Fun in the sun...

The weather has been so awesome the last few days, and Kevin, Dakota and I had such a wonderful weekend. Just when I start to dislike and complain about Southern California, the sunshine comes out and puts things back into perspective. What can I say, I'm a sucker for warm weather.

We decided to drive out to Irvine Spectrum to do a little walking around and have Dakota ride the carousel, since it's one of her favorite things in her whole entire world. She went on the carousel twice and she had a blast. She was smiling, squealing, even shaking in excitement. It was the cutest thing! Here are a few pictures from the carousel. She was so happy:

I remember when we took her on the carousel at Disneyland when she was only 7 months old. She loved it so much, that when we took her off she cried. I never knew a 7 month old would get that much out of carousel ride. Here are some photos of her on the carousel at Disneyland:

After the ride, we walked around a bit and came across a water fountain play area. I took Dakota out of her stroller and she bee-lined it for the water. Within 30 seconds the kid was 1/2 soaked. I decided to just strip her down to her diaper so she could have somewhat dry clothes to wear after. Luckily, Kevin brought his sweatshirt, which we ended up using as a towel. Here's Dakota enjoying the water, which is by far my favorite video to date:

-She is such a character. I get SO much enjoyment out of watching her. There's never a dull moment with that girl, and everyday she amazes me with something new she has learned or can do. Here are a few of her newest accomplishments:

-She shares her toys and claps after giving them to someone.

-If you give her a brush, she can brush her own hair

-Makes Indian noises by putting her hand to her mouth

-She knows what keys are for, and will take them up to a door, reach up and put them as close as she can to the door knob

-She puts my hairbands on her wrists like they're bracelets. She watches me do this with them, which I assume is where she picked it up from.

-She puts her hairbands on top of her head because she knows I put them there when I do her hair.

-When we call her name, she responds with "yes"

-If she's being loud in a restaurant, I tell her, "ssshhh," and she'll do it back

-She knows where the moon is, and when we ask her where it is, she looks up and points to it.

and, some things she has been doing for awhile now:

-Says "woof woof" when she sees a dog

-Plays patty-cake, and peekaboo with her blankie

-Can walk up a steep slide, and turn herself backwards to go back down

-Says the following words: mama, dada, baby, ball, hi, bye-bye, yes

-Shows us how big she is

-Blows kisses

There's so much more, but those are the ones I could remember off the top of my head. She's a smart cookie and I know I've said this before, but I couldn't be any more proud to be her mommy.

We're still hittin' the park with a vengeance. She's such a monkey and loves climbing all over the playground. How could I not take her?!?! Plus, I'm not one of those moms that can sit at home and do absolutely nothing, especially when the weather is so nice. I gotta make sure Dakota is an outdoorsy girl and more importantly, stays away from the TV!! lol

Oh, we also had a "dry run" Easter egg hunt in preparation for the big day! We gotta get our strategy down. Haha! She loves putting the eggs in the basket, but isn't much into hunting just yet. We'll get some more practicing in...hehe! Here are some pictures from the other day:

And of course, here are some more videos of our little smarty pants:

Dakota tries to sing her ABCs:

Dakota brushes her hair:

Dakota uses the house keys: