Oden Adventures: Vianne's 2nd Birthday, Part One: The Day Of (April 8)

Vianne's 2nd Birthday, Part One: The Day Of (April 8)

Posted by Amy Evelyn Oden , Saturday, April 19, 2014 2:44 PM

Vianne's birthday was such a sweet day for the three of us. First thing was a surprise - to all of us - Patrick walked out the door for work and found that the "birthday fairies" had been by our house...

Vianne was thrilled!

Shortly after this, I said, "We need to have breakfast!" Vianne said, "No breakfast! I ride my bike!" And shortly after that, she decided this was not a bike, this was a motorcycle! Even now, if I call it her bike, she says, "It's my MOTORCYCLE! Pa has the bike."

We had a very sunny - even hot! - day to enjoy a trip to the Los Angeles Zoo, V's first zoo visit! Ironically, they start charging admission at two years old ;-). Vianne thought the zoo was mostly for running and occasionally seeing some animals, but was definitely in her element.

Mama & her ladybug by the flamingos

Daddy & Vianne spying the elephants. Vianne kept asking, "Where's the baby elephant?" We decided he must be "in the barn".

Leave it to our girl to find a puddle to jump in!

See her flushed cheeks? Due to the 90+ degree day, they looked like that the whole visit - but even the heat didn't affect her fun! We got some shaved ice, drank lots of water, and carried on!

Just hanging out...

Vianne got a kick out of this guy!

Much to my surprise, she knew this was a telescope and what to do with it...

A little dance of joy...

Our social butterfly: this sweet kid was filming the giraffes on his smart phone, when he knelt down next to Vianne. When something wasn't working on it, and he expressed his frustration, she reached out, patted his shoulder, and said, "What's wrong?" He seemed to enjoy the attention and included her in one of his videos, then showed it to her :-).

We wore out the birthday girl! We got her a souvenir shirt and she passed out on the way home!

That evening, I asked her what she wanted for dinner (she doesn't often respond to this question, and usually if she does, it's "Applesauce!") and she exclaimed, "Pancakes!" (which I think she'd had twice in her life). It was too cute of a request to deny...so blueberry pancakes for the birthday girl, it was!