That time again...

I feel like it's that time again.  Time for me to record, for myself, Leah's milestones (and for Leah and Josh if they are ever as neurotic as me, lol).  And I will, as always, share it with all of you.

Dear Leah,

You just recently turned 2 years and 3 months and this is what you do:

You can say and recognize all of the major colors (red, blue, black, yellow, green, orange, white, purple, pink)

When we kiss your "booboo's" better, it is still magic for you, I hope you hold on to that innocence for a very long time.

You can count to 18 but sometimes you get stuck at 14 and repeat it a few times before continuing.  You can also count objects, like if we are reading you will point to the page and say "three eggs, one two three". When you count just for fun you sometimes like to start at number nine, I'm not sure why, lol.

You are always describing things that you see.  Like, you will say "Mommy, circle!  Big circle! Big purple circle!"  You do this with everything: signs, animals, toys, cars, etc.  You will tell me everything there is to say about anything!

You know a lot of shapes: circle, square, triangle, diamond, star and heart and you try to draw circles too.

You recognize stripes and polka dots on clothes.

Sometimes you get discouraged when you try something and you can't do it right away, but sometimes you just say "try again!"  It is so cute!

You are so very friendly and you love to say "Hi" and "ByeBye" to people when we are out together.  You also like to have conversations with anyone who will talk to you and you love making friend's with other kids.

You are loving your ballet class, even though you are the youngest in the class by several months (in some cases, almost a year).  You are so exuberant and bubbly and friendly, even the three years olds don't quite know what to make of you when you walk right up to them and say "HI!"

You also have a very shy, introverted side that is just as sweet!

You love to play pretend and use your imagination.

You love to "explore" outside- looking for bugs and worms and collecting sticks, rocks and flowers.

You love to wear your "souky" (silky)  jammies.

You have a good sense of time and you will say things like "almost" and "not yet".

You still love playing soccer with daddy and reading with mommy.  You have started to remember and memorize parts of your favorite books.

You love to sing along with songs that you hear and later you will sing alone to parts of songs you have memorized.

You are still not very interested in potty training.

You are still so, so polite!  You say please and thank you so sweetly and you always say "Bless you" when someone sneezes and "excuse me" when you do something that needs excusing ;) you even remind others to remember their manners.  You also have a very thankful heart and will be so excited and exclaim "ooohhhh! THANK you mommy!" if you are given anything special.

You don't like to have your picture taken but you have the most beautiful smile.

You have a wonderful memory and you can recall so many details of things that have happened.

You love Disney movies: Princess and the Frog, Tangled, The Jungle Book and anything with Mickey Mouse or Tigger.  Elmo is still a favorite too!

We just love to her your little voice say "baby Jesus" when we read books about the Lord.

You are pretty good with a fork and spoon but you still prefer to eat with you hands.

You are a real girly girl sometimes and you love having your nails painted and (clear!) chapstick put on (you even rub you lips together like a grown up, good Lord!)

You would eat fresh berries by the truckload for every meal if I let you.

You go with the flow and are very agreeable most of the time but you are very strong willed and can be very explosive with your emotions so if you don't want to do something, we better watch out!

You love to "bounce" like Tigger and dance ballet around the house.

When you put your shoes on, if they are on the wrong feet, you understand when I tell you that and I say "switch em!" and you do!

You like to talk on the phone and you will bring the phone to me telling me who you want to call.

Even if we are eating the exact same thing, you always want the food off my plate.

You know some opposites, like you will hold a strawberry and say "ohh, cold, not nice and warm" and you like to say that things are either "big" or "little" or "baby".

You are still very empathetic, even toward characters in books.  You will say "aww it's ok" if someone in the story is sad.  Actually, the way I can often get you to obey me is if I kneel down and tell you something like "you are not being very a good listener and it is making mommy sad".  That will almost always get you to immediately say "I sorry mommy" and give me a hug and start listening better (for the moment!)

Despite making plenty of messes on your own, you really dislike seeing garbage around or anything dirty or messy.  If you do see anything like that, in real life, in a book or on TV you will say "oh! messy-mess, ceam (clean) up!"  And you like to sing the "clean up song" when you are picking up your toys.

I crack up when I'm following you somewhere and I'm not moving fast enough and you say "Oh, come ON mommy!" 

You are the light in our lives and we are almost brought to tears everyday when we peek in on you before we go to sleep at night.