The Big Sister

My little baby is now a big sister...and 18 months going on 21 years. I can't believe how much she has grown and changed in the last six months! I'm a little burnt out on the whole interview thing so this time I'm just going to do some bullet points. We'll go back to the interviews when she can actually answer the questions herself. (I know it may come as a shock to some of you, but all this time I have just been imagining what Mariah might say to my questions. I know some of you thought we had a child prodigy...we do, just not that vocal yet.)

• Mariah still loves her stuffed animals and doll. Boppa (Grandma Young) got her a little stroller and she loves to take them on walks. She loads them all up and then says "bye" to anyone who will listen. She also likes to wrap them in blankets and give them lots of kisses. 
• Mariah is a talker...we just aren't quite sure what she is saying most of the time. But she is constantly jabbering with facial expressions and intonations. 
• She does have a pretty large vocabulary for her age though. She loves to repeat words that we say to her and usually does a pretty good job of pronouncing them. 
• Mariah does this little speed walk where she pumps her little arm up and down, I think thats her propeller. 
• She loves to say "hello!" to anyone who will give her the time of day. It's fun to see how it makes complete strangers smile. The girl has a gift. 
• Mariah has become a great sleeper, hallelujah! I didn't know if I would ever be able to say that. 
• When Dad comes home from school she immediately begins this awkward little dance with a big grin on her face as if to say, "Oh hey dad! Look at how much fun we've been having." Doesn't matter if minutes before she was hanging on my leg screaming as I cook dinner.  
• Mariah loves going on walks outside. She is very interested in dead leaves and will pick up as many as she can hold in her hand. She also has discovered dandelions and they are a new favorite.
• We have a neighbor who has cats in a pen, she is passionate about her felines, and Mariah loves to go and check on them. It's just icing on the cake when the neighbor's dog kitty-corner to the cats is in the yard too. 
• Her favorite books right now are The Runaway Bunny, Brown Bear Brown Bear, Goodnight Gorilla, and Chicka Chicka ABC. I pretty much have all of them memorized.
• Mariah loves songs and music. She loves Ring Around the Rosy and will say "ashes ashes" and spin around until we start singing the song for her. She also loves the Eensy Weensy spider and tries to do the hand motions for that. She will bring my ipod to me and start singing, that means she wants me to plug it into the i-home so she can dance to the music. 

For the most part Mariah has loved being a big sister. She loves holding Chet's hand, bringing him his binkie, toys, and blankets and even tries to play Ring Around the Rosy with him. She does have her moments though. When I nurse him she gets a little jealous and tries to climb up on my lap. Poor Chet gets a little smashed at times during his meals and I don't get to relax much. She also has been teething so she spends a lot of her time screaming and crying. Poor thing. Needless to say it has all been an adjustment for her but she is handling it pretty well.

Mariah wanted me to put her shoes on Chet. She thought it was so great. 

Little story behind this picture: Mariah gets attached to different things while we are grocery shopping. This day it happened to be the Romaine lettuce. It was all I could do to wrench it out of her hot little hands to buy the stuff. The cashier then handed it back to her, much to my chagrin. Another battle commenced in the car when I tried to take it from her. So she snuggled with it the whole way home. Once we got home I decided she could help me carry it into the house. But she immediately lost interest. Figures...

And to end this wonderful post here is a video of my two favorite Beat-Boxers...

Sorry about my little line in the video...it had been a long night. I think Chet wet through at least four diapers in the span of 12 hours. Never use Newborn diapers on an 11 pound baby. They don't work.