Sweet & Sassy

that is our little lady. her feisty side is coming out. as she gets older it seems we are able to see her personality a bit more and she is becoming a real person. i mean- duh! it's fun to watch her interact with her friends at "school," observe others, and make her preferences known. she is keeping us full and thankful. i'm constantly amazed that she is mine. it's crazy that i'm her mom. it's the little things that get me.

so cute in her new elephant towel
- after "battling" ear infections for about 2 months, her ears are perfectly clear. ptl. we have been doing antibiotics so our next step would have been tubes. hopefully we are done for the season.

- i am so thankful for the arrival (for the most part) of spring. we all love to be outside. but it almost seems magical for charis. she has learned to walk down the little curb from our driveway and likes to walk in the street. of course she doesn't want to walk in the cul-de-sac, but rather the "main" street. she loves to watch birds and squirrels. she loves driving in her car. and she loves to visit our neighbor's dog, maggie. yay for outside weather!!!

enjoying the weather and an apple

- as i mentioned, she is feisty and i love it. of course i know that it's probably going to cause some conflict between us too. like when i say no and she frantically reaches for anything she can and flails her arms. she's also pretty determined and sometimes won't take no for an answer. hello somebody!!

- she's chatting a lot. i try to write down words she says mostly just to look back one day and see how her language developed from sounds to real words. it's so fascinating to me. some new words are "tree," "bike", even "cool bike", "shoe", "keys", "car", banana is "meena", "vroom" for cars, "cracker", "duck", "bubble", and what sounds like "why." sometimes it's "why why why why." i know she isn't really asking, but seriously. she's still signing a bunch too. let's just say she's making her needs known.

looking at the bike in a book. she LOVES to read

- she's using the potty a lot. we are just trying to make a habit of putting her on her potty. she often has a dry diaper and will go both pee pee and poo poo. then we say "bye-bye" to it in the big potty. she RARELY tells us she needs to go, but once in a while she'll sign potty. i honestly have no idea what i'm doing when it comes to "potty training, so we are trying this.

- she is fighting (& winning) for a later bed time. i've been extremely spoiled with the 6:30pm bedtime that i'm trying not to flex. but she's pretty determined. and really it's either wait 30 minutes or have her cry. and homegirl is not afraid to cry for a long time. i can flex 30 min. i can.

her first pigtails make her look like a big girl!

- she is still a great eater. i would say that she's had moments of pickiness that made me fear our good eater had turned on us, but that was temporary. thank goodness. she's back to eating lots and trying different things. we had bagel & cream cheese for the first time this week and she loves it. she also loves tomatoes. sometimes when she's eating something she says "mmmmmm." i'm serious. i think she gets that from adam and i.

really, what's there to say!?

- she is pretty meticulous. she'll find a crumb and go after it. or if she has a sticker (why people think a one year needs a sticker, i'll never know) she'll work on getting it unstuck. she seems to notice the tiniest things. she's super observant. she watches, okay stares, at people all the time.

- we went to Plaza Fiesta for the first time on a rainy saturday. it was too busy for her to play but we found an old school "ride" that she liked until we turned it on. she also enjoyed the yummy tacos we had.

just hanging out in her "ride"

sometimes i get a glimpse of something of hers and i'm floored to be her mama. i'm definitely enjoying it. i feel like our lives are slowly changing as she gets older. i'm learning which battles to fight and which ones not to even attempt. i'm trying to figure out how to teach her about God and pray with/for her. when she was new and had a little rough patch of late nights i'd sometimes sing Zephaniah 3:17 to her. "The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing." i love the picture of Him taking delight in her. and i want her to always know she is delighted in. i've recently added it to our bedtime "routine" after we read books. it's so sweet to cuddle with her during that and it's good for my soul too.