Happy Birthday, Ian!

Happy Birthday to my big 2 year old!

I can't believe he is two years old. That means we have been in Germany almost 2 years, as Ian was only 3 weeks old when we moved here.

The day started out with us attending church. He got to sit with his favorite adopted Grandma. And afterwards, the Grandma and Grandpa Becker came over to our house for a barbeque.

Grandma Becker brought not one, but two birthday cakes for Ian. What an amazing woman! She was trying to please more than one child at my house. She also brought Ian some Playmobile Legos that build a Police Station with a Police van. Ian loved it. And so did all the other kids, I might add. It got a little noisy as all the older kids wanted to help Ian unpack it, and set it up.

Ian and Emma found some alone time to play with Ian's new toys.

Ian also got some legos from us plus some building blocks. He opened a present every hour it seemed. He didn't want to open them all at once and I was ok with that. I think he would of gone until tomorrow before opening more, but the bigger kids wouldn't let that happen.

Luckily he has big brother and sisters though. Because without them, the candles on the cake probably would still be lit. {giggle}

Although, I just remembered. Ian loved the candles being lit. We had to do it more than once.

Sounds like Ian had a good day with one exception.

I tried to take Ian off the bottle today. Gardner thought it was a terrible thing to do on his birthday. But I had done it to Emma on her birthday with the binky and it worked just fine. She was ready. But for Ian, I suppose he just wasn't ready.

I put him to nap after church for a short nap since I knew that Grandpa and Grandma Becker would show up in 45 minutes. He cried the whole time. He was so red when we finally got him out of bed.

And tonight, I tried again. I thought I might have a chance since he did not nap the whole day. He was fine at first. But 3 minutes with me gone, he started up again. After 20 minutes, I gave in. The poor boy. I felt bad for him the whole time I listened.

The problem for Ian is this: The bottle is more than a bottle to him. He never has taken a binky. And he would walk around here with an empty bottle in his mouth just for comfort, like a binky is for any other child. Taking that bottle away from him is going to prove to be a bit more difficult than Emma, who still had her binky afterwards to sooth her.

I have decided to try again after Christmas. And, starting tomorrow, he will only get the bottle at Bed Time. No more in the morning when he wakes up. No more carrying the bottle around the house. I think that will help the transistion some.

I will definately keep everyone updated on what happens with that.

Here are some pictures of Ian today! Happy Birthday my Big Boy!