The Baby of the Bunch moves up in the world!

The Smallest of the Small Fry celebrated her 2nd Birthday a few weekends ago! This one is a bundle of energy, constantly trying to keep up with her 3 older siblings! I took this shot of her when I had them for a week, right before her birthday:

Vital Stats:

Favorite things: Dora and Diego, Disney Princesses (see Disneyland blogs!) and basically anything that is not hers but is within her grasp.

Likes: Reading books (Curious George, Dr Seuss, Tikki Tikki Tembo, etc), her awesome auntie (of course), and running wild.

Dislikes: naps, most veggies, her sister taking anything remotely resembling a toy that she considers hers- the usual assortment.

Favorite words: Mine, Aunteeeeee, and some select phrases heard out of the older kid's mouths - she will also personally inform you "I farted" when she passes gas - a phrase no doubt taught to her by her 10 year old brother!

Other stats: 25% potty trained, getting ready for a big girl bed and she just had her first stitches last week after pulling a cabinet down on her head!

Here is the baby...whoops, I mean toddler (sniff), all excited for her party!

Showing affection for her tween sister:
Meanwhile, out in the backyard, the 3 year old was showing her displeasure at the whole "party for the little squirt" goings on:
While the adults shuffled around the house eating chips and drinking beer, very excited for yet ANOTHER kid party, the small fry amused themselves with the very popular train set:
It didn't take long for everyone to get to "Present Land"...the 3 year old took on a decidedly "big sister" attitude at this point and showed her little sister the ropes on opening gifts:
see?
She even opened the cards for her - such a big helper - she was thrilled to see her dog Harley on the cover of one of the cards:
Harley felt it necessary to point out her role in the card:
The presents were of the usual 2 year old assortment - a pillow pet, awesome Legos, Dora toys and such. This auntie bought her clothes and books - there was no way I was going to contribute to the "toy madness" that is their playroom - I had to clean that crap up for a week straight!
Not everyone was happy with Dora's dominating presence:
A little downtime spent reading with Daddy while Mommy was arranging the cake table:
This small fry was not pleased with our pathetic singing efforts:
But she was all into the cake...literally:
After all the important party points had been completed, it was time for a little snack and photo shoot outside:

The newly crowned 2 year old is wearing the same onsie her sister wore when SHE turned two:

The three year old is wearing a dress auntie bought for her 12 year old sister some 9 years ago:
oh yes, the "cheeseball smile" stage has officially started for this kid. No more telling her to smile for the camera. The results of such an effort:
The more natural approach, in which auntie doesn't say anything and just rapidly clicks away, hoping for the best:
a final photo shopped touch:

The Youngest shows herself party worthy

You didn't think all the kid parties were done for the year, did you? SUCKER!! We merely took a month break between Mr August and Ms September here!

The youngest niece, often lost in the shuffle of tween chatter and preschool whining, has now reached the big bad ass age of ONE! Now that she is officially on her feet, the following life changes will occur:

* Her chance of being stomped on by marauding kids flying through the playroom will lessen dramatically.

* Her reach will extend from "carpet fuzz in front of me" to "windowsill where mommy keeps her Starbucks".

* Shoes will take on much higher importance as feet pound from carpet to grass to cement in no time.

* Her crib bars will become great levelers for her climbing stunts.

To celebrate such milestones, the family gathered to shower her with gifts, cake and photo ops:

Here is the cake I convinced my sister to get:
(it tasted as good as it looked...although the whole eating of fondant is beyond me. Kids seemed to like it though). Some people, I WON'T SAY WHO, seemed a little pissed off at the attention shift:

While guests and cousins and family and dogs hung around the following present and cake display, I snuck the guest of honor out front for a few first birthday photographs:
The following represent the best shots I got, gotten despite the constant interruption of kids running through, dogs running through, a rambling toddler standing behind, on and on top of me, and several outbursts from the mother at the kids and dogs running through the shots:


Occasionally, the older sister would make her presence known:
then it was back to the star:



Here she is showing off her new found standing and walking skill:
Finally, after some 50 plus shots, it was time for the star attraction to pay homage to the pile of gifts awaiting her destruction:
Someone, I WON'T SAY WHO, discovered a Dora the Explorer wrapped gift and naturally assumed it was for her:


The star attraction was completely entranced by the box hidden under the Dora wrapping paper - never mind the cool kitchen play set inside of it:
Eventually she got around to opening more of her gifts:
Meanwhile the "old kids" were dying of boredom and entertaining themselves in many different ways:

Little Miss One would occasionally wander back to her favorite gift, "empty box", and have to be pulled back into the gift pile to resume her unwrapping duties:

there she goes again:
After a brief rest period with daddy, the star attraction was ready to check out the cake:

Bravely she tore it apart (a little bit) and tried it:
a little unsure of it:
She never really destroyed it, as many of the others had - perhaps she had already been to too many kid parties in her year of life? Here is a final image, my favorite shot of the day:
and a quick video montage of the party:

3 more kid parties to go!