Reese's birthday

For the longest time after Callie's birthday, if you asked Reese how old she was, she would say "Five!" Thank goodness her birthday comes two months later, because it took that much time to convince her that she was not five but was in fact turning two.  Based on her numbers, though, it is clear that she is not five yet.  At her doctor's appointment she came it at a height of 33 1/4 inches, which placed her in the 40th percentile.  Her weight of 23 1/4 lbs put her in the 5th percentile.  Although a little shorter than her sister was at this age, she is still holding true to form overall.

We have some traditions in this house.  And although the girls are not twins there are certain things we did with Callie for her second birthday that we figured should happen for Reese as well.  So we invited the Chrismans over for dinner and dessert.  We bought an ice cream cake from Graeters.  And we did not buy a present for Reese.  You might call this lazy and cruel.  We call it fairness.  Besides, neither Reese nor Callie will understand it all until they sit down and read this, and by then we can explain it away.

Reese certainly knew that the evening was about her, and ate every bit of it up.  She has no problem being the center of attention.  And we were able to get her to show the camera exactly how old she was.  And apparently another tradition for us is the birthday girl shirt that Callie once wore.  Trust us, if it fit, they would each have to wear it every year on their birthday.


Reese also embraced the birthday song and was pleased to have it all about her.  Of course she was also excited by the tasty cake on display in front of her.  Callie also enjoyed celebrating her sister's big day and wanted to make sure that everything was just right.

And even as we are writing this, Reese is squirming on Sarah's lap, squealing in delight at the pictures, and singing "Happy Birthday to me!"


It would not be a real Bowes girl birthday party at this point without the Chrismans present.  The girls love them just being there and we love the bottle of wine they always seem to bring.  Seriously, though, we even held the dinner party on a night when we knew they could be there.  You can see in this picture that Reese is well aware of how to pose properly with such important people.


Although her parents did not get her anything, Reese was still showered with gifts and loved opening every last one. It was good practice for Christmas, that's for sure. She certainly is at the stage where the joy comes from opening the gifts, not from what is inside. That will change soon, we are sure.

 And at the end of the day, we had a girl who was two years old, which is still hard to believe. She came into our lives as a bundle of energy and has not slowed down for a second.