Cecelia Ann Turns Two

It's really hard for us to believe, but it has been two years since Michelle brought Cecelia into our lives. At her two year check up, she came in at 37.5" tall (99.85%tile!), 33.73 lb (97.91%tile), and a 16.86 BMI (61.91 %tile). We were very glad to hear about the BMI (which they don't measure until age 2), because our previous Pediatrician had indicated that he was very concerned about Cece's weight. We had been giving her skim milk as a result and had even tried a little bit to watch her portions at the doctor's insistence, but we were glad we didn't take him completely at his word when we saw these results. She is a happy and healthy two year old, even if she is on the bigger side. We never realize how big she is until we see her stand next to kids her own age, usually she is with older kids so we don't notice, it is a good thing she is so gentle!

This is a long photo and video heavy update, so hopefully you have some time to watch and enjoy! 

The weekend of Cecelia's Birthday, my sister and her children as well as my family came to visit. The date of her actual Birthday, we had pizza (Cece's absolute favorite!) and cake with just us. Cece wasn't in the best mood as she didn't really nap that day, but the pizza and cake definitely helped her fell better. Here are some photos and a video from her actual Birthday.

 Ready for her pizza!

 Pizza with Cousin Ella and Cousin Logan

 Ella wanted to help the Birthday girl out by feeding her. 

 Cece's first Birthday cake of the weekend, it was delicious, great job Michelle!

 What's a Birthday without celebrating with your cousins?

Cece eating her cake and realizing that we forgot to give her milk with her yummy cake. 

 Opening presents from family, this food set will go great in her kitchen!

Cousins are always willing to help do the important things like open presents. 

We wanted to make sure that her second Birthday was really special, because we knew that it would be the last one as a child of one, and we knew that she actually was starting to enjoy parties. Michelle did such a great job coordinating her party, and I was a lucky beneficiary of all of the baking pre-work that went into the party. We had 15 kids and 21 adults, so we Michelle did such a great job to ensure that both kids and adults were entertained, ate well, and had plenty to drink throughout the party.

As you will see in the photos, it was an Elmo themed party, because that is one of Cece's favorite characters. Michelle made sure that there was plenty of balloons, cupcakes, cookies, decorations, and toys that were Elmo themed. She also made sure to invite Elmo himself to the party, which Cece was THRILLED about when she saw him. Here are some photo and video highlights from the party.

From cupcakes to cookies to decorations and balloons, Elmo was everywhere!

Cece was very excited to see that Elmo actually came to her party. 

Cece wasn't exactly prepared to see Elmo walk into her house, but was very happy to see him. 

The other kids at the party were very happy to see Elmo

Cece was a little unsure, so she kept her difference from him at first. 

But she knew who it was and started to warm up to him as time went on. 

It was so adorable to watch her say I love you to Elmo!

Grandmom helped get her warmed up to Elmo. 

Elmo did a march around the house and all the kids followed. Notice at the end Cece shuts the doors on me to keep Elmo to herself. Michelle felt bad until she realized it was just me!

Hugs for Elmo. 

And before long she was giving out as many hugs as he could take!

Getting in her last good-byes before Elmo went back to Sesame Street. 

Cece wasn't as entertained by the magic portion of the show, as she kept going to the garage door where she thought she saw Elmo leave trying to find him. It took a lot of distracting to get her mind away from it. 

We had some books handy and her friend Gloria to take her mind off Elmo. 

Cece playing with her friend Gloria showing that she is ready to be a big sister!

She was sure to give Gloria a kiss before she left. 

Then it was time for dessert!

Blew out her candles in one shot, she is such a big girl!

Enjoying her Birthday Elmo cupcake and Cookie Monster cookie.

Happy Birthday to me!

No party of Cece's would be complete without a dance party, so we had one on the back porch. 

Showing off her Bieber dance moves to her friends. 

After the party was over, it was time for her to open more presents. She probably got more presents than any two year old needs, so it is a good thing that she has a sister on the way who can take full advantage of all of her wonderful toys she got for her Birthday. 

She got a dog guitar from her friend Gloria that she loves (her parents not so much)

It took so long to get through all of her presents, she started to lose interest after a while. 

One of her favorite presents was her American Doll Maddie, who she loved right from the start. Here you can see her sing to her and put her to sleep, this is so cute to watch!

We had such a great time at her party. Thanks so much to Michelle for getting it organized and our families for helping us get prepared. We both think that it was such a huge success and so much fun, it is going to be tough to duplicate this for future Birthdays! Thank you to everybody else who came to make it so much fun for Cece and us.