Our little miracle baby is two! There were definitely times while I was pregnant with her I thought this day would never come to be, but here we are, blessed as ever to know and love this little munchkin.
At two Eva is full of spirit and life and well on her way to living up to the terrible two reputation. No, really she just has a few moments of frustration and agitation mixed in with her mostly good moments. We just go with the flow around here.
Since no obvious theme inspired me this year, I just made a big #2 cake. I even cut a few corners and used a box mix and frosting, and low and behold, everyone thought it was tastier than ever. But when is this momma going to learn how to use her auto-focus points and focus on her beautiful babies instead of those candles? Argh. I don't know how many photos I have of the sweetest blurry expressions.
At this age you tend to rely mostly on family parties since, you know, they often don't yet have a full entourage of friends their age. We brought it down to her level though with these two cute little red heads (my cousin's twins.)
Don't you love the addition of the hog wire on our deck? It sure gives us peace of mind when little kiddos like this are out there... until we have a time to build a permanent railing.
Eva's favorite gift by far was this little drum set.
She even knew exactly what to do with it. It came with some other noise makers also, but the drums were her favorite. I'm pretty sure this is the kind of gift you give when you don't like the parents. This was from her Grandpa and Grandma though, so I think they were just paying me back for all the years they had to listen to me play "Heart and Soul" on the piano until I got it just right. :)
Now for a few 2-year milestone updates:
I mentioned in a post a ways back that Eva has had a tremor/shake, so I wanted to follow up with an update. While it was never super obvious, our pediatrician noticed it at her 18-month well child visit and asked if we would like to have her evaluated by a neurologist. Thus began a long, drawn-out process. We made an appointment with a neurologist and waited nearly 6 months to see him. At first he recommended waiting and doing nothing, but after evaluating her for awhile, he said that her tremor was definitely more than he likes to see and he recommended doing an MRI. At least another month passed before we were able to have that done, and another week before we had results. The waiting game certainly wasn't fun, but I didn't ever feel too worried since her tremor always seemed really subtle and wasn't getting worse. The MRI process wasn't exactly fun either, as she had to be put under for the test. All went smoothly, however, and the results came back normal. They then backtracked a bit and recommended doing blood tests (normally the first course of action), but those returned normal as well. Perhaps she had some nerve damage from the pregnancy and will just grow out of it...? We may never know. In the end, we have a bruised pocket book and some peace of mind.
Eva loves more than anything to be outside and explore. Unfortunately, the mosquitoes are terrible on the farm, and even worse, they love all the females in our family. We also seem to be quite allergic, and poor little Eva has been reacting to every little bite she gets. I hate deet, but I also hate being a prisoner in my house. We may have to resort to spraying the yard to minimize them, but if anyone has suggestions for safe organic repellent that actually works, please share the love!
We haven't introduced Eva to the potty yet, but we did buy a little one and are starting to hint in that direction. I sure wouldn't mind a smooth and speedy transition in that department.
Eva is a great little talker and entertainer. She counts really well—skips a few numbers—but makes it to 10 and even beyond. Her favorite song to sing is "Twinkle twinkle". I just have to leave you with this funny little video we captured of her walking up to the camera tripod and using it as a microphone—like it had been left there just for that purpose.