Brush Time

I found a kid's toothbrush at Walmart the other day that comes with stickers for the child to decorate the toothbrush with! Asa helped Marley decorate it and she was so excited to get to use it!
She loves it! And it makes brushing her teeth so much easier! It is still a slight struggle, but nothing like the thrashing and hiding that used to come with teeth brushing time!
Isn't it cute?!

22 Months

Marley is 22 months old today! It breaks my heart that when someone asks me how old she is, it is easiest to say that she's almost 2. She is definitely developing her own little version of an attitude. She is the sweetest little girl most of the time, who loves to help me do almost anything. But when she wants something that I won't give her or I take something away from her, she screams "BEBEBEBEBE!!" Her new little attitude suits her wonderfully when she is wearing her sunglasses too! There is just something irresistibly cute about her getting sassy in her sunglasses!
She learns so many new words every day. Some words that I ask her to say, she will really give it some effort and get close. But other times she doesn't feel like doing it, so she just spits out something totally random instead. And the way she puts things together now is funny. Like I told her to say hello to her elephant picture in her room. So, she said "Hello!" and then did the sound that an elephant makes! She definitely keeps us laughing. She also finds the perfect little times to say "Oh, Dada." or "Oh, Mama." Especially when we do something she doesn't like or just wants us to know she is thinking about us.

She loves to put money in her piggy bank. It's a daily activity now. She brings me the piggy bank and then motions like she is putting something in it, so I usually find her a few pennies so that she can add to her collection. She also has her first imaginary friend, Bobby! She just randomly started saying Bobby one day and when I ask her where he is, she signs "work." Bobby works an awful lot and has been employed at the movie theater, Cotton Patch, Wal-Mart, and with Mimi. I have no idea who it could be, but she sure loves to talk about him! Oh, and she loves dancing lately! When she was around a year old, we could get her to dance all the time. But then she just stopped one day and didn't want to do it anymore. Luckily she has gotten back into it and is becoming a pro! She dances all around the house!

I really should be taking more videos. It's hard to choose sometimes between taking pictures and video. I love to take pictures and I love how they remind me of what was happening, but she is doing so many cute things now that I don't want to forget. So, I will try to start. Maybe I will make weekly videos of all the clips I take during the week.

She has so much going on in her life, people coming and going and living in different places. I just hope that one day it will all be behind us and it won't have completely altered her personality. I worry all the time that we should have planned it differently or that she will be confused about where she belongs. But I see her face when she sees Asa's truck pull in the drive way or the way she looks at me when we wake up in the morning, and I know she's happy and she knows she's loved.

Happy 22 months, baby girl.

Fun at the Park and Big Boo-Boos

On Friday evening, we decided to take a trip to a creek nearby so that Asa could collect some gravel for the fish tank and Marley could play in the creek. I had forgotten about the water playground that they have at that park, but I was so glad Marley was in her swim suit so that she could play in it! There were a few kids playing in the water, so Marley was a little nervous at first. But she firgured out how much fun it was and ended up having a blast!We did walk across to the creek, but Marley was not interested one bit. She cried as we walked away from the water park! So, we hurried back!
So, I decided that I would be a good mommy and get wet with her. Asa and I had managed to stay dry, but I thought it would be fun to get in. So, I decided to run through with her.
One second after this picture was taken, Marley fell. I did not notice she had fallen somehow and ended up skinning one of her knees pretty bad. I felt so so terrible. I was only trying to have fun with her and she was in tears! I tries to distract her with more playing, but it did not work.
She ended up crying the entire way home (even when we stopped for ice cream), all through her bath, and while I was putting her to sleep. I put a band-aid on and tried to take her mind off of it, but nothing worked until she fell asleep.
The next morning, Asa took her pajama pants off to change her diaper, she spotted the band-aid and started screaming all over again! So, after a day of putting off changing her diaper and then listening to her scream for 30 afterward, we thought that maybe we could go back to the water park and try again. Asa and I went in our swim suits this time, prepared to play. Unfortunately, about 5 minutes in a little girl plowed over Marley, knocking her to the ground and skinning her other knee! Repeat of crying, ice cream, crying all night, and hating diaper changes.

This poor girl was some banged up legs! But at least she had fun before it all happened. She will be wearing pants for the next week or so unfortunately. Because we are still dealing with the drama every time she can see her boo-boo!

Three Again

All three of us have officially made it back to Missouri. Marley and I left my mom's house on Wednesday night and drove a few hours before stopping to spend the night. Then we woke up early Thursday morning and drove the rest of the way home. It was a long drive, I can't imagine if I had done it all in one day. It seemed to take way longer than it did to drive down to Nacogdoches. Marley was a great sport, and only had a few breakdowns. We got to our house at about 4:15 in the afternoon, and luckily nothing had gone terribly wrong here while we were gone. We unloaded a few things, cleaned up the bugs who had gotten in, and then headed to the store for some food! Marley was happy to be home. She spent a long time just running all over the house, pulling out her forgotten toys, and greeting her stuffed animals. She got really upset when she saw that Asa's car was here, but he was not. She went through the house yelling for him, even though I had tried to tell her he wasn't here and she would see him tomorrow.

Asa didn't come home until about 11 that night, way after she was in bed. I wanted to badly to wake her up so she could see him, but she needed to sleep. So, I had in my head how great it would be when she woke up for him to go in and get her! She slept wonderfully and didn't wake up until 5 the next morning. Unfortunately the plan for Asa to surprise her did not go well, and she just cried for me. We managed to get her back to sleep and when she woke up at 7 it was a whole different story! She saw Asa, squealed " Dada!", and gave him a headbutt! She was so happy to see him!

I had so much fun in Nacogdoches and I am so glad we went. But it is also nice to be together Asa family of three again. The shorter our time gets together, the more I realize how much we need to be enjoying as much of it as we can. Hopefully our summer will be full of fun activities, weekend trips, and lots of family time!

Oh, Squirrel!

Oh, Squirrel! from Jillian Shaw on Vimeo.

My new favorite thing she says!