a new year

You are a puzzle queen. That's all you've been doing lately is putting puzzles together. We started with a 24 piece floor puzzle with horses on it and now we have a collection of probably 15 puzzles ranging from 24 to 100 pieces that you will sit and put together mostly unassisted. It's amazing how quickly you picked it up. We've also started with letters and numbers and of course you recognize E, V, P (for Pippa) and O. You have almost got the numbers 1-10 down as well.

We spent a few days in Pittsburgh last week and you had fun with your aunts and uncles. It snowed one day we were there so you were able to run around in that and have a good time. You were great in the car and we had fun looking for cows out the window. You were very friendly to all the familiar and unfamiliar faces you saw. You've turned into quite the social girl and will talk to anyone that will listen. Of course, I still have to translate much of the time, but that doesn't stop you. We went to the Children's Museum and you loved the water room and even made a new friend.




You have started pretend play and you like to look for sunken boats. They are usually surrounded by sharks, but they are nice sharks. They like to eat yogurt and blueberries (much like you do). We also feed the pretend horse that lives outside Sophia's door and you like to comb it's mane and put on new horseshoes.

You've been singing a lot lately and really like The Farmer in the Dell, Old MacDonald, Row Your Boat, Twinkle Twinkle, Baa Baa Black Sheep, London Bridge and Mary Had a Little Lamb. We've also come across a few new artists that sing songs called We Are the Dinosaurs and Big Old Tree. Those are fun because they have actions with them that you really like doing. You sing all the time especially when you are sitting in your stroller or lying in your bed.

Last night you woke up and wanted me to come in and sing you a song. Unfortunately I have a terrible cold so I have lost my voice. You asked me to sing you Twinkle Twinkle so you could go back to sleep and when I started singing, I could only make noise about every 5 syllable. You started crying again and again and kept telling me to sing it right. You couldn't understand that I didn't have my voice, but finally gave in.

You've been doing better at going poop on the potty and even managed to go into the bathroom by yourself unannounced and poop today. We were proud and baked and decorated animal sugar cookies to celebrate. You are growing up so quickly and love your brother so much. You get a very sincere look on your face and walk up to your brother and say in the sweetest voice, "I love you Ben." It about makes me cry every time. You're such a sweetie.