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Your Royal Tininess ...
It's been a joy to watch you grow up; to see your personality develop and to learn about who you are. You're just such a cool little person, and I love everything about you. Happy Birthday, sweetheart.
Birth
One year
Two years
And three 
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I remember when you were born ... when we were in the hospital, I heard all these other newborns wailing away, and you were so quiet. Barely made a peep. I thought I was uber-lucky and had one of those mythical "easy babies".
Hah.
Ha-ha!
Then we came home.
You showed me. Our first few months were hellish at times. You never slept unless I was wearing you in a sling, wrap or, eventually, thankfully, on my back in a mei tai or soft-sided carrier. It took around 2 hours of nursing, walking, bouncing, swinging and a vacuum running nonstop three feet from our heads to get you to sleep at night. How you and I survived those months, I'll never know. 
But we did. The napping-in-carrier persisted, but we got the nighttime shenanigans down to 45-60 minutes. And sometimes you'd deign to nap on me or, rarer still, on your Boppy. Even with the napping-in-carrier, Bean started part-time preschool and I realized I could walk and read, so I knocked out 130+ books that year and found a measure of Zen. And you started to show your personality, and realized how very cool your big sister is.
And you kept growing. Shockingly, your personality was one of outspoken single-mindedness, a trait that must come from your father and certainly isn't shared by your sister or I. You showed you were just as snuggly and sweet as your big sister, but possessed a self-reliance that she didn't. You could (and still do) play happily by yourself, and make your own fun.
You turned one, and showed that spending so much time around your totally unique sister means that you're her Mini-Me.
Around one, you also developed the ability to throw a hairy sh*t fit over not getting your way. You built it into a traveling road show that went (and sometimes still goes) something like this: Try to get your way; if thwarted, scream and throw self on ground; if audience moves away, pick self up, cease tantrum, track them down, throw self on floor and resume histrionics. Lather, rinse, repeat as needed.
Your survival, however, was guaranteed by your ability to elevate your cuteness slightly above your hissy fits
As the final months of your second year have ticked down, you've shown yourself to be quite the conversationalist. You took your sweet time talking, perhaps because you have such a blabbermouth mommy and a big sister who does enough talking for all of us, but once you started, you didn't stop.
You've also demonstrated a great sense of humor, the physicality (and low pain threshold) needed to have a great time with your big sister, and a quirkiness and sweetness that endears you to all. 
So Happy Birthday baby girl. I cannot wait to see what the next year brings us!
Love,
Mommy
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Party Planning 101, a la Bean.
Mommy: We're going to invite C, Rachel, Ayssa and Mathias. Do you want to invite anyone from school?
Bean: I want to invite all the girls from my class, but none of the boys.
M: You can't do that - you either have to invite everyone or just pick 4 people you want to come to your party.
(Mommy making arbitrary rules because I don't want to plan for that damn many kids, especially as most won't RSVP or show but I'll still have to have food, supplies, etc for all of them in case they do.)
B: I want to pick 10.
M: How about 6?
B: Okay. I want to invite Ella A, Ella D, Nathan, Caden and Jackson.
M: You can pick one more person.
B: I pick ... Sophie.
M: Okay, that's 6.
B: Ayssa, Rachel, C, Ella, Ella, Sophie, Nathan, Caden, Jackson and Mathias.
M: Do you want to have cake or cupcakes?
B: I want a pony cake.
M: No problem. Where do you want to have your party? At home? The gym? A bounce place?
B: I want to have it at the soccer place.
M: We can do that.
B: All the girls will sit at one table and the boys will have to sit somewhere else. And only Ayssa can sit next to me because her birthday is in July too.
M: Okay.
B: Only kids with birthdays in July can sit next to me.
M: {pauses, not wanting to break it to her that it's possible one of the boys she's inviting from her class has a July b-day}
B: And even Miss O ... Miss O can come too.
M: What about all the other little brothers and sisters, can they come?
B: Yes. All the babies can play soccer with Miss O.
M: That will be fun. Do you think they'll enjoy that?
B: Yes. But Miss O will run the fastest and beat the other babies because she's the oldest. The babies can play soccer and the big kids can eat cake. Only, the girls will have cake and the boys can have cupcakes.
M: Sweetie, there's cake *or* cupcakes, not both.
B: {thinks} Cake. But the boys can have pieces without frosting and the girls will have all the frosting. And the girls can sit with me but the boys will sit on a different bench.
M: Everyone gets frosting.
B: But no boys can sit with me.
M: Okay then.
B: And then I can invite everyone back to my house to play with me. All day.
M: Look at the dog! {because the joy of the party continuing all. day. is just too great to contemplate}
I got Miss O to fall asleep sans nursing last night. It took a good 30 minutes plus, but she slept until 5:30. She woke a couple times, but settled herself down. Bean's still asleep, and we've got a good hour and a half or so before we have to leave for school. I want enough time to talk to Miss O's teacher a bit and to stop at Starcracks. Because y'all know I did *not* get to bed early enough to not be tired when woken at 5:30.
I'm so excited about two My Little Pony parties in the span of a month or so. My friend's daughter is obsessed with the Ponies as much as Bean is, so she asked for a Pony party. Bean's been digging on the Pony party idea for awhile, and no amount of 'how about a Princess party?' can distract her from her Pony party. If my place wasn't so small (and my backyard such a dirt pit) I'd have it here, but I just don't have the right-sized house for a party. Now I have to make a reservation for Soccer Zone.
Another bedtime without nursing, this one a little smoother than last night. Let's hope she can do this ... although typing it pretty much assures me that it won't last ... le sigh.
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