Mateo's Fire Truck 2nd Birthday!

I can't believe my little boy is two!  I can't believe I have another little boy.  Life is good, but time is flying by too quickly!

We woke Mateo up by playing/singing "Las Mañanitas" outside his door, a tradition that started when Ernesto was a kid.  We followed that by Feliz Cumpleaños and presents.  This was the first time that Mateo was interested in opening presents.  That made it really fun. He opened a Melissa & Doug number puzzle and a wooden train for his set.  

Pardon the low light pics.

 All day this Birthday Boy had a lot of sweets.  How could I deprive him on his birthday?  He doesn't really ever get any, and I wanted today to feel special.  He licked the cake batter and ate chocolate chips right out of the bag.  He made a beautiful mess.

 We invited our neighbors over for cake and ice cream.  Something simple.   It turned out to be a great little party, planned in one day.  (unlike his one year fiesta, which also was great but a lot more planning/prep work)

In the afternoon before everyone got to our house, we did round two of presents.  (Ernesto insisted on not opening in front of the other kids!?)  As you can see, the little mexi-can was pretty excited.

He opened a Thomas the Train fire engine and a BIG Tonka fire truck! He is obsessed with them at the moment.  It was love at first sight.

 Yes, I baked the cake (my mom's delicious chocolate zucchini cake recipe & Martha Stewart's cream cheese frosting), but Ernesto really made it special.  We wanted a fire truck birthday cake (of course!) and googled some images for inspiration.  It took him less than 30 minutes and...look at this cake!
He did an awesome job, right?

Ernesto was working (doing landscape lighting) till about 2p and I must have sang happy birthday to Mateo about 25 times.  We also practiced blowing out candles.  After about 6 times, he had it down and was ready for the real thing.  

 Mateo watched everyone while they sang to him and was ready to clap at the end.  Upon his request, we re-lit the candles for him to blow out again.

After everyone left we sang one last time and Mateo got to blow out two more candles...in his birthday suit!  Check it out! He stayed up till 9pm!

This morning we stopped by the Grant Park Fire station [#10] and the guys there were really friendly.  Mateo of course instantly got really shy!?  They opened the door of the huge red truck and Mateo didn't want to let go of us.  I climbed up and sat with him.  They let him toot the horn and they turned on all the lights too.  I think Ill take him back again soon! 

After we left he was wanting to see it again all day.  Mas mas and putting his hand up to his ear.  That is what we do when we are listening for things like...garbage trucks, airplanes, trains and yes, big red firetrucks.  I think he had a great birthday and we enjoyed watching him.  My big baby boy. 

I love that guy so much.