Sweet sleeping...toddler

Noel has really taken off in the past couple of days! Today I watched her take 22 consecutive steps across our bedroom. She alternates walking with crawling - she will lose her balance and fall down, then stand right back up. I cannot BELIEVE that we have a toddler. I still see her as my baby, and I probably always will.

She is still having bouts of fussiness, mainly due to her newly formed opinions. ;o) If we take something away from her or even just walk away from her she will SCREAM and throw a little tantrum. Since she's not at the age where you can really do any effective discipline, it's tough!

But I swear that she has the biggest heart of any child I've ever known. Maybe all moms think that, but I've never seen a baby (erm...toddler) give so much affection and love. She will give kiss after hug after kiss, and even tries giving them to strangers (hah!). She will "kiss" Padme, she will kiss the kitty. She will kiss other babies. I'm sure the kisses are just a phase, but I hope she keeps her sweet and friendly nature.

Tomorrow Noel and I are heading to Richmond for Ronan's first birthday party. I plan on throwing a small birthday party for Noel either here at the house, or at the playground/picnic area here at the lake. I'm thinking maybe a butterfly theme?

I don't know...I found the CUTEST pillowcase dress on Ebay that I'm trying to convince myself NOT to buy, but the pattern is absolutely adorable and it has satin ribbon spagetti straps. Since I have a sewing machine, I'm trying to convince myself to make my OWN dress for her, even though I don't quite know how to use it yet.

Today I went in to wake Noel up from her 2nd nap (I didn't want her to sleep past 6 pm) and I opened the shades thinking she was going to sit right up...but she must have been in a REM cycle. Haha!

Anyway, I took the liberty of snapping a few shots :o)