Daphne is Two!

This week we celebrated Daphne’s second birthday.  She has a bit of a Hello Kitty obsession so we had a Hello Kitty birthday party for her. 

 

 

 

As a two year old, Daphne is delightfully determined!  In a less charitable mood I would call her a little dictator.  She is extremely opinionated on what she wears.  It is very difficult to get her to wear anything without an animal on it.  I was very happy to find a cute new outfit for Easter that had a Pegasus on it.  For some reason even choosing her pajamas in the evening requires a couple of different choices until she finally settles on one. 

 

She is very much a girly-girl.  She loves to comb her hair, unfortunately she will not let me put accessories in it.  Makeup is never safe around her.  Its not uncommon to see a big smear of concealer under her eyes or on Hello Kitty’s face. 

 

 

She is also very difficult to keep contained in a stroller.  We rarely use one these days.  But that does mean she will try to run off on adventures of her own.  If I pick her up to get her going in the correct direction, her usual response is an ear-piercing scream!  She loves to scream.  She did this in front of a police officer when we were walking through WEM and I was worried he might think I was kidnapping her!  She has also embarrassed me in Costco with her scream.  For some reason I had used the word “scream” in conversation with Rowan while both girls were sitting in the cart and she sure was listening.  She screamed automatically when I spoke the word.  She is also developing quite the sense of humour.  The other day when I was playing with Rowan and Daphne and they were being quite hyper, I said “I think you girls need to chill out.”  And with a big smile on her face, Daphne screamed as loud as she could.  As if it say “How’s this for chilling out!”  I have a hard time not finding all of this extremely adorable. 

 

Another bad habit is pushing chairs all around the kitchen to reach whatever she would like.  She sure likes to get involved in cooking dinner. 

 

 

She is also a very reluctant sleeper.  She loves to draw out bedtimes by doing the cutest things.  Sometimes she goes over her entire vocabulary, including animal sounds, before bed.  Sometimes she insists on offering me her "suckie" repeatedly.  Sometimes she even goes so far as to kiss each one of her toes goodnight before bed!  I always put the girls to bed at the same time and we snuggle up on the bottom bunk, just to tease her Brad always tries to give just the girls goodnight kisses, but Daphne never lets him get away with that.  He has to give mommy her goodnight kiss as well. 

 

 

Daphne also has a super sweet side.  She loves holding hands with Rowan and laughing at her sister’s antics.  She loves giving hugs and kisses to all her friends and family.  Mommy seems to get the most kisses!  She also loves her stuffies.  She gives them kisses, tucks them in, carries them around.  Her favourite night-time stuffie is a stuffed octopus we call Ockie.  She also loves her pink Hello Kitty we let her build at Build-A-Bear.  It’s her transplant buddy.  Instead of putting the heart in it when they stuff it, we put a liver in it I had made at home.  Rowan picked out the dress for Daphne's new Hello Kitty stuffie. 

 

 

 

 

Daphne also loves coffee.  She loves any kind of coffee or cappuccino ice cream.  She always tries to steal my coffee and loves when I let her finish the last sip. 

 

 

Puddle jumping is something she has discovered recently.  She loves it, and is so happy any time we pull out her rubber boots.  We have all been cooped up long enough, all of us are eager for all the snow to melt and spend time outdoors again. 

 

 

Medically she is doing well.  Currently we are on our longest run out of the hospital with her!  After her transplant discharge she was on 15 different meds.  Now they are down to 5.  None of which are injections.  She is on monthly bloodwork, monthly transplant clinic appointments, and monthly paediatrician appointments.  And a very recent development is that Daphne is tube free!  She has been tube free for a few weeks now.  That means she is taking her meds all orally now.  She has her grumpy moments where she is not happy to take them, but for the most part she does great with them.  And luckily for us the most important one, tacrolimus, is her favourite! 

 

Well, this post was all about what Daphne is like now that she is two.  We are so thankful for her everyday.  I always say to her "Are you Mommy's little angel?"  She usually replies by nodding her head.  I'll end with a very poorly shot "Birthday interview video" of the girls.