Daphne is 23 months old today.

Some of these pictures just kill me. She’s looking so much like a little girl instead of my baby. She missed the preschool cut off by only 3 months, not that I would have enrolled her yet. But just to think that is a possibility blows my mind.

In the last month, she’s continued to add new words to her vocabulary and even put a few sentences together. She loves stacking things. I bought her some classic wooden alphabet blocks and left them with her in the living room as I was in the kitchen unloading the rest of the groceries. I turned back 30 seconds later to see she had a block tower going with at least 12 blocks. I also bought her some Bonnie Bell Lipsmackers (the liquid with the wand), which she can unscrew and apply herself. And she also made sure the dogs got some. Bed time is much less stressful. She’s even asked to go to bed a few times. Daphne likes to drink out of my water bottles. She could eat her weight in watermelon. I’ve been trying to get a video of her dancing. She does this Flashdance running in place thing combined with flapping arms. Of course, as soon as the video camera comes out she just wants to play with it and stops dancing.

When I was at the hair salon last week, I mentioned to the stylist that we spend a good bit of time at the pool. She laughed and asked me what spf I use. 7000? “How are you not tan?” (Welcome to my world.) Daphne, however, is brown and her hair has faint sun streaks. That kid loves to be outside.

We’ve had a great summer and are looking forward to Daphne’s 2nd birthday next month.