Here's a rather long video of Baby Girl showing off her vocabulary. This is proof that she really can say a TON of words, even though she won't say them when other people are around to hear her. She gets shy and won't say them around new people. Enjoy!

Here's our future Aggie! We're teaching her young to cheer for USU Aggies!

On Saturday, we had a Play Day with some of our friends! Michelle and I are friends from high school. Luckily, our husbands also became friends and have similar interests. So, we try to get together. It's a little harder now that we don't live in the same city, but it's not that far of a drive. We went to the zoo for a couple of hours in the afternoon. Just a few words of advice, don't go to the zoo in the afternoon in July. It was entirely too hot. We were all melting! It was fun though. Michelle has 3 boys (4, 2, 8 months) and Baby Girl enjoyed watching the boys. She likes to watch kids play, and doesn't play too closely with them! After the zoo, we had dinner together. We had delicious meatball subs. Then Dan and Morgan went fishing, while Baby Girl and I hung out with Michelle and her boys. I think Baby Girl liked being one of the boys. She loved playing with their cars. Michelle threw her boys in the bathtub, and Baby Girl wanted a bath too! It was pretty funny, so we gave her a bath. It was her first bath with a buddy. We didn't bring any pajamas with us, so Baby Girl borrowed some Transformer pajamas. She loved them. What a silly girl! On Sunday, after church, I was getting her out of her dress, and she wanted to wear her 'boy' clothes. So, she wore Transformer Pajamas all day Sunday too. We had a great time, and Baby Girl still talks about the boys that she played with. She can say all three of their names. We had a great time!

My child has hit the 'terrible twos'. She still has 2 more months until she's 2, but the full out tantrums are here. My only saving grace at this point, is that she seems to save her open defiance for when we are in the privacy of our own home. She's a quiet, sweet, obedient child when other people are here. I understand that it's a part of growing up. She's pushing her boundaries and experimenting with consequences ... I know, I know, I know. The most frequent battle we fight is changing her diaper and getting her dressed. She tells me when she's poopy and soggy. She holds my hand to go into her room to get changed. When I grab a clean diaper, she runs away from me and refuses to sit still for me to change her. She hates getting dressed. Yesterday, she had a massive melt down screaming at the top of her lungs: "nakey! nakey! nakey!" So, as long as I got her diaper on, she roamed around the house 'nakey'. So, with all of that, I've decided to embrace this and turn this power struggle into a potty training process. What am I thinking? I have no idea. So, after reading several articles about Potty Training, I've chosen a method that seems to fit our Baby Girl. Some specialists say, that letting the children run around 'nakey' from the waste down helps them with going potty. So, starting today, until she's trained or I give up, we will be spending the rest of the summer outside. Baby Girl will be partially or completely 'nakey'. The power struggles of changing her diaper will be limited to nap/bedtime.

We'll see if she's actually ready to be potty trained. According to the articles, she shows several signs of being ready. She has yet to pee on her potty though. However, she has peed on our lawn 4 times. We spent 3 hours outside this morning, and Baby Girl was loving her 'nakey' time. She ran freely. Luckily, we have a nice, secluded back yard with lots of shade and sunscreen to protect her precious cheeks! Wish me luck, I think I will need every ounce!

Our holiday weekend seemed to pass so quickly. For the last month, I would ask Morgan what we were going to do for the 4^th. Hmm. No decisions or even ideas. Then it was here, and we still didn’t have any plans. But that doesn't mean we didn't enjoy every moment of our holiday weekend. We seemed to do a lot, but only took pictures of one event.

Friday: Morgan worked, but Baby Girl and I had a Pool Party and Barbeque. We invited our Play Group friends. We had 4 kiddie pools and ate hot dogs. We had ten adults and 15 children under the age of 5. It was super crazy, but fun.

Saturday: Morgan went mountain biking with the Scouts. It's part of getting in shape for his huge bike ride next month. It's becoming one of his favorite new hobbies. I think it's great, and he loved it. Our city had a little festival in the park, so we went to see the booths. We quickly discovered that it was entirely too hot and way too many people to actually see the booths.

Sunday: We did our usual church thing that day. Our friends had a neighborhood barbeque that evening that we went to. It was fun to get together and eat great food. This is where Baby Girl was introduced to Sparklers. Morgan was holding BG, while she held the sparkler. I kept waiting for Morgan's hair to catch on fire. She kept waving her hand all around. We kept telling her to not touch it because it was hot, and I think it made her nervous. After her first Sparkler burned out, she wouldn't hold another one. She wanted me to hold it, not her.

Monday: We started our day entirely too early. We woke BG up early to go see the Hot Air Balloons that were in town for the city's festival. We were so sure that she would LOVE it. We rode our bikes to the field, and her eyes lit up when she saw all of the balloons. We got out and walked around all of the balloons as they were filling up, and she got a little scared. She had to be held. She acted tired, and didn't seem too interested in them. She was captivated by the pig balloon though. There was a bank that had a piggy bank, and she still talks about how huge it was. My favorite was the Coca Cola balloon, it was shaped like an old fashioned Coke bottle. There were probably 20 balloons that all filled up and took off. It was awesome. When they were in the air, we decided to head back home. Baby Girl did NOT want to go. She threw a massive fit. I think she enjoyed watching the balloons from a safer distance, and not when we were so close to them. On our way home, we stopped at a neighborhood breakfast. We have a really friendly neighborhood! Morgan went on another bike ride with a couple of his buddies, and BG and I came home to take a nap. BG slept for almost 3 hours. Monday evening, we had a couple of people over for a barbeque. It was fun to have people over.

We had a great, relaxing weekend with lots of food. But that's what having a holiday is about, right?