Lily's 2nd Birthday

I don't understand how life goes by so fast! It seems like just yesterday we were bringing Lily home from the hospital; but at the same time she is so far away from being a newborn that it's hard to even remember what those first days were like. I wanted to add a few pictures of her first days and last year's birthday. I LOVE looking back at old pictures and videos of Lily. I forget so easily. However, it also makes me really sentimental. My heart often aches for the time that has passed, even though I'm so happy with where our family is now. Emotions are hard to comprehend.

2 years old.

Anyway, done reminiscing. Prepare for picture overload. We decided to have a party for Lily because I just think it's more fun to celebrate with people. And since we don't seem to be near family around her birthday, we invited friends we have made so far. I was excited leading up to Lily's birthday. It was kind of comical how excited I was. But I love this part of being a mom: planning and buying gifts that you know they'll love. This is the start of wrapping her gifts, with my now obsolete supply of wrapping supplies. (Oh, the silly little conveniences I miss like having the cute wrapping items I've stocked up on...)

Lily in her "cupcake" jammies.

It was so great being able to have all day to prepare stress-free for the party.

Here is Lily, always the big helper, helping me dust and "make" cupcakes.

 I have always relied on boxed cake and pre-made frosting, but as I'm learning to do in Norway, making from scratch is best. I got this amazing recipe (plus great tips for perfection) from a friend in my ward who owns a cake shop. They were so yummy, if I do say so myself.

Plus I had a little birthday miracle with naptime. Lily has REALLY been struggling to fall asleep instead of play at naptime and bedtime, but on her birthday she was quiet in a few minutes and slept for 2 hours.

Lily loved her cupcake shirt and still calls it her "birthday clothes" when she sees it.

I bought Lily a princess outfit for Halloween and then saw this idea for a princess cake. I figured I could buy a tiara, wand, etc. and use it for both events. But since I knew there were so many boys coming I didn't make it too princess-y :) But it did kind of turn into a cupcake theme.

Here's Barrett mixing the frosting.

 I researched, prepared, bought supplies, made the cupcakes, showed Barrett a tutorial, and gave an idea of what I wanted it to look like; but as I know is best, I left the decorating to Barrett, the designer in the family. It turned out perfect!

 It was surprisingly very easy! A lot easier than most cakes, and significantly easier and faster than Lily's ladybug cake last year. You just use a 1M star tip and squeeze out the frosting in a circle and then fill in the gaps. Throw on the other decorations and you're finished.

As you can tell from the hot dogs sitting out in the picture above, we planned a fast Lily favorite meal and then everything happened so fast! I really wanted to get some pictures of the set-up but people started arriving and that got pushed aside. Here are a few that we got.

We also had some white and pink balloons on the floor that the kids could play with.

Opening presents...

Blowing out candles. Lily looks like she's half asleep in these pictures, ha ha.

 And I probably should have prepared or practiced what you do with candles. She had no idea what to do after we sang to her. I eventually lifted her up and just blew them out for her.

 She had no problem eating the cupcake :)

For memory's sake, here are the people at the party. 

These are our landlords who live upstairs, and they brought their twins.

 A few of Barrett's coworkers

Missing his boss' head, but here's his son :)

And a few couples in our ward and their children.

 All the kids at the party. We were missing one more girl who was at home sick.

Due to the mail system, Lily's birthday really lasted a week. She got a card in the mail from her friends Keaton and Aisley!

 And she also got this really fun birthday card from my mom and dad. You push a button on the front and Minnie swings her hips with the hula hoop to music. She LOVES it. Enough that we have the song memorized and she asks for it so she can push it over and over :)

Then, last but not least, Barrett's parents' package finally arrived.

 We got some great surprise faces of Lily this time. The party was fun for us, but I think a little overwhelming for Lily. It was nice to have a few presents we could open with just her and all of our attention.

 So excited for her play food set.

This came with Lily's birthday gifts! They don't really have snack items here and I have missed some go-to American snacks. Yay!

Well another year gone. When we ask Lily how old she is she now she says "Two". She still gets excited by the mention of birthday anything. I call it a success. We love you Lily bug!

Lily's Norwegian words

One of the common worries of moving anywhere, especially to a new country, is whether or not you'll have friends and other children for your child to play with. I have been SO lucky in not feeling lonely since we moved and have not only been welcomed by many people, but am actually often busy planning playdates. Two people in particular have helped with this. One is my landlord who lives upstairs and has twins that are 19-months. She enjoys going out of the house so often invites me places or even just upstairs to play. She also introduced me to the amazing Åpen Barnehage in Norway. Most young children go to barnehage during the day while their parents work, but open barnehage is there for the stay-at-home moms and they have several rooms and an activity each day (gym activities, baking, dancing, singing time, etc.). I try to get there at least once a week and it is great. Here is Lily playing with Malene and Mathias upstairs.

Most Norwegians go back to work when their child is 1, but occasionally you have a couple who stay at home so they like other stay-at-home moms to get together with. Carrie is in my ward and has two children a little older and younger than Lily (and a brand new baby last week) and we've been getting together with them about once a week. Plus they're all in nursery together. Here's a couple pictures with Nathan and Lydia.

As a result of playing with Nathan, Lily has learned the word "nei," which means "no" in Norwegian. She is definitely in the toddler stage and says "no" a lot, but this turns into "nei" after she has played with Nathan or been to nursery. Ha ha! It's actually quite funny hearing her tell us "nei" all the time. In fact, makes me feel more legit when I'm in public. The other day I was waiting at the bus stop and she was saying "nei" somewhat loudly, I can't remember why, and this older, ragged man laughed and started talking in Norwegian to us for quite some time. I just smiled and was happy when the bus arrived.

She has also learned that "bye" in Norwegian is "ha det" (pronounced with no 't' on the end). I caught it on video as we were walking home from the store one day. The cashier said it to me and I said it back so she kept repeating it on the way home.

I LOVE Lily's little voice anyway, and she's talking a lot now, but it's even cuter when it's new Norwegian words. Now if only I could find the motivation to learn more Norwegian...