jonah’s birthday

Jonah is 2 today. Right now we’re in Nana and PopPop’s house. They’re still sleeping. Scott is building giant towers out of Duplos with the birthday boy.

He is an extraordinary boy.

He has a way of wanting things a certain way, which I think is about being two, and possibly about being a budding Director.

In the car, Jonah announces what imaginary instruments we are playing. He says, Mommy, play the trumpet. Daddy, play the trumpet. Jonah plays guitar.

And thus we wave our hands, make toot toot strum strum noises, and jam together.

Last night at dinner, oh dinner, OMG dinner, at a new restaurant in Los Angeles called FIG, if I may digress from the story just to say: Wagyu beef corn dogs, grilled butter lettuces with Reggiano and white anchovies, foie gras and chicken liver parfait with fig jam on buttered toasts, New York strip steak topped with blue cheese butter and fried thyme sprinkled frites, lemon curd on a raspberry meringue cloud and peppermint tea…

Right, about the boy… so last night at dinner, actually around dessert when all the spoons came for our sweets and coffees and teas, Jonah discovered that banging two spoons together made a nice sound. My mother discovered that he was banging a good accompaniment to Jingle Bells. Well, one verse of that and pretty soon Jonah was demanding that each of us, addressing us one by one, pick up and play our spoons and the next thing you know the whole table, grandparents, parents, auntie, and the boy were banging along and singing at a polite but how-can-you-avoid-it quite audible level.

Jonah was delighted.

The people at other tables, maybe not so much. I didn’t bother to look. Scott later reported we got a few down-their-noses glares but for better or worse I am hardly someone who worries about that sort of thing.

* * *

We’re celebrating his birthday in stages. Over the weekend we had the birthday playdate with the by-now-famous-at-least-to-my-facebook-friends ladybug cake. It took all day to make and an staggering amount of (mostly the natural vegetable-based kind with a few dashes of the artificial when doubt set in) food coloring to get the red frosting to be red.

This was the cake parts. Domes were made in mixing bowls, bottom layer in a regular 9″ cake pan. Note inspiration on counter top.

And here’s the results:

Mmmmm… cake.

Today he’ll get more presents and a snazzy professionally-produced train cake composed of cupcakes because that’s how Nana rolls.

Mmmmmm… cupcakes!