18 months forever...

I wish Molly would stay 18 months forever. I have always felt that life has gotten funner as Molly has gotten older. I have enjoyed every stage so far but I really love it right now. It can be extremely frustrating when I feel like I am either following her around picking up after her or she is following me around destroying everything I have just picked up. She is constantly in to everything, constantly telling me "no" (whether she means yes or no), wanting to do everything all by herself and generally making life difficult. I usually can't help but just laugh at her.

Yesterday when I went to get her up after her nap she was on her changing table and I asked her if she wanted to go see her cousins which would usually be followed by a positive response. Instead, she looked at me with her eyebrows furrowed and in her most stern voice said, "no, blah blah blah blah grandpa." Then she stared at me with the most determined eyebrows. I just started laughing out loud at her and eventually she smiled. Grandpa is talked about incessantly. When she wakes up in the morning she wants to go see Grandpa, when she is outside every car that passes is Grandpa. Honestly, it's getting old.

Most of the time I can't even discipline the kid because I am laughing. In the store the other day I asked her not to do something, after some furrowed eyebrows she slapped me. Behind me in the peanut gallery was my mom laughing. I just sat there in silence hoping not to start laughing so I could ask Molly to say she was sorry. It took a minute.

She is just fun. I honestly never knew how much I could love her. I guess I am just dreading the day when a 16 year-old sassy pants tells me she hates me and slams the door to her room. Can't she be my little best friend forever?