Lily turns 2!

Lily turned 2 over the weekend and we had a fantastic time celebrating her special day with her. We had a Winnie the Pooh party. There were kiddie pools, sandbox, sand table, bubble machine, bubble wands, pinata, etc.....The kids had a really good time and so did the adults of course. Lily loved having her friends over to play. She got a lot of neat gifts that she has been thoroughly enjoying since her party. Lots of puzzles, books, a tee ball stand/bat/ball, soccer goals and soccer ball, shopping cart, clothes, lots of fun stuff to explore and enjoy.

Thank you all who were able to come celebrate her birthday with us.

On Sunday after church Josh and I decided to take Lily to Babyland General in Cleveland, GA to continue the celebration of turning 2. For those of you unfamiliar with Babyland General it is the official "birthplace" of Cabbage Patch Kids. The small house is organized like a hospital where the dolls are born in a cabbage patch. You can watch the "birth" and help name the new dolls as well as adopt them too. To adopt a real handmade doll (basically one with no plastic) it costs anywhere from $185-365. Those dolls, beautiful as they are, are unfortunately out of our price range. We did get Lily her very own Cabbage Patch doll there with 2 outfits to go along with it. Her name is Ellie and Lily picked her out herself. The doll reminds me so much of the one that I had as a little girl.

I was so proud of Lily this weekend celebrating her birthday. Seeing her eyes light up at seeing her Pooh cake and being so surprised that everyone was singing Happy Birthday to her was just so neat to see. Lily has grown up so much this summer as she has turned 2. She no longer has her pacifier and the transition away from it was much smoother than I anticipated. She is now fully potty trained. She has not had a single diaper on in almost 2 months now. She can take herself to the potty and only really needs help to pull her panties back up. She is so grown up. You may remember we had her evaluated over the summer for speech delays and after 3 visits by Babies Can't Wait it was determined that Lily is not behind in speech at all and is actually a little ahead with her speech. Her progress over the summer with her verbal skills has been incredible. She went from having just single words to having 4-5 word phrases, using pronouns and possessives, saying friends names, etc. It has been wonderful to see her blossom in her speech over the past 2 months. Lily is an absolute joy to be around, she is funny, friendly, spunky, loving, energetic and just such a charismatic and beautiful 2 year old. I love seeing her learn new things every day and I love seeing her become her own personality. I look forward to this next year of growth and learning with her!

Pictures of her party to come.