Tales of cuteness

Holly is more and more a toddler every day and with this comes both joys and challenges. She had a tantrum in Whole Foods the other day when I wouldn't let her have the duck toys we passed. She walks and talks like a pro. She isn't as easily distracted from items she wants but cannot have- my morning hot coffee - for example. Her favorite thing at the park is now the slide. She likes me to hold her whenever I'm home which can make cooking dinner challenging.

So much is happening in her growth. She understands so much and says a great deal. She is almost entirely weaned from breastfeeding. She now has 6 teeth (and counting) and 2 of them are molars. She generally sleeps in the Pack N Play until well after 2am before joining us in the bed. She blows kisses. She gives great hugs. Her favorite toys are two she received this Christmas: a doll and a stuffed lion. She has also begun to parrot what we do which results in much cuteness.

• One night while sitting in the floor of her room I had her reindeer hand-puppet and I was singing Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. She indicated that she wanted to have the puppet and once I put it on her hand (really it came all the way up past her elbow so hand-puppet is a misnomer) she began "singing" back to me moving the puppet around.
• We have finally begun to translate some of her lingo. "Jeewsh" is George. "Apple" can mean apples, pears or oranges. "Mah!" is for more of something."Duckie" is what she calls her ducks. "Booh" is book. "Bow" is bowl. "Shu" is shoe.
  
• Another night I was reading with her in her room and my nose was running like mad. To get a tissue, I would have had to leave her room and grab some which would have upset her. So I grabbed a burp cloth and used it to blow my nose and then threw it into her laundry basket. She watched. Then picked up a clean burp cloth. Pretended to blow her nose. Then threw it across the room. When I laughed, she giggled and repeated the action several times.
• We asked her over dinner one night if the pasta was yummy in her tummy. So she pulled up her dress to look at her tummy to see.
  

I'll stop there. But there are many more tales of cuteness from our happy baby.