My little girl is 2!

I can't believe we've had Amalie for two whole years! The time has flown by! It seemed with Noah that time passed slowly and we were constantly anticipating each milestone, whereas with Amalie- the milestones are here before I even think about them! It seems my whole life has changed with two- For the better!
It seemed daunting to have two little ones, but Amalie has blessed our lives in so many ways- her laugh, her smile, her sweet yet rare hugs, her darling songs. My life would be dim without her.

When we first brought her home from the hospital as a tiny newborn, I realized I could not visualize her in my head, I hadn't seen her enough- plus she was changing by the moment. I relished waking up with her in the night (for the first few weeks), so I could stare at her beautiful face and memorize it, soak in every detail. It is truly sacred to hold one who has so recently been in heaven.

Discovering her personality was a delicious treat- it was even more fun with #2, because I could compare and see the differences. With Noah, I had no idea what his personality was like- people would say "He's so patient," and I would shrug, not knowing if he was or not. Then we brought Amalie home from the hospital and she screamed so loud that Brad and I could not hear each other (and we were standing thisclose). Come to find out, she was hungry and my milk hadn't come in- she screamed until I fed her a bottle. After that she was as sweet as can be. (Until she got hungry again, that is). After that, I knew Noah had been a very patient baby and that Amalie was not-so-patient when it came down to her basic needs.

Little by little we noticed things. Like how orderly she is. And her straight faced irony. And how she loves animals- especially puppies and kittens. And now she is TWO and more delightful than ever- even in the Contrarian stage. What a blessing she is to our family!

I just adore this little one.

She had a great birthday and LOVED her cake! I had a good laugh at my baking mistake-apparently you are not supposed to make layers when you make a Jello-Poke Cake. See picture above for evidence. This is what happened! It split into three neat segments- I thought Brad had cut it, trying to snitch, but no, the cake was too moist and fell apart. But it was yummy!

Amalie had the BEST day! She wore her birthday hat and we constantly gave her hugs and told her how glad we were that she was born! She loved singing "Happy Birthday" to herself- that was the theme song for the day. (Yes, we do have theme songs in our house- when the kids are going to bed they sing songs together, it is so sweet!) And she blew out her candles in one blow! The girl knew exactly what to do. We love our darling girl!