Here are some of the things that come to mind when I think of the last few months with our daughter.
-she loves to sing. she likes to sing and she likes to be sung to. she wakes up singing, she sings in the car, and she sings up and down the aisles while we grocery shop. her favorite songs to sing are: jesus loves me, ho ho ho hosana, old macdonald, abc's, and "the hallelujah song". i could listen to her high little voice sing all day long...and i do.
-she loves her daddy. she squeals when he gets home in the evening and she loves, loves, LOVES waking up and finding out that it's a daddy stay home day. She loves to watch brian work on projects around the house and she even knows her way around his tool box. Seriously, we watched her use the dry wall scraper thingy on the walls exactly the right way. While brian works, she pops in to cheer him on, saying things like: "yay, daddy" "good job, daddy" "my playroom is sooooo pretty daddy". I'm second fiddle when daddy's home, which is just fine with me.
-she can't wait for her baby sister to come. she kisses my tummy all the time and tells me at least 20 times a day that she wants her baby sister to come over. She tells everyone and their brother (including the grocery store checker) that she is going to share her bed with her baby sister.
-Finley loves to show off! As I am getting more and more pregnant (aka lazy) we've been spending more time around the house. Finley is perfectly happy to have her audience sit on the couch while she sings, dances, and acts like a complete goof ball. Then she'll top it off by saying "i'm such a stinker" or "i'm a silly goose". The thing is, she really is funny. As in, ha-ha funny. She has us laughing all day long. In fact, I'm going to figure out a way to start documenting the hilarious things she says.
-As far as learning new things goes, I think any parent of a two year can agree that it's crazy how much their little brains soak up. She has mastered counting 1-12 and then it usually goes something like 12, 14, 19, 14. She knows all the main shapes and colors. What has surprised me is how quickly she is picking up letters. I'm going to try and get a video of this...but she knows 10 or so letters and what that letter is for. i.e. M is for mommy. D is for daddy. Y is for yogurt. And she points out letters all over the place. We'll be driving and she'll say "that's a y for yogurt" and sure enough she's looking at the old navY sign.
-she is getting really into girly things. this girl owns 5 tutu's, yes 5 tutus! and she loves to wear them around the house with her "nicknack's" (necklaces) and clip on earrings. she is very interested in watching me put on makeup (on the rare occasion that that happens). and she loves to put on yummy smelling lotion after her bath. Unfortunately, I put some shine stuff in her hair for a special occasion and now she wants me to do it all the time. Poor girl doesn't understand the concept of greasy hair yet. And why, oh why haven't i learned yet that i can't do something just once for a special reason without her asking for it again, every single day. Also, her baby dolls have been a big hit for a while now.
- she is basically potty trained when we're at home. Sometimes she goes potty when we're out and about or at other people's houses. But we still put her in a diaper when we leave the house because, well, i'm lazy and i'm not ready to deal with accidents in public yet. m&m's have been the perfect bribe, i mean reward, for getting her to use the toilet. a funny side note: a couple months ago she pointed to my sunroof and said, "what's that, mommy?" i said "oh, a bird pooped on the window" and she started clapping and said "yay birdy. good job. now you get m&m's". see what i mean about being hilarious?
-other random information: she is still a string bean (long and skinny). she LOVES stickers, loves sesame street (and frankly so do i), loves cottage cheese more than life itself, she loves to "make a tent" in our bed and have a sing a long with us under the covers, she enjoys anything to do with animals, she is the most amazing sleeper, she loves to praise the lord-and the little stinker has even figured out that saying "i wanna praise the lord more" allows her to stay up for a few extra minutes, she loves to be the center of attention and she has recently started telling brian and i "no talking" when we're focused on each other and not her (thank goodness a sibling is on the way!!).
So that's finley in a nutshell, a veeeery long nutshell. i had no idea this would turn into such a long post. if you're still reading you are a very patient friend!
Here is her first haircut done by a professional. I gave her what can only be described as "the worst mom haircut you've ever seen", just days before her birthday party. thankfully it was fixable.
here she is picking out her big girl underwear. she calls them her "unders" and we think it's so cute we don't bother correcting her.
of course she choose the elmo ones!
So, Brian literally worked all weekend putting up the board and batten wainscoting and painting the walls. The paint sprayer turned out to be his bestfriend and worst enemy. He had to do a gazillion thin coats in order to keep the paint from running. He even woke up at 5 am on monday to do one last coat so finley could be back in her room that day! The last few mornings when I go in to to get Finley the first thing she says is, "it's my new pink room! it's so cute! thank you, daddy". I couldn't have said it better myself. THANK YOU, BABE!
He took these pictures at night, so it's sort of hard to see the detail and the pink looks a little off (it's not such a blue pink) but you get the idea. 
still have to paint her new door white...
and here we are at a fun little animal farm. we didn't capture many great pictures because finley was a little under the weather. 
Okay, now this was seriously entertaining! all the sudden these goats climbed up on these tables and posed. They stood perfectly still for a LONG time. They must be some sort of show goats that have been trained to pose for pictures or something. 
The mice are her very favorite. Kinda creepy, huh.
birthday treats
the birthday girl got her own special jumbo cupcake.
party favors
the world's cutest banner that Hillary let us borrow-thanks!
luckily i captured lots of pictures of the birthday girl before the party, because once it started i basically got nothing.
she insisted on wearing her pearl necklace.
finley says, "that's my number two. my mommy maaaaaade it. it's so pretty mommy". we might leave it up a little longer.
not sure who ate more treats before the party, brian or finley.
the sneaky little girl somehow managed to get her hands on these without anyone noticing. 
but it was so cute i let her have one.
for about 2 hours finley was the proud owner of a kitty. but, we had to send this gift back with grandma...
searching for the perfect pumpkin.
hmmmmmm
maybe this one?
or this one?
maybe i can carry this one.
i think this is it!
family photo attempt 1.
the best part was the hay rides from the barn to the patch. our friend was driving so we stayed on for several rides.
how about one for finley and baby sister?
i should not be allowed in that store. it's dangerous. my eyes were darting around the store eyeing things for finley and then for the baby and then for finley and then....ohmygosh. look at that little suit for a boy. do i have any need for a little pinstripe suit. Thank goodness I don't. I will tell you that our birthday girl will be decked out in the cutest little "happy birthday skirt"-her words, not mine. 
She's really into wearing these sunglasses. She asks for them all the time when "it's soooo bright! i need my gasses". Last week we made a fire, which was so bright she needed to wear her glasses.
At our very favorite park feeding the ducks.
i love this picture! such excitement.
She's also gotten really into dressing up and wearing accessories. Her tutu and necklaces have become an everyday fashion statement. Luckily, she has this really cute apron so she can be just like mama when we're baking.
I must have had my camera on a weird setting, since these turned out so blurry. But the moment was just so cute I had to post them anyway. Not so much because she was wearing her daddy's work boots, but because she would not stop laughing and acting so proud of herself for being so funny. She loves to be silly and make us laugh. 
