Word For Word

Would I be overstating the obvious if I mentioned how much I enjoy being Elaina's mom? Umm... more to the point; I love being Elaina's mom.

With each passing month, she gets even more fun than I thought possible. I can honestly say that I have loved every single stage of her life and she just keeps getting better.

In all of her 21 month-old humor, Elaina is an incredible chatterbox and will say things that are just completely, innocently cute. For instance, the other day I was making her lunch and trying to explain to her that her "nuggies" were in the oven baking. She is familiar with the big white thing that mommy stands in front of daily is the thing we call the oven and knows that it is often hot. When I went to pull out her chicken nuggets, she yelled, "Mom-mee! Ca-ful. Hot." Good thing she told me!

It is refreshing that we're able to carry on an actual conversation of sorts with our daughter and not have to dumb-it-down for her benefit. With the exception of calling socks, "sockies"; eggs, "eggies"; Noggin, "Noggie"; and chicken nuggets, "nuggies-" we've never really talked baby talk to her. The majority of our slang has come about, in fact, by Elaina's use of these words. Unfortunately, neither Eric nor myself can resist how cute she is when she throws a random
"-ie" ending onto her words, that we tend to follow suit. She is beginning to string three and four words together gradually and gets her message across rather clearly. It's just amazing how at 21 months, she presents so much knowledge folded within the confines of a little body that still instinctively cries when she doesn't get her way. I guess I just stand in awe of how her mind is developing and forming ideas and processing so much information by the minute. It's as if she has opened my eyes to seeing things around me for the first time.

I hope that she will forever hold onto her ability to think and feel things so freely and so innocently and that she never loses her appreciation for the little things in life. What a beautiful gift!