Mother Love

I think I say this every single time I do an Ayla June update, but I love this stage of her life so much. She has such a little personality and I love watching it develop and grow and seeing glimpses of who she will become. She’s entirely sweet, but not without feistiness and spirit. She loves to show affection (most times), and will sometimes just walk up to us and ask for a hug or a kiss. She always very inclusive and always has to kiss/hug/high five us both if we are in the same room.

She now tries to repeat everything, and we’ve had a few instances of times we’ve let a crap or darn slip out in front of her and there she goes trying to say it too. Oops. Her favorite words are ma-ma-ma-ma-ma (yes at least that many times in a row), wa-wa-wa-wa-wa (water), paw-paw (grandpa), pa-corn (popcorn), da-da (he’s her literal favorite), and see (anytime she sees you taking pictures or videoing her). She’s in a camera-shy stage right now, which makes me a little sad and frustrated, but I try to respect her little feelings on it and put it away when she starts getting upset about it. When we want to video her doing something cute or funny, we just have to be sneaky about it and even then she usually catches us most times.

She’s eating a little bigger variety than she was a few months ago, but she is still what I would easily call a picky-eater. I was never ever going to have one of those, but parenting has taught me that sometimes you just don’t have a choice. We are slowly starting to be stricter about her food habits, so just taking it one meal at a time for now. She will always eat eggs, toast, cheese, avocado, and fruit. Pizza is usually a win (after months of trying), but still no luck with other kiddie foods like macaroni and cheese or chicken nuggets. She will sometimes eat sweet potatoes (but only if they are cut in the shape like a french fry) and hummus. I’m now at the stage where I hardly care what it is she eats if she will just try something new. She had her first bites of real ice cream a few weekends ago, and apparently too much sugar makes her a little extra fun because she got so wound up after we finished the bowl. Like, literally could hardly walk straight and would run right into trashcans along the sidewalk and Ben had to be like a walking bubble around her so she wouldn’t fall straight off the sidewalk into the parked cars or crash into the people coming towards her. If babies can get drunk on sugar, I dare say she was, hehe.

She loves to get the cooking pots and pans out of the cupboard and play with them when I am in the kitchen, and it’s so cute but I also get so tired some days of stepping over dishes or slipping on jar lids hidden underneath the rug. One of her newest things is filling up a paper grocery bag with her blanket and toys and walk to the front door saying “bye” like she is going to town. She loves to wave and say hi to people in the grocery store, although sometimes she gets really shy and won’t do anything but stare at them. Every day she points to the tv and asks to watch Bethel worship, and lately we’ve been sitting and snuggling for ten minutes or so each morning while watching Baby Bum together.

She loves to play with my makeup and will stand in front of the full length mirror using the brushes on her own face. She figured out how to open up the mascara tube a few days ago and got it all over her eye…which was hilarious and cute, but now we keep the tubes up out of her reach. She has the best giggle in the entire world, and while you don’t hear it often, when you do it just makes you want to giggle like a child yourself. She’s a bright, lovely child and we are just grateful she belongs to us.

Here are some past updates if you want to see how much she’s grown in twenty-one months::

Newborn
Six months
One year
Eighteen months

And her birth story.