Milestones.

When I look back on when Ivy was just a newborn infant and when she became a baby I think of all the milestones I so anxiously waited for. The first time she smiled a real smile, the first laugh, rolling over, sitting up, etc.....those are such WONDERFUL memories for me. As Ivy has grown to be a toddler I somehow lost track of milestones. It seems like I'm no longer "waiting" for anything.
The first time she ate peas.
First time in her walker.
The first time she pulled up by herself.

The other night we were driving over to a friends house for dinner and Ivy always ask for her "Oooh Aaah" CD to be played in the car (for those of you who don't know Ooh and Aahh are monkeys on playhouse Disney that really crack her up).

It's a CD that plays songs from all her favorite shows on the Disney channel...Handy Manny, Imagination Movers, etc. Now she often sings along and lets me know when I need to switch to a different song. But when it started playing the other night, she started singing and somehow it was different...She knows every word and sings a long (although she can't pronounce every word). I sat in complete awe as she smiled and sang along with all the songs and I started to cry (and I'm not a crier). It was something that I had never really sat back and listened to before. And then it hit me that I'm not waiting on milestones that she reaches anymore to be proud...it's the every day moments that make me so proud to be her Mom.

I don't remember the first time she sang her ABC's, I just remember realizing that "Wow! My two year old can sing her ABC's!" and "Wow! My two year old just sang every word to Twinkle Twinkle!" But the best one by far is "I've been working on the railroad" - this is her favorite! I bet if we sing it one time a night we sing it a hundred times! And I love it and she loves it and Daddy loves it! She is quite proud of herself too and loves showing off!

She now loves to color and play with playdough and be creative and I love encouraging it. A couple of weeks ago we made a box for her Valentines Day party at school. She helped me wrap it and then I let her color on some paper and I cut out some hearts for her to stick on it. Then she wanted some stickers and she picked the funniest stickers. She picked some flowers then she picked some smiley face saw stickers that her Daddy gave her. It was rather cute.
The she wanted more hearts and then she just wanted to put tape on the box. I let her have at it with whatever she wanted.
She was so proud when she finished and of course she sang while we were doing it. :)
Then to top it all off she wanted to try and balance it on her head. Silly girl!
And it just keeps getting better! Just last night Chris was getting her ready for her bath and she shocked us once again. They always play a game where they count to three and then he throws her on the couch or bed. Well she would always say "Two, Three, Two....go!" We could never get her to say "One" So we figured that this game they play would be a good way to teach her to count. We finally got her to say "One, Two, Three, GO!" Then she would sail through the air and giggle hysterically when she hit the bed or couch. Then we got to "One, Two, Three, Four, GO!" So last night we thought we would try to make it to "Five". Well we made it only she didn't yell "GO!" after five....she yelled 6, then 7, then 8, then 9, then 10....she made it all the way to 13! She actually made it further than 13 but that was the last one that made sense...she started making up her own "teens". I was really taken a back by this. She started a mother's morning out program in September but I had no idea she had come this far along. It made me a little sad to realize how much she has grown up but I'm also really excited about all the growing that she has left to do.