Big Birthday Weekend!

Wow, I still haven't recovered from all the excitement, and Eli has just been in overdrive.
Today is Eli's second birthday. Pretty amazing.
Saturday, while I prepped for the party and did some closet organizing and Christmas stuff, they guys spend the day in New York City. They left on an early morning train, so I got to sleep in later than I have in a LONG time. Boy was that nice. They visited the Diana Ross playground in Central Park, the Children's Museum in Manhattan, Times Square, and Rockefeller Center. Justin said the children's museum was amazing - Eli loved the sand table and post office, and he enjoyed the fingerpainting, although he hates messy hands, so he yelled "mess!" every few minutes for Justin to wipe the paint off his hands...oy. They came home on the train just in time for bed. This adventure started a new round of persistent discussion. "Mommy! The train! The people! They sit!"
Sunday morning Grandma and Grandpa Ed stopped by to exchange gifts. Eli got lots of nice clothes and books, and his big surprises were a tricycle and a play kitchen. On a side note: Why is our society so gender-focused? Everything has to be pink or blue. Try finding a toy kitchen for 2 year-olds that doesn't cost as much as a real kitchen and is not pink or purple! He loves the model he got, although it turns out the blue trim in the online photo was actually purple. He doesn't care, and neither do I, but Justin and I both grew up with our dads as the head chefs, so why are most toy kitchens exclusively designed for girls? I digress...
After nap, we went to Eli's party in the soft play room at a local rec center. We rented the party room and got the kids all wound up on snacks and frozen custard cake, and then let all 9 of them (between the ages of 1 and 4) loose in a room covered in mats with huge foam shapes and slides and a pool of balls. The best part was the parents could sit back and watch from the sidelines for the most part while the kids had loads of fun. A good time was had by all. Just in case that wasn't enough stimulation for one weekend, we then went straight to Nana& Grandpa's annual tree trimming party. Shockingly, Eli had fun putting ornaments on the tree (and taking a few off) and eating Grandpa's smoked turkey. He only had a few sharing squabbles with other kids, but no major meltdowns.
Eli woke up smiling this morning and started saying "Cake. Two. Eddie. Gigi. Train. Ball." recounting the whole weekend. Very cute.
He got to open his birthday presents tonight, which was a little overwhelming. He was very excited and wanted to play with all the toys and read all the books. Bedtime was a little rough though.