Twenty-Two Months

I don't even know where to begin posting about Alli and all the things she does these days. So, instead of trying to make it into some witty long blog post, I'm going to take the easy way out and just make a list. I'm sure there will be things I forget, so this way, I can come back and add things as I remember them!

• Alli counts to fourteen now. Very quickly. If you ask her to count, she's off to the races... one, two, three... etc. Sometimes you have to help her with a few, or she'll just skip right to ten.
• She loves to sing. When you ask her to sing, she'll sing the ABC's, which for now, all she really know's is "A, B, C, D (skip E), F, Jew." That's what it sounds like, and that's where she stops. But she sings it in the ABC's tone and it's just adorable. She also loves singing her favorite, "That's Elmo's Song!!!!!!" (Or maybe not singing, more like yelling.)
• She's such a parrot. You better watch out, because whatever you say, she'll say.
• She absolutely loves her doggy. Which she says almost like "daddy", but daddy's name is "da da" and doggy's name is "daddy". I know, it's confusing, but we're trying. She tells Scarlett to "sit down!" (she must hear that a lot at school), and "shake". She loves when Scarlett actually listens to her, and I do too. It's like Scarlett understands that Alli is her tiny master, too.
• Alli loves any and all food. She wants anything you are eating or drinking. She'll come right up, plop down in your lap and say "bite please!" It's too cute to say no. So, I'm sure I'm losing weight as my 22 month old is eating most of my food these days. Oh, and when we were trying out rice cereal with BM for Aiden, she just had to have a bite too. I can't imagine what it'll be like when he starts on more baby foods and she wants to try all of those too. I can see fights over food in our near future...
• She loves her new big girl bed. It's obviously still the same "crib" with no side rail, just a toddler rail at the top part, but she loves climbing into bed herself, and a couple mornings now she's gotten out of bed and ran down the hallway. The first time, we didn't have the gate closed. We heard her about halfway down the stairs say, "hi guys!" Next time, we learned, and she yelled from the gate. It's like we have a little grown up! But she's so great about staying in bed at night. It's like it didn't even phase her.
• She has become very interested in the potty. Which is why we're going ahead with trialing the 3 day potty training method this weekend. She says "bye bye pee-pee's!" and "poo-poo's" while waving to the toilet or to the bathroom, and always wants to go in when we're going and say bye bye as we flush. We also got Elmo's Potty Time DVD and she loves it. (What Elmo video doesn't she love though?) It's a really funny video that Eric and I are quite entertained with too.
• Alli adores her baby bro, and I think she's really wanting him to start playing with her. It won't be long! She will watch him wiggle around on the ground and reach for toys, and she just laughs and laughs at him. She tries to get his attention by saying, "bro!! bro!!!", and when he doesn't look at her, she gets discouraged and tries to shove her face in his face.
• She knows all of her colors and has for awhile now. But it still surprises me how great she is at just rattling them all off like it's not big deal.

OK, as I think of more things, I'll add them here... but for now, just know that we're amazed at this little girl and how much she knows, how far she's come, and the fact that she's almost TWO! My goodness... where did the time go?