Lately you have been wanting to read “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” and when I am reading it to you, you like to pretend you are eating the food in the book and you even share some of your fake food with me. Since you are into the book and we had an empty egg crate, i thought it would be fun to do a family caterpillar craft. You and daddy willingly sat next to me, and basically that is all you did while i created my caterpillar, you drew on yourself, and then daddy colored his egg crate and helped you make a smiley face on your belly. Maybe it was a little early for craft projects? Below are our finish products…

Mommy's caterpillar

Daddy's eyeless, faceless pillar

Sophie's colorless, eyeless, faceless pillar

Sophie's finished product

The last few nights before bed we have all cuddled and watched Sleeping Beauty. You are more entertaining than the movie itself. You get very into it and scream “No touch spingle (spindle), “Go, Go, Go”, “Get Princess, Go Castle”. It is so adorable. We even let you stay up until 11pm last night b/c you were so entertaining (which is why you are still sleeping now @ 9am). I dont know what it is about this movie but you absolutely love it. Here is a pic of you cuddling with Dada and watching.

Along with new words you of course have created a bunch of new games. Here are some of your favorites:

1. The Ring. You say “Ring Dada” and this means you want him to take his wedding band off and you are going to run off with it, hide it in your diaper, put it on your toe, throw it to mommy, or simply show dada that you now have his ring and he can’t have it. As soon as you get it you scream “Oh gosh, o gosh” and act all scared b/c Dada is going to chase you for it. It is hilarious and somehow we have still managed not to lose daddy’s ring during this game.

2. The Brush: When mommy goes to brush your hair after the bath you immediately run to daddy screaming “Oh Gosh, Help me”. Then if he can’t save you, you try to divert mommy off of brushing your hair and you stick your foot out and say “brush tootsie”, so i brush your tooties, then you say “Brush nose” so i brush your nose, then eyes, then mouth, then belly, then leg, and when we’re all through you start repeating the whole process with tootsies again.

3. Chase: Oldie but a goodie. The has been on your hit list for a while now but the way you do it is what makes it so quirky. You yell out Mama or Dada and then you squish your nose up and put on a weird smile and that one simple signal means come chase me. You are so weird- i love it.

4. Tickle Rain: This game has its own post but deserves a mention here. When it is raining outside you say “Cmon dada, tickle rain. Diaper on.” which means take my clothes and diaper off pick me up and let’s go dance outside in the rain.

5. Bath house: When we are in the bath you say “make a house” and this means mommy or daddy has to put their feet up on the tub so that our legs make a house for you to crawl under.

6. Water spit: You drink a big gulp of water, swish it in your mouth, run up to us and show us you have something in your mouth, giggle, open your eyes big and then proceed to spit it out slowly on your belly and then the floor, bed, or wherever you little butt is. You also do this in the bath or pool which drives your daddy crazy bc he is always worried you are going to drink it but you always spit it out and that just makes the game more fun for you.

8. Hee-Haw: You cling on to our leg like a bear cub and then say “hee-hawwww” and this means lift your leg up and down so i can ride it like a donkey. You then have to tell whoever isn’t hee-hawwwing you to look and watch you hee-haw.

9. Shhhh: When we are at the beach and you find a little shell crab you tell us to pick it up and then say “shhhhhh” and that means be very quiet so the crab will come out and walk on our arm.

10. Dress up: You love putting on weird things and then walk out and show daddy what you are wearing. Your favorite is a santa hat or bear hat, halloween socks or leg warmers, and a weird giraffe shirt. You like to walk all around the house in your outfit and check yourself out in the mirror.

There are so many more and each week you seem to invent a new game so you keep it fresh. You are one spunky little thing. Just writing this post makes me smile. mwahhhhh.

We think you got smarter overnight. Literally out of nowhere you are speaking full sentences, blurting out words we didn’t even know you knew and speaking in past and present tense. Here is a quick list of some recent things you have been doing and saying:

1. You are very into playing catch. You will just pick something up, toss it at us, or the puppies, or lulu, and yell CATCH! Then after we have been pelted by your object you smile and say THROW. Either you are really into catch or you know you can get away with chucking objects at us as long as you scream CATCH. The jury is still out on this one.

2. You love low tide and swimming in the ocean. You are very into bringing a buddy (one of your toys or dolls) with you lately. Mr. Potato head recently came to the beach which of course was a blast for mommy and daddy b/c you picked the one toy that probably has the most insane amount of pieces to keep track of. Mr. Potato head’s ears, nose, and mouth we all floating in the tide pool and because of your awesome parents, all made it back safely to the house.

3. You have a new thing about napping on the quad in the afternoon. One minute you are hyper in the house and then we hop on the quad and before we are even down the hill you are sleeping. You put your face in the wind and just kick back your head on me and sleep…must be nice.

4. You love hide and go seek and even cover your eyes and count. You like when we scream and go all crazy when you find us, so of course we scream and go all crazy in the same 3 hiding spots each time.

5. You know where every one of your stores are in town and it has become like booby traps to get anywhere. If you see your ice cream store you start yelling at us on the quad to stop. You scream ADAPOO. We are not sure where this word came from but it clearly means Stop…which is strange b/c you know the word stop. Maybe it stands for “if you do not park this quad now, i will throw a fit and kick my Croc into that store window”? You also scream when we pass the smoothie place which now appears closed and lord help us if they do not reopen. Anyway, your command for that is MOOIE…which makes much more sense than ADAPOO b/c at least it rhymes with Smoothie.

6. You love to tickle things. You will just jump on us and geek out and yell “tickle, tickle”. Whenever you see Lulu you say “awww look sooo cute, tickle, tickle lulu”.

7. You are very into the Happy Birthday song. You sing it quite well, although you seem to think it is Happy Birthday LULU…not “to you”.

8. Whenever I hear you yell “Oh no, it’s broken”, “What Happened” or “Oh no, All gone”…i am aware that a meltdown is sure to follow. It is kind of like smoke before a fire. At least you give warning.

9. If you are doing something you shouldn’t be and you know we are getting upset you will sit there and wave in my face saying “Hi mommy” over and over again and then when i still just look at you because you know you are doing something you shouldn’t be you then say “Hi Mommy, I Sophie”. This is your way to diffuse the situation and it pretty much works every time since it is virtually impossible not to crack a smile at that.

10. You walk around repeating “tick tock the coo coo clock” and if your voice wasnt so sweet it would surely drive me tick tock to the coo coo clock.

Well it is time to put you down to sleep and cut off your ipad videos (you will inevitably scream for a minute and then conk out). You are seriously the most precious little gift we could ever imagine. You are the most loving, hilarious, beautiful, intelligent, quirky 2 year old that i have ever met. I love you more than you will ever imagine. Just a few more notes before i sign off…

Favorite shows: mickey mouse clubhouse, jake and the pirates, cbeebies, winnie the pooh

Favorite movies: any old disney movies, toy story, Up, Spirit (recently revisted), Care Bears, Hugga Bunch (recently revisited), and really any Pixar type movie

Favorite Activities: swimming, playing in any type of water or hose, running the beach, playing catch, riding on the quad, catching crabs, playing in clubhouses or tents, drawing on yourself or us, laying on the ground and having us cover you in weird objects like bean bags, hiding under the covers and fake sleeping, tucking us in, feeding your dollies fake food, playing with your mickey mouse, sesame street, and toy story figures in the tub, building towers with your blocks, playing angry bird, bugs and buttons, and ipad puzzles, playing hide and go seek, playing chase, burying things in the sand, climbing and swinging on trees, hmmm, this list clearly could go on forever.

Favorite food: ice cream, oranges, smoothies, pizza, cheese, apples, bananas, popcorn, tofu, corn, pineapple, eggs with cheese, peanut butter, oatmeal.

Ok time to put your little booty to sleep. LOVE LOVE LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE YOU (oh and yes you are still sleeping in our bed and still on the boob). Your last molars are making their way through and then i will have officially nursed you through all your teeth. I will remind you of this when you are a cranky, hormonal teenager…you can be certain of that BUT right now you are a cuddly, loving, soft, sweet, toddler. nom nom nom.

Most 2 year olds want to be a princess, or a fairy, or an animal of some sort…mine…a baby pool. My creative little squirt put this costume together all by herself and likes it so much that she has been putting it on for the past 3 nights and walking around the house in it. Normal, very normal. Even Charles thinks she’s weird and he humps a stuffed elephant on a daily basis. Her other creation is what daddy and I like to call “HTM” hot, tranny mess. Pics of this option are below as well.

I have exactly 73 ant bites under my butt. Yes, i know i have 73 b/c i made Will count them. How did this happen u ask? How does somebody willing sit and let 73 ants bite her butt or maybe less and some had seconds? Simple…nugget fell asleep on our way down to the beach so we decided to pop a squat on a log and watch the sunset together in peace. I was yapping away with Will, drinking a beer, and every now and then asking him…are you itchy, doesnt it seem like there are more ants on my side than yours? I didnt want to get up and risk waking the sleeping beast since we rarely get to see the sunset just the two of us and it was so nice to just sit and watch the waves and sun setting. Finally, the itch turned into a full on leg burn and i nudged enough that it woke tater tot up. Immediately stood up and said ok im officially itchy, something def. went to town on me. 3 days later i am laying here in bed debating on soaking in an oatmeal bath…seriously. Every single one of these 73 bites is a true testament to my love and appreciation of quality time with my sweet, loving husband who was sitting directly next to me with his arm around me and has only 3 bites on his ankle.

This morning I was still in bed with Sophie and Will got up to let the dogs out as usual. Shortly after he opened the door I heard “CHAAAARLES GET BACK HERE” in Will’s completely panicked, fearful voice. I popped up out of bed to check and Will comes running in holding Charles. What was the panic you ask? Oh nothing, just these two friendly looking dogs standing right at our front door.

Nothing like two random pit bulls at your front door in the morning. Yup, that’ll wake you up faster than my dark as oil coffee. They were literally sniffing at the front door when Will opened it up and Charles ran out barking, ran right in between them and then squatted to a pee and ran back in. After a few minutes of trapping ourselves inside and wondering why these guys were at our door, why they weren’t leaving, and more so, why they didnt snap charles up for a nice morning breakfast, it dawned on us…they know Charles, and they think they live here. Turns out Will recognized one and called Danni (our landlord) and they are both his dogs. They traveled all the way over to our house and up our hill from Danni’s house. He was cracking up and couldnt believe they found their way here. They know Charles and Betsy since they prob stayed here with Danni while he watched our pups when we were out of town. Luckily they are as goofy and friendly as Betsy and as soon as we hung up the phone we went back out and played with them and Danni came up to pick em up and bring them to their correct house. Whew!! Would hate to lose either of these furry faces xoxo