Twice Around The Sun

Flower is 2. Two years ago today at 7:03 pm my little girl entered this world and filled our lives with wonder, delight, and love. Esperanza is such an amazing little girl. Armando and I are so thankful and blessed that she chose us to be her parents. She has changed our lives and made us better people in many ways. We are always learning from her, as well as teaching her.

Here's Esperanza in my belly a few days before she was born.And here she is just minutes after she arrived Laying in my bed with my husband and my new baby girl shortly after her arrival Here are a few things to remember about Esperanza at 2 years old:

~Esperanza always wants to 'touch' things when she discovers something new. She recently discovered the moon (I'm sure she's 'seen' it before but just recently has become interested in it). She reached her arms up to the sky and made her little 'uh, uh' noise when she wants something. Finally she accepted that she couldn't touch it and was content with just staring at it with me for a few moments.

~She's slept threw the night once! It was several weeks ago and thow I had my hopes up that it was the beginning of a very good thing, apparently it was a one time thing. We'll keep working on it.

~She is learning her colors and so far knows and can say orange, blue, yellow, green & pink.

~She loves butter, blueberries, raisins, almond butter, strawberry freezer jam, katchup, protien bars, noodles, cheese & anything 'snack-ish'.

~Her favorite animals are dogs. Cats and horses are very close behind. She calls cats 'meow'.

~Coloring is one of her favorite things to do.

~She loves being outside in any kind of weather.

~When I brush her teeth she acts as though I'm pulling teeth out.

~Shoes are an obsession of hers She loves her shoes, has her favorites (fake crocs and mud boots are on the top of the list lately), gets excited whenever I get her a new used pair of shoes and even loves other peoples shoes.

~This girl has the most insane sweet tooth I've ever seen!

~One of her favorite sayings is 'no, mine!'. Not very pretty but it comes out of her mouth several times a day. One day she was standing outside looking up at the sky, arms streatched up and out and screamed MINE..as if the world was hers.

~She's petite for her age. According to my wall measurements, she's about 32 inches tall and according to my home scale weighing method she's 23.5 lbs . She wears a size 5 shoe and size 24 month clothes (thow when I use a disposable diaper as opposed to cloth, she can't keep her pants/shorts up b/c her bum is pretty tiny).

~Her 'baby talk' is quickly dissapearing. Each day Esperanza says at least one new word that I can understand for the first time. Sometimes she'll say a word and I'll look at her puzzled, wondering what the heck she just said. Then a light bulb goes on for me and I realize what it was. I smile at her and say the word she just said. She smiles back and we both get excited that I understood what she said. Words are so powerful and it brings great joy to both of us when we can communicate with each other by using words.

For Esperanza's birthday today, we took her to the zoo. We had a wonderful time. Here she is on her second birthday at the zoo eating ice cream. Happy Birthday Flower! We love you.