Simone Is Two!

She turned two today. Pretty amazing. Just thought I'd write down a couple of memories before old age gets me.

We had a lovely day working on the chicken coop and in the yard. Simone fell asleep in Mary's lap on the back deck while nursing - which she doesn't do as often as she used to. She woke up for some reason, so we transferred her into the Burley for a nice long ride - where she got the rest of her nap.

The grandparents and god-parents came over at 2 for some cupcakes, which Simone loved (apple sauce cakes with cream cheese frosting... I'll have 3 please). She got some lovely gifts, and had a great time bouncing from person to person. Of course the blue balloon was the hit gift (I chose it just for her - it matched her dress).

After dinner (her first grilled cheese sandwich - I missed the picture with the cheese stretching from mouth to sandwich), we headed over to Matti's house (our neighbor to the south), to meet her new bunnies. She raises angora rabbits and spins the fur/hair into wool. One of her rabbits just had a litter of 6. They were pretty sweet, I held one for 20 minutes (the longest I've ever held a rabbit), and Simone liked them all.

So, what is she doing now that she's two? She sings songs a lot, especially Raffi and asks for his music by name. She walks around constantly, pulling one or all of her 4 pull toys. The mermaid (we're trying to name her "Frida" - but so far "mermaid" is still winning) follows her everywhere - she feeds the mermaid most everything she eats herself.

Simone loves broccoli, french fries, yogurt (a whole-body experience), apple sauce, gold fish, goat milk, spiced baked apples, and recently enjoyed a crusty baguette. She feeds us tea and cupcakes and bagels and cookies (all imaginary). Oh, and salt and pepper - we pantomime that on most everything. I do draw the line on peppering yogurt.

We read a lot, she picks books out. Her current favorites are, Girls Hold Up This World, A Lot Of Otters, and Once Upon A Potty, with the Peace Book a close runner-up.

Simone wiggles her eyebrows up and down, still likes butterfly kisses, loves playing on playgrounds (going down slides on her own at times). Bath time is full of her toy frogs and fish dancing around, and hopping (frogs and bunnies hop - which Simone is trying to do herself).

Probably my favorite single memory of the past two years was waking up one morning next to Simone, she woke up turned to me and said, "Papa!" Very sweet moment. Most every day is like that, whether it's "blastoff" (she said that for an entire day after I threw her up in the air counting, "1 2 3 ... blastoff!"), or her just greeting me at the door, or watching her and Mary fall asleep together, petting Jupiter, everything.

Looking forward to the next two years (and more).