Lena is TWO!

Once again, we have a two-year-old in the house...and Lena is every bit of two. Her vocabulary grows by the day, yet as Jon has astutely observed on multiple occasions, she still has "more feelings than words." It's difficult to not catch her contagious exuberance, and it's nearly as challenging not to laugh when she throws herself on the floor in frustration.

Lena has continued to grow by leaps and bounds--physically, mentally, emotionally, and socially. You'd think we'd know what to expect, but Lena often surprises us with her new words, incredible balance, and yes, even funny jokes. She worships her big sister, but can also hold her own whenever Elsa tries to take advantage of her older sibling status. Since the day she was born, Lena has always been a lady who knows what she wants.

This year, she even knew what she wanted for her birthday: cupcakes. She has quickly picked up the excitement surrounding birthdays at our house, even breaking into her own version of "Happy Birthday to You" any time someone lights a candle. She got to hear multiple renditions of the song on her birthday and broke out into a huge grin each time.

Lena's birthday--January 19th--fell on a Friday this year, so the festivities began early as Big Sis still had to go to school. Sleepy as she was, the birthday girl still enjoyed her birthday decorations and the scrambled eggs she got to have for breakfast. Mom doesn't make scrambled eggs, so it was quite the treat.

Dressed in her sparkly birthday skirt and headband--and paired with R2-D2 socks--Lena helped drop Elsa off at school before accompanying me at Stroller Strides, the mommy-and-me exercise class we've attended pretty much since her birth. After class, we celebrated with a little party with our exercise friends.

We picked up Elsa at school and headed to a lunch meeting, which we followed with a much-needed nap. (Thank goodness because I still hadn't frosted the aforementioned requested cupcakes.) We had just enough time between the nap and dinner with Dad to have a requisite photo shoot with Mike the Sheep (Elsa finally gave him a name).

Birthday "Silly Face"

We knew it was a futile effort to ask Lena where she wanted to eat dinner, but we tried anyway. Once we figured out that she would say (an uncharacteristic) "yes" to every suggestion, we gave her the option to have either Jon's favorite restaurant--pizza--or Elsa's favorite--hamburgers. Lena chose pizza and "hot cheese," so we had a yummy dinner and then came home for cupcakes and presents (thank you, family!).

We continued the festivities the next morning by hosting a birthday brunch with a few friends.

Birthday Brunch Monkey Bread

Both kids and adults had a lovely time, leaving us all with that warm, fuzzy feeling that only community with others can bring. Overall, we had a fun, laid-back, satisfying birthday celebration.

Happy Birthday, Little One! Bring on the "Terrific Twos"!