21 years? No! 21 days? No! 21 Months! It can't be!

Well, I am shamelessly late yet again and posting another monthly milestone report on my sweet Kaki-pants! I can hardly wrap my tiny little brain around the fact that in just a touch over 2 months we'll be celebrating her 2nd birthday party! At times I look at her and think you haven't changed a bit and THEN I go back and look at pictures from only months ago and I know that I am lying to myself... my baby girl is growing up into a toddler. She is a mover and shaker who is changing each day. And each day she makes our time more challenging and fun all in the same beat. She is strong-willed and persistent. She whines when she wants something and smiles when she gets it. She loves being close to the people she loves in both proximity and relationally. She is sweet beyond design and spunky beyond all comparison. She can melt you with "sweet girl" face with her scrunched nose and squinty eyes and she can play you with her pouty lip and her unmistakable blubber of a cry. Once a lady of few words she now is a girl of many. She comes out with a new word almost every day and often surprises us with what she knows and understands. She lights up our house with laughs and giggles... we can't imagine our lives without our Kaki-Lou. She is undeniably one of a kind!

Kaki has become a bit obsessive in certain areas this month. Her choice of books for instance... Birdie! She loves Birdie's Big Girl Dress and Birdie's Big Girl Shoes... she sits and reads them over and over again. In fact, one of our copies was so worn we had to invest in a new one. Every nap time, night time and any chance she gets in between she insists that we read one of her Birdie books. Her love for Birdie has even inspired a birthday theme and we couldn't be more excited to surprise her with a Birdie Birthday Party! Birdie loves shoes and dresses but loves to dance and play hide and seek. She has a dog named Monster who is her best friend and a Mommy who is fabulously stylish. I guess Kaki can relate to Birdie... outside of the stylish Mommy part of course. Birdie's mom is never pictured in Nike running shorts and a v-neck grey t-shirt, but nonetheless Birdie and her Mommy are pals! We love us some Birdie!

Kaki is my buddy... always within a few feet of where I am. When I am getting dressed or putting up laundry in my room she helps her sort and then tries on all of my shoes and models them for me. She says, "Look, Mama!" And I say, "Whoo, whoo, whoo Kaki I love your shoes." She loves to help with the dishes. It takes us sweet forever to unload the dishwasher but she enjoys finding the drawers and cabinets that each thing goes in and I have been shocked at how well she knows her way around our kitchen... she is a perceptive little one. She loves to put the dryer sheets in the dryer and close the door. And when I asked her the other day what she wanted to do while Caden was at school she answered, "Vacuum and mop!" Bless her heart... I think we may do a bit too much cleaning around our house... but there is always something to be cleaned, amen? :) And it makes it kind of fun when we turn it into a game or a workout... at least that is how I make vacuuming and mopping not seem so bad... I think about all of those calories that are burning right on up and out! 

Kaki loves her baby dolls and she is a great Mama. She is loving and tender and and enjoys carrying them around and checking for dirty diapers. She is obsessed with both poo poo and pee pee after developing her own issues with the two. So now her dolls are constantly being asked, "Poo Poo, Bitty?" And then she says, "Look. No, pee pee, Bitty!" God, bless her! She loves to take her dolls with us in the car and play with them outside, thus her dolls look a bit rough at times. We have to give them a bath at least once a week, maybe once every two weeks and I'll admit we should do it WAY more often. They look a bit ragamuffin-ish. But Kaki loves them all the same.

Kaki has been OBSESSED with the Bumble Bee song until just recently when she'll let us spring for a round of Jesus Loves Me which she calls the "Bible song" or "Happy Birthday," thank you Birdie. She will be ready for her birthday this year with all of the birthday song singing we've been doing. She can sing Jesus Loves Me best of any of them, her favorite line is "Bible tells me so," which she sings as "Bible says so." She'll sing that over and over to her babies as she is putting them to "sleep" in their crib. Pretty darn cute and hilarious! She likes to pick up books and say, "Bible?" She loves Bibles! Maybe because she gets a strong reaction when she finds one... NO... put that down! Seems counter-productive but she can be destructive... just ask Birdie... she knows better than anyone how rough Kaki can be on a book!

Kaki loves to play outside. She likes to ride her princess cart, swing, see-saw, run, color with chalk. She likes to go "driving" in our play cars and says, "I'm drivin'!" It's pretty hilarious! I've also taught Kaki how to say, "GIRL TIME!" when Caden is at school and let's go "SHOPPIN'"... Daddy of course LOVES that last one. :) But the girl does love to shop, although she isn't so much a cart girl... she says WALK... but we've tried that a few too many times and it is 10 shades of crazy and about 5 shades of stressful. So we do that on quick trips places. 

She loves to play hide and seek and loves to count... she counts for about 30 minutes every night when we put her to bed... it's her way to wind down and we just sit and listen and laugh. She counts to 10 but missed numbers here and there... her latest string is , "1, 3, 5, 6,7, 9... here I come! Sweet girl!! Loves her some "hi and see."

Kaki is mostly sweet but she does have a mean streak in her and it typically comes out on Caden. He has shown great self-control and we're waiting until Kaki gets just a bit older before we let him loose on her because sometimes she deserves it. She hits him, bites him (only in the shopping cart at HEB for some reason), pulls his hair, screams at him... you name it. We got some full blown sibling conflict going on around our house and I'm doing my best to stay ahead of it... yikes! I'll be the first to admit that we have been much easier on Kaki than we were on Caden, but we've tried to change that lately and she's not so much enjoying it and to be honest the girl can pout and milk her "getting into trouble" for far longer than it is worth sometimes, but I know... train em up and all of that. It will pay off! 

Kaki is our picky eater. Loves mac n cheese, queso and chips, apple sauce, yogurt waffles, cheerios, crackers, chex mix, goldfish... pretty much anything that acts like a crackers and CHOCOLATE! Both of my kids got their Daddy's sweet tooth... wowsers! She loves her some ice cream too!! I mean LOVES it... she even drinks the left-overs just like Caden does... Thank you, Daddy! She loves to drink juice, sprite and water... my once milk lover has decided that that's not really for her any more... so I'm thankful for the ice cream and the yogurt, otherwise we'd be in trouble! :) 

Kaki loves to talk on the phone... but whoever she is talking to she always asks for the other person... example: talking to KK, she says, "ALBIIIII" and talking to Nana, she says, "BOP!" See a picture of Ree Ree she says Tag, or Graham. Sees a picture of Emily and she says Josh. It's really the funniest thing. Then if she gets the person she called for then calls back the other person's name... she likes to keep everyone on their toes... her own little version of the name game.

Kaki says, I love you, now and will do it unprompted a lot. She calls me Mama which I LOVE and is funny because Caden calls me Mommy. But she chose Mama and I think it's the cutest. I melt into a big puddle when she says, "I wuv you, Mama." Or "tank you, Mama." Or my new favorite, "I proud of you, Caden." Hilarious!! She is a funny, sweet, tender, spunky, tenacious little bundle of curls!! And BOYS do we love those crazy curls!

Oh and when we ask her who she is she says, "I, Kaki!" LOVE IT!!!

Kaki-Lou, God continues to bless us with your little life and personality. He made you, all your own and we are grateful for the days we get to spend with you! We love you to the moon and back and back again and again and again! For all time... we love you!!

Now for some random pics of our girl...

Red-cheeked and lovin' it...

She has her own sense of fashion...

Lot of hats to wear...

Pic time with Mama...

Again her effortless sense of class and style...

New bow...say cheese!

Pirate grin...

She posed this way all on her own... sorority girl much?! Oh my!

Not feelin' the picture in her pjs...

11:30 date on the couch for Barney... only show she really enjoys!

the curls... 

She ALWAYS makes me wear hats... or bowls... or whatever... I'm thrilled!

NOT in the mood for pictures... in her reading nook...

CHEESE!

High maintenance car rider...

Please take a pic with me... PLEASE!!

Helping Daddy with a little fun from Ikea!

First RIDE on the outlet mall toys... 

Great Mama...

Ice cream...

What's left!!

(PS: I don't think anyone will notice or CARE, but I have to say that the table below is NOT decorated how it will be... I was playing with different things... so don't judge it... it's not the tables fault!)