My Scarlett Love

This little sweetie pie, lady love is all sugar and spice and everything nice.
Scarlett loves life and is easily delighted. She smiles all the time...has a tooth-grin that looks both innocent and mischevious.  She will often use her little laugh to get attention by raising her volume and forcing out bursts of giggles. She loves to dance, has serious rhythm and finds a beat in all sorts of sounds, including my voice and the hammering of new construction that echoes from the street behind ours. She is an active seeker of anything interesting, loves to explore and find things to get into. She plays happily and independently much of the time. As long as we are in sight, she cruises around the house rearranging things, circling the island, searching through cabinets and baskets, carrying babydolls, paint brushes, cameras, anything that is left around and found. She is like a little borrower stashing away found objects, but instead of stashing she unstashes and tries to carry them all at the same time. She finds pleasure in all things mundane. She especially loves finding soft blankets, linens, laundry(dirty and clean) to tote around for an occasional nuzzle. She found a faux fur coat of Milla's lying around and thought she was in textile heaven...the girl loves fabric like a hog loves a warm mud pool. She also loves my hair and grabs ahold of it during nursing, just to have it between her fingers. I've tried giving her little lovies, and jellycat plushies, but she doesn't really show a preference, she has an open heart to all things soft. You can often find her giving leg hugs, especially when I'm cooking dinner. She also loves digging in the kid cabinet to find the perfect fork, spoon, and bowl to carry around. She usually doesn't find the perfect set til they are scattered all over the floor for the picking. Playing in the sandbox makes this child super content and quiet. Scarlett likes to stretch with a big smile when she sees you stretch. She's a copy cat way before I thought she'd be. She wants to walk up and down the stairs on 2 feet with no hands, grunts for me to hold her hands so she can do it like the rest of us. She wants to do everything we do; cook, sweep, use hand-vac, wipe herself after going potty, wash hands, brush teeth, etc. etc. She wants to wear my and Milla's shoes and clothes, brush our hair, and eat our food.  And, if you take anything away from her, she will scream to high heaven, but she recovers quickly with a hug and sometimes a substitute object will help make amends. When upset, she lays her head on the floor between her legs and sobs or fusses. She is a dare-devil and tries new things readily and without hesitation(I suppose she is this way partly because she watches her big sister do things with success and trusts that it is safe). She LOVES animals and bugs. Scarlett likes trying on shoes. She brings her shoes, sits down, extends her foot into the air towards your face then puppy whines for you to put them on. Scarlett started giving me kisses at bed time just before she turned 1. When I said I love you, she would immediately make a kiss sound. Then, during restless nights, Scarlett would shower me with kisses all over my face, one at a time...kiss, then she'd rest, then up for another kiss, and repeat. I soaked it up knowing that exact moment would never happen like that again. One of Scarlett's first signs was, "cookie", signed with a most precious whisper that sounds something like, "coo-kee-coo-kee-coo-kee-coo-kee". She also signed "more", "hug", "drink", "eat", "phone" and maybe a few more, but she'd much rather communicate using her vocal chords. The loquacious tiny human walks around in constant conversation, with herself, us, dolls, toys, books, tiny specks, pictures, you name it, all in full range of cadence. I do wish to record it soon.
Scarlett loves her daddy and is always happy to see him after work. She loves her sister who makes her laugh ALOT, but she doesn't always trust her motives. Sometimes Milla hugs her too much or too tight and it makes Scarlett's teeth show. Other times, Milla takes a sought-after object away or tries to force a trade with her to which Scarlett either screams, cries, or shakes her head left to right, mouth wide open trying to bite anything(targeting Milla) in it's path....reminds me of a piranha or other flesh-eating fish with wide mouth and big teeth. Luckily for Milla, her teeth fail to make contact most of the time.
Scarlett started sleeping through the night at about 13 months old.....hallelujah! She still nurses about 6 times per day but really likes food if she's not sick or teething. Her favorite foods are pasta/noodles, lentils, black beans, refried beans, broccoli, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, salmon, halibut/other white fish, turkey, ham, yogurt, cheeses, rice/grains, pizza with topping picked off, olives, cookies. She loves fruit.....oranges, all berries, mango, pears, prunes, plums, pomegranates, melon, and dried fruit. She is not a big fan of muffins, or breads, but recently took a liking to cranberry-orange rounds with cream cheese and crumpets with jam. Scarlett quickly throws the following foods to the floor and will not eat(yet), beets, avocados, nut butters, cooked carrots, squash, asparagus, chicken/other meats, toast, most muffins, and turkey hot dogs.