Snowman/Christmas Birthday Party

I had fun planning her second birthday party. I really like to go all out, even though it's exhausting and sometimes overwhelming. Her first birthday was supposed to be a princess theme, but this was right at the peak of my pukey anxiety episodes, so I ended up saying screw it. This year I'm happy to say that I didn't puke. Haha!

My original plan was to go with an ugly sweater type theme, but every time I mentioned that to someone they were like, "oh..." so I figured maybe it was only a good idea in my head and changed it to a Snowman/Christmasy theme. I think it turned out pretty good!

Silly birthday face.

 

Gingerbread man decorating station!

Who has to make their kid open presents?

 

Hot Chocolate Bar 

 

 

Homemade marshmallows for the hot chocolate bar.

Favors

 



TWO

So, yeah... my baby girl... not a baby anymore. Someone hold me! :(

Where do I even start? She's grown SO much these past few months. She's such a little lady! Girl all the way. She loves everything girl. From playing dress up and in Mommy's makeup, to baby dolls and high heels.

Talking. Oh my gosh, it never stops! She's such a chatterbox. She's talking in short sentances pretty much all the time now. Sometimes she gets stuck and can't find the words so will babble and stutter until she finds the right words. I'm trying to keep track. Her current favorite is "I don't yike it (or I don't like/want ____ fill in the blank)". She tells me what she's doing, like "Mommy, I climb the ladder." Or asks me for things. "Mommy? I have milk? Peeeeease?" or "I have vitamin? A red one?" She also loves to greet people. Saying hi of course, and "How are you?" and "What's up?" and also "See you later/next time!" When she's looking for something and can't find it she likes to say "I can't see it!" For example, here's a conversation we had last week:

 "Mommy! Mommy!"
 Me: "yeah baby?"
Cailin: "I can't find B"
Me: "No? I bet it's in here somewhere."
Cailin: "yeah."

Yesterday she told Gizmo to "Go to your room.... NOW!" haha!

Her imagination is running wild. She loves to play pretend. She likes to pretend to eat things, etc.

Tantrums. Oh my GOD! I swear she woke up yesterday and turned terrible! I swear if I hear "No, I don't like it" one more time I'm going to go insane. I know, I know, It's only going to get worse. Blech! This is the part of parenting that sucks. I am so not a good discipliner.

She's turning into such a beautiful, funny, smart and SASSY little girl. And with that, I leave you with a sneak peek of her two year photos, curtosey of LSoucy Photography.

 

 

six months, 1 year, two years.

WW: Work Children's Christmas Party

I am so lucky to work for such a great company that really care for their employees. Each year they throw a company Holiday party as well as a children's holiday party. I haven't been to the adult one yet, but I hear it's fancy.

 

We went last year as well, but this year was so much fun because she's older. We had a blast! There was Santa (and hello, I don't ever have to pay those ridiculous Santa prices at the mall. Can you say FREE?), bouncy houses, xmas crafts, snacks, some reptile exibit, face painting, and Mrs. B's Story Time.

 

We took our Santa pics, jumped in the bouncy house, ate cupcakes, and danced and sang with the lady and her puppets. She loved it.

 

 

 

 

WW: Elf on the Shelf

We started the Elf on the Shelf tradition this year! Cai doesn't understand fully about the reporting back to Santa thing, but she sure does love "Zoey". She gives her hugs and kisses, calls her by her name, carries her around and tucks her into bed. It's adorable.

I haven't had time to really do it consistently with rushing out of the house each morning, but I keep trying to remember to set her up after Cai goes to sleep so she can at least find her when we get home in the evening...

That Time I Lost B

Dudes, I messed up yesterday! I lost Cailin's B. Incase you don't remember "B" is her little(completely overpriced)  blankey who she is super attached to. She needs it to sleep, and brings it with us in the car everywhere, but we always leave it in the car once we get to our destination. I'm an idiot cause I never bought a back up.

Cai's been dealing with a runny nose the past couple weeks, but other than that, has been pretty happy. Due to the amount of slobber that has gone with it, I've blamed it on teething.  It just has not stopped running though, and then she started getting irritable and not sleeping well, so I took her to the doctor. I suspected an ear infection from all the drainage.

I packed B in my bag for the doctor visit incase she started getting upset since I knew she only slept 30 minutes that whole day. We had some time to kill before her doctor appointment, so I decided to stop by my Dad's karate studio on the way to say hi. He wasn't there, so we killed some time in the dollar store. During that trip, she started pulling stuff out of my bag, but didn't pull out B (that I noticed anyway). Once we got to the doctor and were waiting in the room, she started getting cranky so I went to get her B. Not there. I dug everything out of my bag. It HAD to be in there! Crap. Must be in the car. After her appointment (in which I was right, she does have an ear infection), I searched frantically in my car. There is NO way I lost this. Oh shit. Shit! Shit! Shit! This can't be happening. She's crying asking for B. And I'm about to have a panic attack (not really, but I was freaking out a bit), telling her that it's okay, and we'll get B later.

When I got home, I searched my bag and my car again. It was gone. :( How were we going to get through the night? Or the next few nights until we could get a new one? My MIL made her some blankies a while back when we first got B, and she likes them okay, but they're not B, ya know? We used that for the night, and they worked okay, but every once and a while (she was up all night not feeling well), she would start crying for B. One time she even cried, "B all gone!" I never (told her B went bye bye or was gone, just that we would get it later, but she's smart, and definitely picked up on the fact that it was lost.

So... after purchasing not one, but two more B's today, we got in the car, and guess what she grabbed as soon as I opened the car door? FREAKIN B. She was so happy to be reunited with that thing.  Apparently it fell out of my bag in the back seat??? I didn't look back there because I was sure it was in my bag which was in the front seat. ::face palm::: Oh well, now we'll have two backups.

WW: Just Like Mommy

Happy (late) Halloween!

So. Halloween didn't go all that great this year. :/ I'm pretty sure she's cutting a back molar and was just so grumpy Halloween evening. Missed her afternoon nap. First thing Aunt Jen said to me when we got there was, "Good luck, she's moody", and that she was. I was so excited for her first Halloween where she could actually trick or treat. She was going to be allowed to eat candy too! We've been practicing saying "trick or treat" and "candy please" all October. But yeah. She was NOT having it. I got her to say trick or treat (with a thank you) ONCE. She kept trying to run walk away, fighting with her BFF over her push buggy, and trying to walk into people's houses (seriously she's GOT to learn stranger danger)!

I didn't get one good picture either... So excuse my crappy, blury pics.

 

And to compare, here's last year's Halloween:

I miss my chubby little gnome.