Is she really getting this old?

This week Inara will turn 20 months. I can't believe it. She is getting to be quite the big girl now and I'm not sure how I feel about it. I love her being my baby girl, but she's showing signs of independence and an opinion, which is both good and bad. But she is still very much a mommy's girl. After the past 2 weeks of crying out for daddy all day long, tonight she wanted only mommy. Shawn tried to sit down next to us as we were reading, and she yelled out no. Shawn then asked do you want daddy to leave, and she shook her head yes. The rest of the night it was just the two of us. Guess she really wanted it to be Mother's Day.

Our bedtime rituals are changing every day it seems like. I think it has to do with the fact that she is taking long naps during the day now. She's been averaging 2 hours most days. Weekends I noticed are a bit of a challenge because daddy is home and we're out and about more, but for the most part, I get at least 90 minutes to 2 full hours. This means that she isn't going to bed until 8pm though. That's kinda tough because I like to have some time to finish up projects and unwind. I'll have to figure out a new routine for myself I guess. When I put Inara to bed, she now wants me to rub her back. It's cute but kinda painful for me to hunch over her crib and rub her back for too long. I swear the sacrifices we make for our kids. Tonight I rubbed her back for 20 minutes. She was so cute laying there, and if I moved away, she opened her eyes and said mommy back. So I obliged. It totally reminded me of when Nana would rub my arms, back and face to help relax me to sleep. Too bad I still can't get my back rubbed to sleep.

She's getting to be quite the smart little girl too. The other day we were playing, and I started counting: one...Then she said two, tree. I was so shocked. She has started learning to count. I realize it's because when we are playing, particularly running or going down slides, I always say, "OK. Inara, ready. One. Two. Three. Go." I'm guessing she's picking up on it and learning how to count. I've also been going through letters with her a lot. I show her a D and ask her whose name starts with this letter. She then replies, "Daddy." She has several letters down already: M is for Mommy, P is for Pop, K is for Kristi.

Inara loves to do puzzles lately. We have an assortment of wooden peg puzzles as they are called, and she has mastered putting the shapes, letters, vehicles, animals in their appropriate place. From these puzzles, I've also started teaching her we get milk from cows and eggs from chickens. Tonight, I was watching her do the puzzles and decided to challenge her with two at once. Successfully was able to put two puzzles together simultaneously. This was tough because we have two that have farm animals, and she figured out which cow went on which puzzle, etc. I gave her big hugs and kisses after each one to praise her. She smiled and clapped for herself too. I was so super impressed that I even called her a genius. Hey, positive praise is important, right?

We have a new ritual when in the car too. Whenever we get to an area of large open land, she yells out, "Mommy, moo." This means mommy lets look for the cows and horses. We also look out the windows to see if we can spot beep beeps (that's Inara's tweet tweet for birds), airplanes, bikes, and dogs, aka. doggies, ruff ruffs, and Abby's (most dogs are often called Abby's after Uncle Thane's dog Abby who she now asks for all the time). As for airplanes, the kid amazes me when she can hear the faintest sound of an airplane off in the distance. We can even be in the house, and she'll suddenly say, "mommy, airplane" and I'll have to listen really close to hear the airplane outside. At least we know her hearing is perfect.

As I've mentioned before, she loves being mommy's helper. Well, this week Inara started helping me water the flowers and plants outside. I got her a little watering can at Target, and she now follows me as I water the pots in the yard. She says, "Mommy wawa plant." And I say, "Yes, can Inara please help me?" She then points to herself and says, "Wawa." That's her way of saying Inara wants to wawa too. I love this new routine we have. It's the cutest thing ever. I remember when I was little that I would help my mom water the lawn in the backyard, and we'd look for the frogs. This is one of my fondest childhood memories, and I love that I'm starting a similar routine with my daughter. Too weird how things come full circle like this.

This wouldn't be a blog without a horror story to round out the image of my independent, opinionated daughter. She is now starting to voice her opinion much more about things. I was hoping this wouldn't start until she hit 2, but alas, it is happening now. The other day I grabbed a sweatshirt out of the closet to put on her, and she started yelling no. I asked her what was wrong, and she pointed to another sweatshirt in the closet. I asked, "Do you want to wear the brown one instead?" She happily shook her head yes. Oh boy. Now she's telling me what she wants to wear. She has done similar things with shoes and dresses. Also, I will start putting her hair up in a ponytail, and she'll say, "No mommy, two." "Do you want 2 ponytails, Inara?" I again get an exuberant yeah, yeah, yeah. I can see many a disagreements in the near future. Oh boy.

The other funny but scary story I have to share is about the biggest fit Inara has ever thrown. The other day we were in the kitche when I noticed she had gotten a hold of a chapstick and started putting it on her lips, then her cheeks, nose, etc. I told her no and took it away from her. She threw a holy terror. Stomped her feet. Started walking away from me. Looked back at me and screamed. Continued walking to the cupboard and then put her arm up on the door and rested her head on it as she continued to scream and cry. Oh the drama. I stood there in awe at the spectacle that was taking place all over a chapstick. I was angry with her but found myself laughing at the same time. Could my baby girl be starting the acting out expected of a 2 year old? Again, oh boy, do I have a handful to deal with now? The best medicine for me to survive what's coming (besides a daily pitcher of margaritas) is to read back through blogs like this to remember how truly amazing this little girl is, regardless of the days I want to leave her on the doorstep for my mom to come get her.