Reuben is 2!

Reuben turned two yesterday. He woke up to a good breakfast of his dad's crepes and strawberries.

He got an incredibly annoying, I mean cheerful Dora the Explorer balloon that sings happy birthday to him in English AND Spanish any time it gets bumped.

Reuben has figured out how to hit it with the football to set it off. Awesome.

We put up the traditional bird mobile in honor of the thousands of birds that flew over our hospital room when he arrived. There were literally thousands.

And we opened presents and ate some more yummy food including ice cream and green "dino" cupcakes with his Uncle Dean and Aunt Joan.

And as a special treat he got to spend the preceding weekend at Antietam, the bloodiest battlefield in all America. Some kids go to Disneyland. Reuben gets to go to Civil War sites. In this picture I can almost hear Reuben thinking "It's going to be a long childhood."

Here's Aaron with Miriam

Can you spot Aaron and Reuben at the base of the monument?

It was a little chilly.

Reuben and Dean showing us around.

Can you spot Miriam?

But check this out. Here's Reuben standing in front of Dunker church. Look at the pictures below him of Dunker church. Pretty sobering.

Reuben was having a lot of fun wandering around the battle field and jumping off the monuments. I decided to try to tell him why we were visiting. But how to explain the War Between the States to an almost two year old?

Here's the story:

Me: There were a lot of men here once. Lots of men.

Reuben: yeah

Me: And they had to run fast. And they were scared.

Reuben: yeah. Fast.

Me: And some of them fell down and were ow.

Reuben: ow.

Me: And they were sad.

Reuben: Sad men

Me: But they did it so we could all be free and happy.

I guess since you're almost two I can start saddling you with the historical baggage of your country. Happy Birthday Reuben!