On Friday she went to bed daddy's girl, but woke up Saturday morning wanting me and only me. While comforting Ryan, I was not-so-secretly flashing a smile on my face and loving my baby girl's attention. The tables are usually turned, so of course I was enjoying every moment!
My favorite activity of the weekend was spending some time with Keira in the kitchen. For Christmas, her Nanny Jess had gotten her some sugar cookie mix and we finally had some free time to bake them this weekend. I pulled one of our dining table chairs up to our island so that she could help knead the dough. To my surprise, she took to it right away!
Although I don't want her to grow up, I am looking forward to all the memories we will make together in the kitchen. I think she may be a natural baker.
Once the dough was nice and soft, I brought out the rolling pin. I assumed she would just observe, but she took it from me and started going for it. She refused to give it back. I do!
After rolling the dough, we started to cut them out. I bought some football themed cookie cutters and set of alphabet cookie cutters to help her with learning her letters. Amazingly, she can identify almost all the letters of the alphabet by sight, completely blowing our minds away! This is the great part of her growing up. I love seeing her learn and do new things day after day!
After cutting out all of our shapes, she took an hour nap. When she woke up, I went to get her, and instead of quickly bringing her downstairs I sat with her in her rocking chair. She nestled her little head in my shoulder and we rocked for a good thirty minutes. I'm not sure if she ever fell back asleep but she was as still as could be, only moving to readjust a couple of times. Moments like these are rare. I'm not home often when she wakes up from her naps and we had nowhere to be, so we just sat and rocked. I focused on the quietness, the calmness of the room, how her head fit perfectly in the nook of my neck, her gentle breathing, how she was holding me tight and how I was holding her back... and for thirty minutes time stood still. I kept thinking, my precious little girl, mommy loves you so much! I don't ever want to let you go. Of course, eventually she lifted her head and the weekend moved on.
We spent a fun evening with Ryan's son, Jeremiah and his family, so we waited to decorate until Sunday afternoon. We picked the cookie shaped like a football jersey and I frosted, while she sprinkled!
She picked her colors by name. Just like her letters and numbers, she
now knows a lot of her colors. She can identify red, pink, purple,
blue, green and yellow. She still has difficulty with brown, orange and
black, but we'll get there!
Of course she had to taste test during the process! Yum!
Daddy helped keep the sprinkles on the island and not on the floor.
She ended up with a mostly blue, little bit of pink, green and yellow football jersey with an "F" for Felten.
She had more fun decorating and could care less about eating the actual cookie! Of course, I thought the sprinkles and 10 chocolate morsels she ate during the process where more than enough for the day.
She was in a playful mood the rest of the night! While watching football, she yelled, "Go, football, go!" as the Broncos ran one into the end zone. She sang "Hurry, hurry!" with the mice in Cinderella as they sewed her dress. When she wanted a snack, she pulled my hand toward the pantry, begging "Come on!" She then had me read her book after book, cheering "One more time, one more time, please!" She even started saying, "Jus kiddin!" and uses it in the appropriate context. After months of trying to get her to say, "thank you" it finally took this weekend. And if we make a request of her, she says "Ok! Ok!" in the cutest, most playful way. Who taught her all of this!?! And can I hug her any harder than I already do?
I say it during every stage, but I really think I love THIS stage the BEST. I don't want her to turn 2! I really don't. I want her to stay 23 months forever! Wah! Too bad Keira's in bed and Ryan's at work because I need a family hug. Haha! Hopefully, you are laughing with me. I know I'm being a little ridiculous. 2 will be great and I really am looking forward to her next year. God has so much more planned and it would be selfish for me to keep her from all that HE has designed. I can't wait to see how much she learns and grows and all the funny that comes out of her mouth! This weekend though, I tried to put the future aside to live in the moment... in the 23 months! I have just 9 days left and I'm going to cherish every. Single. One.
