23 Months!

Happy last month of being a 1 year old Bekah! But, as I have said alot lately, Bekah has already "earned" a position among the other 2 year olds thanks to alot of 2 year old behavior, both great, smart and "challenging!"

I will do my best to describe my colorful little girl and all that she has done this month, but I was pretty bad about writing things down on her calendar this month. Sorry also about the lack of blogging, keeping up with our bumble lately has been quite the time consumer.

Look how close she is to that 3 foot marker! I had her attention for about 5 seconds, then,

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she saw mommy's shoes off in the distance and just had to try them on!

Did you know that many times, she demands to wear my shoes and not her own? The night that I went to the ballet, I had to go find some other "pretty sparkly shoes" for her to have, just to get my fancy shoes off HER feet! She is such the shoe monger!

Along with being interested in shoes, she loves her some music, especially when Daddy is around! Daddy wanted to show her a thing or two on the guitar one day and she just ate it up! Hmm . . .wonder if she has some musician in her like her daddy???

We do still love our music class and one day, we went to a children's concert with some friends and Bekah has not been the same since! She talks about the "concert" every day and we even have to listen to the music every day! And let me tell you, if I put on classical music, it must be the one she heard at the concert ( Vivaldi's 4 Seasons). The minute Vivaldi's piece ends on the IPod, if someone else like Handle or Mozart comes on, she starts saying, "no! concert!" Sometimes I trick her and put on a different composer and say it's "concert music" and she just looks at me, scrunches up her faces and starts to whine that she wants concert music! Teehee! Here she is running around outside the theater. I had a great pic of her and I with Lina and her mommy, but I can't find it. We sure had fun with them though!

Along with appreciating daddy's talents in music, Bekah also has been showing her support in mommy's crafting interest ( notice I did not say talent!). We went to Emily's for yet another crafting date and our girls kept themselves busy for a good 3-4 hours, I was super impressed and grateful, we needed to get some birthday crafting done! Lucky, Samantha's daddy got home from work early that day and Bekah was all too eager to soak up some daddy attention!

Mr. Derek is definitely reading them Pinkalicious! It was Bekah's first taste of this book series!

Ms. Robyn also helped entertain while we worked on the cricut, for she too had some birthday planning to do for her son Hunter!

( Look at Bekah's face, I swear she loves "Mantha!")

Bekah also got to experience her "first taste" of Chucke Cheese's! The one by our house is said to be quite ghetto, so we joined our Pearland friends down at theirs and I was not disappointed! You will see that Bekah was not either!

Hunter had fun with his "Honey" : ).

See, I told you that Bekah loves Samantha! : ) See her going in for the hug?

Speaking of love, Bekah couldn't believe that the very book/movie/figurine that she has been obsessed with lately ( Cinderella, known as "Rella"), had it's carriage materialized in Chucke Cheese!

Better yet, she had Prince Barret to ride along side of her!

Teehee, she looks pretty giddy from her date, don't blame her, she is next to a handsome prince, in Cinderella's carriage AND she is wearing the tiarra that she insisted on wearing all day long!

Reading about something in books, like Cinderella's carriage, and then, watching your daughter see it in real life is just so exciting and special to me. I always feel like that at the zoo too. The Houston Zoo just opened it's newest Africa addition and Bekah enjoyed both the animals and spending time with her friend Zoe. I have learned that, wherever I go, if Bekah brings something important with her, such a sunglasses, a Cinderella doll, lollipops, snacks, I always need to have two of it if we are planning on meeting a friend there. Essentially, she is sharing, but when it's something super super special like ones pink plastic shades from the dollar store, you can only ask a girl to do so much, so you just bring an extra pair!

We got to be soooo close to the area where they give the elephants a bath! It was so amazing to watch, I got a little teary eyed, the baby elephant was the cutest thing I have ever seen ( see her down by her mommy's feet, trying to play with her?) and I have officially decided that the elephant is my favorite "large animal," I mean, besides the horse, of course : ). Bekah was a bit scared, so I am thinking that the theme of her party is still her number one  : ).

In addition to the land animals, we paid tribute to Houston's sea life as well, by taking Daddy to the Aquarium. Very cool place and Bekah enjoyed herself alot, just wish my camera batter wouldn't have died a few minutes after we got there : ). We prepped Bekah alot for this experience, telling her everything she would see, and as cool as sharks and fish and stingrays may be, she just kept asking for "crabs!" I think she half expected a bright and happy red crab to jump out and start singing to her! Poor girl finally accepted that Sebastian was not there and, worse yet, Arial wasn't either. One day Bekah, we will get you to Disney World!

It's amazing to think we have not traveled since the first week of January, I don't think our suitcases have ever gathered dust and they just may very well have dust on them now! May May's birthday was in Feb. though, so they made a point to come up and visit us and Bekah made a point to attach herself to them all weekend long , telling them what to do, what to wear, what to say and what to play! Never a dull moment!

Behavior Stuff:

- time out reached a high point at the beginning of the month, but has now tapered off. the idea of it is pretty effective and if i mention it as a consequence, she usually abides. it makes me reflect back on our consistency with it and realize that it was all fo rthe best, as exhausting and sad as it may have been.

-counting to 3 is still sometimes very effective

- i introduced a sticker chart to her to help with with her "problem areas" and i also feel like that has done it's job. i felt like our struggles duing the day included washing our hands, getting OUT of the car and getting into our high chair. whenever she did those things when I asked she got a sticker. after about 2 weeks of that, i don't feel like it is as much of a struggle to do those things, and it's been so much better! only thing is, when i exclaim how wonderful it is that she just washed her hands when mommy told her to, she doesn't want the sticker any more! Weird, but at least she is doing it, right?

- i am constantly praying about how to handle her "whining" because it has reached an all time high : ).

Random:

- Lately I have not been able to predict what she will be scared of and what she will be okay with. she says hello to strangers all the time now and yet, hates the bouncy houses that she used to love!

- it's funny, she has been picking up on every one's real names lately. like she says, "mommy, jenny!" and then, "daddy, zack!" I sometimes quiz her by saying what is gramommy's name?" "nora!" teehee, guess she can put two and two together! : )

- she finally loves peanut butter as you see here. i have found that "dipping" makes anything better and can get her to eat many new foods, like carrots now! she loves raw carrots and ranch. hmm . . . just like her daddy!

She also loves basketball just like her daddy!

And really does play with the mitt that Mr. Rocky gave her when she was a baby! Who says my little Fancy Nancy isn't well rounded?? : )

Although eventually the girl in her comes out and we start "accessorizing" with what we are playing with : ).

But then, we are back to "problem solving" too . . . : )

Oh and y'all, I ddin't think this day was coming so soon, but guess what Bekah likes to talk about now? Our wedding! Maybe it is the Cinderella influence, but whatever it is, she loves to sit in daddy's lap, holding my wedding shoes and listening to him tell her all about the pictures in our wedding album! It melts my heart and I am so surprised with her interest!

Best part of all though, when I asked her who she was going to marry, you know what she said????

"Daddy!"

Ding, ding, ding, ding! She got the right answer! SOOOOOO cute and sweet! That's right little one, you are your daddy's little girl, until Mr. Right comes along! And you know what? Just as your Gramommy prayed for Zack's future wife from the day he was born( thank you dear Nora!) , we too have been praying for your Prince Charming the moment the Lord gave us to you!

But oh my golly, enough about that, you are barely TWO!

We love you Rebekah May! : )