Bottle 'em up

Each and every day I have moments with Sloane that leave me with my jaw on the floor.  Where I'm so happy, proud, and speechless.  Where I stop to think about just how brilliant, special, kind, and happy she is and about the mind blowing amount of joy she has brought to our lives.  John and I often find ourselves looking at each other with silly little grins mouthing, "wow".  We made that.  She is a person.  For posterity, some recent shenanigans with our girl that I want to bottle up and keep with me.*

• Sloane has this thing with tissues.  If they (or toilet paper) are made available to her she will pull one out, hold it up to her nose like she's blowing her nose, and drop it on the floor.  Then repeat until the box is empty or you take them away.  Last week she pulled one out, held it up to her nose, then looked at me and said, "Pooper!" She then proceeded to walk into the living and over to Coop, who was lounging on her bed, then gently dab our pup's nose.  It was priceless.
• On a recent car ride she spent a good five minutes in her sing song voice going, "mama. dada. mama. dada. pooper. mama. dada...."
• Sometimes when we say I love you, she now says it back.  It kills me.
• A couple of times a day we get an unsolicited, "thank you".  Love that my girl is learning good manners.
• I took all of the indoor Christmas decorations down last week while Sloane was with my mom. When she walked into the house she stopped, looked all around, then turned to me and said, "Ho, ho, ho?"
• The girl is opinionated and passionate.  The site of her banging on the garage door, tears streaming down her face, then trying with all of her might to pull the door open after we put her trike away on New Year's day made me smile all while breaking my heart. 
• With the addition of the tricycle came the helmet.  She normally refuses to keep anything on her head for more than a few minutes but after she connected the helmet to the trike she began to insist on wearing it around the house.  She looks pretty special running around and playing in her helmet, but it makes her so happy.

*They will be my happy place when she's being a holy terror.