mia turns 2!

on a beautiful wednesday morning, miss maddalena rose woke up as a two year old for the very first time. "cake! mia's cake!" she said so gently but so excitedly as we snuggled, once i reminded her that her birthday had fiiinally arrived! you could just see the sweetest little realizations happening behind her sleepy eyes... oh yes, baby girl, mia's cake soon!! in only... 12 more hours! but first... balloons!

(reminds me of a photo of her daddy i once took... ha!!)

so, once we crawled out of bed, we played with balloons, gazed at decorations, opened a little early present of fun rings to deck out all her tiny fingers, picked some pink and white birthday roses from the back yard, watched a little curious george, of course, and got her birthday dress aaall ready... a precious and beautiful monogrammed dress that my dear friend katie's sister, morgan, made for maddalena some time ago!! it's so gorgeous and flawlessly done, and i just knew i had to save it for a really special occasion. now that it fits her just right, i thought it'd be perfect for turning two years old! i snuggled her through her nap that afternoon, admiring her sleeping angel face, peeking at some of her newborn photos on my phone, and feeling really good about the whole wonderful thing.
then, later that evening, all maddalena's dreams came true... gaga and papa showed up (my parents), followed by gigi and pops (steven's parents), then cog'n and lala and chrissy (haha my brother, stephen, his/(our) lady liza, and my sis christina! we aren't quite sure how madd turned uncle stephen into cog'n but that's what she calls him... and that is definitely how it's spelled, we decided! it's pretty much amazing every single time she says it in that sweet little voice of hers.) and so! we ate pizza and we played...

(in love in love in love with my people)

and of course... everyone came bearing gifts! naturally, once maddalena opened the gift that her daddy and i got her (a toddler camera! and just in time, i feel, since she's been so dangerously obsessed with mine!), there was much, much documentation to follow... every gift she opened was greeted with excitement... and a photo! the birthday cake... a photo! everything... a photo! i love that child. i love her so much it hurts.

it was an absolutely perfect evening to celebrate turning two! it was fun that she knew it was her birthday. it was fun that we knew what gifts she was absolutely going to love! it was all just so much fun. most importantly, she was thrilled. (and goodness, i am so glad that we stuck with a very small family celebration, because heaven help me, we have the rest of our lives to have big birthday parties, don't we!) thank you so much to our families for making this little girl smile! there is truly nothing better. :)

welcome to two, maddalena, my baby girl!! this is going to be one. amazing. year, and we can't wait to share it with you!