She's two!

On this day, two years ago, Abby Jane entered our lives! She is the living form of her name: "source of joy" (Abigail) and reminds us by her precious life that "God is gracious" (Jane) to us.

We celebrated on Saturday with a family party. Though we missed my siblings and their families, it was otherwise the perfect crowd and the perfect day! We were going to do it all outside at a park, but it was far too cold, so we moved it to my mom's home.

I spent last week learning my new sewing machine and making her a butterfly dress (with a LOT of help from my mom!) for her butterfly party...

We had butterfly cupcakes that I found in my new Hello Cupcake! book that I am obsessed with!

And here is the big moment, in STARK contrast to her reception of her birthday cake last year (see video at end)!

She was inseparable with her cupcake!

Until it was present time, that is!

Cade and Abby Jane are dear friends, as well as cousins, and I think as far as highlights of the day goes, getting to play with him on her party day was right up there with birthday cake and presents, if not higher.

Blythe and Joy were passed around like hotcakes the whole time. It's really convenient having multiple babies to satisfy the need of multiple adults to hold one!

Now for my thoughts on this precious day...

Abby Jane is ... I've typed a word and deleted it to try again multiple times here because you can't incapsulate her in one category.

She's SO girly and love pink and dolls and tea parties and taking care of Blythe and Joy and must wear a bow at all times, sometimes even to bed.

But her favorite play with Jake is their "kaboom" game where he drops her on her back on the sofa from four or five feet up in the air. She loves to jump and sing and dance and run and build towers with blocks, play with her trains, and yet is very good at offering cream and sugar with your "hot hot tea" when we have our multiple tea parties a day. Reading is the most consistent activity that happens all day. She LOVES her books and will read to herself in bed during the "quiet playtime" that has replaced morning naps.

She speaks very clearly and picks up new words all day long. It's fun to make her say long ones, just because it sounds so comical from one so small. Car rides are actually long conversations, now, with 20 questions and the whole nine yards. She delights in tiny discoveries and comments on everything she sees. She does the praying at meals frequently, and is very decisive in saying, "Dear GOD, thank you for that picture and the salt and Mama's water and Abby Jane's fork and Daddy's salad and THIS button on Abby Jane's shirt..." and the list goes on as she describes the table. Every night when Jake asks her how we can pray for her at bedtime, she includes Ho Ho Ho and "Buckum Palace" (Buckingham Palace is a fabulous old poem that she learned from my mom) on the list.

She loves being a big sister and can't wait to see "Bwhyf" and Joy when she wakes up. She wants to make sure they're going wherever we're going and helps take care of them in the backseat, reinserting pacifiers, telling us which one's eyes are open, etc.

We are dealing with some of the two-year-old issues, like needing to beef up on our strategies for discipline as she test new boundaries and learns her world, but because she is so cognitive, we are able to do some reasoning with her. I'm reading Dare to Discipline by Dobson right now, and I'm really enjoying it so far. She has a tender heart, though, and it is so sweet to be teaching her about the Lord and making the connection between obeying us and obeying Jesus... and know that she is of an age that this knowledge will be taking root. Entering the two's also has been neat as it's given us yet another angle of understanding how the Lord looks at us when we disobey- disappointed and saddened to see our poor choice, but LOVES us ridiculously anyways.

All this is obviously for our records, so I'll be impressed if anyone actually got this far! Today is so dear to us as parents, because it marks the first day of the beginning of the most precious stage that we are in. We are so grateful to be Abby Jane, Blythe, and Joy's parents, and we know that we are totally inadequate to be who they need us to be apart from the grace of God. Praise Him that we don't have to wing this, but that He will give us the wisdom we need to raise these girls!

Happy birthday, my sweet Abby Jane! We love you so, so dearly!