Happy Black Friday.

If you’re one of the non-nutso people who decided to stay asleep in your warm bed instead of battling the crazies on Black Friday, you should be rewarded.

 

My Etsy shop, Piggy’s Place, is having a 20% off everything sale (including custom orders) today only.  Enter “FRIDAY” at checkout to receive this discount.

You can cross one or two more names off your Christmas list and not even have to battle the crowds to do it.  Win-win, right?

 

Click here to go to Piggy’s Place

Belated.

Anna’s 2nd birthday came and went, and here I am, nearly a month later, finally getting the chance to write about it.  As a means of mental protection, many veterans of war often block out horrible images and periods of time - I’ve done the same with Anna’s second birthday.

Why, you ask?

Because my child is no longer Anna – she’s Satanna.  And Satannna and her little terrible two minions were out in full force on that scary day, October 10, 2010.

I stayed at my mom’s house that weekend since the majority of our family/friends live in her area.  It just made the most sense logistically.  Since I’m mother-of-the-year, I waited until the last minute to basically do everything for this party.  With the exception of the cute decorations, everything else was a last minute ordeal.  Crap!  I need to order the cake!  Crap!  We have no plates or utensils!  Crap!  We have no food!

So, we made a mad dash to Wal-Mart (hell on earth) the day before the party.  Satanna was out in full force there, so our shopping experience was super pleasant (dripping with sarcasm).

The morning of Satanna’s birthday started out innocent enough.  I walked into the bedroom to sing Happy Birthday to her, and she seemed to enjoy it for the first 20 seconds or so.  Then Linda Blair’s demons entered her body, and she started growling and snarling at me.  I knew we were in for a lovely day. 

All morning long it was a battle between good and evil.  “Anna, let’s get dressed.”  “NO!!!!!!!!” (screams, rolls on the floor, froths at the mouth).  “Anna, let’s brush your teeth.”  “NO!!!!!!!!” (screams, rolls on the floor, froths at the mouth). 

When I finally did manage to get her dressed, she refused any photo ops, so this is what I got:

At least the Golden Girls are happy.


Here she is walking, nay running, away from me.  At least you can see her 2!

Again, she refused to look at the camera.

The silver lining at this point was that her party was a very small/intimate affair.  I’d only casually invited a few close friends and family members over, so it wasn’t that big of a deal for them to see me have my mommy mental breakdown over Satanna’s antics. 

We did the cake and gift thing and prayed that no serious altercations would occur during this time.  We lucked out.  Anna cooperated, for the most part, even though I’d still see glimpses of Satanna come out.  That’s OK, though, because by that point, I became a little less than angelic.

Here are some pictures of the decorations:

Anna’s smash cake

Anna is two sign.

Overexposed picture of the Golden Girls.

Cupcake toppers

Anna liked the cupcakes.  She also liked taking the toppers out of them.
 

Anna with her floor sweeper.  She loves to help me clean!

Blowing out the candle

Success!  And do I see a little bit of a smile?!  And a random eggplant?

Enjoying the cake!

And here’s the typical family photo where I’m the only one looking at the camera.

Now Anna is the only one looking at the camera.

There’s that darn eggplant again.

So, Anna had a wonderful 1st birthday and a crazy 2nd birthday, so we have a wash.  Hopefully next year will be wonderful, and we’ll be past the terrible two phase of life although I’ve heard 3 is even worse.  Help me, help me, please!

PS
Don’t forget to check out Piggy’s Place!