Addie-girl, you are now two years and four months old! You have learned so much lately! You have kept us in stitches laughing at you! I hope and pray to remember all of your Addie-isms, but I am terribly afraid I forget. I've jotted a few down recently and want to share them on here!
(All of these pictures were taken around Christmas-time, downtown. We absolutely adore downtown and wish we went more regularly. It is even more fun in the fall and spring, but we enjoyed this day as well! And yes, photography will be improving, once I find the time and energy to take classes!)
(love this picture below!) 
On the way home from church the other day, a rainy, yucky, Sunday, we were in the car, quiet and calm. All of a sudden Addie tells us, "I see Go Tigers hat!" Tommy and I looked all around and finally found a car beside us with a Clemson helmet on the antennae - a tiny thing! When the car drove off, she yelled after it, "Come back!"
I am such a stickler for my students using correct and polite grammar and manners, and I try to teach that at home as well, to my 2-year old! Lately when Addie asks for something I rephrase it in the "May I please have ____?" Then, recently, when she's begging for something and I may not be paying attention or am doing something else, and she really wants whatever it is, she'll start herself over in the "May I please have _____?" form! She usually gets all the words in there, but they are in funny orders sometimes. Regardless, I'm as pleased as I can be!
We always refer to the children at her babysitter's house as her friends. I mean, I guess they are her friends, but a 2-year old, on her own, wouldn't typically know that. Now that we call them that, so does she. She talks about seeing her friends, prays for them at night (on her own I might add), and the other day, when we were leaving them I told her to say goodbye and she said, "Bye! Bye friends!"
She has quite the imagination! I catch her all the time naming random things - Mommy, Daddy, baby, grandparents, etc.! Even food! This past weekend she stayed with William and his grandparents for us to have a fun no-kids night. The grandmother was telling me when we picked her up that she had to have four more grapes before went to bed and she named them all, "Mommy, Daddy, Mimi, and someone else." I immediately knew the some one else must have been Googa - who else has a Googa?
She has recently developed a hatred with getting dressed. It's not just when I try to dress her up either - it's all the time. That's ok, parents always win!
She can and does say the entire blessing by herself. (She's been doing this for a while now, I may have mentioned it before.) We always say her prayers, including the people she prays for afterwards. We'll have to work on her saying them herself, but it's kind of a wind-her-down thing that we say nice and quietly. She will, however, quickly remind you if we leave someone out!
(check out these crazy faces!)
She continues to be overly friendly. She waves at every child she sees (including teenagers), and it still angers me when they don't wave back!
We have bitten the bullet and signed her up for 2K preschool next year. This is after much prayers and waiting lists and visits and long, long interviews. There were even some tears on my part when we couldn't work out the logistics of one preschool. I think I will be happy, and I know she will be! Tommy's pretty easy going with this. He trusts my judgement with it - says I'm the one with the educational background, so I guess he's right. He did visit this one with me though, and asked his own questions (not just my 1-page full, single-spaced, typed bulleted list). And, he noticed things and remembered things I did not, which was most helpful. I pray that Addie will make lots of friends and enjoy every minute of being there. I'm not very concerned with the curriculum at this age - the social things are far more important for me. I do hope she'll learn some things, but she already seems to know everything the director showed me in the curriculum. (ABC's, counting 1-20, 1 to 1 correspondance, colors, etc.) Maybe they'll begin patterns, matching, and sorting - I haven't started those yet. I know she'll learn Bible verses, songs, Spanish, and sign language - all new things to her. I'm excited... I think!
Poor child, Tommy and I have worked so hard to not give Addie juice on a regular basis, that the child will do just about anything for it! Ha! The other day at church I knew they were going to give her a snack, and they told me it would be apple juice and animal crackers. So after church, I asked her if she had a snack and she said, "Apple Juice and Cookie Animals!" Precious angel. I love that she calls animal crackers that! And, let me note here, that she calls any juice apple juice! If anything, she mostly drinks orange juice at our house - least in sugar and just what we happen to keep on hand because I love it. She still thinks it's apple juice though!
The other day we were driving by the BiLo Center and Addie looked out the window and saw it. She then told us that "she went there with her Mommy and Jill and saw the Rockets and they kicked their legs and the toy soldiers fall down!" Holy Cow! She surprises us every single day. I think she has a photographic memory! I mean really, how many 2-year olds remember a building and what she did there, two months ago, and with whom? 
I guess she really is growing up: "da-kes" are no longer - they are now "glasses" or even "sunglasses!" "Prin-press" is now a "princess." She's trying to call her blanket a "blanket" and no longer a "minky," but I'm pretty much insisting it stay a "minky." I love it! "Bloom" is now a "broom," "fru fries" are slowly becoming "french fries." I'm proud of her for speaking so well, but that little baby talk sure was cute! 
Little booger was playing with my phone a week or so ago and somehow got it playing different ring tones. The next week at work I got a text message, but I had no clue because that little stinker changed the tone! I'm sure it was on accident, but it did crack me up on an otherwise gloomy day!
Addie now knows my full name, complete with "Schreiber" (which most adults cannot pronounce!), Tommy's full name, and hers, although she does not think her name is Addison, I guess because nobody calls her that! Drives her daddy crazy!
Addie has started to repeat things she hears on movies. She started a few months back when we let her watch Finding Nemo in the car. She just, out the clear blue, looked at us and said, 'Daddy Nemo say, "Don't go to the dropoff!"' And she says dropoff in the funniest voice! Then, we let her watch A Charlie Brown Christmas at Christmastime (which, by the way, she dearly loved!), and she looked at me another day and said, "Charlie Brown say brantz!" And also said "brantz" in teh funniest voice - so funny that we repeatedly ask her to say it over and over again! Now, I never rewatched it to hear the exact word she was trying to say, so I'm not 100% sure what she means, but it's precious nonetheless. We watched Happy Valentine's Day Charlie Brown and she looked at me and said, "Snoopy say ___," and extended her arms out to the side. I also don't remember seeing that, but again love seeing her do it!
She has a private class at Little Gym every week. I've never gone to watch it, although I will before the end of the year. I also plan to put her in it over the summer if it works out in our schedule. She absolutely adores it. She randomly started singing this song the other day (which she does often, songs that she learns at the babysitter or on a CD that we listen to in the car), but this one I couldn't recognize (I can usually figure out what she's trying to sing). It was "Bye Bye Gym-friends, see you soon..." and more words that she mutters that I still don't know. I asked her if she sang that at Little Gym and she said yes. I thought it was precious.
Also at Little Gym, they must walk on a balance beam and say "Follow Me." She sees many things as a balance beam now - the edge of a sidewalk, the end of my mom's bed. Not so safe, but cute as can be when she says "fol-low me, fol-low me!"
She can do the entire C-L-E-M-S-O-N T-I-G-E-Rrrr-S Fight Tigers, Fight Tigers, Fight Fight Fight! cheer! She still has trouble spelling her name, but can do this perfectly! I guess that's to be expected in our house! I'm so proud of her! As proud as I would be if she was spelling her name!
Addie recently had a stomach bug. She got sick in the car on the way to the babsitter and Tommy had to turn around and bring her back home. I was changing her clothes and she said, "I not get sick anymore." Then later, she got sick on Tommy in the Walgreens parking lot. When I came to get her from Tommy, she told me she got sick "in the road and on my daddy." Then she got sick again at the table. That time Tommy caught most of it in his hand (gross, I know, but what can you do? He did get the blunt of that virus, thank goodness!) and again she told me she "choked." She said, "I choke in my hand and on my daddy." We have now dubbed vomit in our house as "choke." Thank God in heaven above we can laugh about something like this! Well, that was about three weeks ago. She continues to talk about it, just randomly telling us, "I not get sick today. I not choke today." I think she is traumatized from it! The other day she also brought up getting sick in the "road" (Walgreens parking lot) and "on daddy's purple shirt," which was exactly what he was wearing that day! Seriously, I do think she has a photographic memory! I mean, we can't remember stuff like that at all! (Of course I know it's because we have so much to remember as opposed to a toddler, but she still amazes me!)
When she wants to get our attention, she will get right up in our face to talk to us, sometimes putting her little hands on either side of our face. I love it. She also will sometimes answer her own question with, "yeah?" For example, "Mommy, you go play in my playroom, yeah?" And it's with thoes piercing blue eyes and sweet smile, that it always works!
The other day, Tommy was giving Addie a "thumbs up." She wanted to learn to do it, and just couldn't get those little fingers to do it on her own. Then when she did, she just beamed! It made me tear up and Tommy just got the biggest smile. He told her it'd been a while since we saw a smile of accomplishment from something she'd worked hard towards. She's continued to do it and it's just precious. Her little Super Why cartoon also does that during the show, so she especially likes it. Just tonight she told me, "Super Why say that," and held her little thumb up.
(Oh my, I never get tired of those blue eyes!) 
Addie-girl, These toddler months have been very new for me! Each person loves different stages of life. For me, it's the baby stage. However, through all the tantrums, stubborn-ness, and tears of a toddler, you still make life so sweet, fun, and lovable, that I force myself to smile through all of the difficult moments, knowing that one day I'd miss them and want them back. You can make the most rotten day turn to the happiest in a matter of seconds. I look forward to each and every morning and afternoon, because I can't wait to see what you will do next! I hope life continues to be as sweet for you as you have made it for me! I love you with all of my heart! -Mommy
