Arielle at 2 years & 3 months

Hi, my sweetie pie! It has been a while since I did an update on you and I don't want to forget all of the things you are doing at this stage.

You are a ball of energy. Still my toddler tornado, you dump out every bucket, basket and bin of toys possible and play with the contents for 4.2 seconds before moving onto the next. We are still working on the cleaning up part with you. You will sing the clean up song but think picking up 2 out of the 20 items is sufficient.

You are so affectionate. You snuggle and smooch me to death when you wake up. Speaking of waking up, you stand in your crib (still covered by the tent) and call my name until I come get you. I laid in my bed for a while once to see how long you would rhythmically chant for me....I got to 15 minutes before I was laughing so hard I had to come get you.

Your language skills are crazy! You remember words we read and use them in the right context. When I asked how your dinner was the other night, you replied, "Delectable"! (Thanks Fancy Nancy) You used to say "ama-als" for animals and just last night you progressed to saying "aminals". You are getting closer every day!

There are a few things you say that crack me up. "Nouth" (mouth), you can say bath but say "dafroom", you still say MY instead of I when talking about yourself, you call your brother Natey or Nath (no one ever calls him Nath so I think it is so cute).

You have this SUPER annoying habit of pooping in the tub. I even put you on the potty before you get in. You will sit there for 10 min, say you are done and then, like clockwork, say you have to toot and then poop. This has happened more times than I can count and is so disgusting!! Natey never did this. Please stop. K, thanks.

You are currently obsessed with: princesses, castles, brushing your teeth every time we walk in the bathroom, your shoes, 2 little people lift the flap books that we read e.v.e.r.y. night, snacks as soon as you wake up, your dress up princess 'heels', baby animals, and "scratching my back" (which really means you want to stand behind me in the computer chair and hang on me).

You have regressed a little on eating. You will still eat most of what we put in front of you, but you no longer want to use your utensils to feed yourself. You will happily eat if we poke the food for you to feed yourself, or if we feed it to you. You also are the slowest eater in our family. We are all done and staring at you and you are not 1/4 of the way through your meal. We should all follow your example because, half of the time, I don't think I even taste my food as it is gone so fast!

You have started taking your pjs and diaper off in your crib at night and then yelling that you are nakey. I think I will have to do what I did when Natey started doing this and sew the zipper on your footie jams to the fabric. A few times of doing that and Natey stopped disrobing. Hopefully it works for you too.

You know most of your colors. You sometimes mix up blue and green, but only when they are not obvious or when they are together on the same page. You can count to 3 and often tell me if you see 2 of something in a book or around the house.

You attempt to sing songs and they are so cute. You can get through whole songs if I sing a couple of words and then let you finish each line. You love to dance. I will have to post the "Shake, shake, shake, your booty" video I took last night. You and Natey love our family dance parties and will ask for specific songs.

You would take every stuffed animal in the house to bed if I let you. Currently we have a 6 "friend" rule in the bed. If not, you'd suffocate under all of them.

Some naughty things you've said lately, "dammit" (my fault) and "shush you nouth" (said to anyone who chooses to talk without your permission). When people say things they shouldn't you remind them "no potty talk".

You are growing and changing each day my beauty. I just love your sweet smile and infectious laugh. You keep me on my toes in new and differed ways than your brother did and I love that you have your own unique personality.