I’m waiting on Chris to get home so we can leave, so I thought I’d do one more blog before we head out!

We have a big tree outside our window, so we get blessed with listening to birds chirp in the morning. It really is pleasant and is a nice thing to wake up to. However, we have this one bird outside our window that wakes me up early in the morning, and annoys me badly. Its not that he’s a bad singer, or off-key, its that he sounds like a beep. Like a cell phone dying, or a microwave after it’s finished cooking, or multitudes of other electronics that you can’t quite put your finger on what it is. The last few mornings I have woken up at about 6am wondering what in the world was beeping and why. Chris will be getting ready in the dressing room, and I’ll stumble through to the bathroom, and he’ll say “did I wake you up?” and I’ll say, “No, it’s that beeping bird again.”

We’re headed out around lunchtime tomorrow and will be back Tuesday night!! We’re off to ride bikes on the beach and on bike trails, eat at fun places, enjoy being on an island, visit with our great friends Barkley, Jeremy and baby-on-the-way, spend LOTS of quality time together, you get the picture!!!

Ali is off to Gramamma and Pop’s to be the center of attention for 5 whole days! She is going to be S-P-O-I-L-E-D!! And I’m secretly hoping – but at the same time not hoping – that she starts walking while we’re gone. I wouldn’t doubt it – my parents are AMAZING at teaching her how to do things. They better take lots of pictures if she does!

I may or may not blog while we’re gone, depending on whether we have an internet connection and if I have any down time. But if not, I will talk to you all when we get back!

This morning, we were playing in Ali’s bedroom, and she reached towards my mouth. She does this often, as she likes pointing out my teeth and saying “teef!!”. So I opened my mouth really wide for her as usual. For some reason I failed to notice that her thumb and index finger were together. All of a sudden, she dropped something in my mouth and I felt something small and rubbery on my tongue. Immediately recalling her affinity for eating dead ladybugs, I sat up really fast and spit. Luckily, it was just one of her pigtail rubberbands that she found on the ground. She was just grinning at her accomplishment of feeding Mommy!

Lesson learned: make sure that baby is not holding anything between fingers before letting her reach for mouth.

For those of you who didn’t read my old note on Facebook (pre-blog days) about Ali’s ladybug liking, here it is:

Remember all of the ladybugs that we got in our house? Well, there are still one or two here or there, and dead ladybug carcasses show up every now and then. Last week, Ali and I were playing in her room, and I saw her get really still and focused on something on the carpet, then pop! She grabbed it and popped it into her mouth really quickly. Then she got this grotesque look on her face, like it tasted awful. So I went over there and started digging around in her mouth, and managed to salvage two spotted ladybug wings. Yup, the meaty part went down the hatch. Every few minutes after that, she would get that nasty look on her face again. Apparently, Ladybugs have a nice aftertaste too.We had a doctor’s appointment that afternoon for her one year checkup, and the doctor was going through the developmental milestone questions, like “Does she help get herself dressed?”, and she asked “Can she pick up very small objects with her thumb and index finger?”, and so I said “well, she ate a ladybug this morning. . . “, and she said “Good! Good. . .” Needless to say, I am being much more observant and committed to picking up any ladybugs laying around.

We are getting ready to go on our anniversary trip this weekend! We are going to Kiawah Island off the coast of Charleston. We always anticipate our anniversary trip a ton and make a really big deal out of it. We enjoy looking forward to it as much as actually going on it!

However, this year has been a little different for me. I haven’t been AS excited as I usually am, and it took me the longest time to figure out why. I finally realized what it was – I am really going to miss Ali! Last year at our anniversary, she was only 3 months old so we could only go off overnight, and I am ashamed to admit, I really didn’t miss her at all! That was during her Ali-qaida phase and so it was easy not to miss a screaming baby.

In the past 6 months or so, though, she and I have really bonded and I really love her in the way that I always thought I would love my baby. I love being with her, playing with her, talking with her, everything! She is my ever-present little buddy.

I know it sounds stupid that it took me that long to realize that I was going to miss my daughter, but it is just a new feeling for me, because Chris has always been the only person in my life that I craved being with and that I would miss if I weren’t with him every day, so going off on vacation with him was a total win-win-win! Every vacation with Chris has been a dream vacation for me! So this is the first time in my life that I have had someone else that I would miss if I went off with Chris – it’s odd!

I know that Ali will have a WONDERFUL time with her Gramamma and Pop – and that my parents will have a wonderful time with her! She probably won’t even miss us! And I also strongly believe that It is imperative for parents to get away at least once a year together. The best way that we can love Ali is to love each other even more!! I want our marriage to be as strong as it is now for the rest of our lives, and investing in our relationship is a vital key to that. I’m really starting to look forward to our trip as it gets closer, and oddly enough, realizing why I wasn’t looking forward to it as much has helped me look forward to it more. The place we are going is going to be beautiful and relaxing and so much fun!!

…but I’ll still miss my baby girl!!!

Greta inspired me to do this, who was inspired by someone else to do this. I’ll try to make my facts interesting and comment-worthy, and I’ll see if I can get at least one fact in there that each person wouldn’t know (even my silent-but-daily-blog-reading mom!!) :

1. I like my middle name, Victoria, a lot, but I wanted to keep my Maiden name (Zannis), more, so I legally dropped Victoria. However, if I have a second daughter, we plan on naming her Victoria and calling her Tori.

2. I was named Victoria after my Dad (Victor) after a family spat over the middle name that my parents had previously picked out for me. They figured the only way to make sure no one could complain was to name me after one of them.

3. I’m glad they didn’t give me my Mom’s middle name, Frances. Because back in the days when Mom was named Frances, it was shortened to Fannie. Ick.

4. I love flowers but hate to garden.

5. I am very lucky because my mom loves both, and she is very generous and will often come (unrequested) and plant flowers in my yard or flower boxes. AND she will weed them when she’s over here for Sunday lunch. What a Mom.

6. We have Sunday lunch at our house most Sundays. It used to be at my parent’s, but Ali naps better at our house. AND Mom brings lunch! I help, but she is usually the main cooker and provider of Sunday Lunch. There’s no bad angle there for me. She spoils us!

7. Chris is 5 1/2 years older than me. When we met, I was 17 and he was 22 (and very shortly was 23).

8. I had a list of 52 requirements for a husband. When we started dating, Chris met all but 2, and before we got married he met those two also.

9. One of my requirements was that my husband would be smarter than me. I was so relieved when I found out that Chris had made 4 points higher on the ACT than me! :) But I had already figured out he was smarter than me.

10. Chris and I kissed for the first time at Jemison Park. Now that park is 5 minutes from our house and we walk Ali there all the time.

11. My favorite kind of candy is Red Licorice. My favorite kind of r.l. was Brach’s, but they quit making it about 6 years ago. I ate tons of that stuff when I was a kid. I sure miss it.

12. My least favorite grooming thing to do is to shave. My favorite: plucking my eyebrows. So relaxing!

13. I have always been a numbers, spreadsheet, forms type person. When I was a kid, every year for my birthday, I had an “Office” spend-the-night party. Beforehand, My mom and I would go around to all the banks and offices and get them to give us forms and pads and pens, and we would make personalized checks for all the girls coming. We would stay up all night and play office. Yes, and now I’m an accountant.

14. I am very competitive. I didn’t realize I was competitive until I went to college. Since I homeschooled from 1-12 grade, I was never in an educationally competitive environment. I went a little competition crazy in college. But I did a pretty good job of not letting it show. I didn’t want to be THAT classmate.

15. I took lessons for three different instruments growing up: Violin, Piano, and Guitar. The only one that stuck was guitar, and it was also the only one I ever really liked playing.

16. We drove to California and back for three years in a row when I was 12-14. I loved it, until the way back, and then I would get really tired of being cooped up in a truck for days on end.

17. We drove to Ca. because my dad builds antique race cars, and his boss would pay for our whole trip to trailer the car to Monterey for a race.

18. Dad also built and navigated an antique race car on a 45 day race from Beijing China to Paris France in 1996. There is a History Channel Special about it. And they went through Iran. Crazy.

19. I love peeling plastic film off of new electronics. Sometimes temptation overwhelms me and I peel them off of the display models at the store.

20. I REALLY love to fly. It is so exciting. But Chris doesn’t hold the excitement I do about it. We have actually never flown together.

21. Excel is my best friend. What was the world like before Excel?

22. It seems like a lot of restaurants that Chris and I really love have closed. Wing Stop, Copelands, Ruby Tuesday in Cahaba Heights, Mozzarella’s American Grill, The Heights Cafe, Cheeburger Cheeburger, El Tapatio, and the most famous change, when Sarris’ Steakhouse (where we had our wedding rehearsal dinner) suddenly became “Love Stuff”. We are a curse to restaurants.

23. We loved Wing Stop so much that sometimes we plan our travelling around stopping at one to eat. We are doing that next weekend. Their fries are amazing.

24. Our curse has also extended to our first townhouse (they gutted them and rebuilt them and sold them for an outrageous price of $300K), and Overton Park (we used to hang out there a lot when we were just friends, and then again when we were dating. They have since gutted the park and remade it, and again we live 5 minutes from it and take Ali there all the time). Also true of my Brach’s red licorice.

25. I loved doing beadwork when I was a teenager. I have a rubber storage container downstairs with hundreds of dollars worth of beads in it.

26. When Chris and I got married, I was the scrooge and he was the spender. Over the years, we have both become more like the other one, and now we’re about even.

27. I honestly and truly believe that I have the best husband in the world. He treats me amazingly.

28. Although I love my cat, I do not believe that she is the best cat in the world. Mainly due to the fact that when she gets really mad, she pees on our bed. She hasn’t done this in quite a while. She really did this the most when I was on crutches. For some reason, she hates crutches.

29. I am insatiably curious. It drives me crazy not to know who has looked at my blog.

30. I am also insatiably self-conscious. I obsess way too much over what people think about me. It drives me crazy not to know what people thought of my blog. Leave me comments for my sanity’s sake!!!

31. I am not a tomboy, nor am I a really girly-girl. I am somewhere very in between, very neutral.

32. I LOVE my budget. I think budgets are the greatest thing ever (made even better by Excel, might I add). I love making the budget, entering information into the budget, analyzing the budget, and reporting to Chris about the budget. Yes, you can call me a dork.

33. I love spending time with other girls, but am often self-conscious about calling and being proactive to invite someone to hang out with me.

34. When I was growing up, I had a very healthy self-image in that I liked me and thought I was a likable person, but at the same time, I thought everyone hated me. Bizarre. I think I’m more well-balanced now.

35. I am a very loyal person. I have been at the same church for 13 years (exactly half my life), and the same job for 10 years. Once I am somewhere, I don’t leave.

36. Exception to #35: I am not loyal to cars. I have had 6 different cars in the 10 years that I could drive. 4 out of 6 were Honda Civics. I have now realized that it is not easy to have such a little car with a baby and all of her gear, so I have a Honda Pilot.

37. When I was 9 years old, I went to Toronto Canada with just my dad. We were going to go on his motorcycle, but we went on a “test” ride to Anniston, and I complained too much about my butt hurting. Thank goodness – I don’t think I would have done too good all the way to Canada on the motorcycle.

38. I got lost in Canada between elevators in the Hotel. When Dad found me, I told him I had called Social Security to help find him. He still likes to tell that story.

39. I love to eavesdrop via the baby monitor on Chris and Ali when he goes to get her from a nap. It’s so sweet.

40. I never really craved anything when I was pregnant. Chris and I were both disappointed. He was really looking forward to having to get up at 3am and get me Krispy Kreme’s or something. I told you I had the best husband ever.

41. I did, however, really like fish while I was pregnant. Baked Tilapia. With at least 15 lemons. Yummm.

42. Random things that I wasn’t allowed to do as a kid: Have training wheels on my bicycle, Draw on my skin or get fake tattoo’s (The first thing Dad asked Chris when Chris asked Dad if he could date me was “Do you have any piercings or tattoo’s?”), jump on a trampoline, watch “You Can’t Do That on Television”, or eat candy cigarettes. None of these rules ruined my childhood.

43. I think I have only heard my mom say “Shut Up” once in my life. And boy, did we shut up.

44. Chris and I have perfectly complimentary tastes. When we go to the Olive Garden and get the salad before our meal, the first thing we do is split up the toppings. He gets the croutons and peppers, and I get the tomatoes, olives, and onions.

45. I get terrible mouth ulcers – it’s some kind of Virus or something (Not Oral Herpes – that’s cold sores and I don’t get those). They get really big (to the size of skittles) and hurt like crazy.

46. My favorite kind of pen in the world is a Pilot Permaball, and much like our restaurant curse, everyone quit carrying them. But I still order them from the Pilot website. It’s so satisfying to write with a really good feeling pen.

47. I stole gas one time – accidentally. Apparently the person’s credit card before mine paid for it. Oops.

48. I can’t stand to sit very long with my feet on the floor. I have to either prop my feet up or sit in the chair indian-style.

49. I met Jay Leno one of those times we were in Monterey, California. My mom walked up to him, shook his hand, said “Hey, Jay!” and walked off. His chin is MUCH bigger in real life.

50. I am in a painting that is sold nationally. It was done when I was 9. It’s hanging in my living room. And my parent’s living room. And my Grandmother’s living room. And, according to the artist, the original was bought by the richest man in Memphis and is hanging in his office.

51. When I was about 6, they filmed some low budget movie near Tannehill. They were using my Dad’s Model T in the movie, so Dad took me out there to be an extra in the movie. They made me carry a doll that I thought I was much too old for, and I kept trying to leave it on all the rides (it was a carnival scene), but people kept bringing it back to me! I have no idea how they knew it was mine. The movie was rated R, so of course I wasn’t allowed to go see it. My parents did, and said that there was a closeup of me in the movie.

52. I got paid $70 for being in the film, and so Dad and I went to open me up a savings account. But I’ve always wondered about that – it doesn’t seem like they would have paid an extra. I’ve always wondered if Dad “paid” me.

53. Another thing I’ve always wondered about : when I was in High School, my Dad had someone tell him that they wanted to email him something about me, and wondered if I checked his email, so Dad changed his password so I wouldn’t read it. Dad made it sound like it was a good email, but I’ve always wondered if it was a good or bad email. Maybe I don’t want to know.

54. I don’t make up our bed, ever, unless someone is coming over and might go upstairs.

55. I love heights.

56. I secretly loved going to the doctor when I was a kid. I loved the attention. But I always pretended not to like it because I was embarrassed that I loved it. I also LOVED it when I broke my arm in 7th grade. That was great.

57. I never talk to myself unless I just embarrassed myself, and then for some reason I groan a lot to myself.

58. When it comes to the DISC personality test, I am a CDS. Chris is a CSD. We are so much alike except that I’m a little more impatient and he’s a little more deliberate. I think our personalities mesh perfectly.

59. I don’t like clothes shopping with other people. Don’t get me wrong, I like browsing while with other people. But if I’m really shopping, I like being alone. Except for Ali – I actually like shopping with her.

60. I am a speed shopper. I can walk into a store, see everything that’s in the store, and determine if there’s anything I want to try on in 1-5 minutes.

61. I can not, at all, ever, imagine living anywhere but Birmingham. I think it goes back to the loyalty thing. And I don’t like really big changes.

62. Until Chris and I had been married for 2 years, I didn’t exist to the credit people. I couldn’t be on our first mortgage because I had never had any credit. So I finally got a credit card so that I would exist.

63. I LOVE animals in the wild or at the zoo. I think I am instilling that love in Ali as well.

64. I don’t like sitting on the couch without a blanket, even if it is summertime. I also CANNOT sleep without a blanket on.

65. I never, literally never, watched tv for a period of about 2 years when I was in high school. For no particular reason, it was just not something my family did a whole lot of.

66. Several people I’ve been told I look like: Gretchen Wilson (ugh), the girl in the band White Stripes (which I REALLY think I do look like), The main character in “Love Story”, and Rorie from Gilmore Girls.

67. I like being called “Rach”

68. The sound of highlighters on paper gives me chills. But usually only when someone else does it. Sometimes even just thinking about the sound gives me chills.

69. Unfortunately, my husband’s job often requires a lot of highlighting. This can be particularly chilling for me if he’s working at home.

70. I used to want twins really badly until I had one, and then I realized that I did not have the Mommy skills required to keep up with two at once.

71. I’ve never dyed my hair, and the main reason is because I am too practical (money-wise) and wouldn’t want to pay for the upkeep.

72. I really like snakes. If I see a small to medium sized one out in the wild and am reasonably sure it’s not poisonous, I will pick it up and play with it.

73. I once found a snake at the beach and named her “Greta” because she had a crooked jaw and looked JUST like Greta van Susteren.

74. I have been going to the majority of Alabama football home games with Chris since we started dating in 1999. I didn’t know what a first down was until halfway through my first season.

75. I fell asleep at a lot of games those first couple of seasons. Yes, really asleep.

76. I also fell asleep at the races at the B.I.R. when my Dad would take me when I was a little girl.

77. My first memory is going to Disney World when I was three. I also remember more distinctly falling down and skinning my hand on that trip, and my Aunt (who we were staying with) not having any bandaids. I was most upset about not getting a bandaid. But I actually still have a scar from that fall.

78. I write out all of my bible study times. I love writing prayers and what I learn from verses. I have a whole shelf of these notebooks starting when I was 16.

79. I hate diet drinks of all kinds. I did drink C2 for a short time, but other than that, I like my Cokes real. And fountain cokes are the best.

80. I love coffee but I rarely drink it anymore. I used to drink it when I worked, but now that I’m at home, I never have it.

81. I’ve never tasted beer. It just smells too awful to imagine tasting it.

82. I’ve been to approximately 30 states. Mostly when I was a child. We travelled on Model T tours.

83. I went to Cyprus when I was 16 to help a missionary set up his office. I was there for 6 weeks.

84. I flew back from Cyprus alone. When I got back into New York, the customs guy looked at me suspiciously, and said “do your parents know where you are?”

85. After that trip, I was very confused about which side of the road to drive on for quite a while.

86. I have never done well with left and right. I have to look at which hand my wedding ring is on to know which way is left.

87. I wrote everything mirror image backwards when I was little. I can still easily write that way.

88. I like recordkeeping so much that for the first year of Ali’s life, I kept up with every feeding, naptimes, night time sleep length, AND diapers in a notebook. I still keep up with everything but the diapers..

89. I also keep a calendar like a diary for every day so I can look back at any time and remember what we did and when.

90. I feel like I have the best friends I have ever had at this point in my life. I have many really, really good friends. And for the first time, I feel like I have friends that pursue me in friendship – it has always felt like I was the only one that pursued relationships.

91. I love that my brother and sister-in-law and soon-to-be nephew live 8 minutes from us!! I am so glad that they moved back home.

92. Chris and I are both packrats. This makes for a lot of stuff.

93. I have had the same cell phone number since I was 16 and got my first cell phone. I really hope I never have to change it.

94. I had two foot surgeries in two years. The second time, they took a small bone out of my foot.

95. Chris asked my surgeon if he could keep the bone. He told Chris “he would have to check on hospital policies about taking body parts out of the hospital”, but he did let Chris keep it.

96. The bone is in a jar, and it has since grown hairy mold. I’m scared to ever open the jar.

97. I loved taking SAT tests as a kid. They were so much fun. Paperwork galore!!

98. I do know I’ve got a lot of geeky qualities, and I’m ok with that.

99. I tend to get stuck in ruts a LOT. I forget to do different and creative things because I just do what I always do.

100. If anyone read all of these at one sitting, I am very impressed, and a little flattered!! Thanks!!!

God gave me a better understanding of my main spiritual gift this week. It is exhortation – which is a mix between having discernment to see what people need to hear and being able to encouragingly tell them. However, I have heard it taught before (and find it very true in my own life), that people with the spiritual gift of exhortation often have the discernment of someone with the gift of prophecy but not the boldness to speak it like those prophets do. So true!
Last weekend, I had talked to a friend of mine, and she had expressed to me deep frustration and discouragement. From the details of what she told me that she was feeling, God showed me what truth she needed to hear. However, God did not give me a good way to express that to her. The only ways I could think of to communicate this truth seemed like it would only discourage her more. I felt like I was not doing what God wanted me to, because He had shown me this truth, but I just couldn’t tell her!! So I simply did what I could to encourage her, and I just began praying for her earnestly and specifically – that God would reveal that truth to her that she so needed to hear.

On Wednesday night, she text messaged me and told me that God had shown her something, and it was verbatim what God had revealed to me the weekend before that I had been praying that He would reveal!

I learned from this that sometimes God may give me discernment into a situation and He doesn’t WANT me to speak it – just to be able to pray more specifically for that person! He will be able to reveal it much better than I could have, but He’s still giving me the gift of being involved in His work by praying! So I won’t feel guilty for not being able to share some things anymore.

My friend was VERY encouraged and excited by what God showed her, and I was just as encouraged and excited by what God showed me through it! God has a cool way of multiplying blessings!

OK. . . so when we moved last August, we moved to this great little neighborhood. It is unincorporated Jefferson County (great bang for your buck if you’re planning on Christian schooling or homeschooling), but it is surrounded by four sides by Mountain Brook. Which doesn’t affect us too much except that we have snooty neighbors behind us (that insist on knowing EXACTLY what part of town you grew up in), and that all of the ads we get in the mail are aimed toward people much more “cultured” than us.

Well, he was a “cosmetic and general dentist”, which should have been my first clue. I walk into his office, and there are hardwoods, a juice and coffee bar, gourmet muffins, flat screen tv’s, and built-in mahogany bookshelves. It really looked like I just walked into a Mountain Brook lawyer’s office. There is one other patient there besides me. They take me back to a conference room and have me watch a video of what they plan on doing. While I am (not) watching the video showing animations of doing painful looking things to teeth, I look up on the wall, where there is this very cultured looking picture of my dentist, in a long coat and bowler hat, prancing on his horse where he won first place at a horse show:Then the dentist comes in to talk to me – for like 30 minutes!! He explains that he cares about dental work being “pretty” and he very much wants his work to be beautiful. He also explains that their dental office is a spa – yes – a spa. There will be an amenity menu in my room.

So I get into the room, and there is a mahogany blanket / eye pillow warmer rack in the corner. There is “spa” put-you-to-sleep music playing. There is a flat screen tv attached to the dental chair, and the dental chair is a MASSAGING dental chair. The menu is there for me to peruse. I have attached two pictures of the super fancy spa amenity menu :So, to save from boring you from all the details, I spent FOUR hours at the spadentist today, declining their offers for a warm blanket, headphones, and eye masks and reassuring them that I was indeed comfortable and just fine. I had to get a temporary crown, which involves MUCH drilling and numbing, and my dentist asked me every 30 seconds if I was comfortable.

Well, my life is getting a little crazier these days. At least I like crazy! Here are my three jobs:

1. Being a Mommy and Wife, which is pretty much a full time job (or it would be if I cooked and cleaned as much as I should!)
2. HR, Payroll and Accounting for Slappey Communications from home – 15-20 hours a week.
3. HR, Payroll and Accounting for Engle and Associates.

Chris’ Aunt and Uncle are closing on their house up here and moving to the beach April 1st, so I’ve got to hurry and get trained and up to speed for doing all the books for Engle and Associates. I started training yesterday, and it seemed pretty straightforward and simple (next to all the extremely complex stuff that we do at Slappey, anything is simple!!). It will be fun because Chris and I will be working together, but I haven’t figured out all of the time issues yet. I am hoping to be able to work from home like I am doing now, but at least for a couple of months while I am getting started I will need to go into the office. Hopefully Ali will like it and will be patient. She and Chris went to lunch together yesterday, which helped tremendously. Then she sat in her stroller and colored for about an hour after that. So far, so good.

In the midst of all the stuff that I need to do, I have to stay focused on remembering what is really important – relationships. My relationship with God, with Chris, with Ali, with family and friends. The other stuff is important too – but I won’t have a problem doing that stuff. As the name of my blog says, I love objective stuff, so the work part will come naturally. It’s everything else that I can’t allow myself to lose focus on.

In other news, I’m headed off to the dentist in an hour. I have a really badly chipped tooth that I need to get fixed, plus I just haven’t been to the dentist since before I was pregnant with Ali. I’m going to a new dentist, who so far really impresses me. He called me himself yesterday because he saw that I was a new patient. He wanted to see if I had any questions or anything. He seems very nice!! I’ll let you know how it goes. I’m hoping he can just fill my chipped tooth and not crown it . My mom is keeping Ali while I’m gone, and so this morning I asked Ali, “Guess who’s coming to see you today?” and she said “AJ!!”, so I said “No, Gramamma!!” and she said excitedly, “Mamama!!!” It’s so much fun to have actual two-way conversations with her!!!

It is really amazing when babies start to understand the world around them and how to communicate with it. It is even more astounding when they figure out things that you didn’t even teach them!! It’s like there’s this big “change” sometime around one year old, where they become little people and start to just “get” things!
So Ali absolutely loves coloring (as I mentioned before). Sometime last week, every time she colored something, she started saying “I did it!” in a very proud and excited tone. I have NO idea where she picked this up – but it is SO funny!! The video is below: