Two Years Old!!!

We cannot believe that Judith turned two on Saturday! We had so much fun celebrating with her. We decorated a bit and had all her presents ready to go. When she got up in the morning, she had some fun with a few cards and two gifts. She opened her wonderful tee shirt from Ann Arbor and her dog face back pack. And then we had breakfast and Robert started working on all the fixings for our lunch BBQ.

We had great fun at the Farmers' Market and grocery shopping. When we got home, Robert put together a WONDERFUL BBQ for Judith. She just loves BBQ sauce, so we had ribs and baked beans and watermelon and grilled squash and eggplant (first one from our garden!). Judith ate tons of watermelon and about four servings baked beans. It was a fun lunch, and then time for nap.

After getting up, we had cake and ice cream. Now, a word about the cake. It was made and the basic frosting was done the previous night. While Judith napped, I attempted to decorate it all. Previously, I have done a decent job with such things. But this time I had a new cake decorating set. Of course, I made the frosting I have previously used. The white part looked OK. We only had one color of food coloring - green. So that was going to be the second color. But something about putting that food coloring in the frosting - it didn't go well. The frosting appeared to be the same - just green, but it turned into a mess. So what I initially decorated as two balloons, two flowers, and a ribbon of decoration around the perimeter, turned into a running green mess.

So, I told Judith that the cake was reminiscent of the 100 acre wood where she enjoyed playing at Pooh's Playful Spot at Disney. Yeah - that's the point! That's what I meant to do! Not. Oh well...

The cake tasted great though, and Judith loved the ice cream. She doesn't know how to blow out candles, but she certainly knows how to eat and enjoy herself. That's very good! In fact, on Friday night I had talked to Judith about Saturday. I asked her if she knew that the next day was Saturday, and the 14th. She said yes. I explained that the 14th is Flag Day - the birthday of the US Army. And then I asked if she knew who else's birthday it was. She said "No", so I said, "Tomorrow is your birthday!" And she looked at me, got a big smile on her face and said, "Birthday cake?" So, she certainly has the association of birthday and cake down and she likes that association!

After the birthday cake, it was time for a birthday shower! Cake was EVERYWHERE - even on her back (we have no idea how) and so it was time to get her all cleaned up. (An interesting aside - she loves showers these days. Showers are the way to get clean, not baths. She has no use for baths right now - she wants the water pouring over her from above. That's fun!) The birthday shower was fun, and then it was time for presents!

Judith was slow to get back to the presents, but once she figured out what was going on, she had a good time. She climbed right up on top of the table and started going through everything. Great fun! She would open something and then play for a while and then open something and play for a while longer. It was a long, convoluted evening. Open, play, run around, and then say, oh wait - that train I got last year is a lot of fun, let's go find that! What - you want me to move back to presents??!! Oh, OK, we'll do that. Fun! Play! Milk? Cheese? Ah - the wanderings of a two-year-old mind! So much fun. :-)

Some of the favorite gifts of the night included her Pokie Little Puppy whom she gave a big kiss to, her John Deere tractors and farm set that she's enjoying pushing around, and her new purse. Her new purse came with a wallet that was filled with old photo pass cards, gift cards, and other assorted credit card type items, a brush that folds up, and a Minnie Mouse key chain with an old key on it. When Judith first took the key out of the purse, she got a big smile on her face, looked at us excitedly and said, "Car key?" We laughed! We then explained that it will be more than 14 years before she opens a gift with a key that turns on a car (and by then we hope the driving age is 18!). So playing with these items then comprised the vast majority of Sunday.

A few more fun notes from opening gifts: When Judith opened the shirt from Linda, she was very excited about her new yellow shirt. She put it right over her head and put her arms through the armholes! The first time she's put her own shirt on. Of course, then she realized that she already had another shirt on and was quite uncomfortable with two shirts on so she promptly wanted help getting it off. Also, Judith received several dolls for her birthday. She loves dolls, but she is in a phase where she believes every doll should be naked all the time. Now the problem here was that the dolls she received are not the type that go around naked. Two were Raggedy Ann and Andy from her Great-Grandmother, and their clothing is sown onto them, so Judith couldn't get it off. Then she received Amanda, a collector doll from Kate, that is just beautiful. But as a porcelain doll with hand painted features, also not the type that should be stripped naked and thrown around. This was all a bit frustrating for Judith, but entertaining from Robert and myself.

After all the gifts were open at about 9:30, Judith had some final fun with all of her balloons. She LOVES balloons! And then it was time to go to bed! We had to get up early for church the next morning.

Overall, we had a great birthday. Robert and I had the goal of giving Judith the sense that holidays are fun good events to look forward to, and we hope we achieved that. And certainly, the connection between birthdays and cake is very strong for her now. And she knows there is left over cake and wants it constantly!

A quick note on everything else going on. A little over a week ago was my birthday, and I just have to say that Robert is wonderful - he made me a wonderful birthday cake from scratch! You can see for yourselves why I think my husband is so wonderful!

And then during last week Judith was sick Tuesday - Thursday, and so we stayed home and did little except give her hugs and cuddles. We also gave her a little chamomile tea with honey, and she LOVED it! So now she occasionally asks for tea along with water and chocolate milk. It's very cute!

And for Father's Day, we went to church, went out for Mexican breakfast, and then came home. We listened to "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me" on NPR, one of our favorite radio programs - and one that makes Judith just laugh and laugh when the audience does! Robert opened her presents, and Judith was a bit frustrated by the fact that the presents were not for her. Judith then napped and we talked to family on the phone. In the afternoon we ate left over cake and ice cream and watched the US Open (again - some of the greatest golf I've seen in a tournament in a very long time, if ever) and had another BBQ dinner after Robert and Judith played football outside for a bit. More playing and fun and then it was time for bed again. The days seem to go so quickly!

Well, Tiger Woods won the day, but Rocco Mediate proved himself a champion. No one else has taken Tiger so deep into a competition and stood up to all the Tiger hype and energy. Most who play with Tiger are so awed that they fold. Not Rocco. He himself wore a red shirt and black pants, just like Tiger, and kept up his happy ways throughout the round. You know that he appreciated the entire experience and knew what it meant to be in that position. I'm a bit disappointed he didn't win, but you can't help but admire Tiger's amazing toughness at these events.

We hope you all are staying dry. Have a good week. Wednesday Robert and I will be off to AT&T Park for an inter league game between the Giants and the Tigers. Before the season started it looked like the Tigers were going to romp all over everyone this year. It turns out they can only romp on the White Sox. Not sure what happened there, but I do know that watching the Cubs is an awful lot of fun. Judith does know how to look at what's on TV (on those few times she sees the TV on) and say, "Is that golf?" "Is that Cubbies?" Yeah! By Sunday she even looked at the TV at one point (after four days of 6+ hours of golf coverage) and said, "Is that a Tiger?" Go Judith! It's important to teach your child the important things in life! Hopefully as she starts her second year, we're doing an OK job of it!