Who's birthday is it? Inara's!!

Someone's been extremely pumped about their birthday for about a month, reminding us several times a day that she's going to "fylla år" (have a birthday), while showing us how many years with her fingers. Finally the big day came! Inara started out by sleeping in (!) until 7.30 which made for both a happier birthday girl and happier parents. We got up and made American pancakes:

 

We put a candle on her pancake and let her blow it out. It's a bit hard to hear the conversation in the video, but Andrew asks what day it is and Inara says it's her birthday and shows us how old she's going to be. 

 

Then she got to open the gifts from us. You can hear her exclaim "a doctor's bag!" when she opens the second gift. 

In the afternoon we had a birthday party at the park. We had invited three of Inara's friends and their families.

Since Inara doesn't like cake, Andrew made her a melon cake.

Everybody seemed to have a good time, especially Inara. 

When we got home we still had a few gifts to open from grandma Nitz, grandpa Barney and aunt Annie. Then all her cousins sang her happy birthday on skype. After dinner, she left the table to go play in the living room and we could hear her singing the Swedish happy birthday song to herself in the other room. I think she had a really good day. 

I realize all parents say this, but I can't believe she's two now. I actually thought she looked older this morning when she sat at the breakfast table. Having a newborn again is probably going to make her seem even bigger. I also can't picture what life was like before we had her. Even though things are busy, I can't imagine anything more worthwhile than than spending time with her.