Fun 2 Be

Today I realized my baby isn't a baby anymore. Maybe because Avery has been a later-talker than W&A, or maybe because she is still so snuggly, or maybe because she still doesn't have much hair, Avery still seemed to me so much like a baby. But last Saturday she verbally exploded; she started saying so much more and singing songs I didn't know she knew--Bob the Builder, I'm Trying to Be Like Jesus--and I think I knew then her days as a baby were numbered. Then she turned 2 today.

2 is so fun. 2 is still too young to understand why everyone is saying "Happy Birthday" all day long, too young to feel that sense of birthday entitlement, too young to have expectations for the day, too young to want your presents first thing in the morning. Also too young to blow out all your candles on the first--or in Avery's case--the 5th try.
We had pancakes and waffles for breakfast this morning--I'm sure she had no clue they were for her. She still loved them. Avery and I went to the Arizona Museum for Youth--to her just a visit like any other day. Grandma Lindy took her doll shopping and to lunch at McDonalds. I love that she chose a little bi-racial looking doll; she only later discovered that it also spoke because she stepped on it, and thus applied the necessary pressure. Ha! When you're 2, you don't feel put out that you still have to nap on your birthday, or get sent to "uh-oh" time in your bedroom. 2 is happy just to be.

When you're 2, you don't care that your party is just like last years: all your grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and siblings watching--and visiting amongst themselves--as you slowly open your presents. Avery would open one (I think this is the first time she's ever "gotten" the concept of unwrapping a gift) and then go sit on Grandma's lap to check it out, or have me read a few pages for her if it was a book. My favorite gift she got was a book of the first 2 years of her life I made for her on snapfish.com. It was so so sweet to read it to her before bed tonight and have her sit through the whole thing and then exclaim "Again!" at the end.
After presents, we ate cake and ice cream. And not just any cake; this cake had four layers of made from scratch devil's food cake, each layer separated by chocolate ganache frosting and white chocolate mint cream frosting. Then the whole creation was iced in marshmallow cream frosting. (Who knew you could make that stuff? I thought it only existed in jars.) This is what the cake looked like before it was iced, and here is the recipe. If you ever want to make it, call me for what I learned making it!