The joys of being a mom

I can't express how much I love being a mom! The joys, even struggles, add up to something amazing and immeasurable. It drives me crazy how quickly Callie is growing up - she's learning new things quicker than ever, we truly have a sense of her strong and determined personality. I am excited about what's to come but every once in awhile need to remind myself to take everything in because it changes so quickly.

Some recent events have made me remember how important it is to remember everything and tell all around me that I love them. So, this post is more for Callie than anyone....

My new favorite thing about Callie is that she has realized she can now make Preston and I laugh with one little thing she says or does and she thinks it is great! The joy I see on her face when she realizes that she is the reason we are smiling and laughing is adorable. It then leads her to her super contagious silly belly laugh.

Here's some other new things:

She knows all of her abcs.....

She is a total chatterbox and now will have complete conversations with us (I just wish she would do it around other people). The other thing she does is she now makes up songs, which is so fun to see her do. They are always to the same tune....the farmer in the dell......but they are about anything she sees, motorcycles, cheese, whatever!

Her favorite game is the car is to point at something and say "what's that?". I would try to figure out what she was pointing to and tell her the answer until one day I asked her back "what is that?" And she responded. So now, she asks, I ask, she answers. Now I don't have to actually figure out what she is pointing to.....which is good because sometimes her response is really random....like red. Okay....whatever!

She is absolutely fearless. She does not hesitate to do anything. We have recently started gymnastics, which she loves, but terrifies me. She is not scared to do anything and I can just see her try to do something without me. Her favorite thing is the jumping. Apparently in daycare she is trying to jump off of everything.

She is officially in a big girl bed (which was a super easy transition) and pacifier free (not such an easy transition)!

She is a super caring little girl. She can't stand seeing other kids cry and will drop whatever she is doing to walk over to figure out what is wrong. When we pick her up from daycare she will often tell us that one of the kids was sad and crying.

She has a crazy fun imagination. She will line all of her babies up and tell me all about what they are doing, what they need, and what they are going to play together.

She wants to do everything that Preston and I do. It doesn't matter what - It scares Preston and I a bit about how quickly she learns things just by observing us or older kids. We are realizing that we are already having discussions with her about how some kids can do some things but that she can't. So far that is not going over too well.

She helps Preston make coffee every morning and often takes it upon herself to make it by herself. Future career?

Here's just some random pictures from things we have been up to lately:

First motorcycle

Helping mom wash the car

We recently went to the zoo with the Wagners. After lunch we decided to explore the grassy area. Rachel and I were cleaning up the lunches and we looked over and Wyatt was walking with his arm around Callie....super cute! (they also gave each other a hug good bye and then Callie leaned over a gave him a kiss.....I'm going to choose not to read too much into this!)