That smile....

Someone said to me recently that Berit always looks so happy, and that 'she smiles with all her might.'  I thought that was pretty much right-on.  When she smiles, she smiles hard.

We love you Berit Bean and your endless smiles!

Catching Up

I guess we've been busy.  Doing what, I'm not sure.  Just the day-to-day stuff-- ballet, going on runs, running errands, play dates etc...

Hanging' with her buddies in her chair.

Got another bang trim from Auntie M.

 I guess there are two major things were are working on.  First- potty training.  Part of me doesn't want to deal with it because nothing grosses me out more than the thought of having to take Berit to the bathroom in a public place.  I can just picture her putting her little hands all over a dirty toilet seat not knowing any better, and me freaking out.  Just lovely, I'm sure.  So, we've been potty training at home (basically when she feels like it) and when she feels like wearing her little undies.  She does good if you are CONSTANTLY reminding her, but definitely doesn't quite 'get it' just yet.  I'm sure the parenting books will tell me I'm not doing her any favors, by not just going for it all at once, but taking baby steps seems to be working OK.

The other issue is that she has decided she's scared of her crib.  She says there are 'guys in my bed.'  Wonderful.  So, for about 2 weeks now we have fought with her at bed time.  At first we were letting her fall asleep in our bed (without us) and would move her to her bed when we went to bed.  We got sick of that, and didn't want to start a bad habit so we quit that.  Then we would just try laying with her in her room while she fell asleep (us laying down on the floor and holding her hand through the crib).  But eventually that didn't work either because she just refused completely to get in the crib...and, it was taking up our entire night to put her to bed because sometimes it would take her forever to fall asleep!  Finally, what we've been doing the past few nights is letting her sleep in her room on an air-mattress.  It's going pretty well but the past two nights she has fallen out of bed three times each night, so I'll have to go in and put her back, and you just have to pray that she will go back to bed without you laying with her.  Plus, we've learned to basically make her a little 'fort' around it so if she falls out, she's got some major padding.  So, we will probably be buying her a 'real' big-girl bed in the near future.  

Other tidbits:

• Loves to discipline Maya ('Maya, bad dog!' or 'Maya, go outside!')
• Tells us Maya eats dog food and Berit eats people food.
• Smart! Told me today when there was a song on that she heard a violin (and it really was a violin) and as she ate her sandwich she took a few bites and showed me a 'triangle', which she had made via taking bites out of it. 
• Loves to take me to the pantry and say 'It's our secret'...meaning, give me a cookie and don't let Daddy see.  
• Still loves her cucumbers and pummus (hummus).
• Becoming an expert on her tippy-toes at ballet.
• Has a cute, curly pony-tail (when she allows it!)
• Love to say 'i have an idea', 'wait a second', 'hang-on' 'two minutes'.
• Loves to call herself 'Berit Bean'.
• Loves to read to herself.  She has a handful of books that she has memorized that she can now 'read' to us. 
• We joke that she is like 'Switzerland'.  She has so many buddies (stuffed animals) that she loves!  She'll have a favorite for a few days and then she'll switch it up a bit and choose another one.
• Weighs 24.2 lbs (I put her in a 12 month onesie the other day and it still fit!)