Lately

At the park......

on the swings (this shot is hard to take with the camera!)

Playing in the huge sandbox at the park. I love this park- there is a pool right next to it that looks so inviting on hot summer days! Unfortunately tomorrow is the last day the pool will be open so Emma & I are going to try and take advantage of it.

And can it get any better? Right behind Emma and the fence is a lake, with ducks walking around. A favorite of Emma's.

We need to work on manners at the park. Here she is digging up the dirt and wiping it all over the bench seat.

My big girl.

She is getting so big. I am always surprised at how different she seems each day. And I love how I feel like we can really communicate now and I can understand what she wants. Most of the time she sounds like she is having a conversation with herself in her own language- but, here is a quick list of some words she actually IS saying now:

Ahhhhh (as in "this wet cloth is so refreshing on my face"), Binkie, Baby, Ball, Bye Bye, Baaaah (sheep), Bibby (bib), Cat & Meow, Doggie, Down, Daddy, Emma, Eat, Ewwwww, Froggie, Hot, Lap, Moo, Mmmmm & Yummy, Mommy, No, Oww (ouch), Oooooo (like, "how pretty"), Out, Teeth, Up, Uh-Oh

My favorite is "Ewwwww"...I think is a result of us spending so much time together! She walks around and any little string or fuzz she picks up off the floor she will either point to it or hand it to me and say 'ewwww".

We have been having a blast lately- she is so much fun and so happy (most of the time!). She really makes me & Felix laugh all the time and Felix & I love just sitting around and talking about all the cute things she did, it is so nice to share this with him!

This video is pretty quick and uneventful, (I was trying to catch her saying ewwww but missed it, so this is the best I could get). She quickly says "uh oh" in the beginning after she threw the ball in the bucket, then "ball", then "oooooooh". She is teething, so her shirt is soaked.

There are some things that she is doing at this age that I just don't want to forget:

Plays in her crib for up to an hour in the morning! Just throwing binkies overboard or banging toys together. This morning I saw her on the video monitor trying to suck on the tiny toy bottle that her small rubber duckie carries under his wing!

Knocks on the outside of the door when we get home and lets out a joyful shriek when she sees Matti run up.

Clings to my leg when I am preparing anything in the kitchen and says "eat" AND signs "eat" until I give her a sample.

Says "bye bye" when she wants to leave ANYWHERE (like when I brought her in the shower with me the other day....she hated the water spraying on her). But my favorite is when we are just hanging around the house and she picks up anything that resembles enough of a bag so she can hold it on her forearm or shoulder- and walk to the door saying "bye bye". SO CUTE!

Understands most of what I say to her; clean-up, get your baby, push the stroller, let's change your diaper, go 'noo noo' (to bed), take a tubby (bath), put on your shoes (this one is HER favorite...she RUNS to her shoes)- right up there with her other favorite: eat! She goes right over to her highchair saying "bibby". Lately when I talk to her I really think she understands everything I am saying. When did this happen? She is growing up too fast!!!

She goes right to sleep, sometimes even diving out of my arms and into the crib before we finish singing songs! As of now, she naps after lunch time for 2-3 hours, and then goes down around 7pm for bed and wakes up between 7 & 8. She just loves her crib and sleeping. Could it get any better???? I feel extremely lucky with her sleeping habits.

She helps me up off the floor. I don't need help, and sometimes don't even want to get up- but if she sees me lying there, she walks over and puts her hand under my shoulder to "help" me up (this is a significant improvement from her pulling on my hair to help me up)! Once I am up she gets the biggest smile on her face, so proud of herself.

She wants to sit in my lap on the floor in her playroom when we read books. She picks up her book, walks over to me saying 'lap' and makes herself comfortable......as in- slouches back against my chest and sticks one leg up over mine!

Gives hugs & kisses when asked, a favorite of ours. She even kisses Matti. Ewwwwww :)

Takes my powder or blush brush and wipes it on her face when I am getting ready in the morning.

She holds her hands out to the side with her palms up as if to say "I dont know". She does that a lot when I ask her where something is. This morning she ran into our bedroom saying "dada dada" and looked all over for him with her arms like that...so cute, but Felix was at work :(

Not a fan of me brushing her teeth. She usually buries her face in my shoulder but eventually lets me stick the toothbrush in enough so she can suck off the toothpaste. I sneak a few scrubs in and when I gave her the toothbrush for her to do herself.....she tried to stick it in MY MOUTH!

And last but not least, she still makes the "blowing your nose" sound anytime she sees a tissue or wad of paper. So everyday without fail, she walks into our bathroom and points to the toilet paper while making the sound as if she is blowing her nose. I tear off one piece for her and she either wipes her nose with it, wipes off furniture with it, crumples it up and sticks it in the garbage or our vanity cabinets, or...Matti steals it.

However. At this age, she has also started to show some "not so cute" things!!

She has hit me in the face a few times when I am holding her and she wants to get down. When I tell her "no, we don't hit" she sweetly lays her head on my shoulder and into my neck and it just melts my heart!!!!! But that probably isn't going to work long!

She pushes us away from things or points at us and says "NO!" if we are invading her territory. For example, before bed she will sit in the middle of her boppy pillow and watch Barney. If we rest our heads on the pillow she tries to pull it out from under us. I try to get her to lie down and share with us.

She went through a few days where she would not stay out of the dog bowl- either feeding Matti his food piece by piece, dropping it into the water, splashing water everywhere or just dropping the food all over the house in different places. It was a disaster. So, believe it or not, we actually tried Time-Out for the first time. I just had her sit in a corner next to the couch and I sat behind her so she couldn't run away (for 30 seconds). She would cry, but I didn't think she really understood what was going on. However..... after only 2 days of doing time out, she would go over to the bowl and stare at it and stomp her feet in front of it (but not touch it), and now...she has not even looked at that doggie bowl in the past 2 weeks!!!

She is just my adorable little chicken and I love her to pieces. Her belly laugh is contagious, her snuggles warm my heart, and her sweet happy personality really brightens my day. I am a lucky, lucky mom and am really enjoying this time with her!