My baby girl is growing up!

Our Mattie girl is 18 months old this week! I just can't believe it. All of a sudden she seems so big, so tall, so much more independent. (Though no less needy or messy!)

Our big girl ready for church.

Her favorite things right now are Cedarmont Kids movies. She jumps up and down and squeals when she sees me getting one started. She'll watch and do the motions too! We keep seeing her walking around doing "The Wheels on the Bus" and "If You're Happy and You Know It..." If there is no movie on, she'll go into her room and start a CD. So, as we've known all along, she LOVES music!! She likes to carry her Mozart Music Cube around and dance, especially with Robert. And any day I have the camera in her reach, she'll bring it to me, scoot back and say, "Teez!"

Why, oh why? don't they make Thomas the Tank Engine things for girls??? She likes wearing Jacob's glasses. (And I think she looks like Danny in this one.)

She's still climbing and getting into things virtually every day. This weekend she almost pulled the bookshelf over on herself and Jacob while unloading it all over the living room floor. (Thankfully Robert was in the same room and saw it quickly enough to catch it!) And yesterday I had a 30 minute delay in my already not so good baking experience...she had confiscated the vanilla and I had to round it up. And today she was walking around with a collection of sticky notes and a pen. (Robert saw her get a pen out of the drawer and when that one didn't work, she went back in and got another one.) She likes to wash her face with water from my unattended cup.

Washing her face with my water cup. And experimenting with the salt shaker.

She is becoming girly in her own little way too. She still loves Thomas and other things she sees Jacob like, but she's putting her own girly slant on things. Saturday she and Jacob were swordfighting and she kept fussing/screaming at Jacob. She wanted to play, but she wanted to trade swords - his sword had a purple jewel on the handle!! And we have strings of Christmas beads that never made it back into the Christmas box. She walks around with the red ones dangling around her shoulders. She likes to try on my shoes and get into my makeup bag. And she loves to put her comb in running water to comb her hair!

Her delightful little face after blackberry picking. She was eating as fast as I was picking!

She definitely doesn't miss a beat around here! She keep me hopping, and has been a lot more high maintenance than Jacob ever was, but I still can't imagine our life without her. It would be so boring!!