EdelWeiss: "All of Me Loves All of You" {Carly 2 1/2)

My olive-eating, dramatic, loving, silly, energetic little social butterfly is 2 and a half. She & I tend to fight over who is Queen Bee in the house and we have the most precious moments followed by sheer frustration. Sometimes I feel like her & I fight just like a mother & daughter should and other times I wonder how I ended up with such a tender-hearted little angel. She stomps as close as possible to any & all boundaries and frequently puts a toe on the line...just to see what will happen. If said toe is not instantly removed with the threat of a spanking, a time out or loss of paci privileges...it is not only crossed but will be very very hard to set the same boundary next time...or for anything else the rest of the day. What I love, though, is if we can catch her when she's dancing with the idea of crossing the line by reasoning with her; sometimes striking a deal, we frequently avoid havoc. Parenting her is fun, exciting, challenging and truly rewarding. I can only dream of how our relationship will grow over the years.

These are some of my favorite random fun facts that describe our Carly-girl:

Loves olives. Like requests them every day. Does anyone else find this strange!?
Really enjoys pockets...everyone should wear pockets every day.
Coins are of the utmost importance
Is bothered when she doesn't have a complete set of books. Example: she always flips "Moo, Baa, La, La, La" over and points to all the books pictured that she does not have.
Chews on her hair...
All of her "F" sounds are pronounced; "SW" resulting in some mumble jumble only we can understand

Swends = Friends
Sworse time in Swow-ever =First time in Forever (song from Frozen)
So swun = So fun
Smell my sweet = smell my feet

When implying the word, "to, too" in any sentence, it is always stated as "a"
The word, "I" is in fact "My." When helping her, she generally hear, "no MY do it!"
She has the most intense diphthongs I've ever heard in the English language. Goodness it's funny! "Now" is usually, "nee-ow", time is "tee-ime"
Counts to 20---frequently leaving out numbers 16 & 18
Can identify just about any color or shape and recognizes about 13 letters
Can sing her ABCs word for word (letter for letter?) along with a multitude of other songs. We tend to hear ABCs, Jesus Loves Me, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star & Rain Rain Go Away most often.
Adores Minnie Mouse and owns a toy of her in about every size possible...
Dislikes wearing clothes but loves wearing shoes

The following are her most made requests, in order:

Go a swends house!!!
Go a Mickey park see Meo (Nemo) ride big boo wooooorld ride donald get juice!
Carly want candy...candy, candy, candy, candy, candy...
Where my paci go?
Pick out pitty pitty dress
More yet it go (when in the car expressing she wants to listen to the Frozen soundtrack)
Watch Mickey Mouse!
Need a band-aide

Frequently used phrases:

Oh, Ok!
Sun come up say mommy, dida, and Ooke and Carly, go swends house (this is her phrase she yells every time we put her to sleep...every time)
Go potty right now, right now!
It's oh-que (OK), mommy (insert this phrase when she disobeys or someone gets hurt)
Is accident (it's was an accident)
Carly hung-y

She sings at the top of her lungs, does not enjoy sharing her toys; particularly with her brother, likes to wear "braids like Anna", talks about the snow in Iowa, is always asking about a different family member (this particular week she is fixated on knowing where Mimi is) and will always say a big "cheeeeese" when I pull out the camera.

She loves her brother with all her heart and tells him that all the time ("my love you really really much!"). She loves both of her parents and favors one of us each week. Last week it was Brian...this week it's been me.

She can barely hold still to read a book, lets us know she is too hot and needs to go inside, is fixated on swimming (+) playing with friends, loves to go to church, the Mickey Park, the store...nearly anywhere if it means being on the go and sings at each of the those places & all throughout the day.

She loves to pray to Jesus and has had some cool experiences in doing so. One day Luke had been crying at bedtime for about 5 minutes & she prayed Luke would stop crying & as soon as she spoke the words he did. You can bet she said more prayers after that happened.

Carly, we love you with all of our heart. You are growing into a beautiful person and we are excited to see your heart continue to love and your mind continue to learn. Jesus has blessed you beyond what you understand and we look in awe as we watch you skip through your toddler years. Thanks for loving us, too.

I took her out for a photo shoot and was fortunate she was in such a good mood! I captured quite a few different looks...