2.5 years old

Two and a half years old.  Closer to three than two.  Where did the time go?  Our little girl is growing up so fast and she is always quick to correct me that "Macey's the baby" but she's a "big girl."  She is such a ball of life and energy.  She does everything whole heartedly, with such zeal.  She is still our little introvert and it takes her a long time to warm up to people, and yet when she does, she loves whole-heartedly.  She talks about people she loves constantly...no matter the distance that separates them.  

She can be so sweet one moment and then completely ornery the next.  This particularly pertains to her little brother most recently.  She loves her "Macey" and insists that they play in the tent together, on the bed, etc.  She loves to make him laugh in the car when they're riding side by side.  She loves to wrestle with him and play catch together.  Until a mean streak hits...then she wants to take his toys away and put them places he can't reach.  Says he's "pinching/touching me" when they're riding side by side in the car.  She just occasionally wants to be mean and he is the recipient of this most often.

She LOVES band aids as evidenced by this picture.  She went through a phase several weeks ago where she insisted on wearing band aids on her forehead.  I decided it wasn't a battle worth fighting, so we got lots of questions on what she had done to her forehead.  Thankfully, she has moved on to putting them on her fingers.  She now only asks for two at a time, because it makes her really sad when we run out.  She also loves her princess panties (as seen in my last post), so much so that she wanted to bring them INTO Target yesterday.  We tried to convince her to leave them in the car, put them in her pocket, in my purse but she could not be convinced.  So we were that family with their young daughter swinging her panties all around, completely oblivious to how strange it all looked (she did still have a diaper and pants on...just to clarify).

 She also loves painting, drawing with pens or markers (never crayons), stickers, climbing and jumping, playing chase, and reading books.  Kev usually takes the kids to the library weekly so her favorites are constantly changing.  She has really enjoyed reading all of the Knuffle Bunny books lately, The Gruffalo books, Llama llama books, and Clifford.  She also likes her Story Bible, lately David and Goliath, Zacchaeus, and Jesus' death and resurrection.  She loves her daddy and has insisted he put her to bed lately.  Every night.

She is still our little early bird and wakes up anywhere between 5:30 and 6:30.  Since we dealt with so many months that she was frequently getting out of her bed in the middle of the night, waking up early doesn't really seem that bad.  She is usually raring to go in the morning and immediately wants to change into her clothes for the day (which she of course wants to pick).  She still doesn't love going to bed or down for naps but she is a girl who desperately needs her sleep.  It is OBVIOUS when she has not gotten enough sleep.

She still doesn't really play with many toys.  She does like playing with balls and has started to pretend more with inanimate objects.  She does play with puzzles some, but she has never loved babies/dolls.  She does however love princesses.  I'm not sure why she likes them so much.  We've only seen a couple princess movies.  It probably doesn't help that princesses are everywhere...food items, band aids, clothes, balloons.  You basically can't go anywhere without seeing princess-something somewhere. 

 She still has so many strong opinions and I still struggle knowing whether or not it's just her age or her personality.  She insists on choosing her clothes, which is tough because she rarely matches.  She also loves changing her pants multiple times a day so I never know what she'll end up with.  She also insists on wearing her puffy purple coat lately and will only wear her boots if I am wearing boots as well.  There are benefits to her independent spirit...she can easily crawl in her car seat, get her water/milk cup no matter where it is, get in and out of every door, put most of her clothes on and take all of her clothes off, hoist herself onto a normal toilet, and I even found her trying to change her own diaper today (unsuccessfully I might add).  She does not want help until she asks for it which can be incredibly infuriating but definitely saves frustration if you know that.

Miss E has brought unspeakable joy to our lives and is definitely teaching me more than I think I am able to teach her.  We're so thankful for this gift God has given us!