Shay is Two!

 Shay

That's right! We have a little stinker officially entering her terrible twos but doing it terrifically, she's already really good at the tantrums and getting over them in less than a minute. There were presents that trickled in over the last week that she was able to open and now Claire thinks any time the doorbell rings it means there is a present. She really loves her bubble lawn mower and new (actually from Christmas but we didn't need more at the time) chalk with bright colors for time we play in the back yard. Technically the sunglasses are Shay's but I knew Claire would feel so left out without a pair that she got one of the 3 pairs and there is one hidden away for when they inevitably break their current ones. Shay got two new shoes as well which was REALLY needed since her other ones were getting small and really worn out. An exciting gift was a rug with the alphabet, animals, numbers, veggies, shapes, and colors on it and we use another gift microphone to have her jump on the letters and make the sound. 

Birthday

Even though we weren't able to be near family, we felt loved by the gifts they sent and the messages from everyone. It is lucky that Shay is young enough not to feel left out when we don't have a party or do anything special since we are so far away from family and hardly know anyone her age here. My birthday tradition for my children so far has to make cupcakes and shape them in a number for how old they are, but that will only last until they are old enough to care about special birthday cakes. Maybe I'll have my talented sisters-in-law make cakes then, or get pictures to put on the cupcakes...it's all about making things easier. I made her some cupcakes that she didn't seem to like all that much and only licked the frosting off of mostly, but Claire was excited for them and willingly finished it for her sister. The gifts that I did have before hand were wrapped and Shay was able to open them.

Claire

Claire is just as excited about most of the gifts because they share everything and get to use them together, and I have to remind her that she has to wait until Shay is done. A lot of the time she will try to get Shay interested in a different toy so she can play with what Shay has and it is frustrating for everyone when it doesn't work. As I was clearing out a shelf in my room, Claire found these toy holders to use as superhero belts and started acting like Catboy from PJ masks. Shay followed along and they had matching balloons as their weapons and ran around and jumped of the couch throwing their balloons around. It was a fun game and after Shay went to her nap Claire continued to be obsessed with these 'belts' and called them jump ropes too.