Erica Turns 2

I can't believe my baby is two! Well, actually I can because she talks all.the.time and she is great at pouting and is beginning to throw fits so 2 sounds about right.

Her birthday was Friday and Justin had the day off because he already worked like 55 hours thus far this week and he wasn't feeling well.

We started the morning off with breakfast and presents.

I made this Cinderella inspired apron for her. This is the most she's worn it. {{sigh}}

 She got a toy mixer, some more play food, Gossie book and...

 Sarah and Henry made a puppy house for Puppy.

 While Henry was at school, we went to Costco and Macey's and Erica got to pick out balloons. She chose Minnie of course.

 And daddy made her a birthday smoothie.

 While Erica took a nap, I worked on her puppy cake. She's been asking for a puppy cake ever since I showed her ideas on Pinterest. While I was baking the cakes she kept asking, "Puppy cake ready?"

 So she was very surprised when I brought her down from her nap with the completed cake. She wouldn't stop touching it.

 She destroyed the eyes that I went through 4 marshmallows to get right. (The nose is a Dove chocolate, the mouth melted chocolate chocolate chips, caramel frosting, and white cake)

 Two of my most bestest creations.

Every year until their 5th birthday, I write my kids a book about them using pictures of them from the last few months as the illustrations. Hers was "Princess Erica Loves to Play." Henry had it memorized so he was "reading" it to her.

 After a pizza dinner, she opened up a few more presents from Justin's parents. They watched over Skype. Nadine is at their new house in Arkansas, Corey was on a layover in Dallas. They sent her some  Minnie Mouse pajamas and she is wearing both of the pajama shirts.

 Then we sang happy birthday. Erica even sang to herself.

 Here are her 2-year pictures. These are the "outtakes" that capture her personality.

 And here are my favorite pictures and my favorite things about her.

1. I think she may be a genius. She only said like 6 words at 18 months but now she always speaks in phrases and sentences and says 3 or 4 new words or phrases every day. Her favorites right now are "That's good" "I'm sorry" "Thank you mommy." "Just kidding" "Oh my goodness" and "I'm okay". If she's not a genius, then she's at least a slightly better speaker than my other two at this age.

 2. She loves to hang out with me. She'll sit on my lap and sing and talk and squish my face for like an hour. It usually turns into being really silly but she is so content to just be with me.

 3. She is so loving. She mugs on stuffed animals and dolls and about has a heart attack if she can't kiss all the stuffed animals in the toy aisle. She just wants to cuddle and love soft things.  

4. She's pretty easy going compared to my other kids. (If you know my other kids, take that for what it's worth.) She doesn't put up a fight about going to bed so we'll see how long that lasts.

5. She is my constant reminder that God is good and blesses us with more than we deserve.

(And then she was done with the whole photo shoot thing.)