The Little Monkey Turns 2

My little monkey turned 2 today.  I can't believe it's been 2 years.  I think an old Baby Blues comment put it best - "The days are long and the years are short."  Amen to that!  In honor of her being our little monkey, and her Curious George obsession, I made Claire monkey cupcakes. I found the super easy instructions here.

Claire actually had a family party today, which I never had growing up since my family was all between 3-8 hours away.  This weekend my parents-in-law (is that a word?) and one of my brother-in-laws came down from NW Ohio, my parents came over and my sister and brother-in-law even happened to be up visiting from Atlanta.  It was really nice, and perfect for Claire.  We had presents, cake and ice cream before nap.

Claire was all about ripping open her presents.  She was not as much into actually opening the boxes to find out what was in them.  I think I could have wrapped up empty boxes and she would have been content.  However, she did make very cute "Wow!" sounds when she opened most presents.  Here are a few photos of the presents.  The first gift is a pack of toothbrushes (really - she is currently obsessed with brushing her teeth) and the last is her baby doll stroller.

She LOVED the stroller.  She pushed it around for over an hour after she opened it.  I am not exaggerating.  She put her baby doll in it and pushed it all over, as documented below.  However, she first buried her baby doll's face under her jiggly Koosh ball, and was very insistent about it. Very insistent.

She was a pro with her cupcakes - we put 2 candles in one and she blew them out with no assistance on about her 3rd try.  She was not so sure about everyone singing to her though - she kept trying to hide behind her hand. And Kate was really good about the fact that it was Claire's birthday, not hers.  There were only a few squabbles over the new toys.