4th of july

now that july is coming to a close (how did that happen so fast?) i guess i should finally write about our 4th of july this year. opelika had fireworks on the night of the 3rd. my mom came and though we were tired at the end of the day, we all went. it had rained that afternoon and the evening turned out to be surprisingly chilly. wish i had dressed the girls a bit warmer, but it didn't slow them down and they were excited to get to stay up past their bedtime. the fireworks were awesome, and when they were over, libby kept saying "bye bye fireworks" during the whole walk to the car and drive home. we all really enjoyed it. on the 4th my dad joined us and we did some grilling and hannah helped me make our annual flag cake. when it got dark we played with sparklers. it's the first time that i can remember ever doing that and i looooved it! will definitely make it a tradition. it took some coaxing to get hannah to hold one but after being reassured by granny she was ready. it was really a wonderful holiday!

20 months

20!!!!! that's just so many months! i can't believe we're at this point. i wish every person in the world could know libby because she has the best personality. she makes happiness bubble up from the deepest part of my soul.

one of her favorite things is to have a tea party. she will pour me a cup of tea and blow it off when it's hot. she loves to play with all kinds of pretend food. 

speaking of food, she loves to eat. she loves her snack cups, as show in the picture above, which i usually fill with cheerios or goldfish crackers. she uses those cups as somewhat of a security blanket sometimes, she will walk around with a firm grasp on it and will get mad if you try to take it away. her favorite thing to eat this summer has been watermelon. this girl could eat a whole one in one setting. i've bought at least 5 watermelons in a month and she has enjoyed every bite. she gets a kick out of sucking the juice, biting it and then asking for MORE MORE MORE. i give her a look of amazement and ask if she's sure she wants more and she just smiles. 

she can repeat everything. everything. she knows so many words and quite a few phrases, like "i did it!" and she's very polite, we've worked on teaching her please and thank you and she uses them often, even if her please sounds more like 'peas' and her thank you sounds more like 'dank.' 

she loves the madagascar movies now, but calls them "move it move it" because of the song by that name that they sing in the movie. we tried taking her to the third one a few weeks ago but she didn't make it very long into it before she got restless. however, i took her and hannah to a special kids' showing of the second one today and she sat still and attentive for over an hour. she wanted to sit in her own chair (NOT on my lap) with her own bag of popcorn and her own cup of sprite (her first drink of sprite, btw, which she was a big fan of). she looked like such a big girl. 

she is a GREAT dancer. she loves music and loves to dance, and i love to watch her. 

she can make the funniest faces. today our older neighbor girl was making silly faces and libby was trying to imitate her. but just in general, she will sometimes make a funny face at me while we're playing or if she's pretending to be shy. 

the splash pad has been a big part of our summer and her favorite part is the slide, which i help her go down. she climbs up the steps, then i hold both of her hands while she sits at the top and i ask "are you ready?" she excitedly says "READY!" and i help her slide down. we've also recently enjoyed visits to the library. 

i was painting hannah's fingernails and toenails last weekend and libby wanted in on the action too. she stood perfectly still while i did it and got a big kick out of it when it was over. she kept looking at her fingers and saying 'pretty.'

and she's started to have a bit of an opinion on what she wants to wear. saturday she insisted on wearing her minnie mouse bathing suit around the house. a couple days ago we were in a kids clothes store and she found a dress she liked and wanted to put it on right then and there. she started pulling at the one she was wearing, trying to take it off so she could put this new one on. well... of course i had to buy it for her.

she can count to 3. i'll occasionally count things out loud and she's really caught on.

she's wearing 24 month clothes, a size 4 diaper, a size 7 shoe (though i think she'll soon be in 8s). she has a mouth full of teeth now, as just a few weeks ago she got her canine teeth.

she really does act like such a big girl.

playin' in the rain

For some reason Libby got so excited Friday when she looked out the window and saw that it was raining. She ran to the door and desperately wanted to go outside, so since it was right before bath time I let her go out for a bit. I think this was her top favorite moment of life so far; she was so excited and had so much fun. She would've stayed out there all night if we would've let her.