Terrible but still so charming

It was my baby's birthday a few weeks ago ---- she'll always be my baby, but she's definitely not a baby anymore. She's hit full toddlerdom. She turned two on Easter weekend.

And boy have the two's hit. She's quite the independent little bugger. I'm told she rules the roost at her pre-school. She's not even afraid of the "big kids" (as we like to call them.) For older sister Audrey, the "twos" actually weren't terrible at all . . . she waited until she was three for that. Vivian has the terribles in full force right now. I guess we're in for a treat with this girl.

For some reason events like birthdays, anniversaries, major holidays are a BIG deal to me. And they must be celebrated! Whew . . . the stress I put myself under sometimes. Call me crazy.

However, in the brief years we've had celebrating our children's birthdays together, my husband and I have landed on a very easy-breezy way to commemorate their special day. Whether we throw a party or not (and in this case, Vivian had to settle for sharing her birthday with the Easter Bunny and her cousins), we always take the kids to Red Robin for dinner and a sundae. It's one of the few family friendly places that serves alcohol so everybody wins. And it's a very lively place filled with bright colors and balloons. Although, sadly, we realized that this particular tradition isn't exactly the healthiest option for us. You can read more about that on my husband's blog.

And since I'm interested in documenting the lives of my girls as they're unfolding, here is a list of things that currently define Vivian for me:

• Her favorite foods are chicken nuggets, chocolate, peanuts, french fries, noodles, cheese, Cheezits, blueberries, strawberries, toast, eggs, waffles. And she absolutely loves bananas -- will eat 2 or 3 in one sitting.


• Says "I do it" almost constantly . . . and boy does she mean it. Don't EVEN try to do it for her when you hear her utter these words. You're in for a world of hurt.


• Is finally able to sleep in her big girl bed without pulling all of the books off of the shelf every night. Whew.


• Loves puzzles! Especially the purple skeleton puzzle that we always take to church. She's good for at least half the Mass on that one.


• Knows all of the basic shapes and colors.


• Can count to 15 . . . it gets muddy after that. She knows there are more teens but can't quite figure it out.


• Recognizes most of the alphabet. Her favorite letters are "V," "W," "M" and "H." We can thank Elmo Keyboard-o-Rama for that.


• Has recently developed a love for TV that nearly matches her older sister. She specifically requests "Spunj-Bob" and "Telly-tubbies" but also has an affinity for Dora, Diego, and Classical Baby.
• Her favorite songs to sing are Bah Bah Black Ship; Twinkle, Twinkle; ABCs (go figure), Mary Had a Little Lamb (although to that one she usually says "Do it!")

I could add to this list ad nauseam but I think that paints a pretty good picture.

Happy Birthday sweet Vivian! I love you!