Big girl days ahead...Baby days behind

Our baby girl is going to be TWO YEARS OLD on Sunday! I can't believe it! I just cannot help thinking about all of the memories we have made with her over the past two years...Memories that she will only know through pictures, but memories that will be forever embedded in our thoughts. We have come to realize that these last two years with our baby girl have been absolutely precious--the things that she says and does, the way that we always say "I think she's going to be just like [fill in the blank with a random family member]," and how she has changed our lives in so many ways just by being a part of our lives. And we wonder how we can love someone we've only known for two years so much, and we realize that this is only a small taste of the incredible love our Father in heaven has for us. So I would be remiss if I didn't recount some of her cute little quirks, sayings, and happenings from these past two years--so bear with me as I relive these things...

The happenings...
She peed on Dan when she was only eight weeks old (he realized from that point on that keeping a diaper on a baby was as good of an idea as I said it was), she was born with so much hair that I had to cut it when she was two weeks old (she had her own mullet), she didn't get her first tooth until she was eleven months old, she crawled when she was nine months and walked when she was fourteen months, she NEVER at baby food meat (who would?), she has been attached to her pacifier since she was tiny, we had to move her crib when she was eight months old because she figured out how to stand up in her crib and turn the lights on in her bedroom, she wasted at least ten diapers trying to put one on her baby (Pooh bear), she was terrified to try her birthday cake on her first birthday until she realized how good icing really was, she was so proud of herself when she learned to use a sippy cup at eleven months old and even prouder when she learned how to use a straw at eighteen months old

The quirks...
She loves baby dolls and pocketbooks, she can watch the same movie three times in a row, she has learned how to successfully put a DVD in the DVD player and then return the one that was in the DVD player back to its original case, she insists that eight stuffed animals stay in her crib every night, she likes to play tea parties but only if she can pour the tea herself, she loves boys and holding their hands and kissing them (her father has already told her she would be locked in her room starting at age twelve), she hated the ocean last summer but isn't happy until the person holding her is up to their necks in water this summer, she cleans up more than any other child I have ever seen (yesterday at school she not only cleaned up her mess but also the toys that two other boys had been playing with--I had to tell her that they were still playing because they were getting pretty upset), she loves dogs, ducks, and trees, she sings and dances all of the time, and she usually puts the food on the spoon with her hands instead of trying to scoop the food, she loves to read, and she attempts to say the blessing and pray every time we do

The words...
Goggy=doggy, guck=duck, wobby=movie, Mikey=Mickey Mouse, Daidy=Minnie Mouse and Daisy, shoe=shoes and juice (that one can be tricky at times), mulk=milk, Be-go=Bingo (our dog), baby=anyone who is not as tall as she is, cackuh=chips, crackers, and cookies that aren't chocolate chip, Oh no, what gon do?=Oh no, what are we going to do?, ke-gu=the clean up song, dank do=thank you, achoo=bless you (and her attempt at pretending to sneeze), tease=please, poon=spoon or fork, umpee or oo oo ah ah=monkey, ehpant=elephant, baa=sheep, and countless more

So, I hope that in some way typing all of this out will help me remember at least some of the special things about our little princess...these are things I don't ever want to forget.