Things to love about Iris

As Iris is smack dab in the middle of her two's, we continue to marvel at her learning, her personality, and interests. Last week, she started sleeping on a mattress without her crib. So, she is comforted by many stuffed animal friends, and enough blankets to cover her whole bedroom floor. She loves her blankets, with the yellow one that we brought to China as her favorite. Lately, she wants to wear it like a dress tied around the back.
Other things we love about Iris:
- her growing desire to cook in her play kitchen and serve plastic food to us and friends.
- her hobby of squirting the bottle to clean her playhouse and other patio furniture
- her new desire to play "ABC" (she says, "EZ") games on the computer.
- her saying, "no, sing mommy", so that she can sing her versions of "Old Mcdonald had a Farm", "Baa Baa Black Sheep" "Jesus Loves me" "Do you know the muffin man?"
- how she laughs when she hears herself snort
- her "uppy" when she wants one of us to carry her
- Saying "take it" when she means "get it" or "keep it"
- reciting lines from books, such as Cinderella, Go Dog Go, and Green Eggs and Ham
- her signal to "watch" a video from her growing video collection (Note: Blue's clues and Vegie Tale series are still popular with her)

Here's a photo of her sitting with new vegetable "toys" knitted by dear Aunt Ruth. There's an eggplant, tomato, two cucumbers, two pea pods, and a carrot coming soon.

As you can see in this picture, she continues to enjoy painting and asking mom to draw Big Bird and Barkley because of the video, "Big Bird in China". I can't wait to see how she channels her creativity. I also wonder what she really thinks about her mama and Dada when we're being silly and making her food talk.
Well, this entry could go long, so let me close by saying that we still enjoy being her parents and are constantly asking ourselves, "What's the next change and/or issue to address with Iris?" Disciplining her "cuteness" is a toughy. Please pray that we'll respond her with firmness and love.