21 months going on 3

Take a close look at the pic of Kate...it says it all. she is all spunky and very sassy, and knows it.

If you ask Kate how old she is she will stick up anywhere from 1 to 4 fingers and say three, with a sly smile.....if you ask her again she will giggle and say two......

She is 21 months but walks, talks, and acts like a stubborn 3 year old.

Just now she looked up at me and said,

"Im Mad at you."

other phrases are:

I want ta yee

I dont know...

I wanna to do it

Come Me (while she sticks out her fist with her pointer finger curling up)

What daddy doing?

Where Charlie?

Shh Charlie sleeping?

I love you Charlie?

Play with me

mommy happy me?

Mad at me?

every time I put her in the car seat she says, "Too tight"

She constantly is bringing books to us and saying, "readbookame"

She hurt her foot the other day and hopped over to me and said, "ki my foo mommy?"

She wants to do what everyone is doing and where they are going ALL. DAY.LONG

Just now I heard her say, "I bad" and I turned around in the kitchen to see she had abandoned her art work to climb directly on top of the table.....as Charlie says, "baby bad to the bone!"

These are all quotes she has learned from her bro...

When she has extra energy to burn you will find her standing at one end of the living room. She will then shout, "ready. set. GO!" and sprint across the room. If I sit down on the carpet while she is doing this she will say, "ready for me. ready set go"

She sings twinkle twinkle and ABCs pretty well, and struts into her brother's nursery school like she owns the place.

Adam just told me that every morning she crawls over the body pillow (there is a dividing line between Daddy's side and kate's) and strokes adam's cheek. She then says, Miss mommy, Miss Daddy and points to her chin (the miss sign) She then starts singing.

She is a sweet, cute, and smart as ever. She is a pistol, stubborn, and independent. Just how I want my little girl to be even if it frustrates me most of the day.

Yesterday we met up with some friends at the beach at 10 am (it was a whopping 70 degrees out), she frolicked around without me for a good 30 minutes. Playing chase with the small waves, giggling at her little friends, and every once in a while racing back to me for a hug.

And then she saw a big girl go out a bit further in the water. I have never seen the look of determination that I saw that morning. She made a B line for the ocean. Thankfully I didn't hesitate to get up and sprint, and I mean SPRINT over to her. I told Adam and my mom I was only 5 feet away, but that is straight bullshit. I don't know how far away I was...maybe 20 feet? I didn't stop to think about whether my iphone was in my back pocket (where it frequently lives) or that I was wearing my nice new leather shoes.....she was sprinting to, and got pretty far into the water before she lost her footing and plunged head first into the cold ocean. I got there right when it happened and swooped her right up. She didn't even swallow any water, but we were both scared. My heart was racing, we were both soaked, sandy, and thankful to be in each other's arms.

It is a fine line between allowing your children the freedom they need to explore and learn on their own, and letting them get far enough away that the unthinkable becomes possible.

It was a great lesson, because Kate is fearless, fast, strong, and willful. And as confident as I am about watching the kids like hawks (what other choice do you have when you have two kids so close together), there is always room for improvement.

Happy 21 months Kate.