Happy Birthday!

To my Baby Pants. She turned TWO today.

Ha! You thought this was going to be a post on the new baby didn't you? No...that little booger is still in there.

My little Baby Pants is Two...I can't believe it. Two years have gone by already? Really?

This morning after Baby Pants played with her sisters for a few minutes, she came busting into our bedroom and was singing as loud as she possibly could..."Happy BURTDAY to MEEEEEEE!"

Then she kept telling me " 'Ahna burtday cake" (where 'ahna' equals 'I wanna')

I told her I had cookies to take to her babysitter's house. She was excited, but even after she saw them, she kept calling them a 'burtday' cake. I bought a package for the babysitter's house and a package for our house, so that we could celebrate tonight after dinner. We're not going to have her birthday party until after this baby comes, because I knew as soon as I would plan a birthday party, THAT would be the day I would go into labor. So, we didn't schedule it for this past weekend, and I only 'tentatively' scheduled it for this coming weekend - so we'll see when we actually have it.

My Baby Pants is SO much like her daddy, it's not even funny. She comes at life with full force, full of energy, and ready to take on whatever challenges come her way. As soon as she is dressed in the morning, she is ready to be outside doing something - her daddy is definitely an outside dog. It's been an adjustment for me, because I'm not really an outside person - but I'm getting better at it. :) She loves dirtbikes, quads and monster trucks - she watches UFC with her daddy and yells at the fighters - "No BITING boys!" (but her 'biting' means 'fighting'). She's rough and tumble and doesn't mind getting extremely dirty.

But don't get me wrong, she definitely has a girly side too. She likes to dress up like a princess, and if she gets TOO dirty, she tells me she needs to wash her hands.

She's a goldfish addict (the snack, not the actual fish)...she has taken to sleeping with her 7 yr old sister...she goes potty on the toilet...she loves to read...she still pulls on my ears when she needs comforting...she turns everything into a song (kinda like me)...she likes to wear my lipgloss (and when it gets returned it's REALLY gross and slobbery)...her favorite movie at the moment is 'Lilo and Stitch'...she still loves to use the sign language that she knows, and to learn more signs...she thinks its funny to tell me that she "fahted", but then she says "excoos me"...she's obsessed with Sponge Bob Square Pants...when she pretends she is leaving to go somewhere with my keys, she says "I going to church" or "I going to ride da bus"...she has extremely long hair that she tolerates me putting into two ponytails every morning...she loves her sisters...and she calls the new baby her 'baby butter' (butter=brother, even though we don't yet know what we're having).

I'm thoroughly enjoying watching Baby Pants grow up...she does have her moments, as all toddlers do...because she has discovered the use of the word "No", and when I start my warning counting, she just counts along with me and thinks it's hilarious. But every day she does something that makes me smile or laugh - tonight's laughing thing was "teeth kisses". She wanted to see my teeth while she was in the bathtub - so I showed her. Then she showed me her teeth. Then she came in for a kiss with her teeth showing, so I copied her...and we both giggled and gave each other a bunch of teeth kisses.

Seeing her get this big reminds me that my older girls are getting even bigger - I'm trying to focus more on their individual stages as well. It can be easy to let what they are going through get lost in the shuffle because they are "older". And now with the new baby coming, I'm kind of afraid of losing the experiences I'm having with Baby Pants. But all of this is exactly the reason I started my own business last year, and fully intend to make it my full-time work so that I can be with my children more often because it's a business they can be involved in too...and will hopefully require much less working hours away from them. It's time for life to be about them, and making whatever sacrifices are necessary to make that happen. It's just where I am right now, and where I think God wants me to be. Sorry, didn't mean to go off on a tangent. :)

So, Happy Birthday to my Baby Pants - I love you with all my heart. And lucky you, it looks like your brother or sister won't be sharing a birthday with you after all. :)