Alice Rose:Terribly Two... But mostly Terribly Cute

She is not 2 yet: she has one month to go. But its like she's practicing. She can get so angry.

...The arching of the back while I'm trying to strap her into her car seat...

The screeeeeching at the top of her lungs when I won't let her play with every large, inflatable ball in the toy section at Target. I'm sure they could hear her all the way at the front of the store. I'm sure every security camera was scanning for an abusive mom who was torturing her child.

But mostly she is happy: obliviously frolicking in the joy of any moment.
She is fiercly independent.

Alice is bananas for fruit... especially bananas. She knows right where the canned fruit is located in the pantry. She gets out a can of fruit cocktail, a can opener, a bowl and a spoon. She'll set them on the counter and then wait for me to serve her. Any time of day.

She loves the goats. "Nigh-nigh ghoas" she says before going to bed. (The goats' pen is right outside her window.) When she's playing outside she goes right up to the goat pen and tries to feed them them grass and weeds out of her hand. Waverly calls it "Alice's Personal Petting Zoo".

She has curly hair! She is the first of my children to have it, and I am in love. Maybe it will only last while she is a toddler, so I take every opportunity to apply mousse and have my fun. She is finally allowing me to "do" her hair... most days. But the little elastic bands are usually yanked out by lunch time and she is left with crazy hair. I love that, too. Alice will forever smell like Herbal Essence's mousse in my memories of her as a toddler.

Alice LOVES to play with balls. And eat them, too.

Alice adores music. She has her own playlist on my iPod, which includes Close to You (the Carpenters), Snuggle Puppy (Sandra Boyton's Philadelphia Chickens), Somewhere in My Memory (the song Waverly sang in the last Christmas concert... we listened to it so much in the car that Alice memorized it, too!), Yellow (Coldplay... I know this one seems like a strange one, but she loves it, and especially loves to jam like she's playing an air guitar during the guitar solos.), Bed, Bed, Bed, Bed, Bed (They Might Be Giants), Once There Was a Snowman, and Popcorn Popping. (The only time she is not screaming for Mommy during nursery is during music time.)
Alice loves her Dada. And he loves her right back. A lot.
The time not spent singing with or feeding Alice (did I mention how much she loves to eat?!) we are reading books together. I love that she loves this. I could read to her all day.
Alice recognizes the letters "B" and "A". But "B" is definitely her favorite. She often shoves a pencil and paper in my hand and says "B! B! B!" until I write a few for her. And then she giggles like its the funnest thing in the world.

Alice is a stinker. Besides "Baby Girl" and "Ali-Bug", this is her most common nickname: Stinker. She knows each of her siblings' buttons and pushes them often. Especially Oscar's. She just loves to see him freak_ out_.

I fully recognize that she is getting too old for the bottle and binki. But how can I take it away from her when it makes her this unbelievably happy? The binki and bottle have been a huge part of her going-to-bed ritual... forever. When you hand her a bottle she immediately starts giggling with glee and looking for her blankie to snuggle with. She seriously gets giddy about going down for a nap. Would YOU take that away from her? Or from yourself as a mother? I just can't bring myself to do it. Happy giggles... About going to sleep. (Like mother, like daughter.)


But there is nothing and no one in Alice's life that could ever take the place of her sister. If they weren't almost 9 years apart, they would probably look like twins.
Its like Waverly knew she was coming. Waverly begged for a sister for a couple of years. This picture was taken in the very moment Waverly learned she would have a little sister.Alice has brought out Waverly's gentle, nurturing side. As a tweener, she may get angry with the world and the injustice that is her life... but she never takes it out on her baby sister. She loves and protects her unlike anything I've ever seen. How can it be that these two perfectly-matched playmates are so far apart in age?Waverly loves an audience and to be adored, and Alice does nothing but hang on Wavy's every word and try to copy her.
They are two peas in a pod. A perfet match.

Oh, I do love my girls.