Terrific two-year-old!

Today is Hannah's 2nd birthday (or yesterday, by the time this post actually gets published). It has been a great day!

Last year, after spending much of Hannah's birthday in a car on our way home from a wedding in Vegas, I vowed to just sit and play with Hannah all day on her next birthday. And that's basically what I did today. Hannah and I played and sang and danced and read books and watched "Fwotty No-man" (Hannah loves the classic cartoon) this morning. And then during Hannah's nap, I frosted 24 cupcakes for her party tonight. After Hannah's nap, I let her watch Bubble Guppies (her favorite show) while she had a snack. She then got a visit from her aunt Jana. When Scott got home, I went to do my group (I debated getting a sub, but I figured Hannah would enjoy alone time with her daddy on her birthday). After my group, Scott and Hannah picked me up from work, and I drove us through some snowy weather to Santaquin to have a little birthday party for Hannah with my side of the family.

Funny side note: I drove about 40 mph the whole way to Santaquin, so I kept my hazard lights on. As we exited the freeway in Santaquin, a UHP officer pulled up to the side of my car with her lights on, and when I rolled down my window she actually asked me if I was being kidnapped. I assured her that I wasn't, and she smiled and said she just didn't want to hear later that someone was kidnapped and a UHP officer had just passed them by. Way funny. I wonder how many kidnappers/car-jackers actually let their victims turn on their hazard lights. :)

Anyway, we had a wonderful time with my family and are glad we made the rather treacherous trip. Hannah had been talking all day about seeing her cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents, and she would have been very disappointed if we hadn't gone. She's a wee bit obsessed with her cousins. :) She played hard and zonked out on the way home.

And now for some cute pics...

On Sunday, we celebrated Hannah's birthday with Scott's side of the family. Doesn't she look beautiful in her new Christmas dress?!

 Hannah enjoyed opening her presents and looking at her cards.

 We let Hannah open her new backpack early. It's a fabulous replacement for her worn out diaper bag.

 Hannah loved it when Matt read her the fun new book from her grandparents.

 

 Hannah wasn't sure what to think of the lovely singing, but she enjoyed the cupcake I made as well as the cake Scott made.

 I just had to take one last pic of my cute, just-bathed 1-year-old the night before she turned 2.

 This morning, we let Hannah open a couple of gifts. She was quite happy to see her potty again, which we had put away about a month ago. We're going to start potty training after the new year.

 Hannah enjoyed playing with these cute, German "boy" and "girl" dolls from her family in Germany.

 And she really loved sitting on her potty off and on all day. She even pulled down her pants before sitting down a couple of times. :)

I treated Hannah to a sucker after lunch.

Hannah insisted on putting on her new shirt from her aunt Sandy over her pajamas. Yes, she stayed in her pj's until after her nap. So did I. :)

 Hannah's cupcake tree. She picked out the Tangled  ("Punzel") theme at the store.

What a cute little 2-year-old!

Hannah got totally spoiled.

She got a lot of good help opening her presents.

Hannah was thrilled to get 2 new baby dolls from her aunts and cousins. She went right to work nurturing them.

 Hannah with her cousins. I'm pretty sure I hear their names at least 50 times a day.

Half of the party gang.

 

And the other half.

Hannah with her mommy and daddy.

She would not put her new baby doll down.

 See? Don't worry--I checked, and she was still breathing under her hood.

Hannah's birthday haul.

A few things about our terrific two-year-old:
--Hannah is acting so grown up lately and copies just about anything we say and do. We really have to be more careful now. :)
--Hannah is super smart, but she still hasn't figured out that she could squeeze past the guard rail to get out of her toddler bed on her own. (I guess she believed me the first day we installed it--she tried to climb around the guard rail, and I told her she couldn't.) Scott and I are very happy about this.
--Hannah continues to love to sing and dance and do song actions, and she is getting really good at singing the actual words as well as singing the right tune and notes.
--Hannah still loves playing pretend with her dolls as well as with many other toys. She is getting more and more creative every day.
--Hannah loves to count and to sing the alphabet song. She can identify the numbers 1-10 as well as the majority of letters of the alphabet. Her pediatrician was impressed when Hannah started singing the letters that she saw painted on the walls of his office.
--Hannah still randomly gives out sweet and sometimes intense kisses and hugs all day long.
--I finally figured out how to get Hannah to let me cut her toenails. I just have to keep saying how pretty her toes are over and over again. Now, every times she takes off her socks, Hannah says "pretty."
--Hannah has been so good not to mess with our Christmas tree. She'll touch some of the ornaments, but the only ones she has removed are the candy canes because she wants to eat them. I don't blame her. Yum.
--The past few weeks, I have been telling Hannah that she will be 2 on her birthday. So today when I would ask her how old she is, she would say one. Then I would remind her that it's her birthday today and ask again how old she is now, and she would say 2. But when Scott got home, Hannah told him that she's one. So Scott told her that she's 2, and then Hannah repeatedly replied, "No, I not." Way funny.

We took Hannah to her 2-year well child check yesterday, and it was wonderful to have no more concerns about her gross motor skills (or anything else). Hannah now weighs 27 lbs. 6 oz. (73rd percentile), is 34.5 inches tall (65th percentile), and of course continues to have a large noggin to house her large brain (99th percentile). We were excited to see how well she is doing weight-wise. But the doctor said we can take her off of whole milk and give her skim milk now, so we'll see if she can keep her weight up.

As I reflect on these past 2 years that have flown by, I feel so incredibly grateful to be Hannah's mom. She is such a bright light in my life. Hannah has such a sweet personality and a strong spirit, and I can't wait to find out all the wonderful things she is going to teach me throughout our life together. While I often feel nostalgic and somewhat sad about my sweet baby growing up, I am even more happy and excited to see her developing into the amazing little person that she is.

Happy 2nd Birthday to my sweet Hannah!!!