Two Cute (Photo Bonanza)

Genevieve turned two yesterday. TWO! Incredible. We celebrated last weekend with a fete that was minimal compared to last year's hoopla, but was still all about the princess and a lot of fun. Guests included Grandma & Grandpa Martin, Uncle Grant, his gf Kristen, Grandma & Grandpa Maio, and Uncle Steve & Auntie Erin.

Family pic


Family 'scared face'


Yo, Uncle Steve


I have the two biggest Uncles on the planet


Thanks for coming to my party, Kristen! You brought a present, right?

We grilled out on Saturday evening with burgers and GG's favorite, brats (I of course didn't know what a brat was until I was in my early 20's but whatever) plus all the fixins. It was a gray afternoon so we mostly hung out inside, but first we had to take advantage of the the daylight and give Geeg her big birthday gift: her very own bike.

Score!


Off to the races


Took her about 25 seconds to figure out the pedals



Pop Pop driving like a maniac


Mush, Uncle Grant!

Oh, what a hit it was. There is just nothing more fun than waiting for *the* moment when they see the item of their desire and realize it's all for them. It's parenting bliss and makes up for the meltdowns over which stuffed animal to take to bed.

She was totally spoiled with attention and presents. Books, toys, games, dress up, you name it.

Sporting her Tinkerbell wings and her new llama, Lucy


Can't forget Tinkerbell's skirt.

Everything was easy and fun, aside from a small incident with the cake. GG chose yellow cake with white frosting and as I was pulling the two rounds from the oven, one slipped out of my hand and right out of the pan and landed on the inside of the oven door. I tried to save it but dropped it *again*...brilliant. It was tasty but beyond saving. Obviously we could not have a single layer of cake. Three layers and three containers of frosting later (the layers needed a lot of mortar) the leaning tower of birthday was complete.

The 'funfetti' was the clincher


One of these is her 'surprised' face as we were singing, and the other is her blowing out the candle.







Take that, three layer cake

GG had her two year appointment this morning and weighed in at 28 lbs (70th percentile) and was 36" tall (95th percentile - a 4" change since her 18 month appointment!). This was her first visit to the pediatrician since her 18 month appointment, and to that I say hallelujah for tubes as the memory of last year's weekly visits is still fresh in my mind. There were some shots and some tears, but all's well.

In other two year old news, Genevieve's sentence structure has really started to bloom in the last month or so. Her vocabulary is broad and the more I meet other kids the more I'm surprised at how precise her enunciation is. Matt and I are pretty strict on 'please' and 'thank you' but lately if you just give her a second she'll say it without prompting. We are working on potty training, which is to say, she is training us. We were on a roll in August but in the last couple weeks she's taken the high speed train to meltdown-city when I try to get her to go during the day. However, after lights out and just before I put her into bed, she turns up to me and says, "Mommy, I need to go pee pee". So we go to the bathroom and boom, she goes every time. In other words, the girl knows exactly how to go pee and exactly when to do it, but she is hustling me. And I know she's hustling me. I played her mind games for a while but then took the potty away. Then we suggested that it was in fact daddy's potty, and let me tell you, the 'MINE' instinct kicked in and we are now back to our regularly scheduled potty-going. So much so that today she even pooped. First of all, I'm embarrassed to say that I am over the moon for this normal bodily function, but it's a mommy's dream come true. Second of all, as soon as she saw what she did, she freaked out at what she saw and started crying. Hilarious! One chocolate later (brown for brown, get it?) she was happy as a clam. I even sent Matt a text picture of it. Gross, right? I know, but seriously I couldn't help it.

Anyway besides learning how to manipulate mom and dad, Genevieve is into all things toddler. She goes absolutely insane for trips to the park, and loves climbing up those inverted ladders and running around like a crazy person. She's especially fond of the fact that it's gotten cooler and long pants allow one to fly down the slide at a rate much improved over the sticky-skin-on-plastic days of this summer. And she loves to get giant underdogs on the swing. She's still reserved around other kids but is improving a bit with age. She is in a new room at daycare, where she is now on the young end. And the big kids get to nap on cots instead of in cribs. I am in no way looking forward to moving her to a big girl bed at home so hopefully the cots at school keep her entertained for a while.

Genevieve has had all of her body parts, the alphabet, and numbers down for quite a while, and loves to impress strangers when we're out and about. She is a very particular about her appearance, preferring to have a say in what she's wearing, which shoes she'll wear, and how her hair is done, then checking everything out in the mirror before we leave. I've caught her playing with my make up more than once, including scraping eyeliner across her face the other day. Looked like she had been in the boxing ring or something. She is a huge reader and loves to be read to, or will happily sit in her Elmo chair in her room and read to herself. She's memorized a lot of songs, poems, and books, and of that she'll recite what she's memorized of each page. To that end, we have officially been overtaken by the characters...Mickey, Dora, Thomas...which I try to use to my advantage (did you know that Dora goes potty too? Trust me, she does.). Overall Matt and I are quite taken with this little creation and find our daughter totally fascinating.

And in the tradition of birthday photos, here are a few shots from our time at the park the other day. The half-smile is her saying, "cheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeze".

Pointing out all the letters on the sign








This dang ladder has taken at least five years off my life due to mini-strokes

And from our little family celebration last night:

Both candles out, all by herself. Followed immediately by "we're eating ice cream together!".
Darn right, little girl.