Maddie's 2nd Dora Birthday!

So my baby just turned 2!!  It was an exciting day and also a very sad one for me realizing that she's officially a toddler and not a baby anymore:(  It has been a rough, but fun year watching her grow and become more independent.  She's a bit of a daredevil and still I can't look away for even a second.  She's always up to something:)  First I thought I'd start out with what she can do at two years old:

-She can communicate very well and let us know what she's thinking or what she needs (although I think only Geoffery, me, and Grant can understand what she's saying)

-She can say the whole alphabet by herself

-She can count to 10 very good

-She feeds herself

-She LOVES Dora and all things princess

-She's not so much into babies

-She's very active and is a big climber

-She not interested in the potty

-She's a really good eater and will eat just about anything I give her!  Finally I got a good eater!

-She plays really well with Grant

-She's REALLY loud and likes to yell when she talks- seriously it hurts my eardrums sometimes:)

-She pretty happy most of the time, although I can see the tantrums coming on really strong so we're definitely hitting the terrible two stage

-She still sleeps in her crib

-She takes a two hour nap in the afternoon

-She NEVER wakes up at night unless she's REALLY sick and even then its rare

-She's a mommas girl for sure

-She misses Grant if he's not around and constantly asks, "Where's Grant?"

-I do her hair mostly in pigtails because I'm too lazy to blow dry it and she HATES the blow dryer so it makes that even harder

-She LOVES to be outside and ride her tricycle

-She dances to any music anytime, it doesn't matter who's around or where we're at.  It's like the beat takes over her body.. SUPER cute!

-She is pretty obsessed with her papa

-She LOVES all her new dress up stuff and anything girly

So for the party we of course chose to do Dora because she's obsessed with the show.  She loved all the decorations and dora stuff being around the house.  We had a copy cat recipe of the Costa Vida pulled pork and it was DELICIOUS!  We did tacos with guacamole and all the toppings.  I think we all stuffed ourselves full of it!  Thanks mom for doing most of the food.  Then we opened presents and of course this was the favorite part.  I have to say she LOVED everything and reacted better than I could have ever hoped for.  She got 4 dress up dresses, shoes, crowns, jewelry, a dora doll, and lots of other accessories.  She put on all four dresses before the day was over and now we always have on a pair of shoes or a dress or jewelry on when were at home.  It's pretty fun to see her get into it.  Before now she didn't really like any of her baby dolls so I was pretty bummed out, but I guess dress ups are just her thing!  Her are some pictures of the party:

 She got a new barbie tricycle and LOVED it!  She was so excited when she saw it!

 Happy girl

 Grant just mastered no training wheels about two weeks ago, so here he is showing off his new talent to the grandparents!  We're so proud of him!

 Mom helped with with a lot of the party so thank you so much for all that you do for us!

On her actual birthday, which was on a Thursday, we decided to go to the splash park.  We meet a friend there and had a blast.  I wanted to go there because I went there exactly two years before that on the day that I had her.  I then went into labor like five hours after we left.  It was fun to go but I didn't get any pictures of the kids in the water because it's to hard to keep up with them and take pictures:)  So here we are at the playground right next to it.  For dinner that night we, went to Artic Circle so that Madelyn could play on their indoor playground area.  She LOVED that!  Then we went and got a cupcake at the Coco Bean.  Again another success!  We had a lot of fun!

 The Grantister

 She has to do it all by herself, no helping mom!

 Big Grin!

Best of friends!  They couldn't love each other anymore!  I only hope it stays that way when their teenagers:)