And Then She Was 2

December 05, 2013

And Then She Was 2

Our sweet, happy, spirited, adventurous, irresistibly precious A turned 2 years old a couple of weeks ago. The more she grows, the more I am reminded of God's grace in the form of this little girl who captures my heart again and again with her eyes and her smiles, her dancing, her motherly love for her brother (and her "sleep bear"), her pleases and thank yous, and her all-around cuteness. Seriously. This girl is cuuute.

Ok...back to her birthday. She kept going back and forth on whether she wanted a Winnie the Pooh party or a Minnie Mouse party. So we did what any parent would do. We had two parties. Ha. The weekend before her birthday, we invited our friends over to celebrate. The Minnie Party. Then on the day of her birthday, we had a little family party. The Pooh Party. They don't do birthdays around here, so I had to get creative with my decorations (aka using a bed sheet as a tablecloth). But I did have a birthday banner, balloons, and some gift bags that I brought back from America. AND...if this country is obsessed with anything, they are obsessed with cartoon everything. Which means Pooh and Minnie things are pretty easy to find. Especially big helium versions of these popular characters. So we filled our house with Minnie and Pooh balloon heads, much to A's surprise and delight. Decoration AND party activity (running around our apartment with all of them at once). Go us.

We definitely missed celebrating our girl with friends and family back home. But we are so thankful for the opportunity to celebrate at all. This precious girl is a gift that we do not deserve, and we praise the Lord for another year with her. Grace upon grace upon grace, my friends.

Party with friends, complete with a bed sheet tablecloth and paper plate/napkin Minnie heads.

People here don't really like to eat sweet things. But they LOVE these snickerdoodle brownies. They're the hubs' favorite too.

Imagine my husband on a bicycle carrying these balloons through the streets of our city. He likes to keep a low profile.

So...the girl hugging E and A is our next-door neighbor's 13-year-old daughter. She loves our girls, and they love her. We had actually never met the other children before the night of the party, but one of our friends asked if she could bring a friend and her kids, so they came. We were glad to have some other children join us, since our girls still haven't had much success finding friends their age here. It will take time...time for people to get used to us being different than them. But it seems like forever for this mama who just wants a kid to like her kid and want to play with her. Sigh. One day. Hopefully soon.

We found this pinata online. Our two choices: Minnie or Pooh. Perfect.

A waking up to Pooh on her actual birthday.

Skype call from my mom (aka Nene); opening the presents from her and singing "Happy Birthday."

Cinnamon Roll Pancakes. Yummmm.

A present for the sister. Fancy Nancy...a favorite.

So...a thought on toys. There are toys made here and sold in America. And then there are toys made here and sold here. The difference? Every toy we bought here was broken within the span of three days. I'm not even kidding. Every. toy.

Seriously...this shopping cart. The girls love it, but if I have to reattach those wheels one more time, I may go crazy.

Even the tricycle has been a victim of its manufacturer. But who needs pedals anyway, right?

Ok...enough with the sarcasm. Our birthday afternoon activities included a trip to the playground (in reality, an outdoor area with metal exercise equipment).