Rachel’s 2nd Birthday

“Happy Birthday, Rachel!” Rachel squealed while running into our bedroom to wake us up this morning.

I was quite amazed that she was awake and happy; we put her to bed late and then she stayed up later in bed, insisting that the dark was scary and that she needed to come out of her room or have the light on so that she could see. What’s there to see when you’re sleeping?

Andrew and I were up much, much later than Rachel, though, and the morning came too fast for us. We were decorating cake, blowing up balloons, and wrapping birthday presents until the wee hours of the morning.

“Should we go open up your presents?” Andrew asked her after she jumped on him too many times.

“Yeah. Presents.” she said, though it came out sounding quite a lot like ‘pencils.’

“Do you know what presents are?” he asked.

“Yeah. Is…is…is…is…is…” she stalled.

“It’s when people wrap up toys or other things in paper so that you can’t tell what it is when they give it to you. Like a surprise.”

“I like prizes!” she said and zoomed out of the room to look for the presents/prizes.

That’s when she found the balloons. It was definitely worth staying up late to blow up the balloons when we saw her big smile.

She had fun batting those around for a while, but we had to move onto presents before Daddy left for school. We decided to let her open them in the morning because they were mostly things that we knew she really wanted…and we figured she may as well get a whole day of playing out of them before bedtime.

She got a little xylophone, which she calls her piano…

A stroller for her baby dolls…which she wheeled around the entire house the whole day without bugging me for attention so that I could actually get a few things finished. Happy Birthday to me…I mean, Rachel…we got it for Rachel. I’m not sure who enjoys it more, though…

She also got some toy cars that Sam left for her as a birthday gift when he moved back to the States. When we told her they were from Sam she got so excited…and somehow got the impression that everything she got was from Sam and nothing was from us. Sam’s cars. Sam’s stroller. Sam’s piano. What a generous little boy Sam is!

We also gave her the accessories and dress that came with the “Barbie” doll we used in her cake. I considered also wrapping up the legs since we had to pop those off, but I thought that might be a little gruesome…

We had a quiet day at home, decorating cupcakes, playing with Rachel’s new toys, and actually taking quite a nice nap after Rachel got too grumpy to be awake anymore. I was hoping all day that going to be late and waking up early would catch up to her and finally at 2:00 PM it did!

When she started screaming and biting the floor (apparently that’s possible) I decided that it was time to attempt a nap. She fell asleep rather quickly and woke up in a good mood!

She was so anxious for her guests to come. We invited the entire branch over for FHE, as well as Rachel’s new friend Elijah. We ended up having the Cummings over, with their 7 kids, the Houses with their 5 kids, Joseph Cunningham, Brother Knapp, and Rachel, John, & Elijah. It was a full house; it was fun to have so many people share her special day!

When it came time to sing “Happy Birthday” we had quite the chorus! 14 children and 9 adults! Brother Knapp came just while we were singing and followed his ears to our apartment. He rapped on the door with a little “cha-cha-cha” between measures and when I opened it up he burst through the door dramatically, singing the last line the loudest of anybody,

“Happy Birthday to you!!”

(Brother Knapp is really fun. It’s obvious why Rachel likes him!)

The Cummings brood then led us in singing in Arabic to Rachel. Senna helwa, ya gameel!

It was definitely nice to have so much singing and not be the only two singing over Rachel's shoulders, although I think she was a little overwhelmed by it all.

When it came time to blow out the candles, though, Rachel wasn’t quite sure what to do. I tried coaching her, but she wasn’t going to blow them out. We’ve been practicing the past few days, pretending to blow things out but she just never grasped the concept. She kept saying that she was going to “blow up” her candle. No wonder she didn’t want to blow on her cake! Eventually I just blew it out for her.

We had cupcakes, Amiee brought ice cream, and Catherine brought caramel-peanut butter popcorn. It was quite the feast!

Rachel had fun playing with her little buddies Rex and Elijah, as well as the eleven older children. I don’t think our house has ever been so noisy. It was fun for a while, but I don’t think I’ll plan on having 14 children…just saying.

Rachel was also honoured to be called to the phone. She got two phone calls just for her! One from Grandma and one from Auntie Josie and Naanii. She was quite nervous to talk on the phone; she’s not really sure how it works and prefers Skype. Still, it was fun to hear some familiar voices…and to wrap her fingers up in the phone cord.

It’s hard to believe our little baby Rachel is two…especially because sometimes I still feel like I’m recovering from delivery. Still. But I guess it’s time to face the facts: She’s not a baby anymore. She’s our little girl. We love you, Rachel!