Cute Cheerleader

We have been so super busy here lately, which I guess shouldn't surprise me. I do have four kiddos--I'm bound to be a busy mama. Only two kids are in activities, but really, between them I run in crazy circles most afternoons!

Luckily the squid is a super easy car rider, and is very patient with me. We've spent so much time at the ball park that she's trying to play herself. She LOVES balls, and manages to collect a new one every time we go to the grocery store. She's pretty talented in the screaming-BALL-BALL-BALLLLLLL!!!-at-the-top-of-her-lungs-in-the-cutest-fashion-ever department. And the thank-you-for-the-ball-I-don't-need-mama hugs are the sweetest. So who could resist that?

She saw the baseball a few weeks ago and realized that there was a ball she couldn't have, which was NOT cool at all. So me, being the awesomely patient mommy that I am, sat her in my lap and held her down so she couldn't squirm off, and pointed out that the boy was going to hit the ball with the stick. So when we all cheered when he got a hit, she decided the big boys could play with her ball afterall, and enthusiastically cheered with me. So cute, my 20 month old clapping and yelling YAAAYYY in her super cute way. And when we got another hit, and it was a home run, the clapping turned into hollering. "Whooooooooo!" At which point, the princess squeals "EEEHHHHH!" Let me tell you all, she was ON. FIRE!! Little Cheerleader! Totally in charge.

I recently took down her baby crib. Yeah, big moment for me. The very last time ever I will take down the crib for one of my babies. (No tissues necessary, thank you very much!) She is a little climbing fool, and can even climb up on the big trampoline outside without any sort of chair or stool to stand up on. Yikes! So into a toddler bed she went--WELL before I was ready for such a step for her. Besides what it means, symbolically, that my baby is not a baby, it means lots and lots of training to learn to stay in the bed. Do I have that patience?

We've settled into a routine of reading a book, saying a prayer, and then she climbs in and lays down, holds out her little arms and says, "Sweet" (which means hug) and then her little "Ni-Ni" to me. Love it! I turn on the nightlight, off the big light, and settle into her rocking chair with my PDA to play solitare and try my darndest to ignore her cuteness while she tries to go to sleep.

Tonight, she had a hard time settling down. And I had a harder time ignoring her. She talked to her baby, and kissed her baby's nose, and love it and babbled to it like it was a real person. Then I started hearing this:

Zumubici-ball-samuzubu. EEEEEEHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

With her clapping, and I realize she is pretending to watch a ball game with her baby! At twenty months old!

It's so FREAKING CUTE!!!! And I'm such a sap, I have no idea how to handle all the cuteness! But then, if you had the cutest princess ever in your house, well, you'd not know how to handle it either. So the laugh that escaped me (which unfortunately gave her the attention she really wanted from me) was totally excuseable, and I'm sure I've undone all the progress I've made with her.

Darn cuteness.