"I Two Years Olds!"

That's what Maren likes to remind everyone of lately. Her birthday was Sunday, the 25th, and it couldn't have come soon enough. For days she was singing herself the birthday song and talking about her cake, ice cream, and presents. Nothing disappointed. Except, oh, yes, the Christmas theme with the camera. Seriously not a single good, worthy picture on her birthday. I'm beginning to wonder if the camera is going downhill or if my picture-taking abilities are! Ugh. So, here's a little video of her (which I couldn't figure out how to shorten - sorry!) singing herself Happy Birthday. If you watch her mouth, she sings the whole thing. Ha! She really is so, so cute and we love her so much. She's on my dad's lap here...

So what's some fun stuff going on with our now-2-year-old? She is big into babies. Real and pretend. She got babies for Christmas and babies for her birthday and she loves every one. And she seems very excited about "new baby". She really loves to draw and she loves to have us draw things for her. Her favorite canvas is her Magna-Doodle. But what's tiring is she will bring it to us about 25 times a day and say, "Mommy, draw Maren, Evan, Daddy, Dowlin (Dallin), new baby, Mommy". Oh, gee whiz, I think. Again? As soon as it's drawn she's erasing so we can do it all over again. Sometimes it gets recorded for posterity...on real paper...with a real pen.

Yes, that's just about the best I can draw anything. Judge not, lest ye be not judged. Ha! Luckily, in this one, I'm the only one carrying the child. Sometimes she insists that she has one in her tummy and sometimes everyone does! Her other funny thing about the new baby is "the song". When I used to put her to bed, I would sing her a Primary song from church. This is the way it's always been done and things were going great this way! Then one day about a month or so ago she said, "Sing new baby song, Mom." What? What new baby song? She insisted. She wouldn't relent and I had to make up a song on the spot...about the new baby...and what Maren would do to help with the new baby after it's born. As you can hear from the happy birthday song, I come from a family of non-singers (missed you guys, Danica and Matt!). Doesn't sound too great. So this song has absolutely not good tune and changes on a daily basis. Right now it includes that Maren will help give baby baths, read to baby, sing songs to baby, feed baby food, rock baby in the chair, make baby laugh, change baby's diapers, get baby's clothes on and more I'm sure I can't remember. But if I ever forget anything, Maren reminds me. And often times she adds things so this horrible song gets longer and longer every week. My only concern with having this new baby is protecting it from its loving sister, Maren.

In other Maren news, we had her 2-year check-up this week and it was so fun. She was ecstatic to go to the doctor and ran into the room when the door from the lobby was opened for her. She danced around and laughed and talked with the doctor. The doctor was beside herself and I heard her say to her assistant in the hall when the door was closed that she has never seen a 2-year-old so excited to be at the doctor. For my information later on, she probably says 500 words, though when the doctor asked how many, I told her 400 because I didn't want to seem like I was over-exaggerating. I probably did anyway. But I'm sure it's really over 500. Some of my favorites that she says are already, almost and either. Not because she says them cute or anything, but because they're such ideas instead of concrete objects. I just can't figure out how someone so little would learn to apply words like those correctly, but she does. Although she once counted to 18, she rarely gets that high anymore. Usually to 12 or 13. Though tonight Evan counted some stuff up to 20 and she took off from there and went from 21 to 26. That was pretty fun to hear! She's really big into colors right now and is working hard to figure them all out. So far she's got orange down and maybe green and purple. She seems bound and determined to figure them all out so it shouldn't be long now. She is pretty outgoing with her friends, who she really seems to love. She talks about her friends during the day and plays really well with them when they're together. Friends from her age to age seven. They all seem to love to play with Maren. And, lastly, she LOVES to go to Nursery. During the closing song she will ask, "Time for Nursery class, Mom?" I tell her that we have to have the closing prayer first and then it's time for class. As soon as that "amen" is said, she's jumping out of my lap and running toward the chapel doors. Seriously! I run after her with this crazed look on my face, I'm sure, because she's surrounded by giants who have no idea this little, tiny body is there, and I'm sure she's going to get trampled any second. She runs herself down the hall to her classroom and I let her in. No need for good-byes, I guess, because she doesn't look back for one. She loves Nursery, her teachers, her friends in there, and snack time, of course.

We sure love our silly, caring, loving, pretty girl. Happy birthday, Maren!

(In Michael's Flash costume from when he was little! It must be 30 years old!)