birthday the second

i've just tucked into bed a very tired but very happy two-year-old, and his mama is ready for bed too. noah has had a busy birthday! it began with a special breakfast for the birthday prince.

he has been really into the book "where the wild things are" these past few days, and we've talked a lot about how max wears a crown to be king of the wild things. here is noah proudly wearing his birthday crown, just like max.

here's the whole set-up, including birthday coffee cake and fruit, and his new dolly from mama. this is noah's first doll, and i'm hoping he'll bond with her enough to help prepare him to help nurture his little sister. he named her annie, and she's already come for a car ride and had a nap with noah. he even offered her a pacifier! very generous little boy.

after breakfast we headed to fairhaven for a trio of treats. first we chose a book at village books, where we also enrolled noah in the young readers club, earning him a "ticket" for a free ice cream cone at the colophon cafe. pretty cool! then we walked across the street to the fairhaven toy garden, where he turned in his "ticket" from them for a birthday treasure. he chose a little blue train from the cool treasure chest, and then we played for a while with all the toys. finally we ended up at avenue bread, where we shared a croissant and watched traffic and passers-by out the window. on the ride home for lunch he managed to hold on to his new train, his new book, and annie.

this evening we met sarah, jessa and cassin at mallard ice cream downtown, where noah enjoyed his very first ice cream cone. (it looks like jessa's making a move on noah's cone...) he made a mess and had a great time.afterward we drove back to fairhaven to await the arrival of the evening amtrak train headed for seattle. noah calls it the "am" and loves to talk about how loud the train is and how the "ding-dings" have to go down to stop the cars. he watches the train like a hawk the whole time, with a very serious look on his face. we went out onto the platform to see the passengers board and to check out the "hooks" between the cars, and the conductor waved and said, "all aboard!" just for noah. a pretty special ending to a pretty special day.

tomorrow we'll celebrate with friends and family with a party (or a "rumpus," as max would say) at boulevard park. if we're lucky a train will go by while we're there!