The 2nd Birthday

This was planned more than a month in advance and it finally happened today. The household was abuzz with activity at about 8am after Jo and I finished our breakfast. I brought him out to see the decorations I'd put up the night before and the minute he laid eyes on the dining table's disposable tablecloth, he said, 'Nice. Nice table.' And he said it with much sincerity and genuine appreciation; it proved to be a good start. He checked out the yellow balloons I had tied to the coffee table's legs and promptly wanted to remove one of them to hold, so I blew one up on the spot for him. 'Balloon, thank you. Balloon,' he replied. Was he thanking me, or thanking the balloon, I wondered.
Well, our guests started arriving at around half past eleven. Caleb and family arrived first and Jo was a bit startled - even though I had been telling him everyday who's coming and what's going to happen starting almost a week ago. He ran to me and held on to me tight, while trying to work out who these folks in his home were. Jadon arrived soon after and immediately went to play in the tent. Jonas kept looking for me and finally ran to the kitchen where I was and said, 'Too scared.'
Well, I guess my little birthday boy was slowly but surely starting to warm up to his guests when lunch was laid out and his friends were busy chomping down the noodles. Jonas was actually more concerned about his grandparents and great-grandmother carrying and playing with Danielle, Kat's 3-month-old; too concerned to eat.
So the eating, playing, chatting went on for a spell, and the adults took a break from the kids by putting on a Barney VCD after they'd finished their lunch. What a welcome breather it must have been.
I brought out the birthday cake in the middle of the show; it was a homemade cream cheesecake courtesy of Kai's aunt and I had decorated it with some plastic cake toppers from Wilton's which I'd purchased from Phoon Huat yesterday. This is my favourite segment of the party today. The candles were lit and we started posing for photos with the birthday boy. Jonas was very much preoccupied with the dancing flames on the candles throughout; it was quite a din with us trying to get all 3 boys looking at the camera.
Finally we got on to the birthday song - and Jonas was clearly enjoying the attention and was clapping along - and it was time to blow out the candles. Jonas tried to blow, then Jadon, then Caleb; none succeeded. It was really hilarious watching them pout and attempt to force the air through their teeth; we adults were really tickled because they looked so adorable. Jason even asked if those were trick candles :)
Well, I blew out the flames in the end and we all enjoyed our slice of cake.