The Little Lady is 2!

I still have one more post from our Christmas Bucket to do, but I wanted to write about our girl's birthday even before that. She's something pretty special, and last week we spent a good amount of time celebrating her and her little life. I like taking time to celebrate a person's life on their birthday. I especially want our kids to know how blessed we are to have them in our lives, and we want to celebrate how important they are to us. So, starting last Tuesday, that's just want we set out to do with our Little Lady.

She woke up to lots of balloons and a few presents waiting for her. After we opened presents and played with balloons for awhile, we enjoyed some sprinkle pancakes (our traditional birthday breakfast). This year she even got to eat them on a special princess plate.

After breakfast, we went out and about to do things we thought our Little Lady would enjoy. Our first stop was Barnes & Noble to play with the trains there, and thanks to the Barnes & Noble Kid's Club, she got a free cupcake for her birthday too.

After our treat, we headed to the toy store so Little Lady could pick out one present for herself. It's fun to see what she chooses. We let her go through the store and put things she likes into the cart. Once we make it through the store, we lay everything out, and she picks one toy. It seems to work really well for her, and it's fun to let her pick out something she wants... she chose a train set with pink trains and a new baby.

Next stop on our day of fun was Boingo Bounce. Only it didn't start out too fun. We thought Little Lady would be thrilled to bounce around and go down slides, but she actually acted rather scared of everything for the first 45 minutes we were there. She held on tight to us and kept crying to go bye-bye. Eventually though, Daddy talked her into going down a slide with him, and she loved it. Once she went down once, she was all over the place, and we had to practically drag her out.

All our adventuring called for lunch and a nap at home. We must have worn her out because by the time she got up, we only had time to run a couple errands (one of which was ordering the cake for her party), then we take her out to eat for a birthday dinner. We wanted to take her someplace fun and really kid friendly but had a tough time coming up with a place... We ended up at Red Robin since they have a good kids' menu. I think she had a happy day, but the celebrating wasn't over yet... a Minnie Mouse Party was coming on Saturday!

Little Lady, you are a joy and a delight! You add oodles and oodles of love and happiness to our lives. It's hard to remember what life was like before you, because you fit in to our family fantastically... I know God gave us a special gift in giving us you, and He made you to be a part of us. Since having you, I feel like a part of me that was missing is now complete. I love you more than you can even comprehend right now, and I always will. I look forward to what this next year of your life will bring. A lot of changes are coming, but I know you will be the best big sister! Your little brother is blessed to get to have you as his big sister and forever friend. Things may seem a little rough at times, and I know just being 2 can be tough, but I'm also looking forward to 2 being one terrific year!

I'll close with a list of a few of our Little Lady's favorite things right now:

• Puppy Coal
• Minnie Mouse & the whole Clubhouse gang
• Princesses (this one came out of no where about 2 months ago, but you are a lover of all things princess right now)
• Choo-choo trains
• "I hold you, mama (daddy)" has to be your favorite phrase since you say it hundreds of times a day.
• Tea Parties!
• Dancing & Twirling
• Singing (often your own songs)
• Babies (I hope this one lasts)
• Watching "my show" 
• Playing with friends (even if sharing is hard, anytime we are going to see friends, you are ecstatic)
• Reading books
• Giving "check-ups"
• Talking on the phone (real or fake)... You always have to say hi now to whoever Mommy is talking to, especially if it's Nana
• And I'm pretty sure you're still a pretty big fan of your mommy & daddy :)