Adeline at 2.5 Years

Time keeps flying by.  Miss Adeline is growing like a weed and seems to keep "growing up" in so many ways.  She's so darn adorable!

Here's what she's up to now.

• She's counting.  She is solid on 1 through 5.  Then she skips around all the way up to 13.  Playing hide-and-go-seek is awesome because she does her best to count with her eyes closed and it's adorable as she works her way through the numbers.
• She's singing like crazy!  She loves to take my phone, open the music up, and sing along to the songs (children's songs, church songs, pop songs, old country songs, Disney tunes, etc.).  It's amazing how well she knows the lyrics and how well she can keep up with most of the songs.  
• Along with singing, she's still a dancer.  She loves to dance to the beat of songs and dance parties are VERY common in our home.
• She no longer has her bottles.  After we got home from Disneyland in February, Addie got sick AGAIN!  I knew that we had to give up the milk in order to get her better.  So, I just got rid of her bottles altogether.  She LOVED her bottles, so she was VERY sad for the first two nights and then she kind of just moved on only occasionally fussing about the absence of her bottles.  She got over her sickness and got over the loss of her bottles, and she has NEVER been healthier.  I know she doesn't have a milk/lactose allergy, but I do believe that the enormous amount of milk she was drinking threw her body out of balance.  Now, she has maybe had 1 cold since taking her bottles away.  This is a miracle because she was sick at least ever 4-6 weeks during her first two years of life.  
• Now that she doesn't rely on her bottle, she is eating like a champ!  She is seriously such a great eater.  She definitely loves her sweets still, but otherwise she eats incredibly healthy.  She loves to eat eggs and avocado almost every morning for breakfast.  She loves to eat almost everything I cook for lunch or dinner.  She'll eat all my healthy food like crazy.  I'm sure this is also contributing to her health.  
• She still love her blankies.  She has loved them almost to shreds.  They are getting holes in them now and she has nearly worn them out.  
• She just got a "big girl" bed.  We converted her crib into a toddler bed.  She loves it.  She doesn't stay in it very well.  She keeps getting out of bed when we put her in.  It usually takes 3-4 times in walking her back to her bed to get her to stay.  But, she's sure feeling more grown up now.
• She loves whatever Sissy (Evie) loves.  This has probably always been the case, but as she gets older, it becomes more evident.  She copies Evie in almost everything (from behavior to favorite toys to things she says).

• That being said, she still has her own unique interests.  She definitely LOVES anything that makes her look pretty.  She loves lip gloss, chapstick, makeup, nail polish, bows, jewelry, etc.  More so than Evie does.  

• Adeline is a great cheerleader!  When we go to watch Evie play soccer or swim in her races, Addie will be cheering, "Go Evie!" louder than life.  It's adorable!
• She's entered the stage where she loves us to watch everything she does.  She's constantly saying, "Look at this!" as she does tricks, or dances, or simply makes a funny face.  After she gets you to notice her she'll often say, "When I do this, I do this."  Then she'll jump, or do a dance move, or something silly, etc.  
• She insists of doing things all by herself.  She wants to potty all by herself, buckle her carseat all by herself, dress herself, feed herself, drink from water bottles all by herself, etc.  She is adamant and gets so frustrated if we try to help her.  And, then with things she really cannot do by herself after trying, she'll break down in frustration and beg for help.  
•  She gets SO excited about stuff.  We'll be driving down the road and she'll see a baby horse and she'll yell so loudly, "I see a baby horse!"  It's cute and hurts our ears all at the same time.  She'll do this with anything she quickly gets excited about.
• She loves to break and ruin stuff.  Oh, this is frustrating.  She'll purposely write on my leather couch, rip an important paper before you can get it from her, stomp on something breakable, etc.  
• She also loves to make messes!  She'll just throw stuff on the ground, break up chips and scatter them on the floor, dump stuff out, etc.  
• You say, "don't" . . . . she'll "do."
• She loves to go swimming, but only because she mostly loves to play in the water.  She has very little interest in learning how to actually swim.  She's even hated people splashing her.  However, I have recently convinced her of the necessity of learning to swim and she'll actually practice putting her face/eyes under water.  We're making progress in this departments!
• Her favorite articles of clothing are either swimsuits or pajamas.  We seriously go through about five changes of clothing a day.  The changes usually consist of 2-3 swimsuits and 2 pairs of pajamas.  When she does have to wear clothes, she'll choose skirts or pants. She's not a huge fan of shorts.  I love it when I can talk her into the shorts though.
• She still is great at praying.  Her prayers are now consistently about going to Disneyland or the park.
• She still loves the movie "Frozen", but she also loves "Moana" and "Zootopia" and "Enchanted".
• She still loves to talk about going to the temple.  She'll constantly tell me how she wore her cute baby shoes when she went there.
• She is so sweet and will constantly tell us she loves us.  She'll tell me, Beau, and Evie at random times saying, "I love you sissy/mom/daddy."  
• She is LOVING her daddy so much these days.  It's so sweet and beautiful to watch.  
• She is seriously so silly!  She is constantly trying to make us smile, loves funny things, enjoys laughing, and we absolutely love it!

• She is starting to venture off and play a little bit without me.  When we go to the park or the pool, she'll actually go play with Evie for a few minutes at a time.  She's finding a bit of independence.  
• Her time frame for anything is 2 minutes.  You can ask her when her birthday is and she'll say, "In 2 minutes."  If she's headed to the store and asked when she'll be home, it's always 2 minutes.  Anything that can be calculated in time will always be 2 minutes worth when you ask Miss Adeline.
• She is downright beautiful.  I cannot go anywhere without having people (even perfect strangers) tell me how pretty she is.  Oh, she's a heart melter.

This sweet, silly, mischievous, adorable Adeline has our hearts tighter than we can describe.  She's so great and we can never seem to get enough of her.