The Laufer Family Blog: Shaylee's 2nd Birthday

There is nothing more rewarding than to see your daughter's eyes light up when she first sees her birthday party decorations. All the shopping and planning paid off when Shaylee happily exclaimed "ooooo! 'Loons!" as in "balloons" when she first arrived at my grandmother's where I had spent two hours setting up streamers and balloons, all Elmo themed.

As happy as she was, I have to say my equally happy mood quickly changed when my grandmother told me my aunt and uncle and their three kids would not be coming because my uncle had to work till 4 pm and she didn't want to waste the gas just coming down with the kids. I was pissed. That was ALL the kids I had invited. I bought party favors for 8 kids originally and then my invite list consist of just the three cousins. And now there would be no kids for Shaylee to enjoy her party with. Not only that, but I had bought enough food to feed everyone and thats was a good portion of my invite list. Anyhow, Nils and my mom reminded me this party was for Shaylee then pointed out that she was having a blast anyhow, so I ended up feeling better. They are right. Its all about Shaylee after all. Its just disappointing when you have this vision on how things are going to be and then its all changed. So I went back to happy, mom-of-the-birthday girl happy!

Shaylee had so much fun in the pool. She is really turning into quite the little fish! We swam for a bit then opened presents, something Shaylee could not wait to do! Everyone said she is getting really good at opening presents now. I told them after this last Christmas and all the stuff she got, how could she not be good at opening them? LOL! She got a little toy tea set and shopping cart, a Little People's Preschool playset, a pj set, a drawing desk that sits on your lap, a baby doll (looks just like her- haircut and big blue eyes and all!), baby doll bottles, and a baby doll bed. She got a savings bond from her great-grandparents in California and two dollars from her great uncle in California to buy an ice cream cone, which we will probably do next weekend as a special treat.

For lunch we had hamburgers and hotdogs and Shaylee's favorite junk food- Cheese puffs! For the drink I made Crystal Light Fruit Punch (less sugar than Kool-Aid or regular punch or juice)- red of course, like Elmo!

Then came the cake. I had to relight the candles three times since she kept blowing them out before we could even start singing Happy Birthday! Even with a small shortage of guest, we still had a blast.

Steve, our old roommate, who has been around since Shaylee came home from the hospital after she was born, found a photo from Shaylee's 1st birthday that we let Shaylee have. He could not believe how big she has gotten. And he is right. Looking back, she barely even had any hair! If you didn't dress her in pink or other feminine clothing, she could have been mistaken for a very pretty little boy! Now she looks like a little girl with her golden little bob. She's all girl now! I can't believe she once was this tiny little pink bundle with fingers that looked too long for her hands and a head of white blond fuzz. Ahh...they grow up so fast.....!