Mental Post-its

I feel like if my brain was cut open a bunch of mental post-its would pop out. Gross picture, I realize, but I feel like my mind is full of these temporary notes that help me remember every little thing that my child does and says. Not many pictures with this post....simply a post-it purge so that none of them get crumpled up and thrown away. ;)

*She gains more independence by the minute. My little helper she is. One thing she has found increasing interest in is picking out her own clothes. Usually she has free reign when making important pajama decisions. However, her daytime outfits go through a much more stringent mom inspection.....

"Hmmmm, let's see here....which one compliments my eye color?"

*No secret that she is a monkey. Eating bananas like it's her job. I'm really not exaggerating. The second she wakes up she start hollering "nana", the moment she gets home at the end of the day she is reaching for "nanas" and right before bedtime she expects half of a "nana" with her milk. Little pieces are apparently for little babies and not her thing anymore. She prefers halves and will accept nothing less. Talk about a picky lil monkey!!

"eeeeee eeeeee eeeeee, ahhh ahhhhh ahhhhh"

*She is not one to sit. A busy bee she be. ;) But it's a general rule that she doesn't go anywhere without her cup in hand. I spent all Monday morning giggling about her latest little stunt. I filled up a brand new sippy cup that morning and handed it to her. Her little hands couldn't figure out how to hold it because it didn't have handles like all of her other cups. She cocked her head to the side and gave me a perplexed look. "Why you changin' things up mom??!" It took her about thirty minutes to figure out that she wouldn't get any milk out as long as she was carrying it around like a clarinet. I guess she thought it was a straw. ;)

"This isn't working!!!"

* We've been told that we keep it rather warm in our house and I sometimes catch Riley turning up the thermostat like he's a 90-year-old lady, so it perplexes me when Hallie insists on wearing her coat in the mornings when she's running around in her diaper. Silly girl goes straight to her coat rack and hollers for me to hand her a coat. This has happened three mornings in a row now.

"Buuuuurrrrrrr"

"I'm just trying to make a fashion statement"

* Some mornings she hits the ground running. Other mornings she starts out like this.....

*In the early evenings before dinner while I'm getting things prepared in the kitchen she enjoy ransacking the measuring cup drawer. I try to make a habit of getting down on her level and playing with her which makes for a giddy little girl. She loves to talk into the cups to make an echoing noise. Of course mommy has to try this too sometimes....

*Lately Hallie has sounded like a one-man band with all of the crazy noises and sounds coming out of her mouth. Her and Riley make a funny noise with their lips which she can be found doing about 99% of the day. The only way to describe this noise would be a cicada. You'd think we were living way down south with our sounds of nature. ;)

*She is a super duper helpful helper girl when it comes to bathtime. She hears the word bath and goes running or high-stepping it straight for the tub hollering out "ba, ba". She starts to take off her diaper and with a little help removes it and makes her way to the trashcan to toss her diaper. Then that naked little booty finds its way back into the tub......

"Step one"

"Step two"

*She loves to be cradled like a baby in my arms after bathtime. It's absolutely hands down my favorite part of the day and I think it's hers as well. Her and dada have an after bath routine where he picks her up out of the tub and puts her through the "spin and shake cycle" to dry off. She lights up everytime he does this. She then gets passed on to me and onto the changing table to get lotioned and jammied up. This is when she comes alive!! She starts jabbering up a storm with me and saying "words" I've never heard before. She wants to help with everything from rubbing in her lotion on her belly to diapering her little booty.

*She does this incredibly heart melting thing where she looks at me and turns her head to the side and smiles, then puts her head on my shoulder. Since we only have a little time in the day to spend together I've been making more of an effort to stop what I'm doing and just be with her. Cuddling is slowly becoming something that she is able to do for more than one second.....

"I can be sweet when I wanna be"

*Chicken and noodles, peas, bananas, carrots, grilled cheese...heck anything that she offers Emmi she will take. I am convinced that she is only a picky eater at home. She gobbles everything down at Nanny's like it's her last meal, she eats everything in sight when we go out to eat and she sure doesn't turn down food offered to her when we are with family.....so what's the deal baby girl??

*This next post-it isn't really something she did, but something I didn't do. I was folding her laundry the other evening and sat aside  pajamas for that night. I jammied her up and you took off running. About ten minutes later I discovered something strange looking about her jammies.......

"This static cling is an amazing thing mom"

*She loves Ring Around the Rosie and will entertain me by doing it anywhere...in the bathtub, outside, on the carpet. And she isn't afraid to "we all fall down" at the end of the song. We never seem to make it to the end of the song though because she is so excited to fall. Fine by me! I'm convinced that it's because she wants me to quit singing so she ends the song early. ;)

I just love ya girl! I can't wait to read these to you someday and show you how silly you were....and will always be. ;)