Say Good Night, Gracie

My daughter is plaguing me. God love her, she's a sweetheart. She is so loving, affectionate, fiesty, silly, sweet, happy and caring. But she's killing me.

You know, I can remember what being pregnant was like. Hell, I remember what falling in love felt like. But I'll be damned if I remember what it is to have a two year old wreaking havoc on your house is like. I guess we block the worst from our minds. And boy did I ever.

She is into everything. Things are missing and/or in weird places. And before we walked out the door to go to preschool today, she spilled olive oil all over the diningroom table & chairs, she pulled numerous ornaments off of the tree, made a mess of her outfit with a clementine, and gave Ravioli a hard time while he was getting her dressed.

And getting her to go to school is a whole other story. She's all quiet and fine in the car on the way to school. We get ino the parking lot and she starts with the, "Let's get outta here!" crying bit. And those are her exact words. "Let's get outta here." Then, she clings to me like a baby koala, crying and having a fit. The teachers have to, literally, rip her off of me. And they take her screaming and crying into the classroom. The kicker is, she's fine when she's there. I'm totally convinced she does this just to make me feel bad.

Really, she's lucky she's so darn cute and of my own blood. As much as I've been complaining about her (internally or to Ravioli), she has her good moments. I love how snuggly she is and we enjoy a dance or two together everyday while Connor is at school. She's singing so many different songs and enjoys most of the music I play (and even singing along to some of those). Today was especially cool when she asked me to repeat The Eagles' song "Peaceful, Easy Feeling". I mean damn, she's 28 months. How friggin' cool is that?!?!
These pictures do good to remind me of the innocence and the peaceful times. The times when she is at her cutest - when she's asleep. And just being her little Gracie self.