Addie at 23 Months

• She has given Grandpa an official name- "Pa". When my dad heard, he melted.



• She has begun "singing" using the "la" and "sol" tones from a musical scale, usually as she makes her way through the tunnel.



• I am always impressed with her sweet, unbiased nature. When we are with others, she does not gravitate to those that are considered "cool". She treats everyone the same. She goes to everyone with hugs and kisses, regardless of what their social status is.



• When she sees a camera, she says "cheese". After my cousin's memorial service the family got together for finger foods and fellowship. The "older" generation (loosely said, because you would not believe their ages based on how wonderful they look) got together for a group picture. Addie happened to walk into the room right as the picture was being taken and shouted "Cheese!" Everyone burst into laughter and she got quite a few hugs out of that moment.



• This is her version of counting to three. "Two, two, TWO!" She loves the number 2 for some reason. She also likes the number five and recognizes it when she sees it.



• When you ask how old she is, she flip-flops between "Two!" (with one finger pointing in the air) and "Five!" (showing all five fingers).



• We didn't even know she knew the word cold until the Sunday we had a hard freeze. We had her bundled up in her coat, and as we walked from the sanctuary to our car, she began saying "Cole!" (cold).



• Putting her toys away. We have worked on this together for a long time, and now it is finally paying off. At night, when we are putting her toys away, we can now just hand her something and she will put it in its correct spot without any prompting from us. Brian and I have exchanged many surpised looks as we watch her clean up her room.



• She is such a helper! She loves helping me around the house. If she happens to be awake when I am making up our bed, she will try handing me the pillows. I have mentioned how she helps me put her clothes in the hamper. She has begun helping me move our clothes from the washer to the dryer (I take them out of the washer, hand them to her, and she tosses them into the dryer with little sound effects). The other day as I was cleaning out the entry way closet, she took the floor sweeper and began walking it up and down the kitchen and dining room using the correct pushing motions for it.



• She loves Play-doh (also called "squish" because of the "squish" motion I used when first introducing her to play-doh). She has tasted it, too. Someone explain to me why she has no problem putting play-doh and crayons in her mouth, but food is another issue!



• When we are stopped at a stop light, she will punch her arm forward and squeal, "Go!" Patience, my dear.



• "Ta-da-da-da-da-dah!" with her arms up in the air is her way of saying "Ta-dah!" when she does something great! On Sunday morning, when she came out of our room, she threw her hands in the air and yelled, "Ta-da-da-da-dah!" Silly little goose!



• She has begun licking and playing with marshmallows, pretzels, and French Fries. She loves yogurt, ice cream (thanks to Uncle Jack), and licking the flavor off of Nacho chips.
  
• Last night, she ate a whole bowl of pastina with my semi-homemade spaghetti sauce for dinner and never once gagged or anything! I was shouting, "Woohoo!" while she ate and she giggled, shouted "Ta-da-da-dah!", and opened her mouth for more. Yeah, I'm feeling good right now!