Right before my *very* eyes..

My sweet baby girl is no longer a baby anymore...yes, I'm accepting the fact that she is now a toddler. And today, I've finally realized that I LOVE it.

Here's a few reasons why:
1. We can actually have a conversation where she understand me and I understand her. It's amazing the progress she has made over the last 2-3 weeks in getting her point across with WORDS, yes actual WORDS, instead of whines and grunts.

Example:
This morning, we were getting ready to leave the house and she is on our bed ready to get off. She grabs BOTH of her baby dolls and her milk and tries to slide off with her hands full. Once she realized she couldn't do it, she looked at me and said, "Hold 'dis" and proceeded to hand me her milk. About a month ago, she would have whined and pitched a fit cause she couldn't do it all.

Another example:
She got her hair cut this week (pictures to come this weekend, I promise! They're precious and she looks so.big!) and about three days before I took her I told her what was going to happen. So, for three days, about 15 times a day, I heard, "Cut. Hair." and then after she got it cut Wednesday, she now says, "Tammi. Cut. Hair".

2. Since the haircut, she has wanted her hair blowdryed after bathtime cause mommy does it. She loves it.

Example:
This morning she wanted it done, but I told her that her daddy needed to change her diaper first (partly because I was right in the middle of doing my lashes and needed to finish so I needed a distraction). So, she ran into the living room, daddy changed her diaper, and I thought maybe she'd forget about the blowdry issue for a while so I could finish getting ready. NOT. She ran right back into the bathroom and said "Dry hair". Her memory NEVER fails! And I tried to just blowdry it with her standing by the sink, but no, that's not how we've done it the last two nights so why change? She said "up 'dere" and pointed to the counter. Again, her memory NEVER fails!

3. Even though her sleeping habits have only gotten slightly better, she is now telling us when she's ready to go night night. Let me start by saying, for the last few months, she's been falling asleep on the couch cuddling with us and watching "Yo Gabba Gabba" and sometimes it took 2 hours. Needless to say, we got nothing done at night after 8:30 or so. So, lately, we've been trying to establish more of a routine with naptime and bedtime. We now watch ONE episode of "Yo Gabba Gabba" and then tell her to grab her 'nigh-nigh' and head to the room. And normally, she is willing and ready to go. It's been so nice to get her to bed at a decent time and still have energy to get things done!

This is only a few things I've noticed lately. Clay and I discussed just this week, we LOVE the stage she is in right now. As with every stage, it comes with it's negatives -- like throwing fits and deliberately disobeying us. Which things like that usually follow with a good spanking and a loving session afterwards.

I'll leave you with a recent picture --

Glasses and Yo Gabba Gabba :)