Happy 2nd Birthday, Ayla Ming!

How has another year gone by? It seemed even quicker than the last. I look at pictures from this time a year ago and it feels like it was just the other day.

Ayla is very much your typical two-year old right now. She wants things her way all the time...luckily, though, tantrums do not happen very often. Hopefully I'm not eating my words in a couple months! She currently has a case of the "MINE"'s. Everything is hers, even if it's really not. We've been talking a lot about sharing and how nice it is to share with other people.

She is full of energy--she loves to run, dance, and jump (she is now a pro at getting both feet off the ground). She is a bull-headed little one...she gets that from both Mommy and Daddy. When she has her mind set on something, there's no negotiating...it's set. While she can be feisty and crazy, she can also be the sweetest little girl ever. Still not a major cuddler, but her hugs and kisses are the best. I can't get enough of them.

She is a non-stop chatterbox. She's speaking in sentences...there are some strange sounding words here and there but we can almost always figure out what she is trying to tell us. I love being able to have a conversation with her and getting a glimpse of what is going on in that busy little mind of hers. It also makes life easier now that she can tell us what she does and doesn't want. On top of all the talking, she has added singing. She's quickly learning songs...even a lullaby that Nai-Nai sings to her in Chinese. We're working on the alphabet...if I sing it, she can follow along pretty well, but if she says it on her own, she usually says, "ABCDEFGH...PQRSTUVWXYZ!" She skips a few letters in the middle. :) When she counts to ten, she has something against nine...she skips it 99% of the time. We're getting there though!

She knows her colors (most of the time). Lately she has been getting green and yellow mixed up but she does well for the most part. She also knows and loves her animals and the different sounds that they make. We're hoping to make it to the zoo one more time before it gets too cold.

Going to the bathroom on the potty is still pretty much the same...she goes at least once a day. Like I said before, I just need to buckle down and really get after it. I, for sure, want her to be potty-trained before the new baby is here. We tried underwear on her one day and when she had an accident, she kept saying "uh-oh" and then proceeded to boycott the potty chair altogether for the next three days. Stubborn, remember?

She's still not a fantastic eater...and I don't think she ever will be. However, she has gotten a bit better. Or maybe I've gotten better at dealing with it. She's slowly (very, very, very slowly) expanding her menu. She's not as hesitant to try new things...it's still hard, but every now and then she's open to it. Thank goodness for fruit...fruit is what keeps me sane because I know she'll eat it when she doesn't want anything else. It's a guess as to what fruit she wants from day to day, but something always works. She also likes pasta (mac n cheese, specifically), all types of cheese, rice, bread, french fries, chicken noodle, ice cream, pancakes, and lots of little snacky things like Goldfish crackers. Her new favorite drink is grape juice. She loves it. And as always, she loves her milk.

She sleeps about 11 hours overnight and takes an afternoon nap that usually lasts around two hours...give or take a half an hour. She goes down like a dream at night...we read a few books and snuggle for a minute and she happily lays down in her crib and is asleep within minutes. Naps are a different story...she either talks and hangs out in her crib for up to two hours before finally falling asleep or she freaks out and cries until we go in there and pat her to sleep. No good either way.

She is my little girly-girl. She loves to put my lipgloss on...even smacks her lips...and getting her piggies painted in shades of pink or red is a special treat. She loves to play with her baby dolls...she feeds them and rocks them to sleep and covers them up with blankets. She even takes them "shopping" in her little toy shopping cart...always to Target though; not Wal-Mart. She says, "No Wal-Mart, more Target." I'm a proud mama.

She still loves Elmo and has added Barney to the list as well. He's not as bad as I once thought. :) Especially when they sing the "I Love You" song at the end of each episode. Ayla always runs over to hold my hand while they sing it and then I get showered with her awesome hugs. So worth the 20-some minutes of watching a purple dinosaur dancing around. She also likes Thomas the Train, Toy Story, Monsters Inc, and Madagascar.

All in all, she is an amazing little person and I am so proud of the little girl she has become. Two years later, I still have those "mommy moments" at least once a day where I can hardly believe she is my daughter. She makes me so happy and makes life better in more ways than I can count. I am so excited to see her as a big sister.

Happy, happy birthday Miss Ayla Ming--I love you!