The littlest hoarder.

Calling SS a hoarder is a bit much, but I could not think of a better word. She just must have something when she leaves a room or an area. It is usually a toy 99% of the time. Hoarding food is among the expected behavior for children with SS's background. Once we met SS, we expected food hoarding to surface. Here we are, twenty months later and it is not an issue. SS does take her time chewing her food, a meal with her takes forever, but it does go down her gullet. Her quirk is about taking things with her. It is a habit I am trying to get her to stop without success.

If we walk upstairs, SS must pick up a toy for the short trek. The same if we head downstairs, not the same toy, a different one. From her room to ours, you got it, the same. When we leave the house, there is always something in her hands, or hidden in her pockets. When she leaves the van, a treasure must accompany her in the house. I draw the line at her bath toys, they are wet and must remain in the bathroom. The same thing happens every time we get her out of the tub, she knows the rules, but she clutches something. We then have to pry it out of her little but unbelievably strong hand. I have not been harsher on SS because we realize that it is a security thing. When she showers with us (no toys in our bathroom), she tries to swipe the soap, her baby wash, or the shampoo or conditioner. SS has even tried to swipe the razors, not kidding here. She is quirky but she is our quirky daughter and we would not have it any other way.

Sorry, horrible phone picture. See that yellow object in SS's hand? It's her doll's cell phone. Weird, her doll has a cell phone, yikes. We had a bit of a disagreement about it, but SS obviously won that round. She is not watching a DVD on her way to the store. SS is now into her kiddie CDs, and there is only so much kiddie music I can take before becoming suicidal. With the headphones SS gets her music fix and I retain whatever is left of my sanity.

Another SS quirk, she must be buckled in when in a shopping cart. That is our fault since we introduced her to this safety feature. But we are human and sometimes we forget, since SS has never tried to take a dive from a shopping cart (unlike her brother). When we forget all heck breaks loose. Today I had lousy luck, and both carts had broken or missing buckles. I had to schlep SS around to find a suitable cart. SS is my shopping helper, here she is carefully securing and doling out twist ties.

Our little thug hitting the bottle during dinner.

P yearned for a child that would be a good lounger. He would tell me how he looked forward to lounging around with a mini him. I think the man got his wish. We are going to have to get SS a mini Lazy B0y recliner.

Who are you calling a thug? I am a dainty little flower.

NOT!

We were goofing around during lunch and SS said "No, I love you Mama." That was so cool, so, so cool.

I began to sing the uno, dos, tres song (counting from 1 to 5) to catch another SS quirk on tape. She always skips cuatro (4), always. Not when Mama whips out the camera, not only does she gets the cuatro, she pronounced it perfectly (another first).