It Began with a BBFT: Jack is 2!

Jack turned two!

"Baby Jack"

"Jackers Crackers"

"cracker" (derived from above random nick name)

"Jack-Jack"

'Jackie"

"the baby"

"our senior capstone project"

It is hard to believe that our little baby, our fourth, our final little has turned two. It is especially monumental because we have been in the baby phase for 6 years now in some capacity really and now we have officially graduated from being parents of babies and toddlers to parents of toddlers and actual kids! Not sure whether to be ecstatic or mournful.

We woke him up with a rousing rendition of happy birthday and brought him balloons. From there we made our way to Northstar for a traditional birthday breakfast. After that I think we ended up at barnes and noble to play for a few, trader joes for groceries and then his usual nap. I mean, let's be real here--he's two--how crazy can we get with a birthday agenda?

We did however have what appears in the pictures to be a big party but when you have friends with 3 and 4 kids per family it takes about 3 family invites to make it a total bash. Jack was loving it. He had a toy story cake (about 2 weeks prior to his birthday he developed a total obsession with toy story and especially buzz lightyear) and costco pizza of course (would it be a Battles party without it?). I was surprised at what an event it turned into especially since his birthday fell on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving (next year he has to share it with turkey day!).

We extended the party when we went to my parents' for Thanksgiving the following day and he got cake #2! One of my favorite pics comes from this little party --my dad holding his cake and Jack looking on in wonder. Love it.

One of the best parts of Jack's birthday was how the other 3 really got into it. They looked forward to it for weeks and they made 'presents' of colored pictures and gifted him some of their old favorite stuffed animals as well. They decorated his presents themselves with his name and pictures of buzz and even made him a couple of adorable cards. All on their own without any prodding from us. So endearing!

Little Jack is such a great addition to our family. Ryan likes to give me the credit for Jack-- 3 years ago we were up to our eyeballs in diapers and toddlers throwing tantrums if you looked at them funny so when I started talking about a 4th I think he thought I was crazy. In true type A fashion I interviewed many families of 4 (even at work: "yes, your son broke his arm and I will answer your questions in a sec but can you first tell me how you feel about having four kids?") In the end he was in total agreement and next thing you know we were on our way to OSU Hospital for our C-section with Mumford and Sons 'I will wait' blaring on the radio. Not a day goes by that we do not give thanks for our Jack. We have been known to warn people not to hold him for too long because he will make them want to have more kids or start having kids if they don't have any yet. He loves to make us laugh, loves tractors, buzz lightyear of course, cars, trains, diggers, anything that he an throw, pacifiers (which he currently calls 'fassie') and my high heeled shoes (he walks in them better than I do). We are so thankful that God has entrusted us with this little joy.

Here we go--the terrible twos one last time. Let the tantrums begin.

Lydia dumping the 'presents' she gathered for Jack's birthday weeks prior to the actual date.

I had to take pics of all angles of his decorated present. I love how Jack is written perfectly backwards. The aggressive scribbling in red is compliments of Ben.