In short, this girl wears me out.

I find myself longing for the day when she is just a teeny bit older and then I stop myself because I know I am going to blink and she is going to be school-age.

I also find myself wishing I could bottle her up and keep her as a 2.5 year old forever.

She provides everyone who knows her with endless entertainment.

I think the best way to record what my Little Bug is up to at just over 2.5 years old is to do a bullet post, so here we go:

• Little Bug is simply hilarious. She makes us laugh every.single.day. She is such a jokester and has been since she first started talking.

• Little Bug still makes a royal mess when she eats. Seriously. This is something I am totally over and will be so glad when she is past this stage. There is a mess everywhere when she eats – on the table, her hands, her whole face, her booster seat. I have tried everything to help her eat a little neater to no avail. It’s just something I’ve let go, telling myself she won’t (hopefully) still be a messy eater when she hits school-age.
• I still have to watch Little Bug like a hawk because she is just a magnet for trouble. She can (and will) make a mess in 2.5 seconds flat or get into something if am not right there to stop her.

• During the day, when Little Bug is awake and not in her room doing Independent Play, she is right with me doing whatever I do. Which is both good and “bad”. It’s good because I love spending time with my girl and I am tremendously blessed that I get to stay home with her every day. It’s “bad” because sometimes I just wish she would for once just go off and play with something on her own so I could do something without her under foot! I cannot set her up at the table to color or do Play-doh by herself while I go do something for 20 minutes or so. Why? Because she won’t have it. She will not sit and entertain herself. OR…she would do things she is not supposed to do with the crayons/play-doh. Remember the bullet about constant supervision necessary?!

• She LOVES dancing with her Daddy which is the most precious thing ever!
• Little Bug loves to sing. She can’t understand why the Christmas music is off the radio now. She will tell me, “I want to listen to Christmas Music.” while we are driving in the car and I have to tell her that the radio isn’t playing much anymore because Christmas is over.
• When we tell Little Bug we can’t do something she is wanting to do she will say, “But that’s otay, we can still…”. It’s the cutest thing because when she says that she is usually trying to stall bedtime by saying she need to do this and that.

• She loves to be the center of attention when surrounded by family. She was twirling the other day in front of a group of family and she would stop to make sure everyone was watching her and then go back to twirling.
• Saturday mornings Little Bug and her daddy get up and make French toast together!

<ul> <li>Little Bug always asks her Daddy to share a smoothie with her after dinner. They go to this spot in the living room and share their smoothie. </li> </ul> <p> </p> <ul> <li>She still loves to read books. She has gotten to where if you pause while reading she will finish the sentence in many of her books! Her Grandpa Roy is actually the one who started doing this with her. He reads a story book to her and it amazed us what she had memorized from that book. Words that are not normally in a 2-year-olds vocabulary. </li> </ul> <p></p> <ul> <li>She still has 4 milk times a day. I love it because that is the only time she will sit and cuddle. </li> <li>She sleeps 11ish hours at night and takes a 2 hour afternoon nap. </li> <li>I would say she is probably around 30lbs now since she was 28lbs at her 2 year check up. </li> <li>I love the way she puts her little feet on the chair while she eats. </li> </ul> <p> </p> <ul> <li>There is never a dull moment when Little Bug is around. It is hard to imagine her being anywhere but with us! </li> </ul> <p></p> <ul> <li> <div align="left">The biggest news with Little Bug is that she is completely daytime potty trained!! She was ready and she trained in less than a day (on January 16)! She has had two accidents, but only two accidents in 11 days is pretty good!</div> </li> </ul> <p align="left"></p> <p align="center">It is sometimes hard to remember a day when this girl wasn’t a part of my life. It is hard to believe she has been my daughter for almost three years. </p>

- Elaine