Two isn't so terrible...

The year is well under way and month two is drawing near. I'd love to say that I've got some really good excuse for my absence but really we've just been recovering from the holidays, a birthday party and a multitude of family visitors. We've been returning to life as usual: running off holiday calories, volunteering, school and more running {with 5 more weeks to go we hit the 8-mile mark this week}.

Shortly after the New Year my aunt and cousins from Virginia came down for their annual visit. It was a great week of mostly relaxing, eating and sightseeing. My crazy-talented cousin Joshua captured many great memories of the trip with his camera. Here and here are some of the albums from a few of their many fishing trips to the coast. We ended our weekend with the 2nd annual homemade sushi night and our standard family couch photo {see bottom}.

2005

2009

2012

Next year, we'll have to make more room on the couch as we will be adding another family member.  My brother and his wife are expecting baby #5 this year!

While the family was here, they took a little kayak trip down the St. Marks River. I had to {sadly} miss out because I had signed up for a beginner photography class with Nancy {a Christmas gift from my parents}.

The class was really helpful in giving me the basics of photography and what all of those scary buttons {besides my favorite auto button} do on my camera. Now I just need to practice using them more, so I get used to figuring out the aperature, shutterspeed and ISO on the fly. I've found since the class that if I shoot in manual, many of my photos turn out too dark or over exposed. Clearly there is still a great amount of misunderstanding on my part, but I'm working on learning.

I brought out the camera to "practice" while my little ballerina was playing dress up in her room one morning. Any photogs wish to critique my images and let me know how to improve them?

This one is a little dark - any recommendations on what I should have done?

I love that she reads to her Bitty Baby.

Again a bit dark, this time the light was behind me though.

Look how long those little legs are getting!

This is one of my favorite series. Paige loves making facial expressions when you ask her.

Surprised face.

Sad face.

Silly face.

Paige loves playing with her many new toys. One of the advantages of a December birthday is the slew of great gifts you get all in one month. She loves her new dollhouse from Nana Ann and it's only current resident, Minnie Mouse {another birthday gift} quite adores having her mansion all to herself as well!

She is really starting to get into playing dress up and especially loves her ballet costumes.

Nana and Poppy made this cute dress up wardrobe from Pinterest for her for Christmas. It's perfect for holding all of those precious costumes and the shoes and accessories that go along with them.

The kids also got Elmo bubble bath and Crayola Bath Dropz in their stockings from Santa. These make bathtime so much fun! They love sporting bubble beards and playing tea time {another great birthday gift} in the tub. Their favorite is when I give them the colored tablets in their tea cups, then they dump the cups into the bath and wait to see what color the water will change.

Big things have been happening with our two-year old lately. Before the holidays we went for her first hair cut to trim up her mullet. She sat so perfectly still and didn't shed one tear. I was so proud of her!

Two weeks ago, we went to the doctor for Paige's two-year-old check-up and she was still taller than 80 percent of girls her age, weighed more than 60 percent of girls and her head was right around average. Her language is growing daily. She communicates as well as any three-year-old and is understanding letters, shapes and colors {even though about a month ago, I was totally convinced that she was colorblind}.

I finally bit the bullet and we started potty training this week.

It's going VERY well. Too well, in fact. I'm certain that there must be a set-back on the horizon. Or maybe it's true what they say...girls are easier to potty train than boys. Within a few days she had grasped telling me when she had to go potty. And for the past few days, she won't go in her pants even when she has on a pull-up. And although she was apprehensive about going at school, we had a breakthrough yesterday and then another breakthrough when she pooped twice on the potty after she got home from school. I realize to the non-parent, reading on a blog about such discreet matters as going to the bathroom is a little unnerving. But to anyone that has lived through potty training will tell you, it's just that exciting. When they finally get it, you just want to sing it from the mountain tops. And when it's easy, well...you really want to brag.

I'm discovering that besides the occasional tantrum and a very strong-willed need to be independent, two isn't so terrible. In fact, it's been pretty terrific so far!