Two and a Half!

Our Sal is two and half!  She still only weighs 23 lbs, which is something like 3rd percentile for her age.  She is a tiny little thing.  But you know what they say...Dynamite comes in small packages.  And that is definitely true for our Sal.

This girl is full of spunk, sass, and spirit.  She's a tornado.  I thought Noah was strong-willed, but we might be taking it to a whole new-level with this firecracker.  She is one independent and fiery little lady, and she exhausts me and challenges me for sure.  But at the end of the day, I would not change her indomitable spirit.  I hope she never loses the sparkle of mischief in her eye and that devious little dimple.

 

 

Here are some stories to give you an idea of how Sally has kept our life exciting the past few months:

At Noah's music class recently, I was helping Noah with his bells when another mother started motioning to me with wide eyes and pointing to the back of the room.  I turned around to find Sally stark naked, smiling at me knowingly, as if to say, "Oh yes I did, Mom, and there ain't nothing you can do about it."  As Noah said later, "Sal was wearing her birthday suit in front of all the moms and kids at my music class!" ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I sang a solo in church a few weeks ago, and afterward, I was holding Sally in my arms when an elderly gentleman came up to tell me what a great job I had done.  He said, "And does this little lady have a beautiful singing voice like her mother?"  Sally looked at him for a second and then burst into song: "Jingle Bells, Batman smells, Robin laid an egg!"  I have to admit, in that moment, I was pretty sure I have the most amazing kids on the planet. 

Another song that I have heard her singing loud and proud lately is one that she must've learned in her beloved Nursery class (she adores Nursery) with a little twist: "I hope they call me on a mission...to teach and preach and work as missionary dudes!"  (For those of my friends who aren't Mormon, the original song says, "missionaries do."  I like her version even better!)   I hope that Sally does go a mission and all sorts of adventures someday--and I have no doubt that she will keep up with those missionary dudes!

Speaking of music, she doesn't like to hear me sing.  Humph!  She often covers my mouth with her little hand when I try to sing her lullabies.  I've tried to tell her that many people enjoy my singing, but she is not convinced.  I guess I'll save my musical performances for elderly gentlemen at church who have hearing aides.

Even though she doesn't like my lullabies, she loves to be rocked and have her back scratched.  This is pretty much the only way that I can get her to nap anymore, and I actually enjoy it because it's the only time of day that I can get her to cuddle.  She is not a snuggler at all and will almost never give kisses.  But for these few precious minutes some afternoons, I get to hold her, and then I lay her down for a doze.

 

She cut her own hair.  Oh yes she did.  She hid in her room and just started snipping away.  Fortunately, Ryan realized that it was entirely too quiet and went in there before too much damage was done.  When Sally saw him, she said, "Uh, I'm not doing anything in here, Dad!  You can go away now--thank you!"

She managed to give herself a pretty good mullet, but my friend Tanille is a whiz with hair and did her best to clean it up.  Some parts were so short that she had to leave them, but it's a pretty cute little bob when the hair is pulled back. When the hair is down, it looks a little bit like a 90s bowl cut, but whatever--we do urchin well at our house.  Just ask Noah and his boots.

 
Sally tries to put a hex on me when she's mad.  I am not kidding.  She got this from an episode of Sofia the First where one of the characters decides to be a good little witch instead of a bad one, but I guess Sally would rather be a bad one?  When she's not happy about something, she storms off and gets her little magic wand.  Then she hides behind a corner or opens her bedroom door just a crack and sticks her wand out, so just her hand is showing, and waves it around at me.  I can only imagine the curses she is muttering in her head. So hilarious.

She has this little move that we call "The Scorpion."  She will just be walking along, and suddenly she pops down on all four and sticks one leg up in the air and holds it for a few seconds like a yoga position, then pops up and keeps walking.  So random and funny.

She doesn't like to help.  Shouldn't two-year-olds still like to help?  Shouldn't the "Clean Up Song" still be kinda exciting and effective?  I remember Noah being pumped about his little jobs, but Sal flat out refuses to help with anything.  This morning when I asked her to hang her cloak on a hook (yes, she wears a cloak), she said, "I'm too busy, Mom."  Uhhhhhh???? 

Sal in her cloak:

As a friend said after watching me trying to discipline Sally for a day recently, "Let me know how it goes when that little girl is a teenager."  I'm telling you, she is a pistol.  I have my hands very full.

Last month, I tried to be a good mom and bake muffins with her.  She really wanted to add some water from her sippy cup and kept trying to unscrew the lid to pour some in. I patiently explained that the recipe didn't call for water, and I let her add other things to the mixing bowl, but she would not give up.  Finally she just took a big swig from her cup and spit the water directly into the mixing bowl.  Ha! I was so stunned, and even a little impressed by her problem-solving, that I couldn't do anything other than move her out of the kitchen and turn on a show.  No more cooking with Sally for a while!

She has THE cutest little voice.  It's kinda raspy, and I love the way she says certain words, like "Otay!" She calls herself "Sal" all the time, and it's so funny to hear her talk in the third person: "Sal do it!"  She also often calls people "humans" which is just hysterical.  She will say things to me like, "Mom, stop talking to those humans" when she wants me to hurry up so we can go home.  She really does like humans though--she is super friendly, just like her brother.  She will willingly go to just about anyone, and she waves and says hello to people everywhere we go.  We have two very outgoing kids.  It's fun.

A few months ago, we were at a petting zoo and Sally was so excited to feed the goats.  She absolutely loves animals.  Well she quickly became incensed when she saw that the big goat was hogging all of the pellets from the littler goats.  "Stop it, Goat!" she kept shouting.  When he wouldn't listen, she finally got fed up and just punched him right in the nose.  I loved it.  A Shakespearean quote came to mind: "Though she be but little, she is fierce."  I hope she is always a defender of the undergoat.

She insists that she is "Queen Elsa of Arendelle" (don't forget "of Arendelle" or she will quickly correct you) and she pretty much refuses to take off her beloved Elsa nightgowns.  It's hilarious, endearing, and infuriating, all at once.

When I was diagnosed with Intracranial Hypertension a few months ago, I started seeing a counselor again, and one day I was telling her about how wild and crazy Sally is--and how it is sometimes hard for me to connect with her, especially when I am feeling crummy.  She doesn't like toys or books or songs...there is literally not one toy that she will play with.  What am I supposed to do with her all day when I don't have the energy to chase her around or take her to the park?

"All she likes is Frozen!" I vented. "She refuses to take off her darn Elsa dress!"

"That's it!" My counselor interjected. "You need your own Elsa dress!"

I was stunned. "Me??" I stammered in surprise.

"Yes!" She insisted. "An adult-sized Elsa dress, and you two could have tea parties and dance together.'"

I let that image sink in for a minute, and it was just so absurd that I burst out laughing--and didn't stop laughing for the thirty minutes after my appointment as I searched the options on Amazon.

So I did it.  I bought myself a silky, sequined Elsa dress--with a long tooule train, no less.  And it is every bit as ridiculous and awesome as you would expect.

As you can imagine, Sally absolutely loves dressing up together, brushing our hair, putting on red lipstick, and dancing to Frozen.  We've choreographed our own little routine to it, so even though it's not really in my nature to be playful--I like to get stuff done--when she says, "Mommy, will you dance with me?" I try to take a deep breath and let it go (see what I did there?). I slip on my dress over whatever I am wearing, and we have a grand old time twirling and building imaginary ice castles in the front room for a few minutes.  We have big windows, and I often wonder what the neighbors must be thinking. Ha!

I love this crazy little Elsa with all of my heart.  And she has her daddy wrapped around her finger as well, as you can see by their little manicure session at 7:30 a.m. one morning.  Sally is the perfect mix of a diva and a tomboy.

 

We sure love you, Sally Grace Nielson!  Even when you fall off of counters and get black eyes, get into my lipstick and smash the tip, and cut your own hair into a nasty mullet.  We wouldn't trade our Spunky Sal for anything in the world!

 

A Birthday Love Letter to a Wild Sweetheart

My Darling Sal,

On the night of your second birthday--after a busy day of ginormous balloons, princess tiaras, and buttercream frosted cakes--I sat down to write a love letter to you.  This is my tradition, I do it every year, so I opened my computer and fully expected the swell of adoration to come washing over me so I could write.

But I waited and waited, and the feeling didn't come.  All I felt was exhaustion.

Perhaps this is something that I shouldn't admit in a birthday love letter.  Perhaps I should skip over the weariness of motherhood and get right to the sweet scene of you blowing out your birthday candles.  But I tell you the truth because one day you will be a mother.  And you will know what I mean when I describe this exhaustion.  Sometimes, you will simply feel overwhelmed and tired, and you might feel guilty that you don't feel all-consuming, gleeful, giddy love for your children all the time.

I want to tell you that it's normal.  It's normal to be exhausted when you have little ones.  It's normal to feel so utterly depleted at the end of the day that the thought of writing a sentimental love letter is just too much.

And so, on the night of your birthday, I shut my laptop and went to sleep.  And in my bedtime prayer, the feeling came.  The awestruck swelling in my soul--the awe that I get to be your mother.  I get to see you grow and learn and become every day.  On my knees by the side of the bed, I smiled into the mattress as I thanked God for the beautiful little birthday girl in the sparkly crown and red-checkered dress.  I thanked God that you are mine.

Today is a new day, and I have a few moments of quiet to come back to this birthday love letter for you.  I want to tell you all about the things that I love about you as a two-year-old.

I love your little voice.  You have started talking so much in the past few weeks.  People comment on your little voice all the time because it is low and raspy--so unusual for a girl your age.  Maybe you'll be a growly alto like your mom and her sisters.  Ha!

You actually do love to sing, and as you walk around the house, you sing the ABCs, Popcorn Popping, and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.  You also sing along to the music in the car, and your favorite song is "Doh Doh" as you call it (Uptown Funk by Bruno Mars--it starts with a guy singing, "Doh, doh, doh" hence the nickname).  You screech, "Doh doh!" every time we get into the van until I turn it on. (Oh the screeching!  You are definitely a determined little lady!)

Your vocabulary is exploding lately, and it's so fun.  When you sneeze, you say, "Bless you, Mom!" even though you are the one who sneezed.  You pretend to talk on the phone and have entire conversations with your favorite babysitter, Ashlyn, using that plastic purple phone.   One of your favorite things to say is "Oopsie daisie!" when you make a mistake. And just this week, you started counting to ten.  I love hearing all the new things you have to say every day. 

When you see babies, you shout excitedly, "Hold eeeeet!  Hold eeeet!"   Like your mama, you love a snuggly baby and grin from ear-to-ear when you are holding "it." Ha!

You love to pray and always ask to be the one to say it when I put you in your crib at night.  I lay you on your pillow, and then I kneel beside the crib and say each line slowly.  You fold your arms but keep your eyes wide open and smile with self-satisfaction as you quietly whisper the last word of each sentence that I say.  Then at the end you shout, "A-men!!"  It is the sweetest.  And the highlight of my night is when you stick your nose between the crib bars and ask for a nuzzle before I leave the room.  Rubbing noses with you and giving you a little kiss is a perfect way to end the day.

I love your bedhead and your sloppy pigtails when you wake up from a nap.  I love how much you adored this birthday card from your Bapa and carried it around the house with you saying "Bapa!  Bapa!"over and over and pointing out the animals:

You are a diva and a girly girl.  You are obsessed with princess dresses and shoes, and you love getting into my makeup.  You came out of my bathroom the other day looking like this, and you thought you looked very lovely:

You are a fashionista with your leopard print swimsuit and signature straw hats that you insist on wearing everywhere!

You also love diva sunglasses, and you yell, "Bright! Bright!" and ask for them every time we go outside.  Ha!

You love being the center of attention.  On your birthday, you insisted that we sing "Happy Birthday" to you about five times, and you sang along, loud and proud, and blew out the candles with gusto each time.  That will probably be one of my all-time favorite birthday memories of my children. 

You are a handful.  You have so much energy and spunk--you are much crazier than your brother Noah was at this age.  You want to try everything and you are super independent.  If I try to help you take your clothes off before a bath, you yell, "No, Mom!"  You want to do things yourself.

You are joyful and mischievous--and not obedient at all.  You almost always have a naughty little twinkle in your eye.  

You climb on everything.  You love to find ledges and walk on them--like the edges of sidewalks or  planters.  You have really good balance and can also climb the tall ladders at the playground.  Future gymnast?  You've started hanging upside down from the handles on the roof of the van and shouting, "Monkey bars!" Ha!  I am always amazed by your strength.  Maybe because you only weigh 23 pounds, it's easy for you to do these acrobatic moves. ;)

I mean, is this normal??

Yes, you only weigh 23 pounds. Noah weighed more than that when he turned one!  You are 10th percentile for height and weight--tiny but feisty, strong, and loud.  You know what you want in life, and you holler until it happens.  We usually let you get away with it because we are suckers and we are tired and you are too cute for your own good.

You adore your brother, even though he teases you constantly and you two fight like cats and dogs.  Aren't you too young to be fighting already??  I must say, sometimes when it's only 8:30 a.m. and you two are already shrieking at each other, I feel like I'm gonna lose my mind.  But then the other day I was giving you a bath, and I had to go grab a towel so I asked Noah to watch you for a minute, and as I was leaving the bathroom, I heard you spontaneously say to him, "Hi, Noah!  I wuv oo, Noah."   My heart melted.  Especially since I've never heard you spontaneously say "I love you" to anyone, not even Mom and Dad.  I hope you and Noah always look out for each other throughout life!

You are super dramatic in your facial expressions.  It is hilarious.  When you see a mashed up banana or something, you will screw up your face into the cutest grimace and say, "Ewww, gross!"  I can always tell by the look on your face exactly what you are thinking, whether it is disgust, joy, love, anger, or sadness.  I love how expressive you are.

You started riding your tricycle this month, and you love it.  You have to wear a backpack so you can reach the peddles because you're so short.  I can't get enough of my little urchin on her bike:

You fill my life and my heart with joy, Sally. Yes, you are a menace (as we still lovingly call you), but overall, I think I am a much more relaxed mom than I was when Noah was little.  It feels great to see that I am maturing and becoming more patient as a mother, more able to enjoy my children and savor the stage we are in.  You are at a needy age right now--where you can't/don't really play by yourself, you hang on my leg all day, and you make huge messes--but when I start to feel really frustrated, I remind myself, "This is a stage.  The hard parts of this stage will pass, but so will the perfect parts."  In those moments, I try to just stop and get down on the floor and look into the eyes of my wild, beautiful, urchin-angel, and soak in every bit of your insane cuteness.

I love you, Sally Grace Nielson.  Every night, not just on your birthday, I thank God that you are my daughter.  Yes, motherhood is exhausting, and when you are a mom there will be some days when you just have to go to sleep and look forward to a fresh start in the morning--but it is so worth it.  Someday you will be a mother, and only then will you understand just how much I love you. 

Thank you for being mine and for filling each day of my life with your wild sweetness.

I love you, to the moon and back.
Mama

Little Miss Independent, 21 Months

Sally Grace is 21 months old.  She is precious.  Absolutely precious.  She is also so busy and hard.  Ha!

She somehow got away from us in the mall the other day, and we had ten adults searching for her for about fifteen minutes before she was found.  It was terrifying.  At first I was calm, thinking she would come wandering up to us at any moment (I mean, how far away would she actually go from her parents?), but as five minutes became ten, became fifteen, I started to panic.  I was in tears and so was Noah, and I don't think I've ever seen Ryan so desperate.  Turns out she had run to the other side of the mall and all the way to the back of a department store by herself.  She is so independent and not afraid of anyone or anything. When we finally found her, she wasn't scared at all.  She was just sitting happily in the arms of the stranger who had found her.  Oh my gosh, Sally--you are killing me!  One thing is for sure, she will never be in a busy place like that without a stroller again! 

Noah never wandered away from us like that when he was a toddler, and I am finding that Sally and Noah have really different personalities.  He's never been very independent--he would prefer that I do things for him--but Sally is very insistent that she do things herself.  She wants to buckle her own high chair and car seat; she loves putting on her own socks and shoes (putting on socks is her favorite thing, no matter whose they are--she looks pretty hilarious wearing Noah's soccer socks or Dad's church socks, pulled up high); when I try to help her with something, she says "No, Mom!" so emphatically in her tiny voice. The sound of her voice is the cutest thing on this planet.

She says tons of words now.  Again, not like Noah (who was honestly speaking in sentences by this age--he was more interested in talking to me than wandering away from me, ha!), but she says new words every single day and clearly understands pretty much everything we say to her.  I love it!  I am always so delighted when I hear her say a word for the first time.

She has her own little language, calling my phone "bone," her blankie "menchie," and milk "meky." When you ask her if she wants something she says, "Mmmhmm" instead of yes.  She says "Where are you?" like it's one word, and it's irresistible.  I will hear her calling from her crib after naptime, "Mama, wa-ah-you?"  She will also call this out if she is looking for a toy or trying to help me find my shoes as we head out the door.

She is obsessed with my "bone" and knows how to get to my photos app and look at pictures and videos of friends and family.  This is one of the few things that keeps her quiet and still for a few minutes.  Unfortunately, she sometimes gets out of the photos app and calls people to breathe at them.  I sometimes get texts from my sister who lives in a different time zone, "Uh, Sally called me five times this morning at 6:30 a.m."  Woops!  Her favorite people to call are her Grandma and our friend Adrian Dayton in Buffalo. Ha!  I think it's because his name starts with A and must be one of the first in my contacts list.  Sorry, Adrian!

She will screech at me when I am talking on the phone because she wants to say hello.  She grabs the phone from my ear and yanks it away and then just breathes at the person and smiles.  She also tries to grab the phone away from me when I am sending text messages, and I've pretty much given up on having my phone out when she's around.  I call her the Tiny Tyrant.  I try not to let her get away with too much, but she's so stinking cute that it's hard to discipline her.

She tells knock-knock jokes.  It's hysterical.  She has learned this from her brother (who can go for a good twenty minutes telling me the worst jokes imaginable).  She will say out of the blue, "Knot knot!" And she will keep saying it until I respond, "Who's there?"  And then she just spouts out some gibberish and laughs at herself. 

She loves to laugh.  She is a joyful little girl.  She still loves "slap-stick" humor, and if someone trips or bumps their head, she breaks out in guffaws.  She also thinks bodily functions are just hilarious.  If anyone is ever gassy in our house (not that that ever happens), she laughs and laughs like she is a middle school boy.  Heaven help me.

Her dad is her favorite.  No contest.  He is the first person she asks about when she wakes up in the morning, and if he's already gone to work, she wanders around the house looking for signs that maybe he is home after all.  She will see a pair of his shoes on the floor and say, "Dada! Dada!" and look around excitedly.  When we pull into the garage, she always looks over to see if his car is there, and she often notices that he's home before I do.  "Dada home!  Dada home!"

She also adores her big brother.  She hates holding my hand when we cross the street (again, Little Miss Independent), but she is more than willing to hold Noah's.  In fact the other day when we went for a family hike, she kept saying, "Hand? Hand?" until Noah would reach up and hold onto her.  Sweetest.

 

She also loves to wear her brother's sunglasses and sit in his booster.  He is her hero!

She is destructive.  I can't keep up with her mischief.  This morning, I found her drinking hand sanitizer so I swiftly took that away and took it over to the sink to wipe it off.  While I was doing that, she ran into my bathroom, turned on my bathtub, filled my tennis shoe with water, and dumped it all over the carpet in my room. As I soaked that up with a dishtowel, she went back out into the kitchen and started the dishwasher, her favorite thing to do. The clean and dry dishes were now wet again.

Wow.  It's just wow.  We have to lock our bathroom door during the day because faucets are her favorite thing and she has dumped so much water onto the carpet in our room that it's starting to smell of mildew.  She keeps me sooo busy.  I am hoping that she will love the water table and baby pool in the backyard this summer--she can dump as much water as she wants out there!

She's not really interested in toys.  She doesn't have a favorite toy, stuffed animal, or doll.  She just likes to destroy things and hang on her mama's legs.  After an exhausting day recently, I spent some time Googling ideas for keeping a toddler happy.  I now have a list of simple ideas that may interest her (such as building towers and knocking them down, playing hide-and-go-seek with a stuffed animal, and rearranging the condiments in the side of the refrigerator).  I will let you know how it goes. ;)

Though she doesn't have much interest in stuffed animals or dolls, she is obsessed with live animals and babies.  She is very forceful in her affection toward both (like a true Westover girl!) and I often have to restrain her from smashing dogs and cats in her hugs and mauling babies with her kisses.  This past weekend we saw her baby cousin Gracie, and Sally could not get enough.  I was holding them both on my lap, with Sally looking at photos on my phone.  Sally suddenly started to jab her arm behind Gracie's shoulders, and I thought she was pushing her away in jealously, but I soon realized that she was putting her arm around her.  She pulled Gracie close and tried to show her the photos she was looking at.

When she sees her beloved doggies, she will say "Rah rah rah!" instead of "Ruff ruff."  Cutest puppy sound ever!

I know it's too early to tell, but she seems to be athletic like her dad.  She has a good arm and can already throw overhand (Noah still can't do that--ha!).  She loves a song called "Hop Little Bunnies" from a show we watch on YouTube, and she will hop around the room while she watches it.  I've noticed that she jumps with both feet off the ground, which I think is an advanced skill for a kid her age.  (So basically, she's going to be an Olympian...haha!)

We're not sure yet if she has inherited musicality from the Westover side of the family.  I sing her Edelweiss every night at bedtime (my mom always sang it to me), and she puts her head on my shoulder and bellows it out along with me.  It's my favorite moment of the entire day.  Most of the words are gibberish, but boy is she trying!  She did this yesterday at church too.  In the middle of the opening hymn, she just started bellowing gibberish along with everyone.  I wasn't the only one in the congregation who was laughing.

She is still an amazing sleeper, and I love her for it.  With how busy she is, I need my daily break when she takes an afternoon nap!  She never protests when I say it's time for nap or bed, and she waves goodbye to Noah as she walks straight to her room, ready for her book and song.

Sadly, she is going through a bit of a mean phase.  She pushes over other kids and then looks up so innocently when I scold her, like "Who, me?" She also bites when she gets frustrated, and I know I have to be ready to dodge her chompers if I take something away from her and she's super angry about it.  I'm hoping as she gets older and has more ability to communicate, she won't feel the need to lash out to express her frustration.  For now, we do stern talkings-to and short time-outs.  Seems to make no difference but hopefully over time she will grow out of this!

At her core, she's still a sweetheart.  She is hard because she's busy, not because she's cranky or contrite.  She's a good little girl and so likeable.  When anyone walks into the room, she shouts, "Hi!" over and over and uses their name.  I am surprised by how many names she knows of the people we see regularly.

She takes her prayers seriously, especially if she is praying over her favorite food, guacamole:

You can't turn your back on her for one second at the dinner table.  There's a reason her nickname is Menace!

Watching the laundry churning is the highlight of her life, but I can't let her do it very often because she won't stop pushing the cycle buttons!

She's my favorite daughter.  We are completely obsessed with her.   When I am holding her in my arms, she will pull my glasses down to the tip of my nose and say, "Hi, Mom" when I peer over them at her. 

I love seeing her little diaper bum in tight stretch pants as she runs along the path when we go for family walks.  I love the mischievous twinkle in her almond-shaped eyes when she knows she's done something naughty.  I love her nose nuzzles and soft kisses at bedtime.  I love her dimple and how cute she looks in her straw hat.

She exhausts me, but I am so lucky to be her mama.  Losing her for a few minutes the other day in the mall brought that into even clearer focus.  I don't know what we would do without her!

Sally Grace, 18 Months

My Sally Grace is 18 months old.  She is so super cute right now.  I said to Ryan the other day that I think she's at her cutest age yet.  She's just this tiny little lady (she still only weighs 20 lbs) yet she wears hip clothes and shoes that I wish came in my size, and she has big sea-blue eyes, a few craggy teeth, the sweetest dimple, and little curls fanning out by her ears.  Scrumptious.

 

This is also a needy age for her because she can't communicate yet, and it frustrates her.  She whines to be held and entertained whenever we are home, and she is starting to throw tantrums when she doesn't get her way.  There is no way I can get any computer work done when she is awake, so I try to keep us busy with errands, outings, and play.  But despite the typical 18-month-old neediness, I know she is an easy toddler and I am grateful.  She takes a good nap every day, goes to bed without a fuss, eats anything and everything, and happily goes to babysitters. Compared to my strong-willed firstborn, this girl is a piece of cake. ;)

She's not a big talker, but you can tell that she understands a lot of what we are saying to her these days.  She will run and grab her coat if I tell her that we are going outside or start stripping off her clothes if I mention "shower."  She is so pleased with herself when she folds her arms for the mealtime prayer with the rest of the family.  Sweetest.

 

The words she does say include the following: "More!" (usually referring to milk), "Mine!" (anytime she wants something), "Noah" or "Brother" (she looks for him constantly), "Bye!" (she shouts this anytime we walk away from someone), "Hi!" (her little voice saying this kills me), "One, two, go!" (jumping off the bed into Daddy's arms), "Watch!" (now that we have a TV), and of course "Mama" and "Dada" (because we are her favorites).

She says "Shoesh! Shoesh!" constantly as she carries everyone's shoes and boots around the house. ;)  She also says "Cheese!" anytime I point my phone at her to take a photo.  Little diva.

She is obsessed with cups and with drinking water.  She shrieks for a real glass at mealtime--she will not accept a sippy cup--and she drenches herself, but I continue to let her do it because I hate the shrieking.

A worrisome habit that she has picked up recently is biting.  BITING!!!  So far she has only ever bit Noah (thank goodness), but it cannot continue.  When they are fighting over a toy or something, she will open her jaws wide and try to take a chomp at him.  Terrible.  Other times she is not angry when she tries to bite him, and I honestly think it's intended to be a love nibble, which is sort of hilarious considering that her mother and her aunts have a serious problem with "cute aggression."  She and Noah will be cuddled up watching a show, and I will see her start nibbling on his back, arm, or foot.  Oh man.  I guess I need to stop gnawing on her belly when I change her diaper and eating up her cheeks when I am overcome by her cuteness.

It's honestly funny to see her pick on her big brother.  She really knows how to get under his skin and annoy him, like every little sister should!  Yet she adores him, and I swear half the time she hits him just so she can give him a hug afterward to say she's sorry.

She's following in her brother's footsteps by learning to love Legos!  She started playing with Duplos recently, and I am amazed by how well she can put them together.  She will sit and stack Legos for fifteen minutes without losing interest!  She'd rather do that than watch TV.

She is still super friendly and walks up to people and puts her arms up to be held.  It is charming.  Who doesn't like a darling little toddler asking to sit on their lap?  She also hugs other babies and toddlers, whether they like it or not. 

She started the Nursery class at church this month (hallelujah! no more wandering the halls all during church!), and she did great.  She looks a little tentative when I leave her and lays her head on my shoulder and squeezes me tight for a few moments, but she doesn't cry when I hand her over to the teachers.  It's like she is saying, "One last hug, Mom!  Okay, I trust you."  Nursery leaders and babysitters have told me that she likes to be held when I'm away from her because she is feeling a little insecure, but she never cries.

When she's in the mood to hug, she drapes her whole body against your shoulder and nestles her head into the crook of your neck.  It is a full body snuggle.  If you rub her back or sing to her a little, she will stay there for a few long moments.

She's a goofball with tons of personality who loves to be chased. It's her favorite game, and she giggles like crazy.

She's a runner, and I honestly can't keep up when she takes off.  This is made even cuter by the fact that she has a leg problem called "tibial torsion" so her right foot turns in quite significantly; she has to hoist her leg up high so she doesn't trip herself as she runs.  She really gets her arms moving and her legs pumping!  She might have to wear a leg brace under her clothes to correct her turned-in foot, but we will see.

She's gotten tall enough to open doors in the past few months, and she loves to let herself into the bathroom to splash in the toilet or turn on the tub.  Sometimes I swear I have to change her clothes five times a day because she keeps getting wet!

When she dances, she look so uncoordinated, and it makes me laugh because it reminds me of how I look when I dance.  She mostly just waves her arms up and down like a Jazzercise instructor and occasionally falls over.  Ha.  Kinda funny that her middle name is Grace!

We took away her binky this month.  Ryan was insistent.  She has a super strong suck, so her binky was really affecting the formation of her teeth, and it drove Ryan crazy.  We'd talked about taking it away for a while, but I always refused because I didn't want my easy sleeper to go away!  But one evening when I was gone for youth group, Ryan put her to bed without it.  When I got home and he told me, I was kind of mad, but I could also tell how important it was to him, so I decided we could try it.  She had a couple of hard nights, but we stuck it out, and honestly, I'm shocked by how well she has done without it. After those first few days, she seems to have forgotten about it, and she still goes to bed willingly and usually sleeps 12 hours at night. 

The most amazing part?  Her teeth have totally corrected themselves.  I thought Ryan was being paranoid about how much the pacifier was affecting them, but it is so obvious how much her teeth have changed since we took it away.  I guess six years of schooling actually did teach him something about children's teeth.  Ha!  (And I should add that some kids' teeth are fine with a pacifier until age two, but with Sally's strong suck, it was moving them fast.)

Speaking of teeth, she still only has six--four on top and two on bottom.  She's a slow teether.  A few molars are popping up right now, which might be why she's been especially cranky this past week.  She had her first dental appointment with Dr. Dad a few days ago, and she did great.

 

She pretends to blow her nose.  She will grab a wipe and put it up to her nose and blow a raspberry with her lips.

Her very favorite toy to play with at church is a dried-up Glue Stick.  She loves to take the cap on and off.  It keeps her occupied for at least five minutes. Yes, only five, but I'll take it.  Church has been a little more bearable since we started going early so we can sit in a pew instead of the cultural hall.  She still gets restless, but she's not nearly as wild because we can corral her better.

She says "Ow!" when she doesn't want me to do something, like wash her hands or put on a shirt.  She doesn't understand that "Ow" indicates pain--she just knows that it makes adults stop what they are doing, and she uses that to her advantage.

She likes books now and will choose one out of her basket every day when we head into her room for naptime.  I love reading to her.  Her favorites are "Peek-a-Boo Polar Bear," "Shake a Leg," and "Good Dog, Carl."

She hides under her linen blankies while she is sitting in her crib after naptime.  She puts them right over her head and keeps them there.  When I look on the monitor, I can see a little ghost girl sitting up and awake in her crib.

She loves all vegetables and food.  She will down raw mushrooms, kale, peppers, cucumbers, whatever.

She also loves her sweets, such as the massive chocolate muffin that I let her eat at Costco recently, just to keep her in the cart.  It is impossible to shop with this little girl!  She wiggles her way out of the seatbelt in the front (I called her Houdini), and when I put her in the back, she climbs all over the food and smashes it.  I can't win. 

 

She is an impish rascal, and she will grab things that she knows she's not supposed to have and make a run for it.  She gets this sneaky little grin on her face and then snatches the contraband and dashes away before you can stop her.

My favorite thing is our tradition when I put her to bed at night.  I lay her in her crib and then I walk to the door and say, "Goodnight, Sally!  Sleep tight!  I love you so much!"  I wave and blow kisses, and she gets so excited that she can't help but stand up and wave joyously back.  We play peekaboo and giggle for a few minutes and she blows kisses, and then I slowly shut the door while telling her how much I love her.  She never cries or protests but just lets me leave on that happy note.  Pretty amazing, right?

 

I just adore my little big girl, and I'm so grateful to be her mama!