexible.

I’m glad we’re not doing a big thing.  First of all, he’s too little to really appreciate it, or even understand it.  Birthday?  What’s that?  Second, I’ve been so busy lately that I don’t have the energy to do any party planning (or cleaning-uping), and finally, I really hope to keep things simple in our family.  I mean things like simchas.  Simple.  That’s my plan, so just a little party among ourselves is in keeping with that ideology.

I’d love to be able to include some adorable pictures of our family togetherness tonight, but I, in continued moments of weakness, let Little Man play with our digital camera.  Not a great Mommy move there, I really recommend NOT doing that.  Yes, our camera is no more.  It’s broken in that special way that only toddlers can do.  So we’re taking pictures today with real film.  Whoa.  We’ll have to get them developed.  Maybe I’ll scan some in.  I love that scanning a photo feels old-fashioned.  Funny.

So if anyone has good recommendations for cameras, we’re in the market.  And for Little Man’s birthday?  We’re going to get him a toy camera.