The Birthday Girl

Wow, last weekend sure came and went quickly...  And just like that, our little girl is now 2 years old.  I do believe this second year went by even faster than the first.  And was quite possibly filled with even more than the first!

I'll attempt to do another "year in review" type post with pictures from each month of this past year so I'll save more of the reminiscing for that post.  For now, we'll stick to the actual birthday festivities- the super fun, joint girly airplane themed birthday party on Saturday morning, and the rest of the special weekend filled with sweet times with family, lots of presents, and yummy food.

Yes, I did say girly airplane theme above.  In hindsight, I wonder what I was thinking, as no, you can't actually find any ready made girly airplane themed party decor/supplies.  Since Maelee's good pal, Blake, turned 2 on the 20th and as Maelee's birthday was on the 22nd, her mom, Vinita, and I thought it would be too fun to have a joined party for both of our girls on the 21st.  And as they both LOVE aiplanes (Maelee in thanks to her Pop-Pop's trips to their roof to watch the airplanes go by), we thought what better theme than that???  Well, in the end, it was definitely a fun route to take and I think the girls loved their airplane cake and airplane rides, but it sure ended up being a lot of work for mama!  If I never have to cut out little airplanes out of paper again, it'll be soon. 

But alas, we had a great party with many of our special friends from church and the park, and Nana & Pop-Pop were even able to come up.  We also had a musician there to keep the kids occupied and he was quite a hit.  All in all, it was a pretty enjoyable afternoon for all. 

So first, here's a number of shots from the party:

On her brand new airplane rocker!

With the other birthday girl, Blake, and her mommy, Vinita

The adorable cake made by Blake's daddy, Kevin!

Eyes glued

Enraptured by the music :)

Having a turn at the piano

How I love my sweet girl!

Time for cake!!!

But first a little serenede

Dig in!

Jammin' with good pals Marrissa and Giovanna

Blake & Maelee from just 2 months old to about 2 years old...

How time flies!

And here's a slideshow of tons more pictures from the party:

What a party!  And after naptime, we got to enjoy the beautiful day at one of our favorite playgrounds and Maelee especially enjoyed having Nana & Pop-Pop there!

Yummy dinner at Cafe d'Alsace

And one of the weekend highlights- the ipad!

Opening up some gifts before bedtime

And someone has discovered just how much she loves clothes!

Opening up the adorable navy dress and beautiful green jacket from Sam & Kim

And proudly modeling said jacket!

More snuggle time with Nana & Pop-Pop,

after church Sunday morning on her actual birthday

And some tickle time, too!

The love of clothes and now shoes continues with more gift opening that afternoon

Admiring the beautiful hand knit sweater from Mee-Maw

Playing artist...

Playing mama

Yay- more cake!!!

Make a wish!

Maelee especially enjoyed the first half of the day on her birthday, opening presents, devouring a cupcake, and especially spending time with Nana & Pop-Pop.  In fact, she was not too happy to wake up from her nap and find them gone!  After a pretty fussy period, she was finally up to tackling some more gifts from our generous friends and family...

Another baby doll to play mama with! And this one walks & talks!!!

Warming up her vocals with the super cool mic from Auntie Sarah!

And more fun on the airplane rocker.

A final slideshow of the special weekend:

While it was a bit of a blur, there were many sweet moments that filled the weekend when our little girl turned 2. We are beyond grateful that she's in our life and we praise God every day for the precious blessing that she is.

Easter Excitement!

April has been an eventful month and Easter weekend now seems ages ago after this past weekend's big 2nd birthday festivities!  But before I get to the most recent happenings, I wanted to include some sweet shots from a couple weeks back.  

Easter Sunday was a special day- rejoicing in our risen Savior, egg hunting Manhattan style on the roof of the school where our church meets, and feasting with friends. Here are some of our favorite shots from the day:

 The "green roof" at St. Regis

 With good bud, Wesley

With pals James & Jack at the Littles for a delicious Easter dinner

And just a couple more cute ones:

 My attempt at getting some curls in that stick straight hair- 

didn't work...

Having fun on the swings in her special t-shirt all the way from Uncle Dan in Japan

While the back of the shirt has the bizarre phrase,
"Forbidden Fruit is Strawberry Fields Sweetest," (??!!?)
the front is adorable with a patch of flowers and fruit and even the expression "Dainty Girl."
We love our special shirts from Japan!!!

And a slideshow of a bit more from April:

Ready, set, GO!

The month of March, also the majority of Maelee's 23rd month, certainly did include a lot of "going."  And by that I don't mean going places, I just mean, going.  

Ah, the joy that is... potty training. 

In some ways, when I look back upon the last several weeks, all I can remember is constantly repeating "let mommy know when you have to go pee-pee!" over and over and over... again.  A certain method had been highly recommended both personally and through reading up online and as it swore to be a "3 day method" and suggested starting around the time your child hit 22 months old, I thought, why not? I knew it sounded too good to be true, but had to give it a go. Our budget would definitely thank us to be rid of diapers and our daughter sure seemed anxious, too, with her frequents "diaper change?" requests...

So, our adventure began.

Well, to make a very long story short, this was no "3 day method" for us and we ended up letting a couple  of the rules (ie- from now on, underwear only, whenever!) go, too.  The initial set back for us was that while Maelee had no trouble letting us know when she had to go in the beginning, she definitely did NOT want to go on a potty.  After picking out her very own new potty, she soon had no problems with the potty itself but then decided she didn't feel like giving a heads up when it was time.

Thankfully, we had a couple weeks of success just by going off of the clock and taking her to potty when we thought it was about time, and finally now, over a month later, we are very proud of our little girl for both telling us when she has to go (for the most part, at least!), and then going on the potty. We keep her in pull-ups for naps and nighttime and if we're out and about but she usually keeps them dry, using her travel potty (oh yes, lovely...) when we're out. 

It has been quite a journey! 

And has largely dominated our news lately.  But, life still went on and here are several pictures from the past month, that are largely unrelated to all things potty...

                            

But first, had to get a shot of her final diaper change, back at the end of Feb

And then a shot in her big kid undies throwing her diapers away

Celebrating Chloe's, one of her buds, 2nd birthday with another bud, Marissa

Central Park Playground outing with Marissa and Diana

 

Marissa & Maelee- best buds!

More pals, looking at the park from a much higher vantage point

Blake, Teegan, Maelee, & Giovana- pals since birth

Maelee & Blake

Enjoying some playground time in Central Park on a 

special family day when daddy stayed home

And enjoying views later in the day from a different park, 

Carl Schurz park, by the East River

Fun "Mom's Night Out" dinner at Beyoglu with best buds- Heather, Brooke, & Desiree

And a slideshow of more pics from Maelee's 23rd Month:

And while we don't have any pictures from it, Maelee enjoyed some special time with her daddy during the 3rd weekend of March. I was a couple hours north of the city in the beautiful Lake Champion for our church women's retreat which ended up being an an amazing time for me and super sweet time for Steve and his little girl.  They had a daddy/daughter lunch date and then hung out with some dads and their boys over dinner.  Definitely a highlight of the month for all of us!  

We can't believe our little girl is turning two in less than two weeks and she both cracks us up more than ever now with her chitter-chatter and the various things she says, and also gives us quite a challenge with her feistiness and independent spirit (ie- defiance!). What could be in store for us in year two???  We shall soon see.  And we can't wait!