The Squirelliest of all Squirelly Girls

Mallory is a gem of a little girl - not too girly yet not a tom-boy either - just a little bit of both. She's a smart little cookie when it comes to letters, numbers, and reading. One of her favorite activities is reading words, forming sentences from the word that she read or finding an object that the word is or the word describes. She loves to read books that have to do with letters.

Her favorite toys are letter toys. Let me tell you a funny story about one of her letter toys. The toy I'm referring to is called "Red Toy"...er...well, she calls it red toy. Anyway, the letter "M" on red toy stands for "Museum". There are several settings on the toy where you can learn about where the "museum" is (next to the place on the toy that begins with "N" and "L"), what you see in a museum, what time we go to the museum and how to spell museum. Well, one day, my mom and I were talking about what I was going to do with the kids and I said "Well, I'm thinking about taking them to the m-u-s-u-e-m today" to which Mallory responded "Go to the museum!". I was dumbfounded.

Our most common nickname for Mallory is "Squirrely Girl". It's appropriate for her, since she darts from here to there and everywhere with mind-blowing speed. She crawls, jumps, climbs and cavorts all over house and the objects therein. She has no fear of playgrounds and the vast climbing structures that are usually around. She has climbed a rock wall (with ease), has excellent hand/eye coordination, and has all the energy of a few 3-year-olds when it comes to playing outside. She's an atheltic little mite.

She is still very non-social, though. She clings to mommy or daddy whenever a stranger is around, screams at other little kids if they even LOOK at her, and is not very pleasant with an unsuspecting stranger who tells her how beautiful she looks. We're still working on her social skills...

Our daughter loves compliments, though. She'll pick up her books, run into the living room, and say "You did a GREAT job cleaning up your books!". Or, she'll put her clothes on for the day, run into the living room and say "You look SO BEAUTIFUL in your _________ (pink shirt, stripped shirt, white shirt, etc)" or she'll say something to the effect of "You did a GREAT job putting your clothes not on backwards!". Patrick says we need to teach her some humility, but she does share compliments with her brother, telling him how beautiful he looks in his clothes or doing a great job eating all his dinner or something to that effect.

Patrick is getting a little choked up seeing his baby girl growing so quickly. When we check on her at night, she's usually sleeping in the same position that she used to sleep in as a baby. She'll want to cuddle in the mornings or snuggle up while watching a video, only lasting a few minutes before she's...well, being squirelly. We wonder how long she'll want to do those things. Though we are excited about baby #3 being a boy, I know that Patrick will be wanting another little girl down the road because he'll miss his baby girl. BUT, Mal will always be his baby girl.

She'll be the squirreliest.