"I Be 2 Years Old!"

That's what Madeline says now when you ask her how old she is. Our little girl turned 2 today and I'm sitting here reflecting after a fun weekend of celebrating. I have often thought to myself lately, "I can't believe she's 2!" or "she's growing up so fast!" You know, the usual parental wonderment that our baby is no longer a baby. But it really sank in when I checked my email tonight. For 2 years and 8 months I have been receiving weekly email updates from BabyCenter.com. It is a great website that has updated me every week starting with pregnancy. It began with "You are 8 weeks pregnant", telling me "this week your baby is the size of a grain of rice, then a lentil, then a fig, etc." Then once Maddie was born, the emails swithed to "Your Baby This Week: 1 Week, 7 weeks, 20 weeks, etc." and provided helpful baby tips and developmental information. Then once she turned one, they became, "Your Toddler This Week: My 15 month-old, Week 1"...you get the point. Well tonight the email subject said, "My Preschooler This Week: Your 2 Year Old". WHAT?!! Preschooler?! Aren't they toddlers for a little longer? And we've gone from counting weeks, to years I guess. And here is what they had to say about a 2 year-old: "Two-year-olds give the biggest hugs, flash the biggest smiles, and yes, throw the loudest, most spectacular tantrums." Well aint that the truth. As reluctant as I am to acknowledge that Maddie is no longer a baby, or apparently even a toddler, and is now a preschooler, I am excited for her to grow. I am so in love with this little person who is developing her own personality, her own will, her own voice and mind. Her talking is becoming more conversational and it is so fun. I got home from work one night and she was playing and I bent down to her like I always do and before I could say anything she looked up and said, "Hi Mommy, how your day?" It melted my heart. So I'm ready for the tantrums, we've experienced some already. And as long as my 2 year-old "preschooler" continues to give us those big hugs and flash her big smile, I guess I'm okay with her no longer being a baby.

Hess Family Beach Trip

We spent an amazing week in the Outer Banks with my parents and Geordie and Mary. We decided it was the best way to celebrate my mom's upcoming 60th birthday. Sorry for giving away your age Mom, but if I look like you when I'm 60 I'll be thrilled! We had a great house on the beach and pretty much spent the whole week relaxing on the beach. We went to the aquarium one day when it rained briefly. Otherwise, we had our toes and Maddie had much more than her toes in the sand! She loved the waves and the water, but we had to hold onto her for dear life because the current was so strong from a storm off the coast. So she mostly just played for hours in the sand. Her favorite thing of all was to run down to the water and then run all the way back up to our umbrella at full speed. Here are some of my favorite pictures that we took and a video. We had a photographer come and do family pictures as a present for my mom and I'll share some of those when we get them back.

The beautiful view from our house. I've never seen the Atlantic so green!

Wild Child

Maddie discovered that she can jump onto the couch from the arm of the couch and land on her butt. So far she has escaped injury, but I don't know how long her luck will last. So we're telling her NO.....but first we had to catch it on camera! Some parents we are!