Cuteness with a capital Carly

This kid is FULL of cuteness.

She is also full of spunk and curiosity. She is our one child who gets into EVERYTHING. If she is not with someone in the family she is most definitely getting into something she's not supposed to. I have never considered putting child locks on cupboards etc., until her, although I think we prefer to teach her not to go into the cupboards and stick her fingers in the electrical sockets rather than childproof the house... it's always worked for the rest of them, though she is a lot more persistent. I joked the other day that she probably thinks her name is "Carly-No!" as it seems that comes out of my mouth a bazillion times a day. She loves to unravel the toilet paper rolls, stick her hands in the toilet, get the lids off of the kids' markers and eat them, and go into my container of sugar in the kitchen. Fun times.

I love this stage of development too. She is starting to say a few words, but understands EVERYTHING!!! She will go and do anything we ask her to do and follows 2 and 3 step commands sometimes. I think she will be slower at talking like Autumn was... she sometimes says a word and then she looks like, "Oops, did I just say that out loud? Now they know I can say it!" And then we never hear the word again.

She loves to do anything and everything her older siblings do, and with the beautiful sunny weather we'd been having, she was loving being outside with all of them toddling around the backyard and digging in the dirt. Here she is with Sarah's purse on her shoulder all proud of herself.

Carly is slowly giving up drinking her bottle, but still guzzles her morning and bedtime ones. She speed walks because she can't run, and falls down lots because her body goes faster than her legs can carry her. She's officially down to one nap now, and it's stretching into 3 hours somedays (hallelujah!) and she sleeps wonderfully at night. She's a picky eater, but after having 3 other kids at this stage, nothing much phases me in that department. I know she'll grow to like a lot of different foods just like her sisters have.

Speaking of growing, this girl's hair is ridiculous! The mop of curls almost visibly grows by the day. I love that I can get pigtails in it too... soooo cute, and makes her look so little girlish and less babyish. We just love her to bits and can't imagine our crazy life without her in it!