2nd birthday disaster

I spent weeks of planning her awesome elmo birthday party and she spent the majority of the party crying.  The night started out well. We got some cute pictures of her and she was playing with her cousins. I don't remember exactly when the fussiness started but it just escalated. We ended up spending half the party outside walking with her. I even walked all the way to the nature center to see her favorite bunnies. On the way back she refused to sit in her car or walk so I had to carry 29 lbs and push the car with my hip.  Every time we tried to take her back in the house she would cry and scream again.  The singing happy birthday and blowing out candle part that I tried to prep her and get her excited about for the last several days was like ripping off a bandaid--did it quick and as painless as possible.  It wasn't until some people started leaving and I took her upstairs for a bath to just calm her down and get her away from the chaos that she became more like my sweet baby. We went back downstairs afterwards and she happily opened her presents but we did it oh so slowly to not overwhelm her.  So it took a failed birthday party for me to realize she doesn't like crowds and attention.  I would never have guessed it considering she likes to say hi to random strangers and strangers are always saying "she's so friendly!"  *sigh* I hope this is just a phase.

At 23 months...

• I cannot believe I have an almost 2 year old (!?!)
• She is saying LOTS of two word phrases such as "daddy car", "more cheese".  Everything is "right there" even if it's not.  She also said "teddy I love you" once and just this morning randomly said "I love elmo" (elmo wasn't anywhere in sight) but I'm glad she said this because little does she know, her birthday party is going to be elmo-themed!
• Had my second parent teacher conference this morning. Her teacher, Ms. Michelle is an amazing teacher and caretaker. Avi loves her so I love her too!  Ms. Michelle tells me how wonderful, intelligent, and sweet Avi is.  She's mastered everything that's been taught in her Orientation 1 class.  I learned that she knows all her shapes including obscure ones like hexagon and pentagon. She may not be able to say the word but she can recognize and match. She, along with Matthew and 4-5 other kids will be moving up to the next class in January!!
• Oh a very annoying thing she's been doing is she "beeps" you if you're in her way.  Yes, literally, pushes you with her hand and says "beeep!"  One time, I wanted to give her a taste of her own medicine so I did a hand in her face "beeeeeep!!" But I realize, I should not encourage this behavior...  #beingamatureadult. 
• She went to Chuck E. Cheeses for the first time for her aunt Justine's 5th birthday.  She was so afraid of Chuck E. that we had to sit as far away from the stage as possible. 
• She was Hello Kitty for Halloween.  I was Keroppi and dad was Batdz Maru.  Because of her fear of ppl in costumes, I was worried she would think Halloween a huge nightmare. It turned  out the night went smoothly. She  enjoyed roaming our street and grabbing candy (even though I don't think she knows what candy is yet, and I intend to keep her innocence for as long as possible!  There was a close call when she unwrapped a Dum-Dum but I got to it in time). She also liked to push her way into ppl's houses. 
• She loves animals. 
• After months and months of trying to get her to say "bird" and thinking it would be her first word, she finally says it instead of just "chirp chirp".  She also can say "elephant" instead of "boom boom".  
• Some conundrum phrases that only a parent could decipher: "dote side" = "it's dark outside", "like it" = "i don't like it"
• She loves eggs and will eat 3 eggs scrambled and likely more if we let her for breakfast. 
• When we go for walks in her red car, she always wants to go to the Nature Center to see thebunnies and turtle. The other option is to go see the train at the dead end of our street. 
• She refers to intangible things. For example, she may ask for the iPad even if she doesn't see it.
• She tries to sing along to songs. I was singing "The Wheels on the Bus" and she sang the "all around the town" part.  A few days after her birthday, she kept saying "appie to you". It took me two days to realize she was singing the happy birthday song!