I Love My Little Girly-Girl!

What Mommy?  Surely you don't expect me to rock in my chair without my pearls!

At 15 months, Isabelle is revealing more and more of her personality every day. One thing I didn't expect to see so early on is how much of a girly-girl she is. It's not just her dainty little features and her petite toddler body, it's her cute mannerisms, the way she gestures, the looks on her face. It's sweet!


When she was younger, she army crawled everywhere she went. She used her arms to crawl and would drag the rest of her body behind her. This worked well for her girly-girl personality because it accommodated dresses nicely--her skirts would drag the floor and not get in the way at all. Now that she crawls like any other kid, her dresses totally get in the way and keep her from getting around. But Isabelle has been quick to adapt. She just bear crawls instead. It looks completely ridiculous because her little rear is up in the air in order to get her skirt to clear her knees, but it gets the job done. Of course when she starts walking, that'll solve her problem, but we realized a long time ago that Isabelle has her own timetable for everything, and there's nothing anyone can do to rush her.

Attempting to bear crawl over her toys, but not quite succeeding.  We have plenty of time to work on modesty!

We never really embraced the whole princess idea for our daughter, maybe partly because we don't like a princess attitude! We even kept the nursery walls the nice, calming shade of pale blue that they already were, and opted instead for pink baby bedding. But there's something sweet about a little girl's early realization of her femininity, just as boys turn anything into a ball or a bat. I remember being about 17 and crying about something (or maybe about nothing? I was, after all, a teenage girl!), and my baby brother, who was somewhere between one and two, crawled into my lap and said "pretty eyes." Maybe it was his boyish protector instincts or simply his peacemaker personality, but he seemed to know that a well-timed compliment would make me feel better. This is the same boy who grabbed a Christmas ornament and, before anyone could stop him, said "ball!" and threw it, as we all watched it shatter. I love watching babies develop their little personalities, and I think it's amazing that they're aware of such things at young ages.  Isabelle is already a chatterbox.  She babbles to me, in conversation, and she also babbles as she plays with toys.  It means nothing, but it sure gets lots of fun comments when we're out shopping together. 

Because one strand of beads just isn't enough!

Isabelle loves necklaces right now. When she pulls toys out of her toybox, she pulls all the Mardi Gras beads out and loops them around her neck. Her favorites are the big pink pearls that her Nonc Bug (Uncle Bug, my brother) caught for her at her very first Mardi Gras in Lafayette, LA last year, when she was about 9 weeks old. Yeah, we know it's a choking hazard, but we keep an eye on her and let her enjoy them--she thinks they're pretty and has been oohing and aahing about the shiny beads since she first took notice of them. But she'll loop anything around her neck, including a purse or laundry. Isabelle has this idea that if it can go around her neck, it should. Daddy had to draw the line somewhere, so when she decided to wear our new Canon camera around her neck like jewelry and crawl around the house last week, he took the strap off the case and let her crawl with just the strap. So if you see my daughter out and about, wearing beads that are almost as long as she is, just know that her mommy certainly didn't put those on her. She did it herself! She might even cry if you take them off of her! What can I say? That's my girl!