17. She is very talkative. She rambles on, loudly or softly or shouting at the top of her voice all day. It cracks me up when my parents come to visit and they can't understand her. She gets so frustrated and repeats herself over and over until I finally come and tell them what she is trying to say. She talks so much that during breakfast when I feed her cereal (the only time I still spoon feed her) that I always end up crashing the spoon into her chin as it waggled up an down because she has to announce each bite as it comes, "A bite of Cheek, Momma?"
16. That leads me to her words. Cheek is cereal. It started off as her trying to say Cheerios and now it's all cereal. When she doesn't know the name of a shape she mixes to shapes together. A heart is called a "square-star" and a pentagon is a "tri-diamond." I like that last one because it sounds like some sci-fi movie prop. We have to get the tri-diamond to the cloud prince before Lord Falcon Wizard melts the planet. I don't know, I don't read sci-fi. She still refers to fish as "blubble-blubble" and Donald Duck is affectionately called, "Donny Duck." Santa is still "Tanna"and pillows are "polo." Avocado is "alla-calla" and watermelon is "menna." Grammy and Grampy are Dreeny and Dry-dry. There are so many more.
15. She just started saying "love" along with huge hugs and patting. "Lovey Bailey," she says as she hugs and pats her sweetly. "Lovey me?" She asks as she hugs my tightly. Sometimes it's weird, "lovey vacuum" she says as she hugs the vacuum.
14. Her friends. Scarlett has lots of friends and she loves to talk about them and see them. Emily is closest to her in age and they have been friends basically since Emily was born in April 2014. Scarlett calls her Emmy and we get them together very regularly. Kate, Kennedy, and Klaire are her friends she sees every Tuesday and she calls them (all of them) Kate or Kenny. Klaire hasn't made it into her vocab yet. Their mom is Debbie and Scarlett asks about her A TON. She was the first person I ever saw Scarlett go to and snuggle once when she was sleepy before bed a few months back. Scarlett usually is pretty stingy with her snuggles leaving them to me or my mom if she is visiting. But she loves Debbie. Scarlett also loves to talk about her cousins, Kenna and No-No and their cat Fig. She asks if we are going to see them a few times each week. She even asks about her Vegas cousins who she only really remembers from pictures and FaceTime.
13. Her bedtime behavior. Scarlett is an angel about bedtime and nap time. At 7:30 every night she lets me read to her and sing and rock her before I lay her down and she goes right to sleep. She usually sleeps until between 7 and 7:45. And she still naps every day. Love that!
12. Her accessories. She loves to wear hats and bows, but especially hats. All day and through some nights . I can't make this stuff up, so I take lots of pictures.
11. Her memory of places. Every time she sees Dunkin Donuts she asks if we're getting "bye bye doney." Yeah, I totally started that. Perhaps she has had a few too many donuts in her day. Bye bye church? Is a question she asks a lot, and she knows when we pull up to her friends' houses. When we go out front and she sees the neighbor's house where her little 10-month-old friend, Kai, loves she says, "want to see Kai? Go see Kai?"
10. Her imagination. Scarlett loves to pretend to eat things, feed me things, cook, clean, wash my hair...the other day I took a bath to relieve some soreness in my joints from, ya know, pregnancy...and she stood by the bath the whole time "washing" my hair and saying, "Momma's bath. Washy hair...dry dry dry!" She hugs and rocks her baby and even wants to help when I babysit Emily's real-live baby sister. "Help baby drinking milk?" She asks as she tries to bottle feed her. Adorable.
9. Talking on the phone/FaceTime. Scarlett brings me my iPhone and asks me to call Dreeny, Dry, Gabby, and Papa daily. On FaceTime she shows my parents toys and dances for them.
8. DANCING. Dance is pronounced "den" in our house and Scarlett is in the mood to den in restaurants and shopping centers where background music is playing. She jumps down from the table where we are eating, shakes her butt and says, "wanna den?!" It's awesome and I hope she never stops dancing in public.
7. Her learning. I really get misty-eyed when she is telling me her colors and shapes. We're working on ABCs and she sometimes refers to her ABC book as "JK?!"
6. Her snuggles. She loves to nuzzle, be carried like an infant all wrapped in her towel after baths, and be cradled when she is sleepy. And any time of day is a perfect time for hugs and sitting in the crook of my arm. Last Sunday when we went to donuts for breakfast she sat with her arm around me and I went to church with sugar glaze all over the back of my blouse. I love her cuddles so much though.
5. Her love for animals and cartoon characters. She loves to point out animals anywhere we go and she adores all of her Disney characters. Ariel from the little mermaid is "Mer-Mer" and she only wants me to brush her teeth with her Barbie toothbrush. We have a lot of horse statues around where we live and she always says, "I see Hee-Her, Momma!"
4. Her laugh when she is playing with Papa. She laughs so hard at his Monkey noises and his tickling. Then says, "Papa funny, Momma?" She is so happy when he gets home and plays on the floor with her. And I love that he gives her baths for me since bending low is not my strong suit these days. He always spends extra time brushing her hair after baths and making up silly songs. We love him.
3. Her tidiness. She is so good about using her eating utensils, but sometimes can't get the food in fast enough with them. In which case, she asks that I clean her hands off multiple times throughout the meal. The notion of decorating Christmas cookies went over her head because where is the fun in being covered in frosting and sprinkles?!
2. She is such a good eater. Sure, we had our chicken nugget phase and some days she eats 6 mini gherkin pickles for lunch but I can usually get 2 really good meals into her belly each day. And she eats with gusto. We had Cracker Barrel for dinner after her birthday party and I ordered her Mac n cheese and green beans. She shoveled it in so fast I couldn't believe, and said "yum yum" between bites. I have never been so entertained watching someone eat before.
1. She really is a good girl. It's funny TODAY she did two things she had never done before and they happened to be on her 2nd birthday. She threw the bathtub drain stopper in the toilet (that was the first time she ever did anything remote close to that!) And willfully slammed my glass elephant coffee creamer on the tile floor shattering it to bits because I told her not to be rough with it. Yikes, right? But she has never gotten up to the typical mischief of associated with toddler-hood. I know, after today she is capable of it. But I never worry when I leave the room that she will get up to mischief. She doesn't want to pour out all the desitin and bathe in my perfume... yet. She just kind of hangs out with me all day being awesome. She doesn't give me daily headaches or gray hairs and I really really really love this time in my life and in hers. I know soon we'll have an adorable extra human in our midst and dynamics will change, so I'm enjoying it as much as I can. 
