Update

Rachel here. It's probably time for a little update on my mini. While she's still a handful, as it becomes easier for her to communicate... let me think before I type... her tantrums have become much more manageable. :) Now watch... today will be hell. :) But just looking at this face will make that hell totally worth it.

HATES. She hates to sit on the potty. She hates to have her diaper changed. She hates when I wake her up in the morning or come home from running errands. Bryan gets the hugs and kisses upon arriving home, and I get screams. I guess that's the price you pay when you're the one putting her in timeout and saying "no" all day. For the record... she snuggles and loves me too. :) She hates to go to sleep. We're still figuring out what works with this one. She will occasionally take a nap. They are becoming much more frequent now that we've figured out that one of us has to fall asleep with her before she'll fall asleep on her own. I don't like this at all because all I can think about is us being on "Supernanny," but for now... it works. At bedtime she needs 3,486 stuffed animals with her, 4 different blankies, and 2 teething rings... seriously? YES. Last night she would not even agree to going upstairs without a sticker. So last night it was all of those requests and a "Count", from Sesame Street, sticker. Good thing I have tons of stickers from teaching. :)

LOVES. She loves playing outside. She loves painting. She LOVES making messes. And she loves to talk. She'll have complete conversations with herself. The other day she came up to me with a can of playdoh and said "playdoh open, what do you say?, please, thank you, you're welcome." And then she smiled at me. How could I not let her trash my kitchen with playdoh after that adorable show? :)

SKILLS. We've caught her singing A LOT! She'll try to sing along with most of the theme songs on her shows, but we've also witnessed her singing "Twinkle Twinkle" and "Happy Birthday." She loves to try to say her ABCs and to count. It usually goes something like this "ABFZ" and "1, 2, 13." I LOVE IT! She picks and chooses when she wants to know her colors... if you ask her she'll just look at you and say a random color but will say them to herself occasionally. She also knows most of the regular shapes. We got her some flashcards to practice some different skills with her that she just loves! Mostly right now we're just working on picture recognition. It's neat to see what objects she knows, and what words she associates with them. We have a picture of a bird's nest with eggs in it... she sees it and yells "eggs!" but not nest, so now it's more of getting to experience a wider range of things to become familiar with those objects.

She's growing and changing soooo much, but there is one thing that doesn't change... her ability to make us smile. :)