Getting too big.

Mimi is just a few months shy of her 2nd birthday. Wait. What? I'm pretty sure last time I turned around, I was looking at her for the first time, and knowing that Mia was the name perfectly suited for her. Luckily Gordon was much too sick to care what I thought-and probably wouldn't even have batted an eye if I said I wanted to name her Sunshine Buttercup.

Her name could have easily been sunshine though. Her personality is (normally) so sunny. She is happiest making others smile and laugh, and is happy to enjoy the simple pleasures in life. She throws her face back and smiles at the sky when she's on a swing, she stops to jump in every puddle, she stretches meal times into hour(s) by savoring every bite, and she'll pause to pick every berry off a single bush before moving on to the next. She's an amazing reminder to me-a very go go go person like her older brother- about taking time to pause and be grateful. Although it makes for some interesting family walks, ones where I'm reminding one kid to slow down and one kid to hurry up, she brings a special balance to our family.

There are signs that the terrible twos are on their way. She can be very finnicky about things-especially her food, and she often gives us her most charming smile and giggle when we tell her no. She can throw a mean tantrum, but thanks to Isaac we're old hats at dealing with those. Plus she's so small, I can still wrestle her into her carseat without breaking a sweat.

In the last month and a half she has sprouted all four molars, and two or three eye teeth. It truly was as fun as it sounds.

She has long limbs meaning she is in mostly clothes true to her age (except hats and shoes)...but that her pants are ever falling off.

She has a love for hats and dressing up, but hates things like bows or clips in her hair.

She loves to run, jump, climb, dance, swing, slide, flip...basically anything where her body is in motion.

She is fascinated by bugs and animals.

She'll watch pretty much anything her brother wants to watch, but loves Curious George in particular. When the theme song comes on she runs back and forth across the living room screaming her head off.

She has become more picky as of late, but is still in love with bananas, apples (must be peeled and in big girl slices-if she sees you cut her a small piece and leave the bigger piece on the counter, she insists on the bigger piece), milk, cheese, yogurt, crackers, and anything dipped in ketchup or ranch.

Insisted on eating her chocolate mousse with two spoons

She is saying a lot more words...I couldn't count...but most of them she just pronounces with the first or syllable (water is "wah" and dinosaur is "saur"). She will once in a while say more than one syllable or one word sentence, but she is still stuck on Mianese. Isaac is pretty dutiful in his job as interpreter for me.

She loves reading books aloud to herself.

She is happy to just play with whatever toys or objects she find lying around the house.

She is super affectionate, and practices being a good little mama to her dolly.

She is my little helper (sometimes). I've found her with all the kitchen drawers and dishwasher open, putting the dirty utensils away into the drawers because she thinks they are clean. She is also the most enthusiastic table scrubber you'll ever meet.

The time she "helped" me cook by dumping a container of baking soda on her face

She loves Isaac, but is sometimes a little scared of him. One minute he can go from helpful big brother to crazy growling blanket monster. She does her fair share of growling too though. I have photographic evidence that they do love each other!

 

She is in love with the camera and never misses an opportunity to pose and say "chiz"

 

She is sweet and goofy and impossible not to love.