And now, for some of the "good"

I feel like lately, I've written a lot about the "bad" and the "ugly" sides of the terrible twos, but there are plenty of "good" times where my heart just melts. Here are a few examples of those moments.

For a long time, when Angelica would insist on doing something herself, I would relinquish the item or task and say, "Oh, I'm SO sorry, here you go!" On Saturday, instead of yelling, "NO! I DO IT!" She started saying, "I do it, please, Mommy, oh, I SOsorry, I SOsorry Mommy!" (I placed commas and words together to emphasize how it comes out when she says it.) It's adorable and lets me know that she does hear me when I talk.

This morning, as I was leaving, I said, "I love you Angelica" and she yelled, "I love you too, Mommy, YAY MOMMY!" It just warmed my heart.

Last night, during her bath time, I was exhausted and sat down and breathed a huge sigh. She looked at me and said, "You okay, Mommy? Okay Mommy?" She's so caring and empathetic.

On Friday, we met up with Scott for dinner (he took a quick break from work) and I asked her for a BIG kiss, and she grabbed my cheeks, pulled my face to hers, and gave me a HUGE kiss. And then a hug. And then another kiss. So, so sweet!

Yesterday, she climbed up on the coffee table, turned around to me, and said, "I do BIG jump, okay Mommy?" I said, "No, not okay." So she sat down and scooted herself to my arms to get down. Sometimes, she listens!

I fell asleep on the couch Saturday morning after breakfast, and she climbed up next to me, gave me a kiss, and rubbed my shoulder like I do to her every night when she's going to bed.

The most fun we had over the weekend was on Saturday. While she napped (the only nap she took all weekend), I pulled weeds in one of our flowerbeds and prepped it to plant flowers. After she woke up, we went to Target...I peeked in the clothing section and she told me a shirt that was too small for me was "too big for Mommy!" (aww, flattery!) and then we went to the garden center and she helped me pick out flowers. She was very, very opinionated about the flowers she liked and the ones she didn't. Appropriately enough, her favorites were the impatients! I took plenty of pictures of the garden and hope to have time to download them off the camera and post them very soon

When we were at Target, she was eating yogurt melts and insisted I eat one. She just HAS to share.

Finally, these days, she almost always says please and thank you without being prompted. If you sneeze, she says "Bless you", and when you say "thank you", she says "welcome!" She also excuses herself when she burps (and excuses YOU if you burp), or if you say "excuse me", she says "you're excused". We've done well teaching her manners!

After planting the garden, we came in to change out of our muddy clothes, and to keep her busy while I changed, I gave her the most beloved item in the house -- Dora the Explorer bandaids. And in the 90 seconds it took me to change, she had unwrapped TEN bandaids and stuck them to her leg. When I sarcastically asked, "Do you think you have enough bandaids?" She said, "Nope, I don't THINK so!"

Her politeness does make it hard to avoid laughing when she does something clearly defiant though, like when she was taking off her shoe at the grocery store, and I asked her to leave it on, and she says, "No, I no leave it on, I take off shoe!" and then laughs at you like you made a funny request.

I guess my point is, she may scream and yell and tantrum and drive me crazy, but still, every night when I tuck her in and kiss her goodnight, I miss her instantly and just want to go in and snuggle and wrap my arms around her.