the best way to spend a birthday

It was a fantastic Wednesday for a two-year-old little boy. Wesley got to:

• Wake up at 7 am on the dot because he was so excited. Not of my choosing.
  
  
• Run around Spartan Gym. It's basically a gymnasium owned by the City of Shoreline and they have all these huge fun toys and kids go buck wild in an enclosed space. It's great. There are push toys and pop-up firetruck tents and play kitchens and plastic slides and soft climbing cubes and balls and more. The best part was our friend Karly and her daughter Ali were there so we had some friends.
  
  
  
• Skip his nap. Again, not of my choosing. But who wants to spend a single second of their birthday sleeping? (answer: me.)
  
  
• Swing at a park. It was raining, but there was a short break in the drizzle and we went for it. I packed a hand towel, drove to a park, dried off a swing... and found that it immediately started sprinkling. But Wesley LOVES swinging so I had to let him do what he loves on his birthday! When it started to downpour we had to leave. And he cried.
  
  
• Run in puddles. I let him have his fun. We got home and he ran and ran and ran. It was pouring rain. Am I a bad mother? He loves running in puddles. I think everyone should do what they love on their birthdays. I think I already alluded to this. His shoes will be soaked for days. I need to make sure that boy has rain boots come next year's rainy season...
  
  
  
• Indulge in a birthday cupcake and ice cream. Yum!

• Open a few presents. Check out that loot! Most of them we are saving for his birthday party Saturday. (Really we aren't spoiling him. Most of the gifts we already had around the house but hadn't given him yet, or are second-hand, or are ridiculously practical like toothpaste and flossers. Seriously.) Tonight he opened a squeaky shark (picked out by his father), a very cool microphone (an exact replica of one he got at Christmas that he has destroyed beyond repair), and a family of farm animal Beanie Babies (since I wanted to give him toys he could safely throw... that sounds good right? and his birthday party theme is a farm and the Beanie Babies will be incorporated).
  

• Fall right asleep. That's right, we wore him out folks. I didn't tell him he's getting shots tomorrow at his 2-year well-baby pediatrician visit, so it's all sugar plums and rainbows in dreamland. Lucky kid.

Happy Birthday sweet Wesley! They week has only begun. Wait for a recap of Saturday's farm party. I hope it goes well.