We celebrated Leila's birthday in McConnelsville just as we did when Gage turned 2. One thing that is great about my husband is his support of doing things in ways that make me feel happy. Keeping my kids connected to my hometown and how things were for me as a child makes me happy. I like to celebrate holidays in McConnelsville as that will always be home to me and so many of my relatives still live there. One thing I remember from growing up is that we grew up with all of our 1st cousins--and many are still my closest friends today. Family is important to me no matter where they live and I have no problem taking our family on the road to make it easier for our children to grow up among their great grandmothers, aunts, uncles, and so many others.
Her theme-- pink. We didn't really have any dramatic twists and concoctions for her party because that is Leila's drumbeat--she just is herself without attachment to much of anything (other than her blanket of course). All we knew is that we had better celebrate with pink--most definitely her favorite color. Beyond that (and Minnie Mouse decorations that were cute) her party was centered around people who love her. Our wonderful friend Hannah, who is the girlfriend to one of my cousins and next door neighbor, made her some fancy pink cupcakes, not to mention that they were 100% Gage friendly and no one knew any different. In fact, they were FABULOUS--milk and gluten free-- and gone in a minute.
When Hannah arrived with the cupcakes, there was no moving forward, in fact, until we let Leila have one. She couldn't wait for the pink! Some cupcakes were vanilla and others were banana. My kids couldn't stay out of them. She blew out candles on about seven different occasions because once she had them blown out she begged (in sign language) for more. It was too cute to say no to... anyway, what's wrong with blowing out candles multiple times when it's a birthday!
Besides her parents and her brother, Leila celebrated with Grandma and Poppy Bailey, Great-Grandma Spencer and Great-Grandma Bailey, Beth and Midge (my neighbors since forever), Auntie Mel and Tom Bragg (other neighbors since forever), Wesley and Hannah, and my best friend and first cousin Amy who came with her niece Hannah and two of her three kids-- Samuel and Rachel. Benjamin was sick and stayed at his Granny's house with her. The kids feasted on the favorite hometown pizza and breadsticks and played with the punching balloons and helium balloons that we got for everyone.
In the course of the evening, Leila wore about three different outfits as she stripped out of her tights and then the leggings I put on her to replace the tights that wouldn't stay on. Then she insisted on having the dress off. I knew my grandmother would have a coronary if I let her run around in her undies so I found a pair of warm sweatpants for her, but she roamed most of the rest of the time without a shirt on. By the time she put on a shirt, it was time for more cupcakes and she wore lots of the icing.
Her favorite present: Dora Fruit Chewies. She got six boxes of them from various people who knew her wants well. :) This coming weekend we will have Cable family celebration for her once Grandpa Cable returns from his trip to Florida.
In two years she has won over the hearts of many people because her energy and bubbly smiles loaded with those dimples make many of us melt. She is like the Energizer Bunny who never quits. She is tenacious, she is independent, and there is no telling her how to do something if her mind is set on her own method. She is learning to use her words better to express herself during her terrible-two-tantrums and with that she is learning to trust us and to become patient when we ask her to be patient.
There is so much of my personality that I see in her that sometimes it makes it hard for me to sleep as I already worry how to parent a little girl who has such a head strong personality yet at the same time has so much sensitivity to keeping up (with her brother), fitting in (with the crowd and what it is they are playing), and being accepted (and not being scolded by her parents). I know that this, too, is just a phase of growing up so I try not to take too much stock in the things that stress me out. We are happy to have such a healthy little girl who loves to be busy and who loves to love on others--like little baby Cora, her newest buddy.
Our home is all jumbled up right now and I can't upload photos-- not that I can seem to upload photos to the blog anyway-- but as soon as I can, I'll post to facebook. However, this means the living room is days from being finished--- leaps and bounds to the months that it's been torn apart.
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