Cali is Two

It's official, the baby is two. She walks and talks and sings. She may not be the most graceful and she's a bit hard to understand at times. But, her no and yes are very clear. And, if that doesn't get the job done, tears and smiles are her universal language. We're having a bit of a rough patch with our independent miss. She is not keen on picking up, coming when she's called, or pretty much doing anything except on her own schedule. She has learned that a sparkly smile will excuse much and I've been excusing a lot of things due to her age that she probably is old enough to understand. I vaguely remember a similar phase with her sister, but the dynamics are different.

At present, we're getting ready to transition to a big girl bed. She's growing used to the idea of laying down and getting herself to sleep. I've been designing her Big Girl Room for about a year, so I've collected a few things. Grandma is cued up to make the curtains, and I've just got to pull some serious magic in a matter of hours once we deem her sufficiently able to stay in her bed. With luck, it'll be a short trip from there to the point where she wakes up and plays happily in bed instead of screaming for rescue.

We pulled a bit of a scam on Cali this year. Her birthday actually fell on a Monday, but that's a busy afternoon, so we pretended it was Sunday, had over family, opened presents, and presented the cake. We left her flowers and balloons out for a week, but there was no second celebration. Luckily, she's two, so unless she sifts through this blog at a later date, we're probably good. She received a circus train set, a baby doll, her own set of dragon wings (scaled down and sewn by Grandma), books and clothes from her grandparents, and a few other toys. However, I think we're getting the hang of things. There wasn't an obscene amount of toy carnage. We should be able to absorb the new additions with minimal fuss.

We went with a loose Minnie Mouse theme. Instead of a crown or hat, she wore mouse ears. The cake was a nice Depression chocolate cake with chocolate frosting (both made with dutch processed cocoa for extra richness). Since we neglected to take a photo, it had star sprinkles on top. In what has become a bit of a tradition, I bought a boatload of flowers and arranged them. As a nod to the birthday girl's tastes (via a recent trip to Costco), I bought neon colored daisies (supplemented with hot pink spider mums and a few roses), which have actually lasted quite well.