Mo Mo in the Middle: One and Three-Quarters

Any day now our little Wonder Girl will no longer be our baby and will be promoted to Big Sister so I thought it would be great to finally write something since I clearly missed a one year, 1.25 and 1.5 year post on this sweet girl. Moriah Ann may very soon be in the middle, but not to worry, she's definitely middle like Oreo middle, or sandwich middle. She adds so much life to our lives, and we just can't get enough...

Moriah is a high energy girl who loves to chase and be chased, tickle and be tickled but also appreciates giving and receiving a good snuggle too. Her voice is loud and so is her ability to express exactly how she is feeling. Mo Mo is a babbler for sure and mainly walks around jibber jabbering at this point.  When she does use one of her words, it's usually prefaced by a little moaning-groaning "Ehhh". Some of her favorite first words are Mommy, Daddy, Sissy, NO, Where'd Go?, Cut-a-cu-tu (cous cous), puppy, key-ca (kitty), meow, woo-woo (barking), nana (pasta), go-go (yogurt), cookie, poo, kay (ok), star, wa-wa, and tootsie (thank you Daddy for giving her way too many tootsie rolls...not sure what we will do when we run out of our bag from America!). 

While she definitely makes a lot of noise she also does this hilarious whispering routine and sometimes mouths what seems like a whole story silently but with all the expression in the world on her face. Case in point: 

Our brave, adventurous girl loves to be outside in the mud and puddles and was a pro this summer on the playgrounds in Portugal. She climbed the slides like gang busters and even started running down one of them before she realized that was not such a good idea! Recently she has become super sensitive to anything on her hands that shouldn't be there like lint, mud, banana. This is proving to be quite the challenge given her conflicting desire to be into any and everything!

Moriah is very social and goes to others quite easily. She'd much rather spend the day out than in and everyone knows her name at our market. If her feet touch the ground when we get home, she heads straight to the neighbor's gate until she's greeted with a warm hello and plenty of candy. 

Puppies, Minnie Mouse, dancing her heart out, eating constantly, getting worked over by daddy, running away from anyone trying to dress her, playing the role of little sister exceptionally well (tickling, mimicking, chasing, biting, pinching all included), and demanding oranges from the garden,  are Moriah's current specialties. 

Reading books is also a favorite past time for Moey. Minerva Louise the Mixed-Up Hen and anything with a puppy in it seem to be her go-tos, and she also declares emphatically that every prince and princess she sees in the pages is Mommy and Daddy. 

Our little shorty in stature remains a wonder to us in all of her ways. Moriah Ann, we are beyond grateful for the place God has given you in the middle... smack-dab in the middle of our hearts.