Growin' Up

As Ariel's 2nd birthday draws closer, its been amazing to see the gradual changes in our daughter. Her personality is changing ever so slightly. She has always been quite determined (cough * like her mother * cough) but now its that much more so. She puts up more of a fight when she is not happy with the choices given to her. Like today we had to go home and leave Aunty Kara, that didn't go over well... I am sure Kara could hear her wail a good block away.


Other things that are more fun are her memory skills, vocab and her ability to communicate with us. Although, we tried the sign language early on, Ariel has always wanted to talk. She now is a little chatty cathy, and its rather funny to hear her ramble on about something to her toys. Or to inform us that 'baby stinky diaper.... pee pee change... all better' In case you don't speak toddler, she said that her baby doll had a dirty diaper that needed changing, so she did it and its fine now. Crisis averted. Yay!


Now the main issue over the past few days has been bedtime. Ariel has ALWAYS been a great sleeper, except while teething. Now I still haven't ruled out the fact her 2 year molars could be coming, but I did realize that she might no longer want to sleep in her crib. Again last night Ariel fought being in her crib. She then brought back the old game of, 'guess what, I can get out of the crib'. When she took off running down the hall last night, we knew we were dealing with a big issue. She again fell asleep in our bed with us. This morning while I was in the bathroom, she got out herself and came in to join me. Crazy.


Now although this had been occurring at bedtime, it never happened at nap time... until today. She just SCREAMED today and finally I put her in our bed and within moments she was out. Ariel kept crying 'bed... bed!' When I got her up later I asked if she wanted a 'big girl bed' like mommy and daddy had. Her eyes got wide... YEAH! So we got to work and changed the crib to the toddler bed. Ariel helped out, and was loving getting to help.


The moment it was done she was one big smile and climbed into it and shouted BED!


We loaded up the favorite stuffies and it was perfect. She even demonstrated how she would sleep in it...


...Then showed me how bear would sleep in the bed. Very cute. She was soooooo excited. When we talked to Daddy at dinner (Ken was working late) she eagerly shared about her bed. It was very cute and yet I felt like it was another big step away from being my little girl into a big girl. Sigh.


The real test came when bedtime rolled around. She ran up the stairs, brushed her teeth and climbed into bed. We read several stories, said our prayers and then I left her... and she hasn't made a peep... she hasn't come out... I guess its really happening. Goodbye crib.... hello big girl bed.


To close, had to share some of the proofs from the last photo shoot with the Cinderella outfit and the punk outfit. I sent them to Ken at work today and he wrote back 'quit making me cry at work.' Awwwww


My little princess. Hee.


Nothing says princess like a wishing well, haha.


Love my punk girl!


To see all the pictures from both shoots, click HERE! Well, Ken just got home so we are going to have a visit and try and stay cool... its really hot tonight. Yikes.