How Can She Possibly Be Two?

Last Saturday, my baby girl, Amelia, turned two years old. I can hardly believe it and looking back at photo's of her, I am amazed at how much she has changed and grown in those two years. Last week, I went to pick her up at daycare, and as she stood in the room across from me, I looked at her and suddenly saw a little girl not a baby, it was the weirdest thing.

She absolutely amazes me, I love that she can talk now, of course, not in complete sentences, but she does tie her words together. The funniest thing is working out what her words translate into. Imagine, our family lives in a house where English and American-English is spoken (believe me, the two can be quite different at times) and now we have "toddler speak". Some of the funnier words are "boca, boca" which means "water, water", or "peeps" for "sheep". She likes to call both Matthew and I mommy, even though when you ask her who we are she knows that I am mommy and Matthew is daddy.

My little Amelia can be an independent little thing, who knows what she wants, and doesn't always acknowledge you when you call...hmmm, wonder where she gets that from daddy? But, above all, she is a sweet little girl, who is usually well behaved around others, and makes me laugh and smile everyday. She loves music and dancing, but equally enjoys sports, in fact take her toy shopping anywhere and I will guarantee her toy of choice will be a ball.

She likes to look in your mouth with her torch (flashlight), will take her hair bows out at soon as she realizes it's there, and loves to hold onto her hair all the time. She hates having her nails cut, however, will "allow" it if she is promised finger nail polish afterwards.

She loves animals, and can do a great impression of an elephant, and enjoys sitting with mummy to read a book on the "reading couch".

Amelia is such a blessing in our lives, that I often cannot believe that she is our daughter. Who knew that two years ago today, our lives would change so dramatically...and you know what, I could never have been prepared for such a special girl to join our family, I truly am the most blessed mum in the entire universe.

I love you Amelia sweetheart, happy birthday!

So anyway, it's a tradition of ours that we visit a pumpkin patch on our little girl's special day, so this year, we went to EZ Orchard's. It was a rainy day, but to our delight, the sun came out and we didn't get too wet at all, well, all except for our little pumpkin who found out all about puddles. Here are lots of photo's of our fun time at the pumpkin patch. Unfortunately, later in the day she didn't feel so good, and had a temperature of 101.7, but at least we were able to have a little fun.

Puddles, what fun!

Just look at that dark cloud, we were so lucky that it blew over so that we could enjoy some sun.

Daddy and Amelia threw the rings on the steer heads, I have to say though, I beat daddy scoring two out of three...better luck next time.

Next, daddy and Amelia climbed a tall pyramid of hay.

Then it was onto the slide...peek-a-boo!

Mummy and Amelia in the Corn Maze.

Here we are at the petting zoo with the "peeps".

There were three little pigs.

While we were looking at the animals in the petting zoo, we saw some familiar faces, this is Rylee.

They looked on as the calf slept.

Here are Rylee's parents, I work with Nicky, and she has looked after Amelia a few times for us. They are a lovely family and fingers crossed, Rylee will be attending the same daycare as Amelia in just a few months.

Just how cute are these two?

Of course, the last thing we had to do was pick out pumpkins. Amelia knew exactly which one she wanted and carried it in the mud and over to the cart.

Amelia found more puddles to run in, luckily we had a change of clothes for her in the car.

Rylee came to see our pumpkins and Amelia offered "knuckles".

Time to weigh the pumpkins.

Just look at those jeans, they were brand new too, thank goodness for washing machines.

After we got home, and Amelia slept, there was a knock on the door...when we opened it, there stood a lovely young man with the most beautiful balloon bouquet I've ever seen. My friend Alice and her son Ryan, brought them along with gummy bears and a special washcloth for Amelia, talk about sweet. She loves to run around the house with them.

Finally, it was time for dinner. Since she hadn't been feeling well, she didn't have a great appetite, and asked for Fruit Loops, well a girl has to have what she wants on her birthday.

By the way, I made her cake, another tradition that I want in my family, since my mum always made me the most wonderful cakes (she is a fabulous cake decorator. Believe me, I have a long way to go before I get even close to her talent, but you know what, I felt so close to my mum as I thought of all the love she put into the cakes she made for me over the years. Thank you mum, I love you so much!

Thank you everyone who helped make Amelia's birthday so special!