Big girl now

So big that she actually recognizes those words.  If you tell her she's a big girl - after say, walking a few steps, or trying to brush her hair with her brush, or actually getting the spoon in her mouth - she practically squirms with delight.

She can now stand on her own quite well - and does so of her own accord fairly often.  She is also able to walk a few steps towards me (or daddy) before teetering over.  She points at things she wants, says "momma" a lot more now (usually when she wants something - the manipulative little bugger!), knows how to turn the channel with the tv remote, and make random calls with the phone.  She is constantly getting into stuff, and learning more and more to play on her own (VERY good skill!).

She's also almost completely on table foods now too - she loves loves loves to eat anything I'm eating.  Will never ever ever turn down food that comes from mommy's plate - which is kinda like a newfangled diet, as I seem to be sharing my meals more and more with a hungry, growing little girl.

And she's sleeping better and better at night.  She still wakes up sometimes, but I do my best to give her a chance to put herself back to sleep, and it seems to be working.  I'm guessing all this eating of "grown up" foods is also helping her sleep longer.  Let's hope this trend continues (fingers crossed).

I can't believe it's time for her birthday party already.  We have it planned for this coming Sunday - keeping it small (just family) so it doesn't overwhelm her.  My big project for the week will be preparing for that party (Elmo theme - yee haw!), and figuring out how to make the cake.  I've found a cake pan that is Elmo's face - now I just have to find a recipe for the cake + frosting.  I want to make from scratch so her first taste of cake is the real thing - not from a box (or can for that matter) - but trying to find a "good" cake recipe is proving to be daunting.  And figuring out how to do the icing is going to be a bit of a trick as well, but you know me - I like a challenge, and at worst, it will at least resemble Elmo, right?

So that's the news from the Valliers this week.  She's off to daycare tomorrow and Thursday while I get the house ready for the weekend and run some last minute errands.  It's best to keep myself busy when she's at daycare, as I get pretty lonely.  Yes, I'm a sap.  :)

xxoo.S