We went to a birthday party for a friend of Frannie's who is turning 3 this week. For a gift, Sarah made the girl a "Princess" dress by embellishing a store-bought dress with ribbon, sparkly tulle, and shiny buttons. The big news on our end was that Frannie was excited to give the gift to her friend, not just to own it herself, albeit temporarily. This may have been because Sarah made a coordinating dress for Frannie to wear, but I like to think our little girl is learning to share. Not that I expect this to translate to any other areas.

Frannie has been going through a spitting phase recently. Mostly, she doesn't spit for entertainment, but to express her displeasure at something or someone, or in response to being disciplined or told something is not an option. Since she's a Two-Year-Old, spitting is becoming quite common in our household. With two special-ed teachers in the house, you'd think we'd have a handle on changing undesirable behaviors, but it turns out our daughter is as stubborn as ever. She has also started responding to our frustration with some of her less-awesome behaviors by yelling "I not bad!" which confuses the heck out of me. I figure either she is hearing from somewhere else about her or someone else being bad (could be the "bad dog" we use when Olive scratches at the kitchen wall for treats), or she is confusing "bad" and "mad," since lately I've been trying to teach her to say "I'm MAD!" as a replacement behavior for spitting. No matter which it is, it's heartbreaking to hear her insist that she is not bad, and has both of us responding with love, adoration, and assurances of her self-worth. Come to think of it, we may be strongly reinforcing that particular statement.

After months and months of ignoring ting-tings, Frannie has very recently become quite attached to her plastic chew-toys. It has coincided so completely with the end of bedtime nursing, that I suspect she is using the ting-ting as a substitute, but instead of sucking, she still chews them, as she did when she was first teething. Sadly, we had gotten rid of most of the ting-tings, and the only ones left in the house were hidden in various boxes or bags when we were clearing out baby toys for her cousin. The two we have left are pink (preferred) and green (accepted only as a last resort). Last night, both were lost (or, "on vacation," as we describe them). So, it was off for a bedtime trip to Target, to hopefully stock up on identical pink ting-tings. Total bust, though, since Target has apparently stopped carrying the preferred brand and style of ting-ting. We picked up a pair of clear/blue orthodontic style ting-tings, which have been accepted into the fold as the "new ting-tings," though still inferior to the pink one. Now, our evenings are filled with plaintive wails of "I lost my ting-ting!" followed by one mom or the other shuffling into the bedroom to retrieve the missing pacifier (never was an object more aptly named), and hand it back to her.

Oh, wow. I can tell nearly to the date when my computer died, and I'm amazed I lasted so long without one at home.

Frannie is now 2, and the number of changes since 18 months is incredible. Some fun, some miserable (for us,) all entertaining.
Today, the Catholic church chose a new pope, to be called "Francis." Naturally, this led to cracks about Frannie's promotion, but in truth, we are flattered His Holiness decided to be named after our little girl.