Gabriella Turns 2

Gabriella turned two today! I am so proud of my sweet little miracle girlie! She is turning into such an intelligent and sweet little lady. We sort of celebrated her birthday over two days since she and her cousin share the same birthday. But that just makes for more partying!

We started the celebrating on Saturday. 

She wanted to go swimming at the gym for her birthday so off we went. Here we are, all ready to hop in the big pool. She was excited and nervous all at the same time. This was her first time being in a big pool.

She loved it! Most of the time she spent on the steps but she had fun walking up and down them and watching the water change heights on her. We walked around with her holding onto a noodle. She kicked her feet and laughed a lot at daddy when he kicked his feet and splashed her. Xander slept most of the time that we were in the pool. 

Her choice for birthday lunch was hotdog, yogurt, orange, and red juice. Did she dip the hotdog and orange into her yogurt? Yes! 

After a nap and dinner, it was time to open presents. She was super excited!

Cute little bumblebee headband from Gramma. 

Having a drink of tea with Gramma. 

We got her an 88 piece plastic food set to go with her kitchen she got for Christmas. She was ecstatic when she opened it and took it right over to daddy for help getting the food out. 

It went immediately into her shopping cart. 

Matt started throwing the food into her cart and missed, hitting her in the head. Gabriella started laughing hysterically, and well, you can see in the video that it only continued from there. 

She said that she wanted a Dora cake. This was my first attempt at really decorating a cake. I think it turned out pretty good. I traced the outline of it onto the icing with a toothpick while I was looking at a picture. Then filled it in with a piping bag. Matt was my assistant and helped me by cleaning up my mess!

Here's Gabriella seeing her cake for the first time, sampling it, and then sharing some with Great Grampa. 

Daddy helping her blow out the candles. 

"Mmmm! Nummy Dora cake!"

Xander hanging out with Great Gramma. 

(This picture was right before a giant spit-up!)

Grampa Ace posing for a picture to show off his new bottom teeth. 

(I was taking lots of pictures of Gabriella opening presents, and he said,"Here, take a picture of my new teeth!")

Sunday morning (her actual birthday), we woke her up with birthday waffles. Then we had church and then met up with cousin Joshua to celebrate his birthday. She got a free smoothie from Dutch Brothers for her birthday. She pretty much drank it down without stopping. So funny!

I'll brag on my sweetie for a minute now! At two years old she says and recognizes all of her colors, she can sing 4 different songs, says 9+ word sentences, is potty-trained, sings the ABC song to letter E, knows 20 words in Sign Language, puts herself to sleep at nap and bedtime, can count to six, recognizes numbers 1-4 by looking at them, can hold up  just two fingers to show how old she is, jumps around in a circle while clapping, and knows the names of everyone in our extended family by looking at them. She also can follow directions for doing two different things in a row (ie. "take off your shoes and then put them in your room"). 

We had a great time celebrating her first two years and looking forward to 100 more and all that God has in store for her!!