Babystar turned two last week. She had been steadily transforming into the ToddlerMonster for the last few months.

She grew several inches and goes down the big slides at the park all by herself.

She has learned cool new tricks like jumping with both feet and manipulating her world into providing her with chocolate.

She can string words together to make sentences. She says things like ‘Where my pink shoes go?’ and ‘I want more blue chocolates.’

She can count to ten. Sort of. She starts at four. And she ends at BLASTOFF. 4-5-6-7-8-9-BLASTOFF.

She picks out her own clothes, and rarely chooses pants. Or she chooses only pants. And her sock game is extremely creative.

She has SO. MANY. OPINIONS. It is really cool to watch her brain develop and it is also extremely annoying.

We celebrated with a birthday party at one of her favorite places — Nook. She did not seem to care at all about the party room with decorated tables and pizza and cake. She was very excited that so many of her friends and family were playing with her at Nook. She kept telling me ‘Everybody play!’

Party cost breakdown:

• Weekday party fee at Nook (with member discount) $200
• Pizza (from next door at Angelico Pizzeria with tip) $120
• Cake (Harris Teeter) $48.55
• Star cookies (Trader Joe’s) $5.98
• Kool-aid Bursts (to make rockets) $4
• Cardstock (to make rockets) $1.96
• Plastic cups for snack display table $2.50
• Astronaut helmets (3) $14.94
• Space themed rubber duckies (24) $12.98
• Space themed dinner and dessert plates $27.48
• Space themed dinner and dessert napkins $17.92
• Solar system snack display stand $8.99
• Star table covers (3) $10.50
• Hanging planets $6.49
• Gold plastic forks $4.99

We also had a fruit bowl and veggie tray and a variety of drinks, but these were purchased by my generous in-laws, along with all of the graduation party food for the following day. Yep, I had two parties in a row. Thankfully, only one of them was at the house.

RAISING BABYSTAR: $18,586.41