The Bass Family: Happy Birthday, My Sweet Girl!

This year, I have decided to keep Izzie's birthday letter private- something to give her one day as a future birthday gift. But there are so many things about her at this age that I never want to forget, so I thought I'd write about those instead.

She will brush her teeth 10 times a day if I let her!

She is obsessed with babies, real and pretend, and taking care of them. I hope this comes in handy!

She is still a thumb-sucker, which we are trying to work on- no fun!

Her vocabulary is really expanding, and she even says quite a few phrases- her favorites being: "I'm sorry." "What happened?" "Oh my!" "It's okay!" "I love you!" "How dit go?" (Where did it go?) and "See ya!"

She likes to throw my purse over her shoulder and pretend she is leaving.

She says goodbye to everyone and anything. She says goodbye to the animals at the zoo, cashiers at the store, a tv show, movie or song when it ends, ANYTHING!
She is very good at saying she is sorry when asked to, which is good because she does seem to have a bit of a temper!
She LOVES throwing things in the trash- this we do have to be careful with.

She likes to help me with the laundry: putting the wet clothes in the dryer and helping me "fold" clean clothes. (Her version of folding is throwing the clean clothes out the the basket and onto the floor, but oh well!)

She likes to give Lucky treats. Although I think her favorite part of it is when she taunts him by running off with it and making him chase her :)

As stated in previous posts, she has become quite the actress.

She is learning her ABC's and still loves to be read to.

I sometimes regret teaching her the word help because she says it all the time, which is good, but only when used appropriately. However, it is not good when she shouts it over and over at the top of her lungs when we are at the grocery store and she has decided she is done sitting polietly in the basket.

She LOVES to dress up- particularly in my shoes :)

She tries to sing along to songs that she knows. She does this by repeating the last word in each phrase.
If she sees a commerical for cookies, she needs one immediately.
She has learned to undress herself and does this at almost every naptime. I watch her on the monitor and once she is completely naked (expect for the diaper, thanks goodness) I turn up the heat a bit (why couldn't she have learned this in the summer?!). When I go in her room to get her when she wakes up, she asks me "What happpened?" as she points to the pile on the floor.
She HATES for her hands to be dirty. We wash them a lot.
When she can't find something: her baby, her cup, Lucky or Lulu, ANYTHING, she calls it like it will come to her. She puts her hands flat against her cheeks and shouts for it over and over.

She still gets so excited when Daddy comes home from work. He scoops her up into a big hug and she usually reaches out for me to include me in the hug, squeezing both of our necks tightly.
She always knows when it is Saturday, and asks Joe to take her outside for their Saturday morning swing. This is how she likes it: he sits on the swing with her in is lap. He asks her to count so that they can "take off" and she always counts: "five, seven, nine, GO!" Not sure why she chooses those numbers, but she is always consistant in chosing those three.

I could go on and on for days about all the things that she does that I love. Everyday I love her more and more, and I am pretty convinced that the sun rises and sets all for her. Never in my life did I think that I could love someone so wholeheartedly and unconditionally as I love her. She has taught me so much about love and life in her two years, and I look forward to the lessons she will continue to teach me throughout the years :)

Happy birthday sweet baby girl! You are my love, you are my life! Thank goodness God chose me to be your Mommy :)

In my attempts to get just a cute, casual snapshot of Izzie for this post, this is how it was going: