Sasha is two years old today!

Sasha turned two years old today! I have been excited as well as sad about her turning two years old for a couple of months. I am really looking forward to watching her grow, having conversations with her, and doing more things with her, but she is just so cute at this age and it's hard to know she won't be little for long. She has been talking a lot more in the last week. It seems like suddenly she learned a lot more words. She now calls Brayden, Brookelyn, and Colton by name when she sees them or is talking to them. Her aunt and cousins sang Happy Birthday to her today on the phone and her face light up when she heard them sing. After she gave me the phone back I asked her what they sang to her and she said, "Birthday." When we ask her how old she is she says, "Two," and holds up several fingers.
I am amazed at how lucky we are to have her in our lives and in our family! She is such as sweet, funny, smart, coordinated, determinted, independent, cuddly, happy and beautiful little girl! My favorite time of the day is when I am putting each one of the little ones to bed. Sasha sits on my lap in the rocking chair in her room and I read her several books. I usually read her about five then turn out the light. She hugs her stuffed dog and leans against me while I rock us. After several minutes (how long depends on what is going on with Brayden and Brookelyn)I ask her if she is ready for bed. She usually nods or says yes and then I put her in her crib. She gives me a big smile as I lay her down. She turns over onto her stomach and I try to put a blanket on her. She always says, "No. No blanket, Momma." I pretend to walk away and as soon as I do she says, "Momma! Blanket!" with an urgent sound in her voice. I put the blanket on her and go out of her room. She NEVER cries, unless she hears my voice in the next half hour. She can hear the kids running around and being loud and she can hear Ray or Colton's voice and she is quiet. But if she hears me whisper, she cries and then is hard to get to go back to sleep. So I whisper very quietly at night because by the kid's bedtime, I AM TIRED.
This morning she and I were laying on the couch watching tv until everyone else woke up. She had her head resting against my face, which is something she likes to do in the morning. Not comfortable for me, but as long as she stays still I can try to get a little more sleep. Brayden came downstairs and asked her how old she is today. She held up both of her pointer fingers and said, "Two!" We sang her Happy Birthday and then she blew on one of her fingers. She is a funny little girl. She kissed my face several times this morning while we were on the couch and started a game we play. I say "I love you" and then she says, "No, I love you" and then I say, "No, I love you"...We play it a couple of times a day. It's always sweet when she starts it. She actually says, "No, I-lllyou!" I brought her to school for a few hours so she could celebrate her birthday with her friends. All three of her teachers ran over and said Happy Birthday as soon as they saw her on the yard and then one of the ladies from the office came down with a birthday crown for her. We brought in a fruit salad for her to share with her friends. I left my camera with her teachers so they could take pictures of her day. I bought her a really cute outfit to wear on her birthday a couple of weeks ago, but I had thought it would be warm outside. I had to go out yesterday and find another outfit since it has been pretty chilly the last couple of days. It is 18 mos, but still hangs off of her. It is very cute and she looked adorable.
We were planning on going out to dinner and opening her presents there, but when I went to get her I hurt my back. I picked her up and then went to set her down a couple of minutes later and got a jolt of pain. I tried to walk out the door and got a couple more jolts. I waited for a few minutes for it to stop, but this was the oh-my-god-this-hurts-I-am-going-to-cry pain. I really thought I was going to whimper out loud. I called Ray because I had to get my three little ones into the car (with all of their stuff) and drive home. Ray answered his phone, but couldn't meet me at home. I couldn't get ahold of my son so he could help me get them out of the car once I got home. Luckily I had my phone so I called the front office of the school and told one of the directors. She got Brayden for me and helped me get the kids in the car. I couldn't put my seat belt on, but I could drive fine. Luckily, my son was home when we got there and helped me with the kids and went and bought dinner. Ray made it home around 8:00 so I could finally go lay down. He usually gets home between 7:00 and 8:00, but I was hoping he would get home earlier to help. We decided to celebrate her birthday dinner tomorrow night, since I just couldn't do it tonight. I have been in bed for a couple of hours. It hasn't hurt at all until about ten minutes ago when I sat up and then I got another jolt. The bad news is that I have a PTO meeting that I am running tomorrow at 9:00 am about the jog-a-thon. It is in three weeks and I have to be at that meeting. It may just be me and the elementary director that show up, but I have to go just in case. I don't believe in calling in sick. Also, I am hosting a Teacher's Appreciation Luncheon tomorrow as well. Several parents will be bringing in the food, but I am in charge of setting it all up and then cleaning it up later. So, I better hurry up and get better. This happened one other time to me when I got out of bed one morning. It got better after a couple of hours. I have serious empathy for people who have cronic pain.