We spent the day doing girl stuff with Luli today! We spent most of the day going to Tyler to see Aunt Dannise. You were trapped in your car seat for quite some time and did amazingly well! As a reward for your good behavior, we fed you some Blizzard and we went to the mall so you could play on the soft toys.

When we got there we saw a carousel! So, you & I rode it! You were very unsure what to think of it so after about 10 seconds I ended up holding you the whole time. I think you thought it was pretty cool….just were a little unsure. You then played on the soft toys for quite some time – you are a HUGE fan of that. Then you rode a very small, 3 seater, merry-go-round. You rode the duck and pointed to him and said “duckie”!

We all had a great day and thouroughly enjoyed our grandmother – mother – daughter day!

With VERY few exceptions, for the last year or so, you have been in bed and asleep no later than 7:30pm…usually closer to 7:00pm.

We developed a new bed time ritual upon our return from the Ranch…I rock you in the chair in your room until you are good and relaxed…and sometimes asleep. Then I will lay you in your crib and close the door behind me. You don’t cry, you don’t fuss, you just drift off to sleep until the next morning – usually between 7:00 – 8:00am.

Well, last night you made it clear you wanted no part of the relaxation time. Thinking you were just sleepy, I put you in your bed kicking and screaming thinking you’d quickly fall asleep. Not so! You made it very clear that the last thing you wanted to do was sleep. So, after about 5 minutes, we caved and let you out. You ran around the living room for the next hour or so and had a blast. It was clear you just weren’t ready for bed yet.

We pretty much repeated the cycle tonight! It might just be that your growing up a bit and your bed time is getting later. You are growing up so fast!

Well, Luli and Papaw came to town and we all took you to the petting zoo yesterday. WHAT FUN! You got to see and touch all kinds of animals: zebra, brama (cow), buffalo, baby pigs, chickens, goat, sheep, alpacas, horses, and mommy even got to milk a cow for the very first time in her life! GOOD TIMES!

You have definitely inherited my love for animals. You get so excited when you see them that you can hardly stand it! It’s the most adorable thing to see. We even got to pick out a pumpkin from the pumpkin patch before we left. It’s nicely perched in the front flower bed, along with the two that daddy & mommy picked.

You are growing up so fast. Though not all of your words make sense, you definitely have a way of communicating. You understand & respond to commands like “throw it in the trash”, “get your bib”, “is your hair in your face”, want to go bye-bye”, “where is…”, “what does Maddie say”, “where is your…”, “are you done”, etc. You also make it VERY clear when you are dissatisfied…for example, you let us know you are very unhappy when we take something away from you or try to put you back in your stroller after you’ve been allowed to walk around. We are working on finding the balance between teaching you that behavior will get you what you want…while still making sure you feel heard – no matter how you choose to communicate. It’s pretty amazing that we can have an entire conversation with you now!

You like to dance whenever you hear music, and you LOVE it when mommy & daddy sing songs like “The Wheels on the Bus”, “Old Macdonald”, and “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”….you actually like it when we sing anything. Even if it doesn’t make any sense.

You are very curious about EVERYTHING. You are methodical. You are a busy body and like to constantly stay on the move. For some reason, you love to play with anything that you are not supposed to. You could have 48 toys in front of you and you’ll want to dig through my purse, or play with daddy’s keys. You are still a healthy eater and there isn’t much you’ll turn down. We are in the process of converting you over 100% to whole milk from formula….we are about 60/40 milk to formula right now.

You know words for and can identify things like banana, cup, baby, balloon, puppy, bow, daddy, mommy, uh-oh, bottle, bear, bird, and ball. In fact, the sweetest thing happend the other day. I had just gotten you up from a nap and you were pointing over at your armoire and saying “baby”. I couldn’t figure out what you were talking about. The only thing “baby” by the armoire was a picture of me when I was just a few months old, with Luli feeding me a bottle. So, I took you over there and you immediately pointed to the baby (me) in the picture! AMAZING!

There simply are no words to express the abolute joy you bring to our lives…each and every day!