Happy 2nd birthday, Piper!!

Today, Piper turns 2. Unbelievable. She's spent the last three days celebrating and can very clearly say "Happy Birthday me." She's awesome and we love her more than I can eloquently say - even after a very difficult day of terrible twos ... of which today was one of many!

I know when I wrote the last short blog, I said I would cover why I went through a very lengthy blog hiatus. To sum it up, we had an amazing vacation in Turks and Caicos, only to come back to more not-so-great news. I just felt like life was continuing to deal us a crappy hand and I needed to not write about it because then I thought about it more. I'm incredibly skilled at squashing bad emotions deep down, ignoring them and moving on - waiting until life is good on its own again. With some things, this strategy has worked, with others, it hasn't (particularly grieving), but life IS more positive now so I'm ready to be back, chronicling our lives for Piper to someday read later on in life.

The really good news is that the cancer scare is over! I have one more set of monthly labs to do and then my trips to the lab for HCG levels are DONE. Thank God, because I hated that the lab people knew me by name and were curious about what was going on in Piper's life. I wanted to be anonymous, but my frequent shopper status prevented that and it drove me nuts.

So back to fun stuff!

Reid and I are rarely spontaneous ... but we were this past weekend and it was an absolute blast. Friday afternoon, we booked a room for that night in Westport, NY. We stayed at a really unique inn with great views of the lake. We were all in the same room, but it was just fine. Here's Piper with her crazy hair before we actually got going on Saturday. That's her "smile" face ... go figure.

After a great breakfast, we launched the boat and drove it up to Essex, NY, which is so far, my favorite little town on Lake Champlain. As we docked the boat, their fourth of July parade was about to start so our timing couldn't have been better. After exploring Essex and a fun lunch on the water, we were back on the boat for what was easily one of the best boating days we've had. I'm smiling now just thinking about it!

And then Monday was Piper's 'family' party, followed by her 'friends' party yesterday and another great play date today. So much celebrating and so much fun, but it's definitely taken a toll on Piper, who as a toddler, tends to be emotionally fragile (or volatile, whatever) at times. She's had a blast, but was so tired today, I could tell we may have crammed a bit too much fun into a short amount of time. Good thing we have a low key day of the Great Escape tomorrow ... ooops ... I predict a major meltdown in public at some point tomorrow :-) But all in all, the memories from this weekend and Piper's official transition into a "preschooler" are ones that I'm so excited to remember. Including watching her explore her new ride while opening presents on Sunday ...