Carly at two years + four months

Carly at two years & four months is a ball of energy.  She wakes up in the morning so happy to see us.  For breakfast she requests either cereal in her straw bowl or toast with an orange sippy cup of milk. (It's very important that the cup be orange.) Then she plays toys or follows me around while the boys and I get ready for the day.

She loves feeding the cats treats, but if you ask her if she likes Ramona, she will tell you, "No. 'Mona bites me.  But I like George."  Whenever she sees them sleeping anywhere, though, she always says, "Oh, they are so cute!"

Her favorite things are her paw patrol pups and her taggies.  She's always saying, "I need my feather taggie!" She says, "I love it.  It's so fluffy & nice!"  They are her comfort items, and I'm glad she has them.

She wants Mommy at bedtime, but she loooves dada the rest of the time.  When she sees him or the boys after not seeing them for a while, she says, "I found you!"  Wyatt is probably her favorite brother, but she has fun with all three of them.  I think her preference for Wyatt is simply because he has the most patience for her. When one of the boys is sad, she snuggles them or tries to cheer them up.  When Wyatt asks her if she can help him with something, she says, "I sure can!"

While I'm glad she loves her brothers, sometimes it's hard because she mimics them incessantly and that often sucks.  ("Shut up!" "Butthead!" "Oh my god!") It can be frustrating!

At the store, she prefers to sit in the back of the cart if she can.  She's the best grocery shopping buddy, loves to share a snack with me while we shop, and is always so cheerful.  I'm so glad.  

She's a little mama.  Cleaning, sweeping, wiping up messes... Caring for Wyatt when he was throwing up last time he was sick.  Saying, "Good job Wyatt," when he was done throwing up.  Anything she has seen me do, she does herself.  Including carrying a purse, and wanting her nails painted. The other day she put my keys in her purse.  Thankfully I saw her do it!

I can't even tell you how much I love that she wants her nails done.  I have dreamed for years of having a daughter and now that I have one, I absolutely adore that she is so girly.  She loves to wear necklaces and hair pretties and have pink nails.  (She always chooses pink.)  It's my favorite, and it has yet to get old.

Every day when I dress her I get a thrill.  I'm not even kidding.  I enjoy choosing her clothes every single day.  It's so fun to put together an outfit, to do her hair and choose a coordinating hair thing.  She's so cute and I just love dressing her up.

When she gets owies she says, "You kiss it?" and requests a bandaid.  We have Paw Patrol bandaids and she loves choosing which one she wants.  She's very picky.

She talks up a storm and people often think she's three.  Instead of "stop" she says "sopt".  She says "yellow" as "yeyow" and "tomorrow" as "tomoyow", and I'll be sad when she says them all right.  She never mixes up the twins, which everyone finds amazing, and if you ask her if she's a boy or a girl she says, "I'm just Carly!"

Indeed you are, little girl.
Indeed you are!

***

Carly at 23 Months

On Christmas Eve Carly turned 23 months.  

We are in the last month of her being one.  

It's so very bittersweet. 

At 23 months, she is funny, sweet, and loving.

She makes us all laugh,

and is full of character.

She loves to play with her brothers' toys,

making vroom sounds with the cars,

and taking apart the legos.

She also loves being a mama to her baby dolls,

and toting stuffed animals with her everywhere.

She loves getting dressed and is so good when I do her hair.

When she looks especially cute, all the brothers will say so, and she copies them,

saying, "So cute!"

Her hair is getting longer, which is nice...

but she constantly has new hair growing as well, so it is pretty much always out of control. 

Ha!

She loves to say, "Nope!" especially if we tease her that it's time for night-night.

At the dinner table she loves to have all our attention,

and she often does.

She'll join our conversation, or just get our attention so she can point out all the things on her tray:

Fork, spoon, cup of water, rice, broccoli, plate...

She is a bossy little tyrant some of the time (I think she's practicing for when she's two). 

She's the most bossy to her big brothers.  

Here she is screaming "Wy-att!!!" 

wanting him to join her on the trampoline. 

Hah!

She hasn't had very good naps the last month

(I blame teething)

and it's made for some hard, hard afternoons!!!

If things don't go exactly how she wants them, 

or I can't understand exactly what she wants,

she can throw some epic tantrums. 

Mostly they consist of:

melting onto the floor

and loud screaming

 She loves to go get brothers from school,

wants to walk independently while we're there,

and seemingly can't wait to be a big kid!

 She loves snacks.

She is always asking for a bowl or baggie of something.

This day, she brought me a baggie and the chocolate chips and wanted them PLEASE!

 She loves to read,

and will bring us HUGE stacks of books to read.

Then she will sit and listen to all.of.them. 

It's amazing given her age.

She'll also read to herself, which I love.

 While we were gone in Spokane at the hospital,

Josh said she would say, "Mommy? Wyatt. Sick."

When they finally got to FaceTime each other, they were both overjoyed.

Wyatt's smile hadn't been so big since before he had left town,

and Carly was tickled to see her Wyatt Byatt.

 I'll often ask, "Who do you love, Carly?"

And she'll answer:

"Wyatt,

Jackie,

Logan Bogans,

Daddy,

Mommy,
Grandma,

Papa,

Nanny,

Milo

and Ari."

It's so so cute!

 Before she goes to bed, she likes to make her rounds, saying goodnight to everyone in the house, hugging them and telling them she loves them.

"I love you, Gackie"

"I love you, Gogan"

"I love you Wyatt Byatt"

"I love you, too, dad"

And before I leave the room after tucking her in,

she'll say sadly, "I love you, mom."

 She is still nursing.

We are down to once a day, before afternoon naps.

The plan is to drop that as well within the next few weeks. 

I'm ready to be done in so many ways,

but quitting is still bittersweet.

(I'm finding all of parenting to be quite bittersweet!)

 I love how the boys tolerate her. 

She will get in their business, steal their toys, yell at them, and they just smile and let her be, always including her where they can.

She LOVES bubbas.  

(That's what we call stuffed animals around here!)  

When she finds one, she stops whatever she's doing and hugs it, closing her eyes and sighing. 

It's so precious.

She especially loves her new Panda from Josh.

She LOVES looking out the front window and the back slider at our bunny (or bunnies... we aren't sure if it's one bunny we keep seeing in both yards, or if it's a few bunnies...).  The other day after she looked at the bunny, she ran and got her monkey bubba and held him up to see.  She said, "Look it, monkey! See the bunny?"

She is just the most fun at this age.

She's putting together all kinds of sentences;

("Mama do it." "Bunny go night night." "Play with me.")

she can play pretend with her toys or the boys;

and she loves to be tickled.

I am still tickled at her girl-ness.

I love dressing her in pink and purple,

I love doing her hair and picking her shoes,

and I love how maternal she is to her dolls.

Carly, you are so beloved.

I hope that you forever know it, baby girl.

The last 23 months with you have been pure magic.

***

Carly May at 22 Months

You guys.  This girl. She just... She just is the best.  She's everyone's favorite, the boys included, and we are all so grateful for her.  I can't tell you how often I thank God that I didn't give up after my miscarriages.  Because our life would be missing a giant ray of sunshine if she hadn't shown up.

She's such a lover, she gives these amazing back hugs when you are doing something (like cleaning the floor or picking up toys) and she will often feel sad and come to one of us saying, "hug" or "snuggle".  When she first wakes up is my favorite because she has her taggies ("all of them") and just wants to rest her head on my shoulder for a while. It is the most precious thing. And perhaps because she's my fourth, I know how fleeting those footy-pajama'd, morning hair, warm cheeked hugs really are.  My first babies are now nine, and half the size of grown men.  We still hug & snuggle, but it's just not the same.  So every morning I close my eyes and try to capture the essence of those snuggles with Carly to store away for the future.

I remember sneaking into the twins' nursery at night to scoop them back out of their cribs and rock them a little more while they slept. Josh thought I was crazy, but I am so grateful for those memories because I often look back and think, "Did I enjoy it? Did I relish it?"
I did.
Thank goodness I did.

Our Carly loves her brothers, especially at play time.  They will push her around in her Little Tykes Car or Stroller.  Or pull her in a laundry basket.  They hate when she's in trouble and will stick up for her mischievousness.  It's hilarious.  They tend to give in to what she wants and hate to see her cry.  At Dollar Tree the other day she wanted this terrible stuffed animal and Logan said he would trade out his Matchbox car so she could get the bear. Their hearts are just so big for her.  It's in those moments I think, "We must be doing something right."

Sister-friend knows what she wants and is very clear in demanding we meet her requests. "Myself!" "Brush!" "Straw!" and "Cereal!" are some things she often yells at us. She hates eating in her high chair and will often cry, "Bable.... BABLE!!!" (table) as we are buckling her in. She can't wait to be big like her brothers.

So far this holiday season, she has destroyed the bottom third of our Christmas tree and broken Wyatt's super special Christmas Snow Globe-- she's just a girl on a mission and doesn't want to be told no about anything. I don't care about the tree- honestly the little ornaments bring her so much joy it's hard to be mad.  But I felt awful when she broke Wyatt's snow globe.  He cried so much. Sometimes having a little sister is just hard.
But he forgave her nearly instantly because she was crying so much as well. When it broke, it scared her and got her socks wet, so she was really upset. He hugged her and told her it was okay.  Then the next time he was on the phone with my mom, he told her what happened and asked for a new one.

Carly loves holding things lately- the cats, my sister's baby, or lots of bubbas (which is what we call stuffed animals/babies).  She will tote them around to the school to pick up brothers, or the store to grocery shop.  She puts them in her pockets if they'll fit or into her stroller if they're bigger.  "All of them" is her constant cry.  She doesn't want any bubbas left behind.

In her twenty-first month she experienced her first snowfall and it was magic.  She loved it.  She loved how it looked, she loved bundling up and playing outside with brothers, and she LOVED going on the sled with Logan. It was so much fun to watch our one baby that was "made in Alaska" be so in love with the cold weather.  She's our best souvenir from our time in the village.

Because of nursing, she is often a mama's girl, but that has been changing as of late.  When Josh gets home, she jumps up and down, signing, "Home! Home!" and runs to hug him.  When we ran a few errands Monday she wanted nothing to do with me, and requested that "Dada" get her out of her car seat.  She will be so sweet to him, hugging him, kissing him, even rubbing his back.

I love how she makes all of us better.  We are a family that has been drawn together by this little pixie God sent, and we're all better for it. The twins are more affectionate and patient.  Wyatt is more boisterous and silly.  Josh is more tender and seems to more relish his role as dad.  I am more conscious in treasuring little moments, and somehow she reminds me that my time with the twins & Wyatt is precious and fleeting as well.  She reminds me that someday I'll look back on these days and wonder if I enjoyed it enough, relished it enough.  And thanks to her, I know my answer will be yes.

***