On the drama filled world of my two year old...

Some snippets from my conversation with friends online last night as the girls prepared for bed:

My little redhead just collapsed to the floor in a fit of silent weeping over the grave injustice of being denied licorice right before bed....

Now she's trying to get out of picking up the toys with her sisters by telling me she needs a drink...every 10 seconds. She just staggered up to me clutching her throat and WHISPERED, "I really need a drink, Mummy, right now!" My child is such a drama queen.

Me: "Bethany, take this book and put it on the bookshelf." Her, eyes tightly closed, innocent voice: "Oh no, I can't see the bookshelf!" *drops book and walks away*"

Me, exasperated: "Bethany, GO in your room and help your sisters put the toys in the baskets!" Her, saluting me (yes, literally): "I will do that, sir."

I love my silly, beautiful, crazy, vibrant littlest daughter so much!

On my baby who is no longer a baby...

(Photo courtesy of www.hollyclousephotography.com)

Our first family dinner after Lamont returned from his business trip to Vegas this week, and following a naptime power struggle with Ashley that had her lying in bed for hours while her sisters played without her, this was what Bethany prayed:

"Thank you God that Daddy's home, and Ashley's back, and Hannah loves me, and Mummy's nice to me. In Jesus' name, amen." She looked carefully around the table at each one of us as she prayed, to make sure she wasn't missing anyone. :-)

Bethany has the most endearing way of saying everything twice, wrapping it around our name. So if I give her something, it's "Thanks, Mummy, thanks!" When Lamont is swinging her around the livingroom and she wants me to watch, she calls excitedly, "Wooka me, Mummy, wooka me!" And when Lamont was playing around with her the other day and pretended to cry after he got an "owie" in the game, she wrapped her baby arms around his neck and gently told him, "Don't cry, Daddy, don't cry." It was beyond precious, so this morning I tried the same pretend crying as I played with her; she looked me squarely in the eye and chirped, "Hi, puppy, hi!"

Hmm. Ok then.

I helped Bethany get herself potty trained a few weeks ago (yay for no more diapers! I do a happy dance inside every time I walk past them in the store and don't have to buy them!), and she is so delighted with herself for mastering this "big girl" skill. She's successful at least 95% of the time right now, and every time she goes in the toilet she beams up at me with her little eyes sparkling, and says, "See?!" It makes me laugh every.single.time. Yesterday evening she was even more delighted with herself than usual, so she threw her hands in the air and said, "Ta da!"

Behind Blue Eyes

Meet our beautiful youngest daughter. :-) I recently realized that, just like in life, Bethany is neglected a little bit in my blog because there's so much going on with the bigger girls to write about. So now she gets her very own blog post, all about her!

I guess it's not that she's neglected as much as that she just doesn't get as much attention as the other girls did at her age, because then there weren't quite so many little people running around, and now there are quite a lot. But little miss Bethany does demand attention when she's feeling left out! Earlier today Hannah asked me to lift her up on the counter to watch me make dinner, and Bethany turned to her sternly. "No, no, no!" She ordered. Then reached her arms to me with a sweet smile and asked, "Up?"

Several months ago, just past her first birthday, Bethany learned the concept of teasing, and started to giggle and announce "Tease!" whenever she figured out she was being teased. Since her giggle is so adorable she gets teased a lot! Every crazy shenanigan is worth it when she collapses into your arms in giggles, gasping, "Tease! Mummy tease!" over and over. She and Hannah get each other going a lot too, and they each have these amazing deep belly giggles that make it impossible not to join in.

She is the most amazingly polite 17 month old I've ever seen. Please and thank you are instinctive to her, she never fails. And she has the most charming way of saying, "There you go!" whenever she hands something to you.

Bethany is incredibly affectionate; sometimes I think she could spend all day going from one person to the next just giving hugs and cuddles. And it's so precious when she puts her hands gently on either side of your face to pull you in and just rest her forehead against yours...I melt, every time. She absolutely cannot go to bed without giving goodnight hugs and kisses to both of her sisters and her mummy and daddy -- one time recently when I tried to just whisk her off to bed she cried and called me so sadly until I brought her out to say goodnight all around!

And she's becoming such a little peacemaker. The other day Ashley was in trouble, and crying while Lamont explained to her what she had done wrong. Bethany, highly offended that somebody had upset her big sister, came and planted herself right in front of Lamont, put her finger to her lips and insistently told him to "shhh!" Then she turned and folded her arms around Ashley, patting her back and telling her, "Sorry, sorry, sorry...." :-)

But at the end of the day, my beautiful girl sometimes gives in like on our long drive last weekend and lets herself be a baby for just a little bit longer...and I'm so glad she does.