baby, you're amazing!

Ariana is 27 months old... going on 28 years old! She amazes me constantly by her comprehension and her evolving sas. The latter I'm not too keen on but I know it's just a phase as she discovers who she is and the impact she has on the world around her.

She gets bossy sometimes and will shout commands like "put that away NOW... please!" As if the manners tacked onto the end make it alright. We've talked about how you have to ask people nicely, and "now" usually isn't a nice thing to say. She reminded me of this the other morning when I asked her to put her shoes away in the closet instead of in the middle of the room. She told me she would do it in a minutes to which I responded with "Ariana, put your shoes away now, THEN you can get out some books to read." I was told "Mommy, that's not nice. Don't say now to me!" I guess I need to apply what I'm teaching her to myself as well.

She knows her ABC inside out and loves when I sing them leaving out a few letters on purpose so she can tell me what I missed. She still resorts to counting "1, 2, 5, 8, 9, 10!" Unless I ask her what comes after 2, then she's knows it's 3, 4, 5, etc. We like to practice counting in one of her favorite books The Very Hungry Catepillar and practically everything else we do gets counted. Stairs, how many pieces of veggies or meat she gets on her plate, how many cups of water over her head it takes to wash out the shampoo- everything!

Ariana loves dumptrucks, cranes, school buses and semis. It's always a game to point them out on the road and her excitement each and every time is infectious! She's starting to get on a train kick, although we haven't seen one in real life.

She skips and jumps everywhere she goes singing Skip to my Lou. She does figure eights around my legs while giggle Ring Around the Rosie. Ariana still loves singing twinkle twinkle and rain rain go away as much as her new favorite, Carly Simon's Love of my Life. She is forever smiling and is quick to belt out a tune, although she get quiet and shy when strangers tell her how pretty she is or ask how old she is.

She naps like a dream at school- on a short cot in a room with the VPK kids no less! But at home she plays for an hour then call out alerting me that she just woke up (not falling for it, girl! I've heard for playing Mommy with your baby, froggie, and horsie for an hour!) and to come get her. Kids are always on their best behavior for others, though so I try not to take it personally.

I still have revelations daily, I'm happy to say. I made this child! She has 50% of my DNA (and it shows!):




She is perfection in every way and lights up my world like nothing else can.





I adore this child!



but then again, who wouldn't?