Night has come and I just put you to sleep. Every night you are with us I still take you up to your room when it is time for "night night", I pray to Jesus thanking him that we have each other, and I sing you our song. It never gets old and I honestly do not look forward to the day coming that I no longer need to do it.
But that day is coming faster than I could ever imagine and certainly faster than I'd like. Today was your 2nd birthday, daughter. It was two whole years ago that I held you for the first time. It's all going by so fast and sometimes I just want time to stop so I can spend more time with you just the way you are. It seems like only a blink of an eye ago that you were having "tummy time", or we were excited that you took your first steps, or that you were eating baby food. You are growing so quickly and as bad as I want it to slow down, it is a thrill to watch.
Now you are running around and laughing all the time. You remain one of the happiest children I have ever seen and that makes my heart smile. You say really cute things like "I love you" even though it comes out "Lud ooh". In fact, I will never forget the first time that you told me that you loved me without me saying it to you first. You were on my lap and said, "Lud ooh, Daddy" and then you reached over to give me a kiss. Right after, you just hopped off of my leg and ran off to play. It is amazing to me how you won't ever understand how special that was to me until you have a child of your own. But, Marlie, it was one of the greatest things I have ever experienced and I will never forget it. Ever.
You say "bless you" when I sneeze and you have even said it to Chloe when she sneezed before. We make you say "hibachi" real fast because you sound like a little ninja. You call Chloe "Ko Ko" and you call Crystal "Kreethu". You say "EAT" ALL of the time and tonight when we left the restaurant we went to for dinner, you turned around and said, "bye bye, Eat!". You tell everything and everyone "bye bye". You tell Chloe bye when we leave the house. You tell waitresses bye when we leave a restaurant. You even tell the bathtub bye when we take you out. You like saying bye to everything and I adore it.
So, today we had your 2nd birthday party. You LOVE a cartoon named "Olivia" that you cal "Lia" and Crystal worked so hard to have her at your party! We had Olivia cut outs, Olivia hats, Olivia cake, and more. Crystal worked and worked and worked to create the perfect party for you, Mar. She loves you so much. And you love her right back. She took some pictures at your party and even shot some video. Here are some of them:
This is you and Olivia. You are besties and you are even dressed just like her!
There were many nights when Daddy went to sleep and Crystal STILL stayed up late making sure that she made everything JUST right so that you could have the PERFECT Olivia birthday!
This was your Olivia cake. She was everywhere!
You and Faith are best friends. Faith loves you so much! The two of you get really excited when you get to see one another. Crystal made you and your friends Olivia ears and you and Faith were sweet enough to take some pictures in them for us!
And of course your Nana loves you. She is one of your favorite people, too!
Here you are with your Nana and Uncle Chad!
You and Faith have a new friend! Her name is Delaney and she loves Chloe almost as much as you do!
Here we are opening a few of your presents. You say "OOOOOOHHHH" when you get excited :)
And here is some video of the day!
Marlie girl, I am so proud of you. You are just a beautiful, charismatic, well behaved little angel and I couldn't be any happier that you are mine. Today was a great day as we were surrounded by so many people that love you. They all took the time to come be with you today and they spent their hard earned money buying you gifts. One day you will understand just how special that is.
Well, there is so much to tell you. 2012 had it's challenges for us, but it has been by and far that greatest year of our lives. We have so much to be thankful for and even if the year didn't go quite as well, we would still have each other. Over the next few weeks I will catch you up on our new home, how Crystal is now one of your mommies, too, and how we are now able to spend so much more time together thanks to Daddy's friends. I am so excited to spend Christmas with you in a couple of weeks and I can't wait to see what 2013 has in store for our little family.
Well, I am off to bed for the night. I always am so happy to know that when I wake up, you will be upstairs waiting for me to come get you. So, until the morning, happy birthday, little one. You were magnificent today. I love you-from here to Pluto.
Love, Daddy
