Happy 2nd Birthday Bella

Bella in her new jumper dress made by Bubbie Ishi.

So my little one turned 2 this week, and it has been a week full of celebrations with various family members and friends. Starting off last weekend my dad came to visit to celebrate with both Bella and her aunt Emily. My dad subscribes to a very simple school of kid gift giving : take the kid to the store and whatever toy they stick to and refuse to release is the winner. Which is fine if you don't mind the tantrum that comes when you get ready to pay. Bella is the type who knows her mind and she did not want to release her baby doll to anyone especially not the stranger at the cash register. So yes, Bella got another baby doll, with a bottle and a stroller, thus feeding into her newest obsession with anything baby related.

The next celebration was at her daycare/school where they threw her a little party on Wednesday and I brought cupcakes. I of course forgot my camera (I was walking out the door that day with a tray of cupcakes, a package of diapers and Bella's blanket so the camera oversight is not too surprising). These pictures are from the teacher from a card she sent home a couple days later. I have to say I love her new day care, they are fantastic. Bella loves to go and the little touches like sending home pictures of what she does during the day are wonderful.

On Bella's actual birthday, we didn't do much. We had a play date with her friend Ella but since it was a school night for Papi we mostly just ate cake and gave her our present. On Friday Grandma came to visit and took us out to dinner at a local Chinese restaurant. The sweet old Chinese man who runs the place told my husband that he looked like Barack Obama. When he found out that Bella was having a birthday he brought her a box of Chinese pretzel sticks which were surprisingly flavorful. They are called Pretz, and we will have to look for them next time we go to the oriental market.

Being a general slacker mom and knowing that she is still to young to demand a birthday party, we decided just to invite a couple friends over last night, eat more cake and call it good. The other big barrier to hosting an actual child focused party is the space limitation at our house. We can fit one extra family comfortably and sometimes stretch it to two but beyond that we run out of sitting space and plates and things and it stops being fun. We decided to invite our two Argentinean family friends, they had actually never met each other but got along fabulously.

Here are some pictures of Bella and her cake. She wasn't sure about blowing out the candle and got a little grumpy at that point. She got a lot happier when she realized it meant she got to eat more cake.

Ariel, Andrea and Bella's friend little Ada. She was crawling around under our feet all evening.

Mario and Marcella, and their kids Francisco and Kaprielle also joined us. The kids were a little bored with the conversation but happily played Wii all evening.

And Bella did a good job of entertaining herself and everyone else. She found Marcella's glasses laying on the couch and decided to play movie star. Man I love this kid. Happy Birthday Baby.