1. I love when she gets food all over her face. I don't know why, but for some reason I always think her eyes look prettiest when she's got crumbs and sauce all over her little cheeks.
2. I love that she is such a big sister. She's a little bossy, opinionated girl who likes to help with dishes and keep things in their place. And she takes care of Olivia, too. When it's nap time she looks over into Olivia's crib and says, "Head back, Wia." So she'll go to sleep. And the she shushes her if she starts to cry. "It's ok, Wia." And if Olivia is ever sad, she rubs her back and says, "Poor Wia." It is very cute. And when Olivia is crawling around sometimes she pats her little baby butt and says, "Cute bum."
3. I love how she loves to be so friendly now, thanks to our Disneyland trip. She got so used to being adored that she just waves to everyone she passes now. It's very sweet.
4. I love how excited she was to go be with grandma and grandpa. As much as it was hard to see her go, I was happy that she was so happy to go spend the week with her grandparents. She loves them very much.
5. I love how she counts her kisses. "One kiss?" Smooch. "Two kisses?" Smooch. "Three kisses?" And on and on as long as possible. Steve taught her that. And it's my favorite. The other night he FaceTimed with her on his iPhone and she accidentally hung up on him with her lips while giving him "three kisses?"
6. I love how she is trying to learn about temperatures. When I give her some food she usually says, "Hot." And then she investigates and realizes it is just, "warm." And therefore ready to eat. This is a big part of our eating ritual, determining the temperature of the meal at hand.
7. I love her little sentences. They're trimmed to the basics, but getting so descriptive. It is so fun knowing what she is really trying to say. "Santa Claus coming town reindeer." (Yes, she still stuck on Christmas a month and a half later.) "Babies sad. Toys broken." "Good job singing, Mama." "Class good today, Mama?" And of course there's the reassurance, "I got it!" whenever she is doing something tricky, like climbing into her dinner chair in the most precarious way possible.
8. I love how much she loves books. I'm sure this has come up before. But we went to the Scholastic Book Fair at our church's school last weekend and we got her some new books. She was completely enthralled with them all day, every day.
9. And speaking of that, I love how she reads books to herself now. After I read them to her before bed or nap time, I let her take them to bed. Then she lays in bed and reads them to herself. It's usually just a few key phrases from the book that she repeats on each page. But it is precious.
10. And I love that she misses me. I am glad that it's not too bad and she is being good for her grandparents. But it is so nice to know that she loves me a little fraction of the amount that I love her.
I can't wait to get her back today. She's just the best.