Sarah's 2nd Birthday!

Sarah turned 2 on January 26th!

The weekend before her birthday, we tried out a new photographer and had Sarah's photos taken.  A little sneak peek at one...(more to come soon!).

 My princess on her birthday!

And the tradition...a photo in her rocking chair.  (Amazing how much she's grown since I started taking her photo in her chair at 1 month old!)

Here she is demonstrating how old she is (trying to make her fingers do "two").  She's "too yees owd".

 Nanny brought over some balloons for the birthday girl!

She loved them!  She had a great time running circles around the kitchen with the balloons trailing behind and catching on the counter top and anything that got in her way.

 She giggled like crazy as she tried to get a hold of the balloons.

On the night of her birthday, she got to open her presents from the Cronk side of the family.

Carefully checking out her card first.

Really excited about the giant caterpillar, which she alternately called a caterpillar or a crocodile.

When we revealed her new bedding for her big girl bed, she was so excited about it that she immediately laid down on the quilt and tucked herself in and pretended to be asleep.

As soon as the basement construction is finished and the upstairs guest room is cleared of all the stuff we're storing there for now, we'll move her crib into that room and get her new big girl bed set up!

Then time for the cake madness...I stayed up until 1am on Thursday night baking, and Steve, Nanny, and I stayed up til 3am on Friday night decorating.

The theme this year is Sesame Street and Sarah has been very excited about The Count recently, so we found a cake pan on ebay that was made in 1977 and created a really yummy chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream frosting (divine new recipe I found - Nanny declared it the best chocolate frosting she had ever tasted!).

The Count!

 We also created 3 different character cupcakes...

Elmo!

 Cookie Monster!

 Big Bird!

I was able to find some really cute Sesame Street decorations online and we had family over for a birthday party on Saturday.

Alexis brought some doll toys for Sarah that she is totally in love with.  Sarah's baby doll now has a playpen and highchair.  Too cute!

 Supper time!  Check out the cutie in the Elmo hat!

Sarah was so excited about Alexis coming to her party that for at least a week before the party, she would list who was coming to her party and it was always "Nanny, BaPa, and Alexis".  When Daddy told her that Alexis was coming to the party, she literally said, "I'm so excited Alexis is coming to my party!" (this from a 2 year old...she's pretty verbal!).

 Sarah with her godparents, Auntie Michelle and Uncle Brian.

 Mommy, Daddy, and big brother Austin with the birthday girl!

 Party time!

Time for the cake!

 Ooooh!  (Trying to touch the candle flame!)

 Blowing out her candle.

 Enjoying an Elmo cupcake!

 Cookie Monster squared?

 Chowing the good stuff.

Time to open presents.

 Giving her new Count doll a hug while getting some kisses from Mommy.

 A giant piggy bank and Daddy is ready to teach her savings and accounting.

 She was excited about her new little backpack and wore it for the next hour or so.

 Huge bean bag chair for her new big girl bedroom!

 Goofballs!

Other fun and cuteness...
Sarah demonstrating her "evil eye".  She usually only holds it for a few seconds before she starts smiling and laughing.

Mommy and Daddy took Austin to see the stage production of "Llama Llama Red Pajama" and he had a blast. 

Sarah will grab her "beebee" (blanket) and "nuk" (pacifier) and climb behind her rocking chair with her stuffed animals and pretend to be asleep.

 

She is fairly resistant to giving up her blanket and pacifier, but we only let her have them when she's going to bed or napping.  We've had a few tantrums lately when I won't let her have them all day.  We even suggested that she could give her pacifiers to her cousin due to arrive in April, and she was very excited about the concept, but she chose one of her pacifiers to give to the baby and claimed the pink one for herself.  She now calls the other one "the baby's nuk" but if you try suggesting she give up her pink one, you've got a tantrum coming!  Almost worked!

We've been trying to be good about minimizing screen time for Sarah. (Gotta practice what I preach, right?).  There should be no TV for children under age 2, so the kids are used to hearing us say, "No TV for babies."  We've been a bit lenient now and then, like when the kids are sick, or they're driving each other crazy when we're trying to cook dinner or something of that sort.  Now that Sarah's 2, she can watch a bit of TV now and then (though still well under the 2 hours a day limit!).  Here is Sarah all tucked in on the couch with her baby doll to watch Sesame Street on her birthday.

Sarah loves to sing!  I was able to briefly catch her singing ABCs and the Winnie the Pooh theme song.


That's all for now.  I'll try not to go so long between updates again, but it has been a crazy month!  We've made some great progress in the basement and we're now to the drywall stage.  We put in some new spray foam insulation and sound proofed the walls and ceiling.  Electrical, framing, and plumbing was before that.  Now the drywall is all up and now the mudding and taping is being done this week.  We'll soon be ready to install the fireplace, paint the walls, get the cabinetry and trim in and finish off with the carpet, tile, and fixtures.  The daunting task is picking all that out!  Ugh!  We're hoping to be done in the next few weeks and we'll be sure to post some photos of the basement when it's done!