It's been awhile since I've posted on my blog. I hope to start posting more regularly now.

A lot has changed with my daughter since then. She has begun to talk in three to four word phrases now, speaks more clearly, and express her needs better. She still whines for what she wants, but we are teaching her to ask with words, and slowly but surely she is learning to do it.

Sometimes she amazes me with what she says. Yesterday she was playing near an old stereo we have on a shelf in the back room, and was pushing the buttons and saying "Play a song! Play a song!" Not once had I ever said to her, "That's a radio, and those are the buttons you push to get it to play a song." So I'm not sure how she figured that out.

We are in the midst of potty training now, too. A few months ago, she was expressing an interest and was going pee and poop in her potty, but then suddenly rebelled and wouldn't go near it. Then, a couple of days ago, she suddenly wanted to try again. She is more serious this time, so I'm sure I will be blogging about that in the days to come. The first day didn't go too well. I tried letting her run around with either training pants (thick underwear) or nothing at all, and instead of going in her potty she went on the floor three times (the training pants didn't help keep it contained much at all), so after the third time I insisted she put at least pull-ups on. Other mothers I have talked to have suggested offering her one M&M every time she goes in the potty as a motivation for her, but I haven't decided yet if I will try that approach. We'll see.

Another thing we are dealing with is her horrendous sleeping schedule. She stays up late into the night, and getting her up earlier doesn't seem to help, nor does anything else I've tried. I am starting to think she needs to be on a very strict schedule, so I might try that next. I have not tried waking her up very early, like around 6:00 a.m., so I may also experiment with that.

I love how she will do something every day that makes you smile or laugh. All it takes is one of those things to make the daily frustrations of motherhood melt away. For example, she loves to wear her daddy's hats and will strut around with them, pulling them down over her eyes, or will find one of his bandanas he uses to keep the sweat out of his face at work and walk around with it draped over her head, or will help him take off his big work boots and then put them on and try with all her might to walk in them.

Then today, while I was in the bathroom, she opened the cabinet door under the sink, stood there with wide eyes and said, "Ooooohhhhh! Lots of... stuff!" She then proceeded to take out my various makeup bags filled with odd and ends, unzip the bags and take the items out one by one. There are so many more things which I cannot now think of, and I will be sure to add them as I remember them. She is bound to do more funny or cute things as the days go by, too, so stay tuned.