Currently

I'm writing so that I remember:

Marie wakes us up with kisses right on the lips.  This morning, she sat up, leaned over and kissed Tony about 10 times.  Then she snuggled onto his chest and went back to sleep.  My heart nearly burst.

The sweetest sweetie.  Giving mommy birthday breakfast snuggles.

She waves at everyone (though a little delayed).  It's the sweetest little wave you've ever seen.

She says a few words now--"ball," "all done," "box" (which sounds a lot like "ball"), "hi," "bath" (which sounds a lot like "ball" and "box"), "no," "hat," "in," "down"

She woofs like a dog.  Every single time she hears one, even if it's three neighborhoods away and no one else can hear it without concentrating really hard. And she woofs every single time you say the word "doggy" or "puppy."  And every single time she sees one or sees a picture of one in a book.

She shakes her head "no."  It's too adorable to be upset by, even when she's telling you she's not going to do something you asked.

She helps me get her dressed and undressed.

Her brain moves a mile a minute.  She's making connections left and right that I wouldn't expect her to make.  She understands everything we say already and we have to spell words.  I didn't think that would start so soon.

Dead-heading the flowers.  She has trouble stopping with the dead ones.

She's loving her little golden retriever puppy stuffed animal.  She often wants to take it with us when we go somewhere.

She loves dancing.  She will start dancing immediately if she hears music, if we start singing of humming, or if she hears anything that sounds remotely like music.  Sometimes, she just dances because she's happy.  And she is the best little dancer--such cute, cute moves.  It's my favorite thing right now.

She has a cute little sense of humor.  She finds things funny and will just start laughing on her own, and she likes to make up games that she thinks are silly.  If we are laughing, she starts laughing, too.

One of her favorite funny games.

She thinks that all presents are for her.  On my birthday, she saw my present, rushed over to it and immediately started signing "help me" so that we would help her open it.

She likes looking at herself and her outfits in the mirror.  When I put something on her, she'll go look in the mirror.  Oops?

She must be taken to the window to see every single truck that we hear going by.  Friday is garbage day and she loves watching the garbage trucks.  Today we got to see four different ones make the rounds.  For lunch, I just left the door open and put her seat right in front of it so that she could eat lunch while watching the garbage trucks.  She was thrilled.

I always think that these little traits will last forever, but I know they won't.  In a month or two, she'll be on to something new and I don't want to forget all of the little things that fill me with so much joy and wonder at this stage.  I couldn't love her more.