Heidi Ann, age two

Heidi had her second birthday on June 23rd. To celebrate, we invited Jared and Kristi and their kids and our neighbor Neal over to help us eat a Texas Sheet Cake, which Ryan made. It was very tasty.

Heidi got a baby doll for her birthday. We went to Target to see what she was interested in, and it was a toss-up between a very soft stuffed dog and this doll. After thinking a lot about it we decided the doll would have a little more play value and bought it. Now Kevin wants his own doll and keeps trying to take Heidi's away, so I guess we know what he wants for his birthday next month. Heidi loves her new baby. At night she always wants to help her baby say her prayers ("I want Baby to Heavenly Father thank thee for this day").

Heidi is a sweet and fun little girl. She makes the cutest facial expressions and smiles. If she hurts somebody accidentally and they say ouch, she will kiss them where she hurt them and ask if they are okay. She is active, agile, and fearless, which means she hits her head a lot, but she is also resilient. People often tell me how amazed they are at the things she can do, especially climbing. She says a lot of words and often uses complete sentences. I don't know if other people understand her as well as I do, but she is very good at communicating. Here are some things she has been saying lately:

• "Myself, myself" or "Do it all by my SELF!"
• "Neen-up buddy" is a verb that means to clean up. (It comes from the Barney song--i.e. clean up, everybody everywhere.) She will either sing, "Neen-up buddy, neen-up buddy," or she will say, "I'm going to neen-up buddy."
• " 'Mere!" (Come here!)
• "Go away, Mom!" (For when she's mad at me. I'm not really sure where she picked it up.)

Heidi loves her pink blanket, her duck lovey, and all stuffed animals. In order to sleep, she needs to have a small blanket and a stuffed animal or her duck to hold. Now she also likes sleeping with her new doll. She also likes to have them to help her calm down when she is upset or hurt. Recently she has started coming to me with her blanket and duck and asking for "nungles" (snuggles). She also loves reading books and dancing to music.

Heidi is very interested in the potty, but she is working on overcoming the psychological association that she has with going in her diaper. I try to let her wear underwear at home so she can keep practicing, which has been resulting in a lot of accidents. She has had a couple of successes, though, and I think she will figure it out. Sometimes when she wants to try, she will say, "I want to have a acci-'ent (accident) in the potty." I do not think that word means what she thinks it means, but there's something awfully cute about the way she says it.

Heidi's hair has grown a lot recently. I'm suddenly finding that I have to fix it on a regular basis, which would be much easier if her comb would stick around for more than a day without disappearing. Her hair has a bit of a curl to it. I adore the little ringlet she has in back. If the ringlet wasn't there, I might have cut her hair a long time ago to even it out, but I don't want to lose that sweet curl. Whenever she gets her first haircut, I will probably get that piece and save it forever.