Happy Birthday!!

Today is Payton's 2nd birthday. I can hardly believe I have a two-year-old daughter.

Here are some of the adorable things she is doing lately:

• You’re talking so much more these days. You are definitely in the “language explosion” stage right now.


• You’re becoming such a big girl, with such a fun, strong personality.

• You’re starting to sing songs on your own. Your favorites are “ABC’s”, “Bingo” and “Old McDonald”. You recognize each and every song on your favorite CD right away and typically sing the last word of each line.

• When you sing your “ABC’s”, you mostly just say A-B-C, then H-I-J-K (your favorite group of letters right now). You also like the letter X.

• The way you count: when we say 1, you automatically say 2, knowing something fun usually happens after 3. You also like to say 8-9-10 over and over.

• You’ve learned to say your name. It is especially the adorable way you say our last name when we prompt you with your first and middle names.

• You recognize our neighborhood the minute we turn in, saying “Payton house” over and over. You also do this at Nana’s neighborhood.

• You like to help clean up, making sure everything goes in its right place. If someone gets up from where they’re sitting, you go over, pat the seat and say their name to remind them that’s their spot.

• I love the way you run to me when I get home, saying “Mommy home” so sweetly.

• You love little babies now. You are still talking about baby Farrah over 2 months later after our trip to California.

• You usually tell on yourself when you do something you know you shouldn’t have done. You’ll come running in the room, saying “No Payton, no Payton” and will lead us to what needs to be fixed.

• Your dancing and jumping are the same thing right now (both are a little hop/skip move).

• You know the routines of the day, like bath always comes after dinner and cup comes after night-night books.

• You are super clingy with me lately, definitely preferring me over anyone else right now. Sometimes when Nana comes over now, you start to cry because you know I’ll probably be leaving for work soon. The other evening when I got home, you said “Bye Nana, see ‘morrow” to make sure I was staying with you.

• You love to dip your food (in ketchup, ranch, etc) and usually end up just eating the dip itself.

• You absolutely love to play chase, laughing and screaming when we play along.

I feel so absolutely lucky and blessed to be your mommy!!! I love you Sweet Pea!