Finally, a moment to post about Carlee. She turned two on March 25th. Life has been full of special moments because of her. She is an incredible little person. What makes her so is her tenderness, mixed with the same amount of toughness. She is one tough cookie, and equally tender hearted and concerned about others and their feelings. She falls, bites her tongue, bruises her head, etc. and gets over it so quickly (I am trying to be more like her in this sense). She will be selfish or grumpy toward a friend and then feel bad, hug and try to say she is sorry, and then share. She is forgiving and seems to understand others emotions better than I would imagine a two year old could. Her favorite thing right now is imitating others expressions; whether real people, or characters in her books. As of late she is starting to have her own opinion, and likes to tell (or rather show) me what and how to, or not to, do things. I have been telling her not to be bossy, but then I realized she has two bossy parents soooo... She says some cute things like calling Dani "Sissy" and repeating the word of unknown origin "Nano" to express excitement and proclaim a resounding yes! We have been teaching her to take a deep breath when she is getting out of control (and it works incredibly well, I just keep forgetting to do it myself). Up to this point it has been in her nature to be obedient, lets hope and pray it lasts. She does not like to get in trouble. We count to three and by the time we get to three EVERY TIME she is doing what we asked. She will stay in-time out until we tell her she can come out. She can obey requests with multiple tasks like: "please go throw this away and then get me a wet wipe." I like that. Her initial response is always no, but I am teaching her to replace that word with the sweeter sounding word, sure. When she leaves the room we are in she sticks out her finger and says "ba" meaning She'll be right back. Her dad taught her that the way to get what she wants is by smiling and saying while signing "please" very sweetly. So that is exactly what she does, after being told no: she signs and says "Peeeeeeease" showing you her front teeth, (thinking she is smiling), and squints her eyes. Here is a list of other words (not many) she is using that I have been able to decode: Shoo=juice or shoe, Melmo=Elmo, Nana=Banana, I wan da (said very fast and many times in a row)=I want that, Sy=outside, seesee=t.v., Moo=milk, cheese=cheese, two=two, boo=balloon, meme=excuse me, more=more, beebee=blankey, baby=baby, booboo=something hurts, yellow=yellow, and of course, mine=mine. She can say some letters and she knows her colors. I feel like I have to hurry and post this before it all changes because she seems to say and do new things every day. For her big day she woke up to a new tent that barely fits in our apartment. Inside was Jessie and Bullseye ready to play with. The ideas was to wake up before her and wake her up to see her reaction but I awoke to the sound of her in her tent already. She seemed pretty happy! 
She got to take a nap with Dani in her special tent on her special day. 
Also inside her tent was a sleeping bag and headlamp, an Ergo doll carrier just like her mom and dad's, Toy Story 2, and a couple of presents and cards to open. 
Needless to say she likes Apple Jack the pony. 
she enjoyed the rest of her day watching Toy Story 2, playing with her new toys, pointing to her happy birthday banner and saying me and eating her favorite dinner: cheese raviolies with marinara sauce and peas.
The enjoyment continued into the next day with her cousins (actually my cousin Jess and her husband Brian and their two daughters from Maryland ) at a primary activity, the Liberty Science Center and a little party with her neighbors and buddies Greg, Carma, Thurman and Nico Lincoln. 
She is happy to have more Toy Story loot, a new book, a kiss from Thurman... 
and the wonderful Tinkerbell with a mini kitchen all her own!!! 
She is one happy Camper. Thanks everybody so much!!! 
I made her a quick Jessie hat cake and some cupcakes that were trying to be Jessie's shirt. 
She liked it. The adults liked the root beer floats though:) 
Life is good when you have family and friends to enjoy it with!
