My Baby is 2

Oh me oh my.....my baby is now 2.  I've been saying she's 'almost' two for a few months now because it seemed odd to say 22 months, 23 months, etc...and now she really is 2.  I ask her how old she is and she holds up a variety of fingers and says tooooo.

 

How cool is my blue ring pop mouth?

 

We had a really nice party at the house and just what I was hoping for w/ her 2nd birthday.

It started off super-stressful, however.  My baby isn't too fond of napping regularly, but I still put her to bed around 12pm and she fell asleep maybe around 12:45pm. Well, it was after 2pm and she was still sleeping (so was I) and my sister woke me up about 2:10pm. I hadn't showered or anything yet and the party was supposed to start at 2:30pm.
Well, I jump to shower and I hear that she has woken up. Screaming. My sister had gone in her room to try and change her diaper and she was just 'off'. She had been sick the two days prior w/ a viral cold, fever on/off, terrible stuffy nose, etc..and still wasn't feeling that much better. She kept saying mama, mama.....so quickly done w/ my shower I took over (in my towel and wet hair mind you) and it was close to 2:30 already.
She got on her birthday outfit but did NOT want me to put her down.  We walked towards my room and a few guests had arrived, including one of her babysitters. I handed her off because I just HAD to get ready. Babysitter took her to the front room and she just buried her head in babysitter's shoulder, crying, wouldn't get down.
I finally pull myself together (at least my hair was blow-dryed) and I put on a dress....came out and got my babygirl. She was still crying. I picked her up and she clung to me like a baby monkey.....she was holding on w/ all 4 limbs......head in my shoulder crying, not wanting to look at anyone. I rocked her back and forth, rubbing her back, and shhh-shhhhing her. 
Cue my stress level rising by the minute.  Now everyone was here and she was still crying, I wasn't totally ready, and I was hot, hot hot.  Thankfully my sister got the extra fan, I sat down on the floor w/ her and they had started putting presents in the middle of the room. Now THAT got her curiosity going.  Once she started paying attention to the presents, slowly but surely she came around.
WHEW!
WHEW!
She was really a lucky little girl because a lot of our friends and distant relatives had sent her presents via mail, plus the ones she had from the guests.  I had gotten her a cooking kitchen, play food, and pots and pans (she has one at both babysitters and loves it). I also got her a paja.ni.mals book and a fis.her p.ri.ce dollhouse.  She's shown a ton of interest in dollhouses since one of her babysitters has a massive one.  She isn't quite independently playing, but she really likes to have someone sit w/ her and 'cook' and 'play'.
Her spirits were great the rest of the party and guests stayed until around 4:30pm.  We had cake, drinks, etc. and it was just right.  Small and sweet.  I ordered a cake and they made the wrong flavor and spelled her name wrong on it (they fixed that) but who cares, right?  We still were able to sing Happy Birthday and she enjoyed it a ton.
My sister came for about 4 days and it was a bit better this time, but baby girl still needed time to warm up to her.  My sister did put in effort to slowly get her involved in things like playing potato head, etc. so that was great.  I can't say she was in the best of moods, though, as she was somewhat quiet....but she's been having a lot of kidney issues again. In fact today I just told her she probably needs to go back and see the specialist because she continues to get stones (in her one good kidney) and just takes pain medicine to deal w/ it.  And that in turn makes her sick, she feels worse....vicious cycle.

As for me, mama is close to 31 weeks. Woo-hoo. I am getting pretty excited, and expanding by the day. My bump is bigger now and you can for sure tell there's a baby in there. People are still surprised when I say that I have max about 8 weeks left, though....because I carry high and I am tall.
I am still feeling a lot of stretching and lower pain, but all is normal.  And great news, the iron has really helped my overall fatigue. I didn't want to declare it earlier because I wanted to see how it went, and I am like WHEW! I feel somewhat normal. That's not to say I don't get tired, but it's not the bone-crushing fatigue I was feeling before and feeling like it was fight just to get going in the morning and function all day.
I am still working on the nursery.....I've been surprised to find how hard it's been to find a non-dark, decent, but not expensive crib.  I was going to get one from someone selling, but they wanted too much so I just said forget it.  Also, I had someone come and give a bid just to paint the room and I almost choked. I am not paying 650 bucks to get a room painted, not sure what they were thinking....it's never cost that kind of money in all my past of painting....I was thinking couple hundred, maybe and I'd go ahead and pay it, even though I am in a rental. I just want a nice, sweet room that's READY before he comes.
So, still working on that now........

Overall we are doing okay.  I still need to put baby's birth story together before I have another one to tell!