we like to pretend she can read

She's memorized "Duck and Goose: How are you feeling?" but our gut feeling is she's actually reading.

(Since the book has hardly any words, I've made up dialogue for each page that I repeat every time... so that's mostly what she's quoting.)

christmas tree shops

They're not just for the holidays, folks.

We recently got our very own Christmas Tree Shop just 2 minutes from our house. My family first discovered this happy place when my parents lived in Rhode Island, and now my sisters have them in NJ. It took some time for us to be believers, but oh baby... now we believe.

Despite the name, it's not a Christmas store. It's like a dollar store on crack. It has killer discounts on things for your house, toys, party gear, and--like my sister says--stuff you never knew you needed.

So, Richmonders, give it a chance. And prepare yourselves to lose track of your time and your money.

proof that the twos aren't all terrible

Cake and ice cream, catching on to blowing out candles, Dad for a whole afternoon, indoor bouncy house place for only $3 (!), friend time, rice AND pineapple as part of dinner, and gifts that are extremely adored.

What's not to love about a 2nd birthday?!

she's two!

Or she's "two parties" as she keeps telling everyone (what this means, we do not know).

We love our funny, sassy, bossy little Addy!

the super-strength toilet

Good news: Our complex installed new water-efficient toilets in our apartment the other day. They are neither light pink nor my same age. Dreamy.

Bad news: These new toilets flush so loud you swear they could suck you down to the underworld. It's like a jet plane taking off, which is soothing when you're standing right next to it.

It's like perfection met the sound barrier. Awesome.

nessy

I made the Loch Ness Monster.

She made it better.

Conquer the beast, Naked Baby Doll, conquer the beast.

i guess we're real parents now

At 1:30 a.m. we found ourselves cleaning puke off the kid, the crib, the floor, etc. We've dealt with atomic spit up, but this was a first.

We're calling it a rite of passage.