My Girl

Lady M turned two today. It was a day of love and presents and sweeties and fun and lots of sun. I think she understood it was a special day 'cause she let me do her hair beautifully and kept the elastic bands and clips in all day.

At playschool she was sung to while sitting at the plastic outdoor furniture with friends. Her glitter on black crown was amazing and would have matched her outfit brilliantly if she hadn't insisted on wearing an old orange t-shirt underneath the cute new dress.

After a nice nap she was changed into her sailing outfit (thanks Granny V and Grampa L!) and taken on a cruise.

M's little friends and their parents joined us and we all sweated our way around the harbour as the sun beat down on us, Barney blared and the kids dug into their Dora Explorer party packs.

The "My Girl Too" - apt name and also just the nicest boat we could have hoped for.

Back home it was straight into the pool where M and C entertained themselves in the water for ages. Then:

M's new wooden kitchen corner had the two of them playing pizzaparlour-pizzaparlour till bath and bed time.

So begins our little lady's year of being two. I'm excited but a little frightened. We all know the two's are often preceded by the word terrible and this little two year old has already displayed her talent for tantrums. "Trying Two's" are acceptable though. "Terrific Two's" more than welcome. But tantruming and teary, terrible two's, not so much.

I think the key will be communication- if she can tell us what she wants ("USE YOUR WORDS" being a frequently used phrase around here) then she won't get so frustrated. Everyday she is using new words and stringing more of them together to form sentences. Just this morning for example: "No di boh. Di Cobeh. Da boh mah... moh otees" (Not this bowl, this is for C. That bowl mine. And typically- more Oatees.) Though it can get confusing and a lot of her words sound very similar. Like chair, share and cheers. These are all "Che". Or granny and raining. Or "uppy", "open" and "iPad".

Something else we'll be working on big time is... drum roll.... potty training! It stresses her out a bit right now but "no pressure" is the first rule when working to go nappy-free, so we're all like pom-poms and "hooray! Clever Girl" when she gives it a go. The Potty Time app on my iPhone is actually her favourite thing in life right now. (Incidentally, Son loves the sign language song on that app is and has learnt to sign "help", "grow", "potty" and "I love you").

Here's to lots more learning and loving and another brilliant year for our darling girl. And for all of us! Why not :)