Happy 2nd Birthday to Liam!

On January 17, 2009 Liam turned 2 years old!!!!! YAY!!!!!

Call me crazy, but I have always wanted to do a big birthday party for Liam. Maybe it's because my name is Martha and it comes with the name (think Martha Stewart). Our apartment, however, is way too small for parties, so we will have to wait on that idea until we move to a bigger place.

This year we decided to bring the celebration over to Abuelita's apartment since she is currently out of commission. She broke her knee cap when she fell on some black ice on Christmas Eve.

Despite the bitter cold temperature on his birthday (much like when he was born), making a quick stop to pick up the yummy birthday cake from Nitin Bakery (our favorite bakery that did our wedding cake), then circling around looking for parking at my old neighborhood, we were all in good spirits.....except for Liam. He only napped a wopping 30 minutes on the car ride to Queens, so he was not his happy little self. I don't blame him as the "celebration" was right in the middle of his afternoon nap time (no other choice). He refused to smile the whole afternoon, and then only cracked a smile when he opened Abuelita's present: a gold name tag bracelet.

It must be said that despite my having a Latino heritage, I'm not a fan of men wearing jewelry except for the standard wedding band and wrist watch. My brother, on the other hand, wears his "bling" (i.e. gold chain, gold bracelet, wedding band, another fat gold ring on his other hand, and a wrist watch) which actually suits his big, burly presence and larger-than-life personality. When he was a teenager I think he had one or both of his earlobes pierced. Anyway, since it is a Latino thing and sort of a "bracelet" tradition in the family (my brother got a gold name tag bracelet when he turned 2), we thought, why not.

Well, Liam loved that little gold bracelet so much that he kept running away from us because he thought we were going to snatch it away from him when all we really wanted to do was put it on his little wrist. After a few hours of chasing him around, he was finally coaxed into releasing it and then finally wearing it.

Particulars:
Cake: vanilla cake with a dulce de leche filling and fluffy vanilla frosting topped with a "singing" candle and another candle on the side.

His presents: a dozen Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars plus two airplanes (from mommy and daddy), educational DVDs and flash cards (also from mommy and daddy), a cool Australian animal alphabet book and his favorite NutriGrain cereal (from grandma and grandpa in Australia), a few more Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars and a cool Hollywood CA t-shirt (from my cousin Marcella), and a gold name tag bracelet (from Abuelita). Another present, I hear, is on the way from Uncle Moe.

Liam's favorite snack in Australia was this NutriGrain cereal only available over there. In the morning he would just run over to the pantry and help himself before we were all ready to sit down for breakfast. He would also be seen often during the day casually sitting in front of the pantry on the floor munching on this cereal. Grandpa got such a kick out of it that he sent him a box all the way from Australia for his birthday.

The cereal was his favorite present up until he got Abuelita's present: a gold name tag bracelet.

Fascinated by the shiny gold and it's smallness, he finally cracked a smile (well, almost).

After much pleading and supplication, he begrudgingly said "cheeeeese" for this photo.

Yup, he's a 2 year old.

Happy Birthday, my love!

(Note: photos taken with MY camera that I got for Christmas.)