This kid amazes me everyday

This little sugar & spice muffin has me in awe every single day. Watching her learn & trying to enjoy every minute with her is just so incredible. Now, we're just ONE short month away from her SECOND birthday, and it's really got me thinking. Sooo much has changed in the past year, she blows me away sometimes with how smart she is!

When she's zoooooming through flashcards on my phone (the Baby Flash Cards iPhone app), I'm sure she can say at least 95% of the 116 cards that I've selected to be shown (some are uncommon bird names & shapes are in there...odd..or "Viking"...who cares about that?! Why not, watermelon or something??)

Hum, speaking of that app, maybe I should change the options to include all of them now...I think there's over 250 or something. Can't hurt to try! I just downloaded another app called "Monkey Preschool Lunchbox", which was a $1...she's obsessed and it's educational and she gets to pick little stickers to put on a board (in the app) when she does good at all the different games...people who come up with these apps are pure geniuses! I've never, ever been as happy with a phone as I am with this iPhone. Best. Purchase. EVER.

Anyway...she's getting a ton of colors down and counting to 10 - sometimes in the teens she makes the sound of the numbers, but not quite in order yet. She also knows a few letters - thanks to the foam bath letters, magnetic fridge letters and those yummy ABC cookies from Trader Joes!! The other day (after a hellish night of maybe a few hours of sleep), she was in her pack-n-play in our room (that's a whole different/exhausting story) and in the wee hours of the morning I woke to her sweet, soft little voice singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" - I couldn't believe how well she got out the verses...not exact, but definitely remembers how the tone of it goes. It made me smile from ear to ear as I laid there pretending to still be asleep.

She still mimics like no other...what really caught me off guard is a time when I was in a conversation in the kitchen, while she was in deep play in the living room...and I had said "ridiculous" - not a few seconds later she stops what she's doing, looks at me & says "dic-ooo-lus". I about died laughing. You think they're not paying attention....but they really are great observers & listeners.

In the last 2-3 months or so, her vocabulary & length of sentences has gotten so great...it's mind-blowing. She can let me know pretty much anything she's thinking, or wants, or needs...or if something hurts (throat, head, leg, etc). It's so great being able to finally understand her...rather than trying to decipher a cry, and the 157092 different things it could mean.

The other day while changing her, I started to tickle her bare belly...she laughed, but it was more like an annoyed laugh. Like she just wasn't really in the tickle mood. She looked at me & said STOP, with her whole hand out facing me - which is okay, she needs to know that it's alright to tell someone to stop of she doesn't like something...but I quickly corrected her & said "Oh, you want me to stop tickling you"..."yes mamma"..."okay, well then you need to tell me: 'mamma, please stop'." She totally got the hang of it and remembers to say it politely when she wants you to stop doing something...mainly tickling if she's just not in the mood.

Here's a quick vid of her saying 'rubber ducky'...I had never heard her say it before, so I thought it was cute, of course. Now I just have to get a video of her saying "Bitney Peirrrs" (Britney Spears, duh!)...and singing "oh oh ohh oh oh ohh ohhhhh" to that song "Til the World Ends" - seriously SOOO funny. Let's face it, she's a child after my own heart for sure!