our little princess *Updated with Videos*

**update**Thinking about my kids got me thinking about all these little video clips I have of them that prove all the points I was making, so I decided to share some....enjoy!

Six of six Tag! To clarify, this picture is the 6th picture of our sixth folder, NOT our sixth of six children. That would be a huge feat for me to make it to six! It's a silly picture of Savannah, but telling as well. Even in the tub before she had turned the ripe age of 1 she liked her bows. Now she actually takes off her bow to eat, nap, and bathe --- oh, and she does it when she is mad at me-- like she's proving a point that she is in charge. She is getting pretty good at picking out a bow that matches her clothes for the day (or she probably just gets lucky). It's a lot of fun having one of each (meaning a boy and a girl) and seeing how inate the gender differences in them are.

When I was pregnant with Cade I swore he was going to be a little girl. We didn't find out what we were having, so I didn't know for sure. But I thought I did. And when my little boy was born, I was so confused. I had numerous dreams about a dark haired little girl who could talk (Spanish even! she said, "perro"). And thinking back, perhaps they switched places at the last minute (or maybe there is no such thing as maternal inspiration!) and decided it would be best to have my sweet, calm little boy when I was in the middle of my undergrad. That way I could ease into Savannah in my post-student years. Thank heavens I had Cade first. I love Savvy, yes I do, but she is what her nursery teacher calls a "hustle bubble" -- she doesn't sit still for a second, unless, of course, you scratch her back! This is a video we took of her enjoying my scratching her back. As soon as I stop, she decides she's ready to go...until I start scratching again. We think it's pretty funny, but then, even when she says "Hello" we think it's hilarious...

From the get go, Cade has had a fascination with balls and cars. He would play in our little basement apartment forever rolling balls back and forth in the kitchen. He has always entertained himself with anything that had wheels, too.

I now understand when people say kids will do things at their own pace. No matter how hard we try to teach, beg, plead, prod (BRIBE), it is their choice. Cade was a lump of jiggly baby fat who didn't really have much of a desire to move until 9 months. At 10months, he decided he would start crawling (because Kyle bribed him!) and then out of the blue decided to walk one day at a neighbors house a week after his first birthday. We were floored. Savannah crawled at 6 months (much to my dismay and pleading not to) and ran at a year. We didn't try to teach either one to walk, they just did it by choice, and they both did it at the same time even though they had completely different personalities and surroundings. Ironically, their first words were the same, too. it's a toss up for both of them with "ball" and "dog." They are two peas in a pod and I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it when they play cute together.

I haven't purchased many new toys for Savvy, so she gets on the floor and plays cars with Cade. Cade's game of choice, as much as he loves his cars, is to take her baby doll and make her chase after him for it. They fight back and forth and kiss and make up seconds later. They have conversations that blow me away. At 21 months Savvy is pretty chatty--- compared to Cade anyway. She pulls out sentences and words I didn't know she knew. of course only I can interpret them, but it still blows me away.

Today she was in the high chair and said she was stinky and wanted to go potty. Okay? So I got her out, took off her diaper (which had some poop in it, ew!) and let her finish the job over the toilet. Of course she didn't think what she did was such a big deal, she just kept telling me to wipe her bum. Ha! I think Cade was 100 times more estatic than she was over going to the bathroom on the big girl toilet. So, I guess I'm going to the store to get a potty for her. We'll see where this takes us..... Perhaps this is another one of those examples when children will do what they want to when they want to. Hopefully she is lots sooner and easier than Cade was-- though I have to give credit to Kyle for sealing the deal with Cade and being the one to potty train him for good.