Bombolone Birthday

Today is my baby boy’s two-year birthday. The day started off with me kissing him awake to the sounds of his delighted giggles. Then, while he was still pretending or wishfully wanting to still be asleep, I sang him happy birthday. Despite his best attempts, he couldn’t help but open his eyes and smile.

My wife had planned a special birthday treat for him and had ordered bombolones all the way from New York. The Italian donuts were filled with chocolate and custard cream with a slight hint of lemon. Troy tried both, although the chocolate were his favorite. He enjoyed plunging his little finger through the soft, warm exterior into the gooey center and then licking the filling off. We sang happy birthday to him again, which garnered another big smile. I guess he likes all of the attention. It was nice to be able to share a little family breakfast before I had to head upstairs for work.

But honestly, I still can’t believe how fast it all seems to have gone. I feel like it was only yesterday that we were celebrating his one-year birthday, which was also the last time we really had anyone over to the house. Despite the coronavirus still being in full swing, we decided that we weren’t going to let it keep us from throwing Troy a party, even it had to be virtual.

We’ve tried to theme his parties around whatever he’s interested in at the time. This year it’s dinosaurs. And not some cartoony sort of thing, but full on Jurassic World dinosaurs. With his continued love of Camp Cretaceous (we’ve watched the first two seasons all the way through no less than thirty times), Troy has dinosaurs on the brain just about 24 hours a day.

So, we’ve arranged to put on Jurassic Birthday: A Virtual Dinosaur Experience tomorrow for friends and family. Which means we’ve been up until 1:30 am putting it all together. We got large decals of T-Rex and “Blue” the Velociraptor from the movie to put on the walls. And my wife got a giant dinosaur-filled backdrop to hang up as well. My brother sent some wooden dinosaur cutouts, a dinosaur pillow, a wooden dinosaur banner that we used to hang Troy’s second-year pictures, and a little wooden dinosaur footprint. My brother-in-law sent some large inflatable dinosaurs that are almost as tall as Troy. And with the dinosaur balloons and footprints leading up the stairs, we transformed our upstairs into a dinosaur extravaganza!

I arranged all of the gifts in a pile in the middle of the floor, and put the giant brachiosaurus replica I got from the Jurassic World movie on top of the pile. Then, we set up two laptops with cameras, one on each side of the room, so we could capture his expressions no matter which way he went. I plan to start the meeting with the intro scene from Camp Cretaceous where the T-Rex comes butting through the gate and roars, to get everyone in the mood and let them know the party is starting. I guess we’ll see how it goes.

For now, we’re both exhausted. It’s been a very long day. It feels like staying up late to wrap Christmas presents or something. I hope Troy likes it. Happy Birthday, my little munchkin!