TWO!

My itty bitty baby is T-W-O.  How is that possible?!  She is such a happy girl packaged complete with a sense of humor, some sass, and my determination (a nicer word for stubborn?).  Her antics and shenanigans amaze me everyday.  It seems like she is always doing something new to make me laugh, cringe, or tear up with pride.  Her latest tear jerker moment was last week when she told me for the first time, "I wub u!" (I love you!) and also she started saying "I sowee, Mami. I sowee." (I'm sorry) if she does something wrong or bumps into me or something.  It literally makes you melt to hear your child show compassion like that.  I just want to hug her and smother her in kisses every time she says those words.  Of course she also has her toddler melt down moments and has gotten really good at telling us "NO, no, no!" when something doesn't suite her.  



Sweet

Sassy

She now can open our pantry and pull/push chairs up to the counter/pantry to reach what she wants to.  Helping me cook by pulling a chair up is her new favorite thing along with helping hold Tomas's leash when we walk him in the evenings, moving laundry from washer to dryer, and helping feed the dogs.  She is a chatter box these days and is a perfect little Spanglish gal speaking and understanding both, but mixing them up when it's easier to say a word in one language or the other.  She likes to try to dress herself and put her own shoes on (usually just dress shoes or sandals) and she loves having her hair done. M twirls and dances whenever we put a dress on her as she loves the flowy fabrics.  She is starting to count and recite letters and my mother-in-law taught her the Spanish vowel sounds.  Riding in the shopping cart is becoming a thing of the past so shopping with her can be completely exhausting, but we make little games out of it.  She LOVES being outside and cries when it's time to go inside.  A gal after my own heart!  M is in love with the movie Tangled and will watch it over and over.  She got a couple Rapunzel doll for her birthday and she loves playing with their hair and mothering them.  Puzzles and coloring are her other favorite past times.  And goodness me she hates it when she realizes her hands are dirty and asks to wash them immediately.

We celebrated M's 2nd birthday on her actual big day (March 25th) and invited just immediate family and one close friend and her daughter.  Her party was Barney themed and included a visit from the grand dino himself.  I also once again made her cake completely from scratch this year including the fondant Barney cake topper. :)  It was a vanilla cake with strawberry cream filling, and swiss merinque buttercream frosting.  While we waited for Barney's arrival, the kids (my 5 nephews and my friend's daughter) decorated sugar cookies like in the real show when they sing "the Cookie Song".  It was a huge hit for them and the cookies doubled as part of the favors the kids got to take home since I was a mean Auntie and didn't give out any candy in their goodie bags.

After cookie decorating we assembled the kids in the living room and Barney made his appearance.  M didn't see him at first as she was trying to escape the room and her back was turned to him.  When she finally turned around and saw him she just backed up and sat on her Titi's lap inbetween two of her cousins in awe.  No tears or crying, just utter and complete shock and awe that Barney was in HER house!  It was priceless and yes, it's on video. We also caught on video one of my nephew's, J, scurrying the heck out of the room as fast as possible in the opposite direction.  He was terrified of Barney at first, but warmed up to him and gave him a few high fives.  The kids held back for the most part just in awe and gave plenty of high fives.  My youngest nephew, C, was the ONLY one brave enough to let Barney hold him and of course my friend's 8 month old let Barney hold her for some pictures.  M wouldn't dance with Barney by herself, but she did in her Papi's arms for a bit with a huge smile on her face.

Barney stayed while we sang Happy Birthday to M and she absolutely reveled in the attention.  Her favorite thing at birthdays right now is when people sing and blow out the candles.  She sees a candle and/or cake and a "burfday" immediately comes to mind for her and she starts to sing, "Happy Birthday".  It's really adorable.  I think it confuses her when there's a cake and no candles around.  After her birthday song, we sang the parting song on the Barney show "I Love You, You Love Me" and tried to get a group shot of the kids with Barney before he left.  What happened after Barney left was priceless.  M was so sad.  She started pouting and walking around with her Barney doll and trying to trade it in to get the live Barney back.  She kept walking around saying, "Bye Barney.  Bye. Barney? Where are you?" with such a sad look on her face.  My eldest nephew tried to explain to her that Barney was now her doll (just like on the TV show where the doll comes to life in the beginning and then becomes a doll again in the end) and she wasn't buying it.  M would walk up to any adult and try to hand them her Barney to see if we could switch it out for the live one.  It lasted for about an hour before she gave up and even today- two weeks later- she'll still talk about Barney coming to her party.  Yes, we are the cool parents right now!!  A.R. was editing her birthday video this weekend and she heard it and immediately ran up to watch "her" Barney again.

In addition to Barney's visit, we were very fortunate that my brother was able to fly up from Florida to attend her party and he was able to pick up our Grandmother- M's Great Grandmother- in Massachusetts and drive her down for the party.  I'm not sure who enjoyed the party more- M or her Great Grammie!!  It was such a wonderful day and M LOVED everything about her party.  We are so very blessed to have such an awesome little girl as our daughter.

All tuckered out after her party

M and her Godparents



Great Grammie getting some Barney love