Happy 2nd Birthday Baby!

Oh, I mean Kemiah! We had a full day yesterday and I'm so glad that we were able to focus on Kemiah. When I got her out of her crib I talked to her about it being her birthday and that she is now 2. She didn't understand but she was happy anyway. I got her dressed and took her to our bedroom so she could say "good morning" to Dad. While they were snuggling, I grabbed balloons for all the kids, a tradition we started on the island is that everyone gets a balloon when we celebrate someones birthday. The kids really love it.

As we walked out to the dining room, where the birthday balloon banner was hanging up, she got all excited. It's the one decoration that I put up for all the birthdays so hopefully she understood a little more that today was special. We didn't have much time to hang around because I had to get some stuff done at the clinic before 9 so we left pretty early, and without breakfast.

Once we were done at the clinic, we filled all our empty water bottles, seeing as how we were on campus anyway. It didn't take long and then we were off again.

It was about this time that we all started to complain about being hungry. Yes we were all going around without any breakfast in our tummies. We went to a place called Rituals because I have seen doughnuts and that's what I was going to surprise the kids with. Well, when we got there at 8:55, there were no doughnuts. The lady behind the counter said they wouldn't be there until 10. Well, I wasn't waiting around for an hour so we went home and I made our traditional chocolate chip pancakes. They were yummy. Of course, before we ate Kemiah opened her birthday card from Grammy and Gaffa (my parents). Breakfast turned out great!

After I got breakfast stuff cleaned up a bit, we headed back out to Rituals to see if they had any doughnuts at 11 a.m. I wasn't surprised when we walked in and there still weren't any doughnuts. Oh well. The lady had no idea when they would arrive. Luckily, it only took 12 minutes so we were able to get some doughnuts for lunch.

When we got home, the doughnuts went into the fridge and the kids got their swimsuits on. We left again to go play in a different swimming spot in the river. My kids are actually more interested in climbing, wading and playing on the vines than swimming in the cold river water so we had lots of fun roaming all over.

After some fun in the river, we went home and enjoyed our doughnuts. This is the first time we have had said treats since we've been on the island. Marissa only finished a half; Kemiah ate a few bites; Xiomara ate a whole one; Ben and Emily at 1 1/2. I won't tell you how many I ate, but they were really good, just a bit more sugary than we are used to eating in one sitting.

I put Kemiah down for a nap and went to work on cleaning up and making her brownies instead of cake. We decided to do presents first and then let them play and read while I warmed up leftovers. Yes, we had leftovers for her birthday dinner. I had made potato chowder the night before and that's one of her favorites so that's what she had for her dinner so she liked it. She wasn't quite sure what to do with the candles on the cake - I guess we needed to practice.

So the other kids helped out and blew together to put the candles out.

She was timid with the unwrapping of the gifts at first. She wasn't sure what to do but after the first one she had a better idea and got the other gifts open just fine. Her last present was a carved coconut that Kevin bought from a deaf Dominican man. He says hi to us every time he sees us. Anyway it was a little much for her and she was very unsure of it. Luckily, she liked her books and puzzles and hopefully we can get her tiny kite to fly some time before we leave the island. Now all the kids have their own kites. Won't that be fun?!

Not really sure she wants to get the coconut out of the bag.

After dinner we all enjoyed a piece of brownie and even thought it turned out a little strange it was still yummy.

And here's a look back - our little girl when she was born two years ago. We love you little Kemiah!

Yes, she came out with dark hair.