I Love My Girl

From the minute I found out I was pregnant with Alyse, I was in love.

Then she got here and I saw how beautiful she was and I fell even more in love.

Then she started to smile at me, give kisses and hugs, and say "Ma-ma-ma-ma", I fell deeper still!

The first time she said "I love you, Mommy" I melted!

I always looked at her and thought, "Wow! I can't believe she is mine! Thank you, Lord for giving her to me!"

There have been all these moments lately where I have just had to smile, laugh, or even tear up a little. She is growing up so fast, and doing so many things! It is hard to believe sometimes.

One of my new favorite things to do is watch her when she is watching TV or a movie. She gets so into it! She smiles and laughs when something is funny. She covers her mouth and gasps if she thinks something is bad or scary. If she is watching something that she has seen a number of times, she will even quote some of the words right along with the characters. Instead of watching the screen, I am usually watching her.

She has always loved music, but now she has started singing. And I mean SINGING, at the top of her lungs! Her two favorite songs to sing right now are "Once Upon A Dream" from Sleeping Beauty and "We're A Duo" from American Tail.

My favorite is "Once Upon A Dream" which in Alyse's version goes like this:

"I know you, I dboshgosdifeiosd donds DREAM

I know you, ........."

It cracks me up! (I have to get it recorded!)

She also loves to dance, which is something that I have posted before.

I love how much she loves her daddy! She really, really, really, really, REALLY loves him! There are times that she will sit by the garage door and say "Daddy's home!" like if she just says it he will magically walk in the door. She also talks about him ALL the time. Daddy this, Daddy that... She then will "call" him on my cell phone (or really anything that she can pretend is a phone) and will "talk to him" forever. If you ask her if she is a Mommy's Girl or a Daddy's Girl, she always says "I Daddy's Girl!"

She is also LOVES to read. We just got this new Bible book that I read 2 stories from each night before bed. Each story has a song that goes along with it. She loves it! Every night she will walk in her room and say "Read Bible!". That makes me smile!

She also has started to be a big helper! (At times it can be a little annoying.....) For the most part I love to have her help me cook (by pouring, stirring, handing me things....) If I am at the stove, or I am doing something she can't help me with, she will stand at her little kitchen and work away. She also LOVES to help with the laundry, feed the animals, and pick up toys. I can tell that she has the "organization gene" from both Josh and I. For instance ~ tonight she was playing with her Elefun game. She stood and watched all the "butterflies" and then she started to pick them all up and divided them into 3 piles. She put all the yellows together, all the greens together, and all the reds together. So funny to me!

I am also realizing how smart she is! I know every mom thinks their kid is smart, but she comes up with stuff that I have no clue where she gets it from. She can "spell" her name. Give her a crayon/pen and she will start scribbling and say "A-L-Y-S-E". She also can count to 10. She came out with that the other day out of the blue! I knew she could count to 3, but she didn't stop and went all the way to 10. I was shocked! We are now working on colors and ABCs. (She knows some of them, but has in no way mastered it.)

She is in the "parrot stage". Half of the things I say are repeated back to me. I'll be talking to Josh, on the phone, to a friend, at a store, etc... and she will say whatever I say. For instance, when I was in the ambulance after my accident, they were asking me what the day was, what month it was, who the president was, etc. Every time I answered I heard a little voice behind me saying "Tuesday. April. Obama". At least it brought some humor to the ride.

Also to go with talking, she talks ALL the time. A good amount of the time I am not positive of what she is talking about. She will just go on and on and on with her hands flying. I love it!

I could also go on and on and on talking about her, but instead I'll just let some pictures show you how precious she is!

(These were taken on Sunday/Mother's Day.)