Happy 2nd Birthday Sweet Sofia!

Here you are on your 2nd Birthday.  You are just the sweetest thing (though plenty sassy as well) and you were especially happy and energetic on your special day.  You knew it was your birthday and you could clearly say "I am 2" well before the big day.  We practiced a lot. :)



The day started off as beautiful with clear, blue skies and very cold temps.  There's still snow and ice on the ground from the previous weeks weather.  We had a nice, normal Saturday morning full of play time around the house and getting ready for your small birthday party later that afternoon.  Jakub drew you a birthday card at breakfast time and that was so kind of him to do.  No matter how much you two might argue at times, he has a really protective and loving side for you as well.  He couldn't wait to tell you Happy Birthday and to sing to you.

I spent most of the morning working on your cake as well.  I had it in my mind that I wanted to make you a really special, beautiful, girly cake.  What turned out was good enough, and tasted great, but wasn't as pretty as I had hoped.  Still, it was fun and I was looking forward to making it for you and thinking about you the whole time.

And while you and I were cooking and playing during the morning time your brother and Daddy went out to get you birthday flowers, which I also used on your birthday cake.  They were gorgeous!

And after your nap time most of our teammates, who are more like family to us here, came over to celebrate with us.  Mitch was away in the U.S. and Monika was away at her home in Slovakia, but the rest were able to be here.  They love you very much!

Here you are with Kaylee, Madison, Conor, and Alyssa.  You loved opening your gifts from everyone and then eating a bunch of cake as well. :)  You also seemed to like us singing Happy Birthday to you, but you were also shy with all of the attention and hid your eyes at one point. :)
Here are some more pictures from that time.

Of course brother wanted to be right there with you and had a hard time not opening everything for you or showing you how everything works.  I can't wait to see you two play in one more year from now when you can really keep up with him.  I think you two will have a lot of fun.  Right now you love to follow him around and you think whatever game he comes up with is the best.  You really look up to him and it's sweet to see.  I have to add here while I'm thinking of it that one of my favorite things is watching you see him for the first time when you wake up or when he gets home form school.  You immediately look for him, ask for him, or call out to him (Kubo!).  You want to hug him and hold him and talk to him right away.  He doesn't always want this, but even when he pushes you away (as older brothers often do) you keep on loving on him or following him around.

Above is you opening the necklace and earrings he gave you.  He picked it out for you and was so happy to tell you that he thought of you and picked it out all by himself.  It was a great moment to witness him publicly loving on you and giving you a gift.  You loved it and wore the necklace to church on Sunday with your birthday dress Daddy and I gave you. :)

Jakub decided to take some pictures and made me do a silly face - his favorite thing. :)

There are so many more pictures I could add.... You were just so sweetly and innocently happy to be experiencing and enjoying a birthday with the people who love you so much.    After opening all of the gifts you and brother began playing with many of them.  He loved the play-do set Madison gave you and played with that a lot while you blew bubbles and played with a monkey game Kaylee gave you.  Conor and Alyssa gave you an apron, which was perfect, because Daddy and I gave you a small kitchen and you already have a lot of play-kitchen things to cook with.  You love to cook and make me food- especially pizza!

We also made a birthday dinner all together which consisted of soft tacos, avocado dip and chips, a mexican bean dish, a bean and corn salad, salsa, and fresh cucumbers and bell peppers sliced.  It was yummy and you loved it!

We had such a fun time together!  Here are a few more things I want to remember from this special time when you turned 2:

- After the party was over, everyone had gone home, and we had cleaned up the house, your Daddy and I spent 1.5 hours watching videos of your birth, your first day at home, and brothers first time to see you and hold you.  It was wonderful!

- I made another cake with flowers on top and took it to church on Sunday so we could sing to you and celebrate with our church family.  It was very meaningful to me to do that.  And there you received your gift from Nav, which was a painting I asked her to make for you.  It's a beautiful, starry night with 4 owls sitting in a tree- one for each of us in our family.

- You are speaking all of the time now and saying many 3 word sentences.  You repeat most anything we ask and pretty clearly now.  You say many English words (I counted one day but stopped around 100...) and in Czech you say "Doma (home), pa pa (bye bye), ahoy (hello, goodbye), tady a tam (here and there), ne (no), and jo! (yeah, yes).  Our Grandmother here, Babi, keeps you 2 times a week and says you understand her completely now, even if you don't say everything back to her yet.

- You can count to 14, though you miss numbers here and there of course.  But you get close to getting it all right each time.

- Your favorite stories or cartoons are still Barney and Baby Bop, Curious George, and Princess Holly and Ben Elf.  You ask to read these books at bedtime every night.  You love to be read to and you will listen for as long as someone wants to read, which is great.

- Your favorite colors, because of Barney, are still "Barney Purple" and "Baby Bop Green."

- This winter we have had a lot of snow and ice recently and you LOVE to ride on the sled with Kuba and also to sled down the hill behind our home.  You are not afraid to go down it and you love to just be outside in general, even if it's really cold.  You aren't even afraid to run on snow and ice, which always scares me to death.

- I don't know your health stats as we haven't had your 2 year check-up yet.  I plan to do that this week. :)  You seem very tall though, for your age, and you talk more than most kids your age around us.  You wear 2-3year old clothes and your shoe is a 26-27.

- You have a baby doll that you call baby that goes everywhere with you and that you must sleep with.  It's sweet to watch you take care of her.

- You sleep well by yourself in your bed each night, still a crib, and you sleep usually from 8 to 8.  You share a room with Jake, which you both seem to like.  I think he finds it comforting to know you are there.

That's all for now.  More to come soon!  Happy Birthday to our sweet little girl.  We love you so, so much!