Happy birthday TWO me!

 Oh BOY have these been a few HUGE weeks for me!  Let's start out with a video clip of..... MY FIRST STEPS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's right, friends, I started walking!  My parents are still pretty sure that I wouldn't be able to pass a field sobriety test yet.  Critics.  Who asked them, anyway?  I am on the move and I INSIST on walking (four steps, fall, four steps, fall) everywhere now.  Let this be fair warning:  if you have invited us somewhere - expect us to be quite late.  We get nowhere fast these days.

A few things you should note about my walking video.  (A) I am such a practiced princess that even when concentrating hard on a new skill - I never forget my princess hands.  (B) My parents were pretty stinking excited for me to reach this milestone: but as you can hear in my squeals - NO ONE is more proud of Abby than Abby.  Hey, a girl's gotta be her own biggest fan, right??

So the next point of HUGE interest is my SECOND birthday!  It was such a big deal that we celebrated for 3 days straight... and we'll keep on celebrating!  My mom's friend Brie made my "2" outfit.  It is so darn cute my mom was motivated to do laundry in between celebrations so I could wear it to all my parties.  And "mom motivated to do laundry" is just not a frequently used phrase around these parts... so THANKS, BRIE! 

So, the night before my birthday my mom and dad built me this new kitchen so I'd have something fun and new to wake up to on my birthday.  They (well, mom) made me some cupcakes and got all excited about my upcoming big day.  Remember the effort mom put into my cupcakes... that'll be important in a little bit.

 I got lots of new books - mostly about animals.  Hey - I dig animals right now.  It was a smart way to go.  I EVEN got an animal book from Kenya!  I'm so cultured.

 Man, walking sure comes in handy when you need to tackle the really BIG gifts!

 Oh, AWESOME!

 I was not in any sort of rush.  I inspected each new toy thoroughly.  My new farm makes lots of cool animal noises. 

 Then it was cupcake time!  I've always been a cupcake fan - so when I speared my finger through my cupcake right away, no one was really surprised.

 Sample... yummmm.

Smash it up a bit - sample again.

But THEN, I shocked my audience (and my dog!) by tossing huge fistfuls of cupcake onto the floor until the entire offensive thing was removed from my sight.  I then looked right at my parents and signed "Want Ice Cream".  I don't know what was better: the ice cream (which I got, of course!) or the look on mom's face when she realized she should have just bought and ice cream cake and saved the efforts of the cupcake baking. 

So the next night, Tucker and his parents came over for a little celebration with dinner and cupcakes. 

 

 This time mom and dad got out the candle. They knew it wouldn't last long - but they thought they'd at least have a split second to get a nice picture of me with my "2" candle. As you can see, before dad could snap a picture, I had decided to grab for the flame and mom's lightning quick reflexes are caught here on film. She blew out my candle and that was that.

 They thought maybe the second night would be the charm w/ the whole cupcake deal.  Nope, I was even quicker about flinging icing around the room...

 And... again... feeding the whole thing to Callie.  Callie LOVES my birthday.

 Lucky for Mom, Tucker loved her cupcakes and he had no problem getting right into them. 

 So by the night of my third celebration, my parents had caved and they just got an ice cream cake.  They had to get a pre-made one, and they only came with these funny Dora decorations.  I'm more of an Elmo girl - so they were totally lost on me.  The cake, however, was a HUGE hit.

 Don't mess with a girl who's busy eating cake.

 The birthday girl is always entitled to a little cake on her face.

 I got some really beautiful gifts from my family - but, typical toddler - what I really wanted to play with was the bows and the wrapping.

 My Auntie Em went to Prague and she brought me back these really cool Maracas!

More fantastic wrapping.

Oh my GOSH!

 Being two, I can change my mood on a dime.  One second we were playing with my new bus - the next, I was in the midst of a fit.  This picture is dedicated to all those out there who always tell mom they've never seen me get upset.  This is me upset.

 It's my party and I'll cry if I want to... but it sure does break up a party fast!  I was in my PJ's and in my car with a cup of milk in 10 minutes flat.  I was asleep 2 minutes later.  It's really tough work to be the center of attention 3 days in a row... but it's a good thing for me to start to work at at this early stage in my career as a princess.  I'll master it, don't worry.  :) 

So, now that my birthday is over, the next nationally recognized holiday is: Thanksgiving.   Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone!