Say Cheese!

Last night I was up by myself (Brandon had gone to bed early b/c he had to wake up at the ungodly hour of 3:00 am) and I decided it was a good time to catch up on everyone's blogs. I especially enjoyed my cousin's blog, where in each of her posts she has some great story to tell about how cute her little girls are. This was brought back to my attention today when Evie came up to me with her empty cup of juice and said "Mas." Brandon and I immediately understood that she was asking for more--in Spanish. Since when does my little girl speak Spanish? I realize she's been watching Dora the Explorer, but c'mon?! She's not even speaking ENGLISH very well, much less SPANISH. Anywho, this incident has prompted me to make a list of things that my cutie pa-tutie little girl does that makes me love being her mother.

1. She knows exactly what she wants. Even though she can't say it in words always, she still communicates quite effectively. She has no problem walking up to whomever, grabbing their hand, and pulling them to whatever it is she wants. Very direct.
2. She says "please" and "thank you." It was no problem getting her to say "day du" once she gets what she wants, but bending her will to say "peash" was like pulling teeth. But now that she does say "peash" it's so cute that she walks up to me, says "Peash. Day du," and pulls me to what she wants. It's so endearing that I've trained her so well :-)
3. Evie has developed an extremely hyper-hygienic streak. I have to be careful about letting her near the bathroom sink, because she'll HAVE to wash her hands. She is also constantly taking her shoes and socks off so that she can clean between her toes. It's the cutest thing EVER to watch.
4. Evie is the most maternal child I've ever seen. Her favorite thing is to take care of her baby dolls, or even better, her little cousins, when they're available :-) I recently started finding perfectly clean diapers in the trash cans--they'd been unfolded and stuff, but clean. Came to find out, Evie takes out her fresh diapers and puts them on her babies, and changes their diapers on a regular basis. And she throws them away like a good mother. It's a good thing I found out what she was doing, otherwise we'd be buying diapers a bit more frequently.
5. She's also quite the flirt. She totally knows how to work the system. It's a good thing I'm training to be a disciplinarian, otherwise I'd be melted butter ALL the time. She can look at something, assess the situation, and turn on the charm all in a matter of seconds. It's fantastic to watch her mind at work. She's so smart.

These are the immediate things that come to mind, but there are so, so, so many more reasons that I'm endeared to her. She's our little princess, and we love every minute we have with her. How can you not love this face?