Just a little ray of sunshine : Funny happenings of Maeve

This girl lately. She's TOO MUCH!

Just making phone calls in her Elsa dress like there's no tomorrow. 😂 And that happy face! I could eat her. I seriously squeeze her around the clock because ALL. DAY. LONG. she comes to me speaking these full sentences that ALWAYS start or end with Mommy and that little voice is just so cute that I just can't. I can't not squeeze her and hold on tight to that little body. 😍 I so badly want to bottle her up and make that little voice stay the way that it is right now forevermore. It's too cute to change. I'm already a slobbery mess that I can't make her stop growing. 😭 She's such a character and there's always something new she's doing or something new coming out of her mouth that is hysterical and I just have to remember all of it. So for as long as she's this funny, these posts will likely be a regular thing.

The funniest happenings of late:

1. Her new thing is to bark like a dog. She says "Mommy, I'm a doggy!" and just yaps away. 😂Her Dad and Grandma have some serious skills when it comes to barking like dogs (weird, I know, but they sound exactly like dogs) so I'm pretty sure she's just in training for that already.

2. We were at Walmart recently and she likes to just hold onto the side of the cart and walk with me these days. A lady was in our way as we were trying to head down an aisle and before I can even think about saying excuse me, Maeve says loud and proud "Excuse me!" - seriously, who is she? I've taught her to be polite at home and she definitely is, but what not even 3 year old is smart/bold enough to say that to someone in public? I almost couldn't believe my ears.

3. Sometime way back when we were at my sister's house and Maeve wasn't eating one of her meals very well so my sister said "Hey Maeve, do you think you can eat with your eyes closed?! Try it!" and she had her close her eyes and it was all fun and games and she actually ate a few bites. Well, recently she remembered this and started choosing to close her eyes while she was eating. The next day I was asking her what she wanted to eat for lunch and she thought really hard for a minute, with her thinking face and everything, and then it was like a light bulb went off and she exclaimed, "I know! I can eat peppers with my eyes closed!!" 😂😂 I guess she enjoyed it THAT much.

4. I haven't done Rowan's 9 month post yet but the day he turned 9 months he started crawling. Now that he's crawling, he loves to follow either me or Maeve around. A couple weeks ago he was going after Maeve and she comes running to me in the kitchen, buries herself into my legs, and cries "No! No stop! He's getting my shoes! He's trying to get my shoes!!" 😂 She kills me. I think we've now opened up a whole new can of worms with this crawling. It will be interesting to see what other ways his moving around drives her crazy.

5. One time a while back, she was being a HUGE stinker about going to sleep. Just would not stop goofing off in her bed. I got a little frustrated and wasn't sure what kinda consequence I could come up with that she'd care about enough that would snap her out of it and make her realize it was time for bed NOW. So in desperation, I took her out of her bed and said "If you're not going to calm down and go to sleep in your big girl bed you're gonna have to sleep on the hard floor in this dark bathroom" and I dropped her into the bathroom with the light off and shut the door. JUST FOR LESS THAN A MINUTE. I know, I'm such a mean mom. I just needed to shock her so she'd snap out of it. Anyway, fast forward to recently, when I had put Rowan and her to bed and Rowan wasn't asleep yet and she started being loud and crazy. Naturally, I said to her, "If you can't be quiet, I'm going to have to get you out of this bed and you're going to have to sleep somewhere you really don't want to!" and she thinks and says "Oooh, like the cold dark bathroom??" 😂🙈 I honestly wasn't thinking of that in the moment, and was kind of laughing on the inside when she said it, but still responded yes. Things got real quiet after that!

6. There's nothing better than the moment when you realize your toddler talks to your baby in a baby voice as well. One morning when we were all in bed snuggling after the kids woke up, Maeve started talking to Rowan in a baby voice saying, "What should we do Rowan? What should we do!" on repeat. I almost lost it!! She definitely nailed it.

7. Adam has a bit of a gut right now (just being honest, he knows it too) and he often will grab the fat between his hands and just kinda hold onto it and pull it and say, "you got any scissors?" 😂 Just the other day Maeve is sitting on the couch and she says "Mommy, look!" and I look over to see her grabbing her chunk on her belly with her hands just the same way. Ha! She doesn't miss a thing!

8. Yesterday while we were watching conference Adam started doing high knees. Naturally, Maeve joined in next to him. After a minute, he bends over and pretends to throw up with sound effects. Gross, I know, but it's one of his things because he knows it grosses me out. The best part is Maeve bends over and does it too, sound effects and all. It honestly sounded so similar to his sound effects too. 🤦‍♀️Oh dear!

9. For some reason, out of nowhere every now and then when we are just kicking it at home she comes over to me and hugs me and in a soft voice says "you be safe. you be safe mommy" - the first day she pulled this one out she did it like 5 times that day.... not sure why haha. No worries girl, I'll be safe just for you. 😘

10. We were playing the cupcake game the other day and I wanted to take a picture of her playing it. So, like I always do, I said "say cheeseburger!" and she usually responds with "cheeseburger! ...fries!" - gotta add on the fries right? But this time she said "cheeseburger!...fries!...drink!...toy!" She just couldn't help herself with the associations and it cracked me up. 😂

11. Earlier this week, one morning I said to her "we should go to Once Upon a Child today!" - then later in the day I said "we need to get you and Rowan dressed and ready and then we can go-" and she interjects "to I am a child of--" *thinks* "to I am a child of--" *thinks again* "to Once Upon a Child!" She was totally about to call it "I am a child of God" but caught herself. 😂😂

12. Also that same day, twice she told me that she loved my boobies. The first time she said it, she said "I love your boobies Mommy! I like to kiss them and say hi to them... *proceeds to kiss them and then waves* 'hi boobies!'" 🙈😂😂

And in other news, I am laughing because I have so many pictures now of Maeve asleep in the car. Ever since we've given up the nap, she falls asleep in the car if we are out in the late afternoon.

Exhibit A: