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The night before his birthday (today, the 9th) I slipped a few blown up balloons into his room - B wasn't happy because sometimes the noise of opening the door can wake Roman up. Luckily he didn't wake up and even better - he loves balloons.He kept calling them 'moons' and then 'ball' and spent the most part of today kicking them around ;). We've had a fantastic day. My mom got here yesterday and spent last night helping me put together his cake, make the icing and to direct me in icing it. It's been a good few years since I've worked with butter cream icing (or vegan butter :P) and I'd even forgotten how to make it up so I was beyond thankful for her being here. If you want to read more about Roman's 2nd birthday then click 'read more' and enjoy :).
So the day began with balloons - or 'moons'/'balls' as Roman calls them. He woke up just after 10am and normally I would be grateful of this but this morning I was so exhausted and in pain I just didn't want to get up. I really wanted to see Roman with the balloons and his presents so I got up with everyone else thinking I could take a nap when Roman did.
He loved the balloons and has always really loved them so I wasn't surprised that he was very taken with them. Once he'd had his fill of balloons we took him through to the living room - the night before I'd set up his presents in his corner of the living room so that he'd have easy access to them.
I think he cared more about playing with balloons ;).
Although it was long after sunrise the weather was very overcast and the living room was quite dark by this point. I also didn't snap an awful lot of present opening pictures (oops) but that may have been because I was too excited to see the reaction to our presents to Roman (a gingerbread making kit, a paint set, a canvas picture for his room, a Mr.Men mini library and a Zingzilla toy - all I can say is that he loves it and it's a great quality toy.)
The Mr. Men books put together = this massively cool picture.
I bought this top for him weeks ago, bearing in mind I didn't just want the top for his birthday, because it is just one day and that would be a horrible waste. I really like it - what do you think?
My aunt (Roman's great aunt) phoned up Roman to wish him a happy birthday and he got quite engrossed in conversation with her - he spoke about his balloons, new toys and said 'happy birthday to you' to her. After the presents were played with and opened it was nearly lunch time so after lunch we put Roman down for a nap - well he didn't really take to that at all and so he was up again. I decided we could ice his cake 'together' which consisted of Roman sitting in his high chair eating chocolate buttons, pretzels and having a lollipop while I did the legwork ;). He gasped when I brought the cake out and was so excited that Makka Pakka, Upsy Daisy and Iggle Piggle were going to be on his cake.
This photo is a little dark, but it shows how the cake looked once it was all iced and decorated. I had another idea in mind, but this was my 'back up' idea and I think it worked a lot better than I thought it would.
I took a bazillion photos of the cake, because I was so proud of it. It's not something you'd find in a bakery, that's for sure, but it tastes great and Roman was in awe of it - that's all I care about. It was completely egg-free and dairy-free - that is no mean feat, but I'm used to it. I used Asda dairy free chocolate buttons for the '2' and the pile of 'rocks' beside Makka Pakka. If you haven't watched the show, Makka Pakka is pretty obsessed with having his rocks just so and loves to clean - me and B have a running joke between us that Makka Pakka has OCD ;). I used a vegan lemon cupcake mix (two boxes) for the sponge, vegan green food colouring, Pure and icing sugar for the butter cream icing. There was a massive debate on my Facebook page about Roman's cake - which is just ridiculous to me - and I can only say that it is the best damn cake I've ever tasted in my life. And I've ate a lot of cake. I'm kind of a cake snob, actually, and I honestly didn't think this one would turn out tasting that great. I proved myself wrong times a million with this and Roman gave it his 'mmm' of approval.
After the cake was taken care of we decided to head out. I had planned in my mind to take Roman to the park but the weather didn't exactly go to plan; wet, windy and wild. Yuck. Off to the shops we went - what else to do?
He insists on 'hand' every time he's free of the buggy - and quite rightly. I'm not complacent at all about his safety - he's small and fast. He also went between my mom and B, holding hands and letting go. I just want to freeze these moments and keep them forever, I am so grateful that I'm able to capture them with my camera at least even if I can't freeze the moments and revisit them, photographs work as a pretty good substitute to that.
I was feeling a bit guilty about dragging Roman to the shops because there didn't seem to be much for him to do there but when he found the aisles of toys (and the above rocking horse) he was very much in his element with being at the shops. I really wanted to buy him the rocking horse but he's got so many 'things' that it didn't seem like a good idea to buy more 'things' to add to the pile.We finally went home after a few tears were shed from Roman - he was tired, emotional and hungry. He also walked all the way home (about half a mile) and wouldn't go back into the buggy. 
Once we were home, he was absolutely fine. B's parents came round, Roman entertained everyone and we had cake, or rather, Roman had cake because none of us had had dinner by this point - and after all you can't spoil your dinner ;).Overall the day was quiet, not hurried and relaxing - just exactly what a little two year old needs, right? I hope he had a good day, though, I always have a fear that it won't be that exciting or great for him and he'll grow up not liking his birthday or thinking it's a big deal. I happen to think it should be celebrated and made a fuss of. 
