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Today was Az's second birthday celebration with family and friends. Last year I made a big to-do of her birthday party and was let down by a low turn-out so this year I decided we would have a more intimate gathering at Children's Fairyland in Oakland. All of Az's favorite people were there so she considered the day to be a smashing success. She wore her Snow White Halloween costume because it was her birthday and she could, ate more than her fair share of salami, a food item I had really hoped to not introduce her to for a few more years, and got quite the variety of dolls and books, two of her favorite things of course. Each time just before she opened a present she asked, "Barbie Doll?" Alas none of the presents did contain a Barbie, though I have a feeling that next year she'll receive quite a few. Maybe next year I'll try to have a bigger more official party for her but this year, with her father's 30th birthday party planned for the next weekend and a mother who was still burnt out from the exhaustion of prepping the year before, the smaller sandwich buffet and miniature house party was perfect. (Az called all of the small buildings "dollhouses," because the best kind of building is obviously a dollhouse.)

Two of the girls I've considered to be my best friends going on two decades now, Az, her grandmother, and father. We invited three of Az's cousins from Miguel's side but unfortunately she didn't interact much with them. I'm hoping that within the year the kids will start to show more interest in each other. In the mean time, Az had a blast playing with my friends.

I wanted a picture of Az with Fairyland's Snow White, but didn't know if she would be interested enough to pose with her. Az has never actually seen the movie Snow White; Az has never actually seen any Disney cartoon, so I didn't know if she would get that she was dressed up as her. I should have known better than to underestimate the girl. She totally and completely understood that they were the "same," though she was curious about why their shoes were not. (I had brought along a red Snow White-esque ribbon and blue shoes that were very similar to the ones from the cartoon but Az preferred to rock the gold shoed, pig-tailed Snow and really it didn't matter in the long run.) She hugged Snow White repeatedly and whispered Snow White secrets to her. She was actually very kind to the statue, sensing that she had to take care of her own kind I suppose.

We were posing and being silly with the semi-creepy statues when I realized that Az was posing too, with hands on her cheek looking surprised at us. Between takes she would put her hands down, and as soon as we started posing she went back to her surprised pose. I think we have a new BFF in the making.