Watching her interact

It doesn't seem like such a long time ago that Kylie was a baby. Sometimes when she looks up at me with reaching arms and says, "Hode you Mommy," I still like to think she is my baby...

Yet she is growing up and acting more like a little girl and less like a baby every day. This past week I've really noticed it in her interactions with other children. First of all, I don't have a picture to show but trust me that Kylie has grabbed EVERY phone possible to "call Su-san-nah!" at least 100 times in the last four days! The girls haven't seen each other since before we headed out on our road trip because when we got home from that two week trip, Susannah's family headed to the beach. Kylie was so excited when I made the mistake of telling her last night that we'll see Susannah today that she almost couldn't go to sleep.

And then there's just watching her around other folks now. Last Friday my cousin Jordan and six of his friends stopped through for the night on their way back to Ohio from a week in Florida. ( We had teenage boys everywhere, but they were a polite group and helped clean up before they headed out!) My little one turned on the charm for Jordan and "played" with him like she saw him every day. The next morning the boys had headed out before she woke up (even though Jordan went in and kissed her goodbye while she snoozed) and when she realized that she actually cried.

Later in the day Tricia brought her kids over to visit because our summer schedules have had us missing one another for several weeks. When I told Kylie that Adam, Abby, and Andrew had just arrived, she ran to the front door, opened it (yeah, not too thrilled about that accomplishment ~ time to buy some latches to make sure we don't have an escaping child) and threw huge hugs around each of the Triple A's! She was so glad to see them all, but especially Abby. Abby was such a good sport and crammed herself into the wagon because Kylie wanted to ride with her. Adam was also a champ because he pulled them around the house for the longest time!

Saturday night we had friends of Ian's from VT stop through on their way from Alabama to the NC coast. (Our current location is "on the way" to so many places ~ we've been so lucky to catch so many folks on their way somewhere). Their son, Nathan, is just about two weeks older than Caleb. I almost held my breath to see how Kylie would do with a boy that age ~ since she's insisting that she has a "BABY brofer." She had been playing with the Little People garage and cars when they arrived and she immediately showed Nathan the garage and offered him a car. Overall she did really well with him even though when we took a walk after dinner she made Nathan push the pink baby stroller while she pushed the navy one. Oh well, Roger and Catherine took that in stride and we had a great evening together. Kylie actually cried when it was time to go to bed because she thought Nathan would be gone when she got up in the morning. (note to self, always wake Kylie up when friends leave ~ even if it is early ~ so that she doesn't think people just disappear) She was sad to see Nathan leave as they rolled out, but handled it much better than Jordan just being gone the previous morning.

Then Sunday we headed up to visit Darby's family as Ian had some business in the area Monday. This was great fun because Kylie adores Darby ~ and we rather like Darby's parents too! For some reason she doesn't "call" her like she does Susannah, but she frequently pretends to hold a steering wheel and will turn it recklessly, singing, "I dhrivin' Darby hous!" Luckily she crashed in the car after swimming at Mama's early Sunday afternoon and we didn't have to listen to a 2 hour chorus of her song... They had a few skirmishes over favorite toys, but overall I think the two rather enjoyed one another's company.

The biggest clue that she is growing up though is her thought process about others. Shortly after we started showing Kylie the pictures we have of Caleb (before we really started going public with our news) she started adding him to her prayers. It totally took me by surprise because she did it without any prompting from us. One day while saying blessing at a meal she simply said, "Tank you Jesus for my food. Tank you Mommy, Daddy. Tank you my brofer Taeb." Yes, it brought tears to my eyes. Since then Caleb has been included EVERY time she's said her prayers ~ meals and bedtime. And Monday night after we got home she added to the end, "Tank you Darby and for Darby's brofer."

Wow, gotta love my kiddo!