23 Months

Mary Ella at 11 months old.

Now I'm 23 months!

Again, I just decided to get some active monthly pictures of our active girl.

Telling me something very important.

Giving her baby a kiss goodnight.

Time to eat, baby.

She loves to dance, sing, and twirl!

I can't remember what I said, but it ended the photo session.

Baby down, bow down

Done

Mary Ella,
I CANNOT believe you are almost 2! It seems like we were just planning and celebrating your 1st birthday! I don't know where the time has gone, but I do know that it has been well-spent and will be treasured forever. I feel so blessed to be able to stay home with you each and every day. Here's what you've been up to:

• You cut 2 more teeth on bottom (18 in all). Since they finally came through you have been a happier girl! And you're not waking up to cry in the middle of the night for no apparent reason...I'm sure it was mostly your teeth.
• New words/sayings: dream, fast, avocado, happy, fun, dress, bracelet, necklace, drink, no way (I don't know where this came from), why (really, already?), wash hands, head, poo potty, diaper, pizza, I know, I don't know, eyebrow, medicine, watch, Einstein (you watch Little Einsteins), sticky, wash, bath, Rhett, sit, play, seat, glasses, sock, frog, oopie (oopsie), tummy, high, big, tall, ears, my tar (you can pick out our car), money, bank, pig, wash up, ready, froggie, treat, crown, grapes, yahoo, hammer, back, gotcha, phone, rest, throw ball, bucket, shovel, beach, ocean, big pool, sand, sandy, oink, Belle, Sleepy (Sleeping Beauty), and something for Snow White, zebra, giraffe, bird, bed, work, blocks, teeth, neck, puzzles, it's raining (when you hear thunder you say, "it's raining on house"), this, that, oh my, mail, see look, I want some (usually when you want my lip gloss), I want play wit dat (usually you are asking for permission to play in my make-up), I want one too, sticker, Badou, feed baby, change diaper, bottle, dance, lady bug, butterfly, move and stop (you say this when I am in your way...we are working on "excuse me" instead), clap, pat, march, broken, who dat, Daisy Duck, Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Goofy, yogurt, chicken, tots, alligator, chomp chomp, monkey
  
• When I ask you if you want to do something like, go to the pool. You say, "yeah, pool fun!"
• You're not picky about what you wear yet, but I'm expecting it any day now. Some days I ask what you want to wear just to hear what you'll say. The first time I did this you said, "shoes on, bow, dress." And more recently you say, "blue dress."
• You love to dress up with necklaces, bracelets, and all things girly. You especially love to wear and twirl in dresses.
• You get on kicks where you're all about "I wanna poo potty." You have gone pee and poop in the potty at random times, but you usually just want to play on it. You do get a kick out of hearing your toilet play music when you potty, and you love to choose a treat after you go. I thought you might be ready, so I stocked up on all the stuff and tried for a few days this month. But it didn't go so well. You peed on everything but the potty (couch, floor, high chair, and all 7 pairs of your Minnie and Daisy undies). You did poop once, but that's only because I caught you in time. On day 3 of trying we found out we had to go to Fayetteville for a funeral, so I decided to throw in the towel. I think you will be ready soon, and I hope to get it done before Rhett gets here. But if you're not ready, you're not ready.
• You are so sweet when you cook during the day. You bring me a piece of pizza or a cupcake and say, "Mama one." And then you go back and get one for Daddy too and say, "Dada one." You also remember to reserve a teacup for him even if he's not home.
• You like to pretend it's our birthdays, sing happy birthday, and blow out the candle on your cupcake.
• Daddy has created a little money monster. Sometimes you are stingy with your kisses for him, but he started saying that he'd give you a quarter if you gave him a kiss. Of course this worked, and now it's a routine. You refuse, he offers money, then y'all go get it and put it in your piggy bank. Then you kiss the pig. Silly!
• You started saying the worst 4 letter, and we couldn't figure out what in the world you were saying. I knew you didn't hear it from us, so I didn't think you were really saying the naughty word, but you would march around and say it over and over. FINALLY, we figured out you were saying frog! We got you to say froggie instead, which sounds SO much better! It would have been terrible if you had said that in public!
• You recognize and say almost all of your colors: green, blue, red, pink, yellow, black, white. You also know purple and orange, but may or may not call them by name. Orange must be really hard to say!
• You loved the beach! You called the ocean the "big pool" and said you were "sandy, sandy" when you were covered with sand. You also didn't care to walk through the deep sand because you said, "stuck in the sand, wa, wa." Ha!
• You love to sing "I Know You" from Sleeping Beauty and "Be Our Guest" from Beauty and the Beast.
• You are really into blocks and puzzles. You are very good at fitting different shapes into the correct holes of your wooden cube.
  
• You are also really into playing with your baby dolls. I hope this is a good thing to get you ready for Rhett's arrival. Maybe you will think it's cool when you have a real live baby to take care of. You give your baby a bottle, pat her back to burp her (with sound effects), change her diaper (with help), put her in the high chair to feed her, rock her, put her to bed, and give her a kiss. It is the sweetest thing to watch!
• You can gallop!
• You are still loving some Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and can sing parts of the song. When we ask what Pluto says you shake your head and say, "yeah yeah" like he does! Your next favorite Disney show is Little Einsteins.
• You like to play ball with Daddy. You say, "throw the ball," and then you run to go get it. When you grab it you say "gotcha" and bring it back.
• Your favorite book is still Mother Goose, but you also love the frog pop-up book Gigi gave you.
• You can keep track of pointing to and counting a few objects on a page.
• You are a swimming freak of a baby. You like to swim back and forth to whoever will catch you, swim to the side, swim to the steps, play Humpty Dumpty on the side, jump in. All over and over again. As soon as you come up, you want to go back under the water. Sometimes we have to make you stop, just so you will catch your breath!
• We love you so and are so so proud of you!