A Day in the Life of a Brand New Two Year Old

For a couple of months leading up to Kiddo's second birthday, I got asked by more than one person if we were going to have another birthday party like last year.

The answer, unfortunately, was no.

This year's birthday was quite a bit smaller in scale [excluding presents. We're considering renting our neighbor's house for extra storage].  The reason for this, if you really care to know, was the Army.  Good ol' National Guard decided to schedule their weekend right over Kiddo's birthday and there was nothing to be done about it.  Not that I'm complaining.  I get what doing the Guard means when it comes to your weekends - you get what you get and you don't throw a fit.

So we stuck to a day of at home fun with Mimi and Papa [who flew in for the occasion], and an evening of presents and yummy cake when the Hubby returned home from duty.

But, luckily for you, a cake was still made [!] and a whole bunch of cute pictures are here to go along with it.

Not all great days begin great...

But a little breakfast pick-me-up will do the trick!

Then on to play...

More play,

And more play.

Kiddo helped decorate her cake [and by decorate, I mean eat].

For this year's cake I wanted simple, but cute. 

Decorating with rainbow M&M's for a child who's learning colors was, actually,

a better idea than I expected.

Expecting her to understand blowing out candles, however, was not so good. [I spared you the pictures of her bawling, but she lost it as soon as we starting singing.]

So we figured out that the way to salvage the situation was a little practice with her Dada.

Which in the end, made all the difference in the world.

[Yum.]

Happy Second Birthday, Goob!

Well, another year keeping our child alive.  I think we're on a roll here.

This year was a year of falling in love.

This year, Kiddo fell in love with parks,

with the dogs [and cat],

 with yogurt,

with water,

with her new friends,

with Halloween,

 with playing dress up,

with books,

with puzzles,

and with her baby dolls.

It's been an amazing pleasure getting to watch you grow up into a little person, Goob.  Congratulations on making it to two!

Happy New Year! [And a Peek Backwards]

There's a trend plowing through Instagram over the last couple of days of people posting short videos of their favorite photos over the last year, and while I haven't actually done one myself, I've really enjoyed getting to watch all the others.  I figured instead, I would do a little flashback of our year via blog [oh joy!].

Here are my top ten favorite moments of 2013, pictures and all!

[10] My child turned one.  This was a big one for me.  The first first birthday for our family, with a fun, Dr. Seuss themed birthday and all.  It's wild looking back on those photos of her - she wasn't walking, hardly talking, and barely registered on the scales.

[9] Valentine's Day. I remember the husband and I were in the middle of a rough emotional patch for some reason, and waking up that morning to a house full of hand cut hearts from my Honey just melted me.  Then I found out he wrote both Dellie and I our own poems, and I decided I had to stay married to this man forever.

[8] Making new friends.  I got an amazing opportunity over this last fall semester to hang out at a dear friend's house every week.  Both our husbands were busy the same evening, so kiddo and I would go over to her house to share dinner and build a deeper friendship, both for the adults and the children.

[7] Our fifth anniversary. We celebrated with some quality fun at the aquarium and finished the evening at Ted's Hot Dogs. It was fun doing something a little different and more family-oriented to celebrate just how much our marriage has evolved over the five years we've spent together. I know in the big scheme of life, five years is a drop, but I feel sort of accomplished that we made it this far, and with no signs of stopping any time soon.

[6] All the fixing up that happened in this house.  In some ways, they really shouldn't be considered favorite moments, but they are definitely a memorable series of events that happened over this year.  First, the water heater, which resulted in a week of freezing showers and three holes in the wall. Then the fridge, which took six repair visits and probably a hundred dollars in spoiled food before finally getting a new one.  Lastly, the pipes in our kitchen sink blowing apart because someone [ahem] plugged the disposal with potato peelings from Thanksgiving.  Oops.

[5] Dealing with my c-section.  I spent a good chunk of this year working through to a healing place with how my birth experience went, including sharing my own story to the whole wide world.  I am thankful for how much love and support my husband gave during all that time, and thankful that I have come to a stronger understanding of God's sovereignty, love and faithfulness through my struggle.

[4] The movie making extravaganzas.  This year my husband made ten short films, and I got the chance to help out with many of them in one capacity or another.  The best part was discovering an interest in editing, which I really hope to get better at over this next year.

[3] Our surprise visit for my dad's birthday.  I learned a few tips on flying with a one year old, and we really enjoyed getting to surprise family and friends.  The cold weather was also a huge bonus :)

[2] Watching kiddo fall in love with water.  Which is a good thing since we live in one of the hottest cities in the U.S.  She enjoyed playing in pools and splash parks so much this year that she gets almost morose when we don't let her jump in the fountain at the mall.

[1] This moment.  I still well up with all kinds of happy wife and mommy feelings when I see this picture.