ben's not 2 anymore!!!

it's official!

benny is 3!

little kids' birthdays will always remind me of the day that my friend Lynn and i came home to find my sister standing in the door of our garage, waiting to proudly proclaim, "i'm not 6 anymore!"

birthdays are a big deal.

especially when they still fit within your allotment of digits that you can hold up to represent your age.

ben has been talking about his birthday all week.

he stopped on the way in to daycare this week to greet Janice at the front of the center.

he coyly shared, "i have a big day tomin' up!"

and he has been sharing with anyone else who will listen.

as his mom, i find birthdays to be a fun time to pour through old photos and look back on the last few years.

:)

here is a year-by-year snapshot of benny's birthdays...

proud big brother anth on benny's literal birth day.

benny as a one-day-old. 
peanut. 

this was benny's birth announcement photo.

(tee provided by danielle barone & phil badaszewski!)

i love it and i'm shamelessly repeating it.

and then there was his first birthday...

in my office, we all serve on a variety of committees.

right now i serve on the RA Recruitment team, but back then i was serving on the team that worked to recruit our full-time Hall Director staff.

we do this by traveling to a national conference where tons of schools and oodles of graduate students meet in one location for mass interviews.
(good luck to those who are finishing OPEing and to those headed to TPE soon!)

that year, TPE, or The Placement Exchange happened to be at the same time as ben's first birthday.

major mommy fail.

but, in classic ignatoski-style, my friend kelly covered our hotel room in photos of benny and cards from our fabulous committee and other special folks. 

(anth's classroom was doing the Flat Stanley project at the time, so "Flat Anthony" was there with us in Seattle to celebrate benny's birthday with mommy.)

(note: as evidenced by the reflection in the TV, neither of us opted to make our beds in an effort to celebrate his big day...)

meanwhile, bern was at home with the boys making some birthday magic happen as our sweet little 1-year-old was working on growing some teeth.

mommy came home and joined for the proper party and fanfare a few days later. 

flash forward a year and here is the photo that i took with the boys on ben's "last day of 1."

(i clearly get sentimental about the 364th day...)

why not a photo from his birthday?

because i went through all of them and they include either the top of his head, his rump, or a small blur that i suppose is ben in front of some presents.

now for...now!
while he seems to keep getting bigger by the minute, it makes my heart happy to know that a his idea of a good "Last Day of 2" Day still entails watching a little Winnie the Pooh in his underwear and "spidey" hat. 

  and while were were feeling pretty good about our days as a 2-year-old...

i think it's safe to say that the kid is more than excited about his journey into the big-wide-world of 3. 

HAPPY BENNY DAY!!!!!!!