Happy 2nd Birthday to Bree!

Bree turned 2 on Tuesday!  Aack, where does the time go?  I know as a mom I'll probably say that phrase hundreds of times in my kids' lives (especially around their birthdays).  But, really, how do these kiddos grow so fast (especially while I stay 29?  heh, heh.)

Bree has a cute little kitty cat stuffed animal that she loves.  It was actually a hand-me-down to Tess from a cousin, but Tess never loved it as much as Bree has loved it.  It was originally named "Neow Neow" but she now calls it "Meow Meow."  Also, whenever I give her paper and crayons, she always asks me to "draw Meow Meow, Mama!"  And then I help her little hand draw a stick-figure cat.  An artist, I ain't.  So when I was thinking about what to make for her cake, I decided a cat would be great.  Her stuffed animal has lots of black on it, but since black frosting is not so easy to make (and it stains your whole mouth black), I made the cake-cat white.

All day long I told her it was her birthday and tried to teach her how to say "I'm two!" which she will repeat, quietly, when I prompt her.  But the sweet girl just can't figure out how to hold up two fingers yet, but she'll get it eventually.  She didn't seem to really understand that it was her birthday, even when she opened her presents; but when we sang "Happy Birthday" and brought the cake over she finally realized that it was her birthday and she became SO excited!  Grinning from ear to ear and looking around at us like "this is all for ME?"  So cute!  (Afterwards, she kept singing to herself, "Happy, to you!  Happy, to you!")

She really got into her presents...

...I mean literally into her presents!

Oh, our Bree is a joy.  She is such a ray of sunshine.  I'll tell you what, she seems to charm everyone whom she meets; at the store, at church, with friends and family, and with total strangers.  And she loves every minute of the attention!  I've sometimes been a little jealous when I think about the fact that my kids are the last born (Bryan and I are both the youngest in the family, so our kids are the youngest too), thinking they would somehow get less attention, but that couldn't be farther from the truth--in fact Bree is the very last grandchild on both sides and so all the cousins, aunts, and uncles just seem to savor every moment with her since they know she's the last baby around.  It's so fun!  We sure love this girl!  (And she loves doing cheesy grins every time the camera is on her.)

Here's one more cute picture of our Bree...she is at the age where she's interested in clothes.  Taking them off, putting more on (the other day she had me put on 6 bottoms--a mixture of pants, skirts, and shorts!), flipping them inside out, etc.  Well, she came out the other morning with footie pajamas and wanted her flip flops on.  I told her that the flip flops wouldn't work with those jammies.  So she went back into her room and put a pair of socks on over the jammies and tried again.  Not only that, but they were on the wrong feet. Funny girl!