Happy Birthday Grayson!

Grayson's 2nd Birthday Party!

For Grayson's birthday we had a few friends over to our apartment for pizza and birthday cake. Grayson's new favorite thing is Nemo, so we made it all about Grayson and Nemo (fortunately Nemo is a hit in Belgium, so we were able to find party supplies and a couple of gifts (including a Nemo board book that electronically tells the story in French!)).

Making the cake was easy - I had brought a Duncan Hines mix back from the States. The icing was a different story. Tony trecked to 3 different grocery stores in search of the ingredients, and in the end I had to improvise because there was no unsweetened chocolate to be found (this in the land of chocolate!).

Keeping a 2-year-old from diving into a cake that is just inches away while singing "Happy Birthday" is nearly impossible!

Our friends Severine, Thibaut, and Castalie, who recently moved to Brussels from Paris

Our friend Kelly and her youngest daughter Maya - fellow Atlantans

Maya's older sister Poppy with Grayson (her dad, Rich, was out of town and oldest sister Sonny was home with a fever)

Earlier in the day Grayson opened his presents - including, of course, Nemo!

And his longstanding favorite - Elmo! (thanks Pop-Pop and Grandma)

Now that Grayson is 2 - here's what he loves to do . . .

He loves to make "the face" with Daddy

He loves to go to music class

He loves to eat cheerios with his friend Castalie

He loves to play so hard, that he sometimes gets hurt (ouch - it's not the first time the lip has looked like this)

He loves to read (Nemo, of course) while learning to use the potty

He loves to paint (thanks Cousin Jen for the art supplies)

But of everything, the thing he loves most is his newfound ability to say "NO NO"

(one "no" is not enough - not for Grayson)

Frosty the Gator Snowman

This morning the flakes started coming down hard, and after just a couple of hours all of Brussels was covered in a blanket of snowy white. So we bundled up and headed out . . .

. . . and we sure are glad we did, because by the afternoon all the snow had melted away. We are crossing our fingers for more snow!

Meanwhile, poor Tony left this morning at 6:30 for the airport. His flight to Amsterdam taxied to the runway, then turned around and came back. By 3:00 he had finally arrived in Amsterdam, but it was too late to make his flight from Amsterdam to Minneapolis. At this present moment (it's 4:30 here) he is hoping to catch an evening flight to Detroit, then spend the night and fly to Minneapolis in the morning. Stay tuned :)