Sadie Smarty Pants

As her mother, I have this biased towards my child.  I always think she is the smartest, most beautiful, sweetest, most awesome living thing in the whole universe.  Well, the other day, Sadie was in the tub and just started counting.  She got to four, and I was happy, she got to seven and I was surprised, and when she got to ten all by herself, I was seriously floored.  I did not teach her that.  Honestly, I think playing hide and go seek with her cousins is what did it.  I pulled out my camera to film her, and by then she was a little distracted and needed a bit of prompting, but I was seriously so shocked with how high she got at the end without any help

Smarty pants girl.  Gosh, I love her, and I love being her mommy.

To my sweet TWO year old little girl...

Miss Sadie Sue,

Looking through my past letters, it is crazy to realize how much you really have grown in only a year.  You are quite literally my most favorite girl on this entire planet.  I thank Heavenly Father every single day that I am the lucky one who is blessed enough to be your mother.

This past June we moved into Grandma and Grandpa's house.  Daddy is in pharmacy school now, and we decided that it would be best for our family to be able to save money on rent, as well as be closer to our family and Daddy's new school.  We love living here, and you especially love having "Mrama and Papa" right upstairs.  You ask several times a week to be able to go upstairs and say goodnight to them.  You love playing in the backyard, especially in the play house and play truck that Grandpa and you daddy built a long time ago.  You adore Grandma's doggies, Tuxedo and Rio.  You love following them around, giving them loves, and laying on them like they are pillows.  You are pretty sweet to them, and you are good at remembering to be soft with them.  Most of all, though, you love having so much more room to play around the house.

When we moved here, we moved you out of your crib and into a big girl bed.  The first night I was so nervous you would be so anxious about being in a new room, and not being contained in your crib.  I was worried you wouldn't adjust well to your new home.  Well, sweetheart, you proved me wrong!!  That night we got you in your jammies, brushed your teeth, and read you a book.  We sang you a song, and put you in your bed, I tucked you in and told you "Good night, Sweet Girl.  Sleep well, stay in your bed until the sun comes up, okay?"  You said "Okay, Mama." and closed your eyes and went to sleep, and that was that.  We have seriously had zero problems with transitioning you to your bed, and I have been so proud with how you have adjusted to such a big change in your life.

You are a little ball of sunshine in my life.  Every morning after you wake up, I can hear you talking in your big girl bed, and I open the door to tell you good morning.  I love this part of your day, because I come and sit on your bed and ask if I can hold you.  You always say "yeah" and climb into my lap and let me snuggle you for a couple minutes.  I ask you about what you dreamed about the night before, and you usually tell me you were reading books, this morning you told me I came to you and washed your cheeks.  I don't know if these are really your dreams, but I love that you will talk to me in the morning.

You actually talk to me all day long.  You hardly ever stop to take a breath, now that your vocabulary is large enough to communicate most of your wants and needs throughout the day.  I love your sweet little voice, and I wish I could bottle it up.  I love watching you put together sentences and phrases to communicate what you want.  You are pretty soft spoken compared to some of your cousins.  When you get really excited about something, you usually get pretty quiet instead of squeal-y, which I think is pretty funny.  When we ask you what a tiger says, you even "roar" in a whisper instead of getting really loud.  You are usually so wonderful at remembering your manners, and you are so great at saying "please and thank you," which makes me just beam.  You used to use sign language for a lot of words about a year ago, but slowly you have dropped all of the signs, except you still always sign please when you say it.  I also love how you say thank you like "tang-too."

You love love love bunnies right now.  You have two pink bunnies that play music and you always want them to play while you're falling asleep.  You love watching a show on netflix called "Miffy" as well, which is about a little bunny.

You love Minnie Mouse.  This makes me SO HAPPY.  You have several Minnie dolls that you play with, and you always want bows in your hair, like "Mi-ee Mouse."

You love to say prayers and read your Book of Mormon.  Every night, Daddy sits you on his lap and you guys read and pantomime one verse to me.  Daddy is so silly about it, but you love doing this with him, and I love hearing you try to say big words like "commandments."

You got a play kitchen for your birthday a couple days ago, and you have been glued to it.  You love to play with it constantly, and you are always cooking me "snacks" throughout the day.  Grandma Ilene gave you a Minnie Mouse mini table and chairs, and you love eating at your table for every meal.

You are starting to go on the potty about once a day now.  There have been a couple of days you go more often, but usually it's only in the morning before I put you in the bath.  We give you a sticker after every time, and you love that.  I think in a couple months we'll see if you're ready to be completely potty trained.  I wasn't planning on potty training you until next summer, but you might be ready sooner than that.

You know almost all of your colors now, and you love to tell us what color everything is ("Mom, byoo pwate!  Lellow tup!").  You also sing your alphabet a lot, but I don't know if you really know what "letters" are. Except today when I was putting you down for your nap, I was wearing a necklace that said "Paris" and you grabbed it and said "Mom!  A-B-C-D necklace!" so maybe you're catching on more than I realize.

You love being girly, you love pink, purple, princess ANYTHING, sparkles, bows, dresses, skirts, and having your hair done.  You love it when I paint your nails, and after we do mani-pedis at home, you tell EVERYONE all about it, Daddy, Grandma, the cashier at the grocery store, I mean everyone.  You love shoes and have taught yourself how to put your own flip flops on this summer.  Sometimes they are on the wrong feet, and sometimes you get the little thing in between the wrong toe, but you are always so proud of you doing it yourself.

You are the sweetest girl, Sadie Sue.  You are charming, friendly, and happy.  You love playing with your cousins, and we love watching you interact with them.  You are seriously the most incredible little human I have ever met, and I am so glad you get to be my sidekick every day.  This past year has been a hard one for us, but through this time I have come to an even greater realization of how much of a miracle baby you are to our family.  Daddy and I love you more than words could ever express, and we are more grateful that you were able to make it into our family despite all odds.  Thank you a million times for fighting your way into our family.  We are so grateful you are here and we can't imagine our family without you in it.

Happy birthday, sweet little girl, I love you more fiercely than I could have ever imagined I could love anyone.  Thank you for being my baby girl.

Love,
Mommy