Big Girl

 I haven't given a comprehensive update on Bethany in awhile and I feel like she is changing so quickly that I wanted to be sure to write down all the new things she is doing. I just cannot believe this girl is going to be two in less than two months! It seems that everyday she is becoming more little girl less baby.

Sitting so still for her first face painting.

In the last six weeks Bethany's vocabulary has just exploded. A few of Tom's and my favorite things she says are: "keese" and "hog" (kiss and hug), she loves to talk about animals, most of which are referred to by the sound they make. For example sheep are "baa" and cows are "moo," she does this for most animals except dogs. Whenever she sees a dog she yells "puppy!" and when asked what her puppy's name is she say "Mi." Bethany still uses a lot of signs which is nice because otherwise I may not be able to decipher between some of her words, like milk and music.

It is hard to tell, but she chose to have a butterfly on her cheek.

Speaking of music, LB still loves to dance to her daddy playing the piano and she likes to clap along to the music on the radio when we are in the car. She also has some favorite songs she likes to sing and do the hand motions to when she sits on the potty, unfortunately singing is the only thing going on when LB sits on the potty.

In the last week or two Bethany has started mothering her baby doll, Mimi. I never get tired of watching her read to Mimi and then put her to bed in the crib, give Mimi her own pacifier, turn on the humidifier, and then close the door. It just melts my heart, she is such a cute little mother.

Bethany has also become very opinionated about what she wears most days. You can't see, but the dress she has on in this picture is her "eee-ee" dress because it has monkeys on the pockets. If this dress is in her closet, she wants to wear it.

I can't wait for her 2 year doctor's appointment to see how big she is and where she is on the growth chart. At my last OB appointment she got on the scale after me, weighing in at 25 lbs, and her current shoe size is 5 1/2. She still has a few 18 mos clothes that fit her but for the most part she is wearing 24 mos and even some 2T clothes.

We talk about the baby growing inside mommy and Bethany loves to give my tummy "keeses and hogs" and say "hi baby." However, I know she doesn't understand how her world is going to be completely turned upside down in 2 1/2 months. I'm grieving about this transition, even though I'm excited about our new addition, I'm sad that it will no longer be just the two of us running around doing errands during the day. Sometimes I just want to hold Bethany and tell her how sorry I am that her daddy and I decided to ruin her life with a baby. Of course, hopefully in the long run she'll be glad she has a little brother to share life with . . .