Y2F

Prepping for Finn's second birthday was akin to the Y2K prep that consumed my work life in 1999. Assuming the (relatively mild) tantrums that had erupted around feeding & dressing were indicators of the Terrible Twos, Kitty and I were furiously programming ourselves with Positive Discipline and patience-building exercises to be ready when the clock struck 12:00 AM on March 28 and the world as we know it came to an end, replaced with non-stop kicking/screaming/head-butting.

Just like Y2K, however, Y2F was a total non-event. If anything, Finn is more docile - if snottier - than he was a week ago. He now cheerfully sits on the potty with his reading material and can even tell you whether he's putting on his right or left shoe in the morning (thanks Mema).

Of course, I can't share this information with anyone, because as soon as I gloat, I get the universal response:

"Oh, didn't you hear? It's actually the terrible threes."

Things that I've learned since Finn has turned two:

1. Do not, under any circumstances, announce to a party of pre-schoolers that you have cake unless said cake is on the table and ready to serve.
2. Have plates & utensils ready, unless you want said attendees to eat said cake from the serving dish with their faces.
3. Blowing out a birthday candle is not an instinctual skill. Unless you're Finn's friend Reid, who was more than happy to help out.
4. Two-year-olds are even more vain than one-year-olds. When showing Finn pictures of his party on my phone yesterday, I showed him my new favorite picture (above). His response? "No more Daddy, more Finny."

Here are the pics, in case you're dying to know what kind of cake it was. (Spoiler alert: It was a Nemo cake.)

Speaking of the cake, I finally finished it yesterday. We probably didn't need to get one the size of a Buick. Hopefully the terrible threes come with smaller cakes.