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As of 2:45 this afternoon Pacific Daylight Time (4:45 Central Daylight Time), the Princess had officially been in this world two whole years.
We're amazed because it seems like just yesterday we were going in early in the morning so I could be induced, and then holding her for the first time, and then she was one...
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yay, Emma! I saw her picture in another thread in her beautiful dress w/ roses and I must say, she's adorable--looks like a keeper to me!
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*giggles* So, she was afraid of the candles and wouldn't blow them out... Pictures to come as soon as she stops playing with the camera and we get them uploaded.
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It's late, Emma. Stop playing with the camera and let the rest of us see your birthday pictures.
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Happy two-day belated Birthday, Emma! Two day belated wishes for a two-year old's birthday. Just wait, next year it'll take me three days to wish you happy birthday. Hope you got to eat lots of cake and run around with a funny hat on your head.
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Boon
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Happy birthday, Princess. Sorry I'm late getting to wish you happy days!
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Like the trains that run hourly from my town. In bad weather, the radio was announcing the mass transit delays. The trains were running a full hour behind. I figured that this put them right back on schedule again.
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So we talked about the candles, and how you blow them out, and next time she did better.
A few days later, we had the birthday dinner with my dad's family. (Really, really good spaghetti with meat sauce made by my Italian uncle from his grandma's recipe. Spaghetti is one of Emma's favorites.)
That night, her favorite present was the Elmo and Cookie Monster "guitar" that my aunt got her. She got lots of other nice things, too, though.
Oh, and I'm including this because Emma took it: a picture of my tummy. She kept looking at it on the camera and giggling and pointing and saying "Baby! Baby! Briddy baby!" (That's not "pretty" baby, but "Bridget" baby, I believe.) So there it is for you to admire the first time she actually got a picture of something that wasn't her hand.
By the next party, with my mom's family, she was an old hand at the candle thing.
The kids played at the park while the grownups chatted and watched them. My grandma got knocked over by a rowdy kid, but was unharmed and more wary from then on. My sister was able to make it just as we started eating (she'd thought it would be a lot later, but was able to get off work early.) My mom was well-rested despite just having got back in the country the night before (she only went to Vancouver, so no time change.) Everyone loved the fruit salad (made of Emma's favorite fruits: watermelon, cantaloupe, honeydew, green grapes cut in half, and canned mandarin oranges) in a watermelon carved to look like a kitty (Emma's choice of shape) and the Elmo cake I made the day before (that took a whole jar of no-taste red frosting coloring paste, btw.) We also had make-your-own sandwiches, which meant there was something everyone would eat, even my cousin's extremely picky eldest child. We forgot the chips in the trunk of the car, but no one missed them. And my cousin was astounded that I got said picky child to drink horchata (he drank a whole glass, then switched to water. He won't drink soda or juice. ) My sister who arrived late missed that it was horchata and took a big gulp expecting lemonade-- oops! I wish we'd gotten a picture of that face.
She was quite happy to open gifts-- she's got that down, too-- but actually, the biggest immediate hit was the Elmo birthday card my grandma gave her (that's her extremely cute, very precocious second cousin once removed and her great-grandma in the picture with us.) My cousin's artistically inclined daughter (said second cousin once removed) actually made a really cute Elmo birthday card, too, but she was opening a present at the time and missed that one. We're putting it on the fridge because it's so awesome.
And even though they weren't taken on the birthday or at a party, I thought I'd take some pictures of Emma taken in the past couple of weeks, just 'cause they're cute and I'm posting pictures anyway. Here's Emma being a lamp-head (you can't see too much of it, but she's wearing the Elmo shirt handed down from Olivet's kids that started the whole obsession in that pic), and also one of the day she made Abba do her hair with just about all her hair stuff (isn't that a great look on her face? And doesn't she look like a child of the 80's?)
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Great pictures! Rainbow still likes to have her hair 'done' with all her hair stuff. Bows everywhere, clips everywhere, ponytails everywhere.
I think this year will be the first year we really do her birthday up. I usually don't start making a big deal out of it (just a small family party) until they're schoolage. But she'll be 4 in a couple of weeks and she's very proud of it, so maybe we'll have a real party with friends and everything.
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We only had family at our parties; it's not like she has friends to invite, really. There's one little boy she knows the name of from nursery at church, but they'd be really out of place at an otherwise family-only party, so what's the point? Plus my cousin has a one-year-old, a six-year-old, and an eight-year-old, so we figured that was enough kids. But we did make sure to make a big deal out of the whole "birthday" idea this year because we think it will make it easier in a few weeks when everyone is making a big deal of the new baby to remind Emma that she just had her birthday, and now we're doing the baby's "birthday".
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Thanks for the pictures. My son was looking over my shoulder at a picture of Emma, and for no reason that I could discern he asked "Is that Ketchup Princess?"
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What wonderful pictures. Did I count right? She had three parties and three birthday cakes? And all with just family! Well, why am I surprised - first child, right?!
Because of severe thunderstorms, even the family members we had invited to Sweet Pea's birthday party on Saturday did not make it. But since she has 3 older siblings, there were just enough people here with only our immediate family to have a perfect party for a two-year-old. We blowed bubbles and played hide-and-seek and played with her new presents and had cake. She loved being the center of attention. She can't blow out candles - just does the "FFFF" thing, and needed help, but like Emma, she really enjoyed all the clapping.
I love two-year-olds. Yes, I said it! They're sweet and adorable and funny little dictators.
Posts: 1522 | Registered: Nov 2005
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Well, we had just cake at home for the actual birthday. Because, you know, I can't miss an excuse for birthday cake-- it has no calories, as everyone knows, and so is completely guilt-free. (Okay, I also had to test my new silicone pans my aunt gave me to see if the time would need adjusting or anything when I baked the cakes for the Elmo cake.) Then we had to have two separate parties-- one for my mom's family, one for my dad's. My parents are divorced, hate each other, and can't be in the same place at the same time. Literally. If they see each other at the library, one will leave. The only thing they've been in the same place for without their lawyers present in the last 20 years that wasn't a visitation hand-over (at which, btw, they usually screamed at each other-- in public-- it was mortifying) was our ring ceremony-- and my mom and all her family left immediately after the ceremony, before we even had the wedding cake. So all our kids are going to have to have at least two parties/celebrations each year-- one for each side of the family. We do that for my birthday, too, and Jeff's, and for Christmas. We used to for Easter and Thanksgiving, too, but my dad and his fiancé don't really celebrate Easter much any more (although they may want to have an egg-hunt/basket thing now that they have grandkids) and usually go out of town for Thanksgiving.
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My parents are uncomfortable in the same room (and we have never had my Dad's new partner and my Mum in the same room - I don't think we will for many a year yet) but they are civil. They came to my wedding and last month my Dad visited my little sister for her birthday and the family (minus me ) went out for dinner and stuff together.
I am very grateful they make that effort, even though I still wish they could be more than just civil. But at least they do that.
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