Lillian Caroline
Baby girl is officially not a baby anymore! Two years old equals toddlerhood and I can say her age in years instead of months. Last year for her first birthday I went all out! Venue, invites, custom cake, decorations, photographer… the works. But this year, I kept it super simple and sweet, with just a little photo shoot with Lily, some streamers I had from last year and balloons I had from last weekend’s styled shoot!
I’ll be honest, it was super hard to get her to stand still. The difficulty level seemed honestly, about the same as her 1 year old pics when she wasn’t quite walking yet. But now she’s two years, and there’s shiny balloons to play with and she can run away if she wants! Mostly, she just runs over to me to see what my Nikon is all about and press buttons. Just like last year, I went and got her toy camera so she could take pics like mom. She loved it much more this year. Just holding it up to her face and say “Cheeeeeese” over and over like she was taking a pic of me! Too. Darn. Cute!
At two years old, Lillian is sure saying and doing a lot. She knows just about the whole alphabet and can count to 10, maybe missing a few numbers. Some of her favorite activities are coloring and drawing, doing ABC’s on her “puter” (short for computer), dancing and brunching with mom, playing ball and swimming with daddy, and helping make her own meals in her learning tower. As her mom, I can see that right around this age is when they really starting soaking things in like little sponges. The first 2 years were basically keeping her alive, happy and fed. I feel like now comes the fun part where she learns everything I teach her! I know there may be some “terrible twos” and tantrums to be thrown. But I’m definitely enjoying that she can communicate what she wants to me more. And BONUS, can even bring her own diapers to the garbage!
The more I think about it, the more serious I am about celebrating her half birthday in August every year. SO many friends and family tell us they want to come visit in the Summer. Obviously. Summer is a much better time to visit Wisconsin. And maybe someday she’ll be REALLY over the whole Valentine’s theme? Probably. But until then, mom is going to have fun with her camera and streamers, celebrating the best Valentine’s gift I ever got!
