For some reason, my daughter loves her big toes. When she’s barefooted, she gets all excited and repeats, “Big toe, big toe,” over and over again while touching them with her forefingers. She likes to walk around holding her ear and saying “ear.”

She’ll say “down” when I’m holding her and she wants to get down. But she can’t say “up” and says “ba” instead.

Potty training has come along really well the last few days and when she needs to pee, she’ll say “pee pee” or “diaper” which has been really helpful. When her diaper is dirty, she’ll say, “Ooooh, myyyy.” I have no idea where she picked that up.

In the mornings or when we are getting ready to go somewhere, she’ll smile a huge smile and squeal, “shoes!” and “pretty!”

She loves to point and say “baby” whenever she sees a stuffed animal or a baby who is smaller than she is. She likes babies and I’m hoping it means she will be a doting older sister and not a jealous one.

Of course, there is her favourite toy, the phone. She sort of says “phone” but it sounds more like “ba.” She says “ball” which also comes out as “ba.”

We take a bath together almost every day and play with her foam alphabet and numbers in the water. She tries to repeat all the letters. She likes “A” and “I” and “H” the best.

Her overall favourite and the word she says more than anything else is “eat” and next is “please.” Sometimes she tries to say, “thank you” but it doesn’t quite sound like how it’s supposed to yet. She usually nods her head instead. She can say “bread,” too, and “banana.”

She can say “bye bye” when it’s time to leave or when I flush the toilet. It’s funny to see her waving to the toilet boil as, uhh, stuff goes down the drain.

First thing in the morning, she sits up and says, “Eat! Bread! Downstairs!” and repeats until I get going. Sometimes I lie there trying to wake up till she suddenly sits very still, gets a weird look on her face, and says, “Pee pee.” Then I jump out of bed, grab her, and rush her to her potty while stripping her sleeper off, because she can hold it for about 4 or 5 seconds and it’s all over.

Every day, I recite the Ten Commandments (Deuteronomy 5:6-21) to her and chant the Lord’s Prayer, Psalm 95, the Te Deum, Psalm 100, the Apostles Creed, Gloria in Excelsis, Psalm 51, and the Nunc Dimittis. She usually gets very quiet during the Ten Commandments and recently has been trying to sing along with the chanting. It’s really cute.

I wouldn’t trade this for any job or anything else in the world. I am so happy with her every day and it’s always so exciting to see her learn and discover everything around her.