The Lady in Red

Earlier in the week I did a photo shoot with some of my "mommy friends" so when I put this cute dress on Pepper the next day I still had everything set up and decided to take a few pictures, because that is just how I roll.

I got the dress at a thrift store about a month ago for a few dollars.  I think it is homemade.  I love it :o0 but I don't know why I bought it because I rarely dress my kids up in dresses for no reason, and we never go anywhere where a dress is needed.  So I figured I would just let her wear a dress around the house for no reason.

Her hair - was not fixed, it was skillfully pulled into two ponytails earlier that morning to avoid the yogurt on the top of her waffle getting into her rats nest, I mean hair.  It did look kinda cute and almost like I meant it to look.

Getting Pepper to stay still is almost impossible, getting her to not say "cheeeeeee eee eeeee eeeese" as soon as she sees the camera is just as impossible.  Too bad I don't want action shots where she looks like a monster.  Or do I?

She is still so pretty to me, such a cutie, and lately such a little talker.  I am amazed at how well she is speaking to us.  Saturday morning she woke up and came into our room and said "Dad, can I go downstairs and get the iPad?" clear as day, and she doesn't just answer you with a simple "Yes" anymore, she has started saying "Yes I will or Yes I can" for example.  She is also the most polite child, and I know it is my fault and I didn't mean it, I just always asked her before doing anything "Do you want to go get dressed?" or "Can we put our shoes on and go outside" and now she will ask us before she does anything like "Can I open this?" or "Can I do that?"  She is also so good about saying "thank you" and "please" - almost every time I give her her dinner at night she tells me "thank you mom" because I always tell her thank you and please when I do something for her.  I don't think most people realize how much babies can understand and not everyone speaks to them as much as I spoke to Pepper and I think you can tell, her talking is because we really talk to her, even Summer, constantly asking her to say things.  "Pepper can you say tram-po-line?"  Poor Summer can barely talk perfectly herself and here she is trying to get Pepper to say things.

How did I get so lucky?