Because it's Wednesday

Bing.

He looks thoughtful, but I guarantee that if there were a scrolling marquee across his head it would say "Food. Pigeons. Water. Food. Scratch. Pigeons. Pigeons. Ducks. Food."

The Crab Hat

Cheerios - she may be holding a spoon, but she eats them with her fingers.

Nope, she's not potty training, but she does like to sit on the potty after bathtime.

And laugh at Brian and I.

Galina is changing so much and I feel like she starts and stops doing cute things before I can even write them down!

My favorites these days are:

Laughing out loud for no reason, then stopping and saying, "Wunny."

She calls my phone "Woahne" - I guess F's give her trouble.

For a long time she's been calling the play ground something like "copcong" but we've been telling her to say Play. Ground. Now she'll say "copcong" and then slowly, "pay...goun"

Galina doesn't really like strangers, but I haven't seen anyone that can resist saying "HI!" to her and then telling me how gorgeous her "curly" hair is. As soon as someone says "Hi" Galina starts whining. So I've been telling her that she needs to talk nicely to people. My first example was, "Just say, "Hi" when someone says "Hi" to you." So now, no matter if she's just yelled "NO" at me or "GO" to the dogs, I'll say, "Talk nice." and she instantly says, "Hi." Galina loves Brian. When I get her out of bed in the morning she starts saying, "Daddy. Wuk." Yes, he's at work. She loves to pretend to call him on her little phone. She does roll-call with all of our family: Gaga, PaPaw, Mimi, Gwanny, Pop Pop, Nick, Em-E, Gabby (which she says really well). She'll repeat anything you ask her to.

Galina loves to sing: Sesame Street "Wunny day. Jilskdafsdifaisd. kjsdifoasidf" I love it :) She likes "Twinkle Twinkle" and "C is for Cookie".

She loves to cuddle and when she gets hurt and I can ask her if she wants me to kiss it and she'll hand me whatever got hurt: fingers, knees, toes, tongue (yeah she bit it for the first time today)...

She loves to read books - books, books and MORE books.

Galina LOVES to dance. It doesn't have to be kids music either, but she does enjoy that the most. She likes anything with an uptempo beat. In the car, however, she'll sit in the backseat and say, "No" if we turn on the radio. She wants her Primary cds or the Twilight movie soundtrack - seriously. I also have about 200 songs from The Ken Burns Jazz Special that was on PBS a long time ago. She loves it. She gets up and starts getting down :) Sometimes I can't even follow the rhythm of those songs and she's just a jumping!

We say a blessing over dinner and each night before bed, she's so good at folding her arms, but doesn't last the entire prayer yet. She will say a prayer, but as soon as you say, "Say, "Dear Heavenly Father..." You open your eyes and she's sitting there pointing at herself because she wants me to say, "You say it." Once I do, life is normal, and she starts praying. She won't say, "In the name of..." because she's gearing up to give us a big "Ah-men."

There are so many things that I haven't written down anywhere!! Ahhhhh! We started using shampoo and conditioner on her hair. It's helping. It was hard to comb it before, when we were just using the Johnson's Head to Toe wash.

Galina loves to brush her teeth. She will open her mouth and let you get all the way back. At the end I open my mouth and put my teeth together and tell her to show me hers. So she'll pull her lips up and chomp her teeth together, but all the while she's putting her finger close to my mouth hoping I'll pretend to bite her. She loves that game. After we brush our teeth, I wipe her mouth and she points to the clock and waits for me to ask her what it is and what it says (Tock. Tick-tock.) Then she points to a canvas that she painted and waits for me to ask her what it is. (Pay-ent).

She loves to sleep. Still wants her 'Night-Night' and her blankie. Tries to sneak them out of the bed sometimes during the day but will always put them back when I tell her they'll get dirty.

Loves to eat "Nacks" and will ask for them throughout the day. She isn't too picky: Teez (cheese sticks are #1 - but we're paying for that right now), Coo (cookies), Kwa (Crackers), Mawwows (Marshmallows), Gwapes, Pwetz, Do (juice), See-ra (cereal), Tandy (candy), Zert (dessert), Wawer (water), Apple.

She has a huge vocabulary and can understand so much. It absolutely amazes me. If you say, "One" she says, "Two". She can identify the letters A, B, D, T, I, O and V by sight. If you sing the song, "A says..." she'll finish it with "Ah" - she can do this with several other letters. Thanks to the leapfrog fridge thing.