My Sweet Precious Girl...

Cadence has grown up a lot lately, and has developed into a very sweet and cuddly little 21 month old toddler. Though she wants so badly to be independent, she still finds countless ways each day to show us that she loves us. These are just a few of her latest ways that she has found to melt our hearts!

~First thing in the morning, when she is still in her crib, we go in to get her and are greeted with a huge smile as she throws herself at us to help her stand up and get out... very quickly, too, once I wasn't ready for her and she threw herself at me anyway and faceplanted into the side of her crib! She is so excited to get up and start the day.

~Greeting the birdies. While I change her diaper and get her dressed in the mornings, she is busy straining her neck from the changing table to see out the window and say hello to the birdies!

~Shoes!!! Cadence LOVES her shoes, and loves trying to take them off/put them on by herself. Oddly enough, she loves her foot brace, too!

~Kisses for everyone! Cadence blows kisses at EVERYONE these days. When you say bye bye, she blows kisses. When we tuck her in at night and say "I Love You!" she smacks a kiss in reply. She kisses her dolls, her rubber duckies, pictures in her books, and this week she kissed the glass of the ferret enclosure at PetCo to give the ferrets a kiss!

~Hugging Daddy night-night: Cadence and I are both night owls, and bed time is usually around 10 or 11 for us, but daddy goes to bed around 9, so once he is settled in bed, Cadence and I go in to tell him goodnight. She lays on his chest and gives him the best cuddly hugs. It is so sweet! And then it is over. When the hug is over, it is over. That's how she operates. =)

~Story time: Story "time" is a term used loosely, because it's basically on and off all day long! Recently, Cadence has become a big time book worm, and I LOVE it!!! She will pick a book out of her book drawer, put it up on the couch, meticulously close the book drawer, then bring the book to me, climb up on my lap, read the story with me, then set it aside in a pile, climb down, go back to the book drawer, get one more book, and do the whole process over and over and over and over! She is not picky about which books she chooses, it's typically whichever one she reaches fastest on top of the pile. I think she enjoys the process of bringing them to me and sitting on my lap most of all! Right before bed time we do our last story time of the day, and we read with just the little reading light on in the living room. She knows this means it's almost time to go to bed, so she tries to prolong it as much as she can!

~Favorite toys right now are books, dolls, especially her baby boy doll, picture word cards, BUBBLES!!!, stacking bath cups, puzzles, and rubber duckies.

~Words she can say now include:

*Yeah
*Uh-oh
*Duck
*Arf (barking like a dog)
*Dog
*Quack
*Buh-buh (bubbles)

Words she can sign include:

*More
*Finished (all done)
*Milk
*Shaking head no

She is getting more and more confident standing on her own, and is itching to try out her first steps, but they haven't happened yet!!! Pics soon to come...