standing on the edge of everything.

Our girl is 17 months today.

I've had Timmy's song "Seventeen" stuck in my head all day.

Though, in the song I'm pretty sure he means "standing on the edge of everything" in a figurative way.

Carly takes it more literally.

~

{Carly loves her "preee" necklaces}

~

She has come up with some new words in the last month:

up

go

night-night

cheese

coat

shoes

baby

bop

[peek-a-] boo

baaa (sheep noise)

She can identify all sorts of body parts.

She likes to be  up high, hence her knowing "up".

She doesn't use it when she wants to be picked up.

She uses it when she is climbing up the couch or standing on top of the ottoman.

 {chair on top of couch, that's the way to do it}

She is tidy, which is a shocker if you consider who her mother is.

She is always putting things away and picking things up.

If I leave something on the floor when I leave a room, she will point at it and grunt until I put it away.

She likes to play with the toothpaste tube. She grabbed it off the counter today, and I was looking everywhere for it. Then I looked in the drawer where it belonged . . . and there it was. So while I leave it out on the counter, she puts it away.

She's a good example.

{sitting on the very edge of the couch while watching "preee" Avatar}

She is getting good at pretending.

She especially likes to pretend cook and pretend eat.

I think she'll throw some fine tea parties when the time comes.

We inherited a little kitchen from a friend in the ward, and the first day it was here I had to literally drag her away from it kicking and screaming so we could eat lunch.

{the oven cooks more evenly when on its side}

She is busy and going going going.

No wonder she sleeps 13 hours a night.

~

She has made friends with an elderly lady in relief society who keeps a toy horse in her bag.

Carly goes right up to her, knowing she'll get the horse.

And when I tell her to give it back at the end of the meeting, she walks right over to her and hands it back.

Somewhere in there, she also manages to play the piano, stand up on the piano bench, grab the chalkboard eraser and pat it all over her face so she has a nice white coating, and run out the door and down the hall whenever it opens. Needless to say, I'm counting down the days until nursery.



{static queen}

She is good at sharing, always offering me even her favoritest things.

Today we were playing "baby" with her stuffed monkey, and she gave the monkey her dishtowel to snuggle with. If you know her, you know that's a big sacrifice. She is sweet like that. 

~

Speaking of her dishtowel fetish . . .

The other night around 11 Carly woke up and started crying.

She has been doing this a little lately, and usually we just give her a minute and she calms down and goes back to sleep. This is good, because if we go in there, she is wide awake and ready to play after a long "nap". So she wakes up and doesn't stop crying . . . for 45 minutes. Finally, her screaming turns frantic, so I go up there leaving all the lights off just to make sure a limb isn't stuck or that her lip didn't split back open (again . . . ). Nope. I find her standing in her crib, face soaked in tears, reaching down to the dishtowel she had dropped on the floor. I gave it back to her and she snuggled it tight. I rocked her, then put her back in her crib. She rolled over and went right to sleep.

Forty-five minutes of crying over a dropped dishtowel.

For reals.

{snowy jaunt when the sun finally came out}

She likes things her way.

The other day, we were out of her fleece footy pj's so I told Chris just to put some cotton two-piece ones on her. She screamed when he pulled them out and pointed to the dirty footy jammies in her laundry basket. So she slept in dirty pajamas.

We pick our battles.



{exhausted in the bathtub}

Her newest thing is paper and pens.

She likes to walk around with a pad and paper, pretending to write.

Chris and I joke she is evaluating our performance as parents.

When she is in a controlled environment, I'll click the pen so it will write.

She scribbles and scribbles, and looks up at me like its the coolest thing ever.

Then I dive and click the pen closed as she runs away.

I don't really want pen on the walls.

~

She loves to "read" books.

She settles down with a book on her lap and loudly says "da da da da".

Then she turns the page and continues.

She really loves the scriptures too.

But I think its because of the thin, crinkly pages.

{taking notes}

She has started eating with a fork (and sometimes even prefers it).

She can drink out of a real cup without spilling (occasionally).
~
Her favorite song, "Little Bunny Fufu".
She is an especially big fan of "bopping".

~

Our friends had their little girl, Kennedy, last week.

We visited them and I held Kennedy and really could not remember our sweet Carly ever being that small.

It goes by so fast.

~

Chris and I often lie in bed at night talking about

how smart and beautiful and amazing Carly is.

I hope we do that forever.