"A Little Blue Eyed Blonde with Shoes on Wrong Cuz She Likes to Dress Herself"

I've loved this song from the moment I heard it. I must have been about 15 years old and dreaming of the family I would one day have.  I think I've actually used a line from this song in a previous title, but not the same one, of course!  At any rate, I think my favorite moment from the past week was yesterday morning. Carly had slept in way past her normal wake up time (which I was so grateful for as my body has been all sorts of out of wack this week) which meant that she arose feeling quite good (as did I).  I set her up on her changing table to get rid of the stink that she so frequently wakes up with and when I was through said, "Carly I need to go wash my hands, what outfit would you like to pick out for today?"  I totally didn't think she understood what I said, but nevertheless I always, always tell her what I'm doing.  When I was through washing my hands I came out of the bathroom and there was my naked little peanut, holding a pair of shorts with a big smile on her face.  Wow! Did she really just pick out what she wanted to wear?!  I excitedly affirmed her decision and encouraged her to pick out a shirt, as well.  Now, as a disclaimer, I have to say that originally she chose a long sleeved, purple polka-dot shirt to accompany her pink and orange flowered shorts, but I had to re-direct her attention to her short sleeved attire, and was more than happy to put this tank on her.  I probably wouldn't have paired these two items, but they actually looked pretty good together.  After I got her dressed, which she was more than willing to oblige to, I asked her to pick out a bow.  I kid you not, this is the one she picked out...and it matched perfectly with the top of the ice cream cone on her shirt. :)  I told her I wanted to photograph her outfit and she posed for me better than she ever has, grinning with her accomplishment from ear to ear and clapping profusely!  Y'all, I think she really understood what was going on!  That's just so cool to me!

1st pic sporting those pearly whites!

Speaking of walking her through everything I am doing/thinking most of the time, we noticed that she added the word, "go," to her vocabulary this week.  We were both confused as to how she would acquire this word, and then as I was listening to myself, I realized I say "go" all the time!  I'm constantly saying, "would you like to go outside?" or "let's go to the living room/kitchen/bedroom" or "Carly I need to go potty, so that's where I'll be if you need me" or "let's go get a drink"....the list goes on an on.  So, I guess we know why she says that word all the time.  It's pretty cute...she says it with a very long O.  "Gooooooo!" 

Carly is a runner and a climber, there's no doubt she wants to be doing what she probably shouldn't.  I love it.  She's been climbing into her play convertible for a while now, but this is the first time I was able to catch her in action.  She gets up there so fast most times that I can't grab the camera.  At first she was very proud of herself, but now she's like, "whatever, nbd." ;) 

Last week we also added a swing to our backyard, along with a kiddie pool.  My parents bought her a play gym for her birthday...but we haven't ordered it yet...so that will be the next thing we add to the back porch.  She has gone swimming a few times, but she swings multiple times/day!  Here's a video of her enjoying herself on our "weekend." 

The past three weeks we have had a lovely time gallivanting around Disney while/and/or playing with friends in the afternoons.  Carly's FAVORITE place is Typhoon Lagoon, and I'm happy to report we've shown our faces there once a week all month long!  They have an incredible little kid area that she spends hours in!  She also loves the wave pool and excitedly tries to swim away when the ocean-like wave is coming at her. We've continued to work on swimming and she is skilled enough to float in the water on her back with only the support of our hand on her neck.  She won't do it for long, but she has learned what it means to "relax" in the water so that she doesn't go under (which we rarely let her do).  We're still working on not diving in head first resulting in her choking on the water. ;)

And, since it's summer here already, we had to get out the nail polish!  She was so amused by it that she sat still for the duration of her mini pedicure.  I haven't quite figured out if she is going to be a girly-girl yet (I doubt it...I wasn't until middle school), but her look sure fools you into thinking she is!