baby doll stroller and loving my kid

aka all of my pictures from today

one of baby's birthday toys from our friend and realtor, sally.  it's a super cool pool noodle.

it's a happy day when your mail is this colorful.  looove birthday cards!

we haven't taken it to the pool yet so baby girl thinks it's just to hang out with and carry around the house.

and amazon delivered baby girl's birthday doll stroller this afternoon.  and although i'm still bitter that it cost more than baby's actual stroller ($16... seriously?!), i have to admit that it's perfect for her.  conveniently sized and easy to maneuver, i'm loving it as much as she is.

 

 

blurry paparazzi shot.  appropriate because, as we've discussed, celebrity moms wear leggings.

and because i want to remember it, baby was incredible today.  she had me a little worried thursday, friday, and halfway saturday that she'd made it a personal goal to live up to the "terrible two's" stereotype but saturday night and sunday she was totally fine and today she just kept blowing me out of the water with how funny and happy and sweet she was.  i don't know if a happier kid has ever existed.  today she ate awesome, was so perfectly behaved (and precious! "more please mama!" to every sample i gave her), had the most out of control, slap happy laughing non stop visit with our neighbor before lunch, ate great again, took an awesome nap (she's been staying in her crib for close to four hours lately for naps!), was so cute playing with her toys, helpful when i was doing laundry (since i get lightheaded so easily bending over, i love that she picks up all the socks and things that i drop and puts them in the basket/washer/dryer for me), and ate wonderfully (half a tomato, half an avocado, half a banana, almost a whole mango, and a little bit of bacon), and was soooo cute playing with her daddy before she went to bed tonight.

days like today, i literally am giddy with love and excitement that this is really my child.  the best way i can describe it physically is that i have ongoing butterflies in my stomach (no, this is not the baby kicking) and my heart is so full it's like i can never fully catch my breath (again, not due to pregnancy).  baby girl laughs at everything!  she purposely puts her shoes on the wrong feet and laughs like crazy when i acknowledge it.  she says "bless you mama/daddy" when someone sneezes (like saturday night when we had friends over and the wife sneezed and baby girl said "bless you daddy") and is on day FIVE or something of actually verbally saying thank you.  at the end of her lunch today i bribed her to eat half a banana.  she got a bit of cookie every time she ate a bite of banana (although her banana bites were the size of golf balls and the cookie bites she got were the size of peanut M&Ms) and every time i gave her that bit of cookie she would say "thank you mama" and it's so precious.  same with tonight when we did the same thing with banana and bacon (i love that she loves bacon just as much as she loves cookies... but then again, don't we all...?! except for sara snow).  she's recently started protesting when i tell her we're going to pray.  she sometimes doesn't fold her arms, but it's so cute that at the end of the prayer she says "amen!" right after i do.  and at night when i hold her in my arms by her crib to pray and she folds her arms, she actually bows her head or puts her head on my shoulder and it's like straight out of a greg olsen painting.  baby girl is a helper and a pleaser and loves when i give her little jobs like throwing something away for me.  she'll drop what she's doing with a happy "yeah!" and run along to do whatever i asked.  occasionally she'll say no like this afternoon when i asked her if she'd put my shoes away for me but i don't mind because i like that she doesn't say it to be defiant.  just says it because we can't all drop what we're doing 100% of the time.  she has such a funny sense of humor and makes jokes all the time.  she's so understanding when i help talk her through something she's hesitant to do at first like a night when she just wants to keep reading books, i tell her it's time to go to bed now and that we can read more books when we wake up in the morning.  her body relaxes and then she's fine to go to bed.  and when she gets up, she reminds me that it's time to read books.  so as of late, it's the norm to read books first thing in the morning and first thing after nap.  and even then she has a hard time being done (hey... i'm normally too hungry to keep reading) and insists on bringing a book downstairs with her.  

my favorite thing has of late though has got to be that she is so good with her words.  i don't ever feel like we're having a hard time communicating.  she can tell me what's on her mind and she's smart enough to understand my reasoning (like bribing with bacon and promising to read more books after nap).  she gets a binky for nap time but not for bed time.  but frequently at night she'll ask for one anyways... i just tell her it's not for nighttime and that she can have it tomorrow when she naps.  and sometimes she fusses for a bit but mostly she's just fine with that explanation.  

there's a million more things i could write but i'll have to save those for another day.  suffice it to say, this kid was an angel newborn and an angel baby and she's an angel toddler as well.  i am so grateful and overjoyed that i get to spend every day with her and that i have the honor of being her mother.  life is too good to me.