More Happy 2nd Birthday!!!

Pictures from Marin Dalby's many-a-birthday celebrations with some of her gifts(she also got a Cozy Coupe but we are dedicating another post to the car). We had one mini-celebration where we opened a few gifts at our house. Then we drove to Florida and celebrated with the Dalby family. Ryan and I made and decorated the cake. It was a fun task and even more fun to eat. Aunt Anne's birthday is July 5th and she was 22. So each birthday girl got a flip-flop. It worked out perfectly!

Aunt Annie and Dalby preparing to blow out their "2" and "22" flip flopsCool glow necklaces

"You've got mail"

Out on the driveway with her bike and Elmo.

Her vet kit that includes a stethoscope, thermometer, shot(which she uses as a lipstick applicator), animals, etc. All the tools, besides the stethoscope, are used for functions they were never intended to be used as.......The stethoscope came in handy the other day. We took it to our two year check-up. I don't know if that was the key to our successful appointment but it was the first time ever that Dalby did not scream when Dr. Scott checked her ears, mouth, chest, etc.

A day at the zoo

We recently went to the Nashville Zoo. It was a beautiful day and apparently everyone else thought so too because the zoo was PACKED!!! We had a nice time seeing some of the animals and exploring the historic home and farm at the zoo. The nice thing about the zoo is that it isn't so big that you feel like you have to spend the whole day. We saw the elephants, zebras, monkeys, rode the carosaul and called it a day. The only thing I would have done differently was pack a picnic lunch for Ryan and I and not just Dalby. There is a great open area to pop a squat and enjoy a peanut butter sandwich.

Enjoying the carosaul SOOOOO much more then when we were at the zoo last year!

Wheels on the Bus

We sing A LOT in this house. A few favorites: "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star", "Itsy Bitsy Spider", "No More Monkeys Jumping on the Bed", "Home on the Range", "Sing a Song", "C is for Cookie", "Sesame Street Theme Song", "Hello, How are You?", "Blue Skies", "Wheels on the Bus"....the list can go on and on.....Mainly Daddy and I sing and Dalby fills in with words. "Wheels on the Bus" is a song we have sung for a long time. There is a bus that parks permanently at the school directly behind our house. The bus is in the direct line of sight of the high chair and is the topic of many a meal conversations. Also we started going to Story Time at the library on Tuesday mornings where sometimes we sing "Wheels on the Bus" and the whole room of toddlers and adults do the motions. So it is one of our favorite songs. Even since the video below Dalby can now say, "open and shut" and she has always liked to do the motion for the people going up and down. We have wanted to catch the song on video for awhile. The night we taped this Dalby happened to be in the right mood to do the whole song. It is not often we get through the whole song before she gets distracted. It is about 2 minutes of Ryan and I singing and Dalby following our motions and her version of the song. Enjoy!

Ring Around the Rosie

We have a rug in our living room that has a large circle in the middle - perfect for Ring Around the Rosie......you will notice the favorite part of the dance is the falling down :)

A meal on the go!

I know we have discussed our love for cardboard boxes in previous posts. We found another two uses for the boxes - a kitchen table and a car - all in one. This particular box started off as a car...that is my sad attempt at a steering wheel. We would push Dalby around the house in the box, although we usually ended up in the rec room, carpet is a much easier surface to push and manuever a box then the kitchen or living room floors(we do have a small car with wheels that she can ride but it doesn't seem to be as much fun as the diaper box). One of the car trips ended in the kitchen and we decided it was time for a snack, so we flipped it over and had our meal. What are we going to do when we are potty trained?

"Turning on" the air. At the park one day we were sitting in a wooden car and it was HOT! I asked Dalby to turn the air on and she reached over, turned a fake knob and looked back at me and said, "Air". So here she is turning the air on in the cardboard car.

HAPPY 2nd BIRTHDAY!!!!

Happy 2nd Birthday Marin Dalby Luttenton!

What a smile!

The "neme"(mailman)

Dalby has always checked the mail with me. We put a sun hat on and walk out to the mailbox We open the mail, I take the necessary items and she gets the envelopes/catalogs/you name it. I use to give her all of the junk mail, now I ration it out because I grew tired of finding all of the envelopes with the clear plastic and ripped pieces of old mail around the house. Dalby can spot the mail trucks on the street and the post office logo like she use to find pumpkins. The other day I had to go to the post office and not even thinking about it I pulled into the drive and we passed where they park all of the mail trucks....HEAVEN!!!!! We even open the blinds before naptime so that she can watch for the "neme" and we shut the blinds at night discussing that the "neme" is going night-night too. I knew that we had a lot of love for the mailman. However I did not realize how much of a routine we had with checking the mail until today when Dalby picked up her baby doll and her most current batch of mail and walked over to her play mailbox to "check" the mail :)