by: Katrina

We now have a two-year old in the house again, and it is not so terrible.  :)  We celebrated on the actual birthday with just family, and then this weekend we had a party involving some of Taya's friends, as well as some of our own.  We spent Friday evening and most of Saturday making the cake and goodies.  We decided to make a lot of Halloween/Fall treats and had fun experimenting with new things.  Taya's cake was 3 big flowers, made up of 8 different cupcakes each.

Her party started at the Pumpkin Patch a few miles north of our house.  The kids played around in the hay bales, then one group went on a hayride, while others went inside the 11 acre corn maze.  We had a group of 5 working together and it took us 20 minutes to get out.  Then we watched pumpkins being launched a couple miles out and picked some pumpkins for carving.  Then the party moved to our house where we enjoyed hot cider, chili, Halloween snackage and of course the birthday cake.  Taya got a couple of new dolls, which she loves right now, some stuffed animals, a new book, and a stacking toy.  A good time was had by all.

Taya is a joy and her verbal skills are exploding.  I just finished reading Brown Bear Brown Bear to her, and she sang much of it right along with me.  She loves books, playing with dolls, and playing with pretend food.  Speaking of food, she can eat more than I can, especially while I'm on this diet for gestational diabetes.  She likes to spin and dance, and is already starting to ask "why?" (isn't that supposed to start around age 3?).  She is starting to enjoy talking on the phone and is becoming more social like her brother.  She enjoys Sunday School and Wednesday morning playgroup when I go to my study.  We're hoping she's not too jealous when her new sibling comes along, but that she will love him or her and be a big help to mommy and daddy.