My Baby Girl is 2!!!

First, it's been way, way too long since I've done any kind of blogging. Life has just been so crazy and busy lately. But also wonderful. We've moved into our new house, we had the holidays, and with it, family come and go. We experienced the death of a dear, dear loved one and then we started fiercely preparing for the birth of our newest addition, Oliver.

But, this is not what this post is about. This is about Adelaide- who turned two years old on the 4th.

I will never forget the day this sweet girl was born.  Nor will I ever forget the hand of the Lord in my life during that tough time. I will forever be grateful for my midwife, turned friend, who was there for me and for Adelaide when she was born. She touched my sweet baby girl before anyone else and then laid her on my chest. She was there for me, even though her shift was over and she'd been up all night long. So, I think of her often and especially near the time of Adelaide's birthday. I am a firm believer that God puts people in our lives just as we need them. So if you happen to read this, Jennifer, thank you. Thank you a million times over. I am incredibly grateful that you came into my life and remain a big part of it today. We love you. :)

Adelaide has had a tremendous year of growth. She continues to amaze me each day. She is a fun-loving, energetic, fireball. She is hilarious and sassy. Her vocabulary is pretty amazing. It often surprises me the things she can say. She asks, "Why?" a lot. Sometimes after asking "why?" and us answering, she'll still ask, "but why?" with the sweetest inflection. I love it. Sometimes, she'll continue to ask and Jeff learned one day, that if you say, "Why not?" she has no answer and will no longer ask "why?"

I love listening to her play with her toys. The conversations she has with them are awesome and funny and sweet. (Playing with her baby doll- "It's okay, baby. I know you're sad. It's okay. I love you." Playing with her safari truck- "You be nice in there. You'll be safe in there."Trying to get something to stand up- "This keeps falling down. This is frustrated. I can't get it to stand up. Now I got it!")

She's pretty witty, but unwittingly witty and it cracks me up every time.

She knows most of her colors, how to count to 13, lots of shapes and how to sing her ABCs. She loves to draw and color these days and will often ask for crayons and paper. She'll draw something and then ask me to look at what she drew. She will tell me what it is she drew (a butterfly, a candy cane, a horse, a person or whatever). She asked me to draw her a person the other day. I drew the best person I could, asked her how it looked and she said, "It's fine." I don't think I quite met her expectations.

She and Caleb get along pretty well, but mostly when they are doing something that they think is sneaky. For example, when they are to take naps and I send them upstairs, they will play happily together for as long as I let them. Caleb often tries to get Adelaide to get in on sneaky action and Adelaide happy plays along- sometimes to her fall. They also fight and get annoyed with each other and they know exactly which buttons to push to get under each others' skin. True siblinghood.

She does well in nursery and especially loves getting snack. :)

She likes to talk about her aunts and uncles and her grandparents randomly. She might be playing and will pretend to talk to her aunts Tracy or Ashley on the phone or she'll draw a picture of her uncle Robbie or aunt Torri or she'll ask to go to Namna and Papa's house or she'll want to talk to Grandma Cyndi on the phone or go to Papa Barry's house. I love that she loves them.

She doesn't enjoy the cold much. She always wants to go outside, even when it's cold, but never lasts long. She just gets too cold too easily, while Caleb could stay out for a long time, usually.

She loves singing and dancing.

Riding in the car with her can be quite the challenge. She's quite demanding and usually does a lot of screaming ("It's hot!!!" "I don't like that song" "Turn the music up!" "Turn the music off!" "You wake me up!!"- all with accompany weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth).

She throws some pretty intense tantrums sometimes. Luckily, they don't happen on a daily basis, though. She does throw little fits when things don't go her way, but sometimes I can just remind her that she can talk to me and not scream and she'll stop… sometimes.

She sleeps pretty much through the night these days, which is awesome. Occasionally she'll still wake up and has been doing so more frequently lately, but for the most part, she's pretty good at going to sleep and staying asleep. I lay down with her at night (or Jeff, when I'm unable to) and pat her back and sing her a couple of songs of choice and sometimes we chat. And then I tell her I love her, give her the choice to leave the door open or closed and wish her a good night. Soon afterwards, she's entered into a sleepy slumber.

I suppose that's a pretty good summary of what she can do (if it was too long to read, it's okay… it's mostly so I can remember anyway :)

Here are some photos of my girl. :)

Oh yeah and her stats: 24.4 lbs (40th percentile) and 35 inches (80th percentile).