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Lately Munchkie's Daddy and I are completely amazed at how fast Munchkie is growing and changing.  I think part of it is in the holiday season you reflect to past times and last year she was just a little baby.  We can now almost have conversations with her and it's truly incredible.

My little Munchkie last Christmas.

Somehow I never really imagined myself the parent of a child.  I know this sounds funny.  Since you take each day one at a time, I focused on parenting a baby.  I no longer have a baby.  I have a child.  A talking, walking, opinionated child.  This is part of the reason why it is so incredible to me how much she is changing.

When they are babies you get so excited over their milestones.  You try to capture their second smile on camera (because you saw the first and grabbed the camera hoping for a repeat), their first time rolling over on video.  You get excited about first baths, first full nights of sleep, and first mouthful of tasteless rice cereal.  Then all of the sudden those capturable milestones turn into something that is not so noticeable.

My Grammy sent Munchkie The Elf on the Shelf last year and we've been reading it multiple times a day.  We make her find the elf on every page and it has become almost a Where's Waldo.  Yesterday when I was reading it to her there is a page that says "Please do not touch me. My magic might go, and Santa won't hear all I've seen or I know."  Munchkie started waving her hands saying "no touching no touching."  We read and read and read some more and I never really know how much she is retaining.  I looked at her in amazement and couldn't believe that she realized that there was no touching the Elf.  What a milestone!

There are daily milestones now that I don't even realize are happening.  Munchkie is noticing what is happening around her and trying to copy cat what she sees.  Every day when I get ready she stands on the toilet trying to put makeup on with me. She picks up each thing as I finish and does exactly what I just did.

While Daddy is reading the paper, so does Ana. She loves to be where ever we are doing whatever we do.

She pretends to feed her baby doll and pushes the baby around in the stroller.  She knows the exact place that traffic gets heavy on our way to work and says "Ohcomeon!" because that's what I say when I get frustrated.  Incredible.  I now realize that every day is a treasure.  Every day is an adventure and a new discovery.  I need to learn to be a good role model for the copycat following me.  While I am daily amazed by how incredible it is to see my little girl growing up, I also am daily reminded of how important it is to be a good parent.  These are the times that shape and form a person's life.  I hope that we can help form a wonderful woman of God while we have fun reading and playing.