Holy Crap. She's TWO!!

What to do?!?  What to do?!?  My little tiny baby's 2!!!!

Ok, that was cheesy, I know.  But  I reserve the right to be a cornball every so often because I'm the Mom and these girls growing up on me makes me cry.  :O)

I know this is late in coming, and I do apologize.  We have had a BUSY summer!  Lots of fun, but busy busy!

We spent the weekend with my fam, so it was a little harder to make it big, but I did my best.  Miss Maelee woke up bright and early {5:20}, not because she was excited for her birthday, but because she was sleeping in the same room as Mommy, Daddy and Madi and WHO can sleep when there are THREE sleeping bodies to jump and climb on?!?  Clint and Mads were beat from swimming for hours on end at my brother's the day before, so the birthday girl and I ventured downstairs {don't assume, dear reader, that Maelee wasn't beat tired herself... she was pretty cranky but VERY determined to stay awake!!}.

She didn't really "get" that the decorations were for her, and since we weren't in our own home, I couldn't really set the table and do a big breakfast.  Not that Yvette would have minded, but I had NO CLUE if they had plans for breakfast or when anyone else was going to get up and if they would be joining us...  So I decided to play it safe and play it by ear.  We ended up sharing a few bowls of cereal {which she loved} and watching whatever cartoons we could find on TV.

Around 8, life started to stir 'round their house and we were soon joined by Madi and Clint.  When they came down I let Maelee open her present from Clint and I.  Now, I have to interject a story here:  I wanted to get her a Baby All Gone doll, but all the little "brown" babies SPOKE SPANISH!!!  Every SINGLE ONE!!  I was SO shocked that Hasbro would limit their "brown skinned" customer base to Hispanic, Spanish speaking girls.  I ended up buying the Caucasian doll, but was really bummed out that I was giving my Hawaiian daughter a blond hair, blue eye, pasty skinned baby.  Not that SHE cares at this point in her life, but I know that it's important for her to have babies that look like her and that she WILL care someday.  So I emailed Hasbro, asking if there was any way to change the language the doll was programmed in to English.  I found out that all you have to do is press and hold down the doll's bracelet for 3-4 seconds until she says, "Hi, Mommy!".  Yay for that, eh?  Madi was mooning over the Caucasian doll, so I let her buy it from me with her chore/birthday money {now they each have their own doll and don't fight over it!  Genius!!!}.  Back to Wal-Mart to test out the bracelet idea.  Thankfully, it worked.  I then noticed that all the pasty dolls had been sold, and NOT ONE of the others had...  Then, I had an idea...  I nonchalantly pressed the bracelet on every "brown" baby {well, except one}, re-programming the dolls to speak English.  After all, as I said in my email to Hasbro, "not everyone with darker skin speaks Spanish!"  Now, you may think that was a little on the evil side of things to do.  You might be right!  But I can guarantee that those dolls will sell a LOT easier now!!!  {Honest opinion: they should have had the bracelet thing ON THE BOX.  Or at least have mentioned that it can switch between languages.}  ANYway, I thought I was pretty funny!  :O)

So, back to Miss Maelee K's big birthday!!  She was SO excited when she saw that doll!  She picked it up, box and all, and started rocking it, making little "Mommy" noises at it.  When she realized it could talk... boy howdy!  I SO wish I had a movie of that!  It said, "Hi, Mommy!" and her eyes about popped out of her head.  Then it told her that it was hungry and she started FREAKING out!  "MOOOOOOOOOM!!  Beebee's hungry!  Beebee want food!  Need food, Mom!!  Help!!"  I explained to her through my giggles that she doesn't eat real food, and showed her the play food it came with.  She got all excited and started "feeding" her baby some bananas.  Then the baby told her it was thirsty and wanted some juice.  "MOOOOOOOOM!!  Beebee's firshty!!  Want joooce, Mom!"  After she figured out the routine and got a few burps out of her new beebee {Maelee busted up laughing when the baby burped}, she was all grins and felt like the best Mommy ever.

We had lunch at my sister Tawnya's house, and then back to Yvette's for naps, cake-baking and game time while the boys took a trek to about 50 different camping/hiking/backpacking stores {and Clint didn't spend a dime!  SO impressed here!!}.  We jumped back in the pool that afternoon and had dinner around 6.  Maelee's Birth Mom Kiki, Birth Grandma Mitch and cousin Kapuahi {Madi's age} came for the party too.  It was SO fun!  Very laid back, and very relaxing.  After dinner, cake and ice cream, we washed up and opened presents.

Maelee was such a HOOT to watch!  Every new present was, "Oh!  Coooool!" and "WOOOOOW!" and "Yay!"  LOVED IT!  Madi and Kapuahi were VERY good sports and let Maelee do... MOST of the un-wrapping! LOL

She got some GREAT gifts: a book that has a hand puppet attached that you use to basically kiss the reader all over throughout the story {thank you Aaryn, Manon and Vespa!!}, Baby Tiana from Princess and the Frog {from Madi}, Dora books {aunt Yvette}, clothes from Aunt Tawnya and the coolest scrapbook from Kiki and her family.  They took the time to make Maelee a scrapbook full of pictures of their family, explaining who each person is and how they are related.  SO AWESOME!!  We will SO treasure it!  It's absolutely priceless and I'm SO grateful they did that for her.  They also gave her some money and a lei made of flower-shaped pool noodles.  So creative!!

She had SUCH a good birthday!  We got home and Russell and Jonnet gave her a family pool pass for the summer!  WOOHOO!!!  Gotta love the presents she can share, eh?  LOL

I canNOT believe she is two years old.  TWO YEARS ALREADY!!  I'm in one of those paradox mindsets where part of me feels like we JUST found out we had been chosen by Kiki to adopt her, and that everything has been this whirlwind of amazing events.  But then there's the other part that feels that it's been forever since it all happened.  That part of me is shocked that it's only been 2 years because I feel like... scratch that... I KNOW Kiki and her family have been connected to us for MUCH longer than a mere 2 years.  It seems too short a time for all we've experienced and for everything we've learned.

So, Happy Birthday Baby...

I can't believe you changed our lives by making us a family of 4 TWO YEARS AGO!  You were a blessing then and your sweet spirit continues to touch our hearts every single day.  I am SO proud of the amazing, beautiful little girl you've become, the spunky and sensitive little sister, the clever problem solver, tag-along, willing-to-do-anything-we're-doing sweetie and world's greatest heart-melter.  Maelee, I LOVE being your Mom.  Thank you for being my daughter and teaching me what it means to love unconditionally.  I'm excited for the next 2 years, because it means we get to fall more in love with you!!!  Bring 'em on!!