She's like a little person!

It is so amazing to me how much Mercedes has grown into her own little person from the itty bitty baby that depended on me for everything.  Now, she still does depend on me for quite a bit, but its different.  She has her own thoughts now, and opinions on things, her own preferences.  She prefers water to juice.  Sometimes she wants to be naked, other times naked is the worst thing in the world.  She is her own cognitive being.  She can form connections between things.  Daddy got her a little ball the other day, and they play with together, throwing it back and forth.  Earlier today she was sitting on my lap upset, drinking her sippy.  Daddy walked in and she jumped out of my lap, ran and got her ball and threw it to Daddy, because she connected playing ball with him.  She is on the verge of forming "sentences".  She will say "watta.......pleease."  Not quite strung together yet, but almost there.

She picked out what shoes she wanted to wear today.  She brought me her little green sandals to put on her, she didn't want to wear her jellies.  She insisted on wearing them all day.  If I asked her if she wanted them off I got a vehement "NO."  At one point I needed to take them off so I could take off her jeans and change her diaper.  She was not happy with me for that, and insisted I put them back on her.  She walked around naked, wearing just her shoes for awhile.  She will tell me when she wants me to take her shirt off her, or if she wants to keep it on.  I put one of my old shirts on her today to keep her from getting messy while she was eating and she loved it so much she didn't want me to take it off.  When I told her it was time to take it off and "arms up" she said "No." and clamped her arms at her side.  She's now sleeping in it.

It just blows my mind how smart she is.  I have a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that this little girl who used to only be able to cry and nurse, is her own independent little person now forming her own thoughts.  I can't believe how quickly shes growing up.  It makes my heart simultaneously swell with pride, and break a little because I know that before I know it she will be sitting at a computer, writing about her life and her own amazing little girl.