Rainah's World: Rainah's Second Birthday

Rainah is TWO!!! Wow. We just can't believe it!!!! Today we celebrated with lots of family... Grandma and Grandpa, Jill, Hayden, Talan, Jessica, and Justin all came over from the other side of the state. Aunt Kris, Uncle Will, and cousins Isabelle and Stephen came from the Chicago area, and Aunt Lynne flew in from Arizona. We had fun cupcake theme, with a VERY large cupcake cake, and lots of regular cupcakes and fun stuff to decorate them with (intended for the kids... but I saw some of the "adults" having fun with it too!)
One of the local Christian radio stations is supported by listener donations, and this year gave enough to be a "Day Sponser", which means the station plays a message that we recorded about 15 times during the day. A few days earlier we went to the station and Don recorded what we had written together. We got 60 seconds and could pick a song to play in the background... so of course we chose Fireflights, Unbreakable. We should get a copy of it, so hopefully I can post that soon, too.
Rainah is so blessed and got so many wonderful things from everyone. She had a great time opening everything. After all her gifts were open we took her down to the basement where there was a small bounce house for her... hopefully it will burn off some of that pent up energy from being cooped up all winter!
Rainah's well child appointment isn't until the end of the month, but she's probably close to 30 pounds, and around 33 inches tall (I think she seems to be on the tall side for her age). Her talking has improved by leaps and bounds in just the last month or so. She tries to say everything and it's getting easier to understand her. She even shouts, "yeah, Target" and throws her arm up in the air whenever we pass the big red bullseye. Very funny.
She LOVES Dora... not sure where that came from, but everything is all about Dora. She likes to color, LOVES to help me clean, and is starting to really interact with other kids, instead of just playing next to them. She's starting to pretend - I watched her pretend to feed her baby doll the other day, it was so sweet.
She is still a great sleeper; when we tell her it's time for bed, she usually just grabs both of our hands and walks up the stairs with us. She also still loves to eat, but is getting a bit pickier- recently she's decided not to eat meat. Luckily I can usually get her to snack on soy beans or crackers with peanut butter. She LOVES fruit, too- pretty much any kind.
We are still doing Gymboree, which she has a great time at, and MOPS. Last semester I only was called out two times- I thought that would NEVER happen! We also are pretty involved with a group of local moms, and seem to do at least one thing a week with them... from playdates at each other's houses to going to the Children's museum, or the mall's play area.
I know I'm her mom, and every mom thinks the same thing... but Rainah is very smart. As I've mentioned before, she knows her alphabet and is constantly pointing out letters on signs, in books, in stores... it still amazes me. She also is getting really good at her numbers and can identify 1-20.
I can't believe that two years ago today we were in the hospital with our DAUGHTER! I wish it wasn't going so fast!
Ok, enough blubbering... on to the photos of the party!