Why do fire alarms always start chirping in the middle of the night? No 4am picture available.

We are very disappointed to be back to the grind in Durham this week after a fabulous beach trip.  Kaya has been Miss Grumpypants without constant swimming, playmates and activities.  A few highlights from the week:  

We couldn’t be happier to spend the week in Nags Head at the beach. The water is perfect without seaweed or jellyfish. Pure joy!

So tempting!

We spent last Sunday in the Duke Gardens. There was a family with two young children doing a photoshoot in the amphitheatre part.  Kaya watched closely as they sat on the ledge and posed.  When they were done, she walked over to the ledge, posed, said cheese, and waited patiently while we took out our camera. And it is a lovely picture.

We all sang Happy Birthday to Kaya at her birthday party this weekend – she pretty much thought it was the greatest thing ever and sang the Happy Birthday Song for the rest of the weekend.  She also discovered ice cream cake and noisemakers.  Overall a great toddler weekend.

Kaya turned two yesterday!  She is still not quite sure what that means I think, but did understand that it was a special day.  Her friends at school all made her a super cute card and she celebrated with chocolate ice cream and a big hug from mommy.  She’ll have a more formal candle-blowing out ceremony on Saturday.

Kaya and I took a swing by my old rock this weekend. Tommy painted it for me when he was an undergrad at Duke – I think circa 2002.  It’s a bit run down now, but still fun to play on!

Kaya’s great-aunt and -uncle got her a pair of tasseled moccasin boots that have suddenly become the fashion rage at her school. Everyone has to have a pair!