My two year old!

I just can't believe it, I blinked and some how my baby became a two year old.  I don't know why or how, but I feel like the 2nd year of Deja's life went by so much faster than the first.  It's mind blowing to think about how much she's grown physically and mentally.

The night before her birthday we actually went up to Park City and stayed in my sisters time-share that wasn't being used.  It was very spur of the moment, but fun overall.  We couldn't decide where to go to dinner and after driving all over we decided on Ruby Tuesdays.  None of us had ever eaten there, so I was skeptical, but as we were walking in I saw a sign that said, "Kids eat free on Tuesdays" and it just so happened to be a Tuesday, so it got on my good list pretty quickly.

On her birthday we came down from Park City and went to the park with some of 

Deja's friends and Grandma.  

All she wanted for her birthday was to sleep... at 9:30 we finally woke her up!
aaaand she's getting too big for the pack and play 

Presents from Grandma!

That evening we had Peanut Butter Bars and Ice Cream and gave her some presents-mostly clothes.

 I think Deja's favorite part of the day was her Ice Cream Cone :)

Confession:  I did not want Deja to wear this dress AGAIN on her birthday, but ever since she saw our family pictures it's all she wants to wear!!  I almost told her she couldn't wear it to the party.....but then I remembered it was her birthday...
....awkward...
None the less she won the battle.  
And then, she wore it again to church today.  I might need to hide it.

Here are some photo's that were taken by our very good friend Miquelle just a few weeks back followed by other highlights in Deja's life.  

Be warned it's forever long, but every memory is worth it to me!!

• I can give her requests to bring me things from the other room, or put things away.  Sure I always dreamed of the day that I would have my own little child minions to help clean the house, but who knew they would be so happy to help! ;)   
• She loves "lunch time."  This is when she is allowed to open up the fridge, retrieve left overs from last night's dinner, assist mom in putting them in the microwave, and pushing the buttons.  She's a little too obsessed with the fridge.  She wants to be in it all the time: "hiding" behind the door, playing with the light switch, or just checking out the goodies we bought at the store.  It's not a very big fridge so there usually isn't anything too exciting in there, but I've yet to convince her of such.  Our fridge is old, so the funniest part is when she finally decides to listen to mom and shut the fridge door, she knows that when it closes, the freezer door almost always pops open.   Thankfully, she always reaches up to shut that door as well.  Good job girl!  Now enough about our old fridge... 
• Her favorite pajamas are her purple polka-dot ones.  Without fail, if that pair is clean, she always chooses them to wear at night.  
• After bath time is over, she likes to say "night-night duckie" and "night-night fishy" to her bath toys.  I hope she never stops that!
• Her favorite foods are probably still Avocado, noodles, rice, and all things dairy especially COTTAGE CHEESE!  We don't buy cottage cheese often, but it must have made such a good impression on her the first time we had it, that she can recognize it.  We even have yogurt and sour cream in similar containers so she must know how to read ;)
•  She is very concerned as to which items belong to who in the family. For example at dinner she likes to point out "daddy's plate" "mommy's plate" and "Deja's plate."  Or if she sees an article of clothing on the floor she'll try and name it like "daddy's shirt?"  It's a complicated concept and things are all slowly starting to become "Deja's" for some strange reason, but it fun to see her learn.
• She has really started to be able to identify our different family members and friends.  She loves looking at pictures of family and either naming them herself or asking "this?" In which, John or I tell her who is in the picture.  She'll also do the same for colors, which she hasn't got the hang of yet, but it's coming :)
• She's definitely a girly girl and loves wearing necklaces, bracelets, and dresses.  Church is pretty much the highlight of her week where she gets to see all her nursery friends and play with Dad and the toys for 2 hours!  There was one morning during the week that she kept saying "church, church" and would only wear a dress.  I had to break it to her that it was only Tuesday, and we wouldn't go to church till Sunday... fro, frow, frown.... she wore the dress anyway.
• When John gets off work he'll call and we'll talk to him during his drive home.  Deja always asks to talk to Dad and depending on how far away he is we let her.  They sing songs and he mostly asks her yes or no questions.  Speaking of John, when I tell him that dinner is ready, Deja will usually copy what I say 2 or 3 times until he comes.  The funniest part is when she calls him "John" instead of "Dad."  I don't think he likes it, but I get a kick out of it every time.  She definitely says "John" more than "Sarah."
• She enjoys doing puzzles and will frequently say "puzzle with me, Dadda (or Mamma)," singing fun songs like Head-shoulders-knees-and toes or the Clean-up song (she knows that one best which I'm not sure if I should be proud or ashamed of haha), sleeping with "bunny" at night.  (We got rid of her binky around 21 months and sleeping with a stuffed bunny was her replacement).  
• Oh I almost forgot!  Her clogged tear duct finally cleared up!  It happened sometime in July and we are so happy that we don't have to do surgery.  Big tender mercy right there.  I love that I don't have to clean it every day and we can see her long lashes not all clumped together anymore!
• For a while her answer to every question was "no."  Luckily, I think it has finally clicked that that response isn't always the correct one.  However, there was one night that John asked her "Are you going to sleep well tonight?" and in the slowest response  I've ever heard her give she said, "nnoooooooooOOOO?"   Well at least she was honest in telling us so we knew what to expect ;)
• Speaking of sleep, we are in a weird no nap funk right now.  We began having problems where she would sleep too long during her nap and then not be tired at all when bed time rolled around, and then she would wake up at 5 am and not want to go back to bed.  She has always been a good sleeper, so I knew something had to change.  So... we've been pulling her last nap.  It's only been a week and has been mostly good.  We're still figuring it out, but I'm guessing it'll be permanent here in a couple weeks.