Little Girl Firsts

I can hardly believe my little girl is being, well, a little girl. She's more little girl than toddler these days. We have "firsts" and "she's started..." happening all the time these days. Where to start. In the past week, she's had her first horse-ride (she loved it and every time we drive past the place, she asks if we're going to ride the horse again), set up her first "picnic" for her stuffed friends, and she's gotten her first library card of her own. I don't know that she was all that excited by it, but she was thrilled by the books we got to take home.  We went to Oceans of Fun for the first time. C calls it "the water carnival". C got her first (and quite likely only) kitchen set with play food. She spends copious amounts of time "cooking" and "cutting" and "baking." I get to eat a lot of pretend strawberries. She calls it a "chichen" (another one for the pronunciations). She's also started making up the most delightful little songs. She takes whatever is going on in our daily lives and turns it into a song, pounding on her Baby Einstein octopus piano at the same time. I keep trying to get a picture of it, but she's started noticing me take pictures and as soon as the camera comes out, she mugs for it. Last, but not least, she's started helping in the real kitchen a little bit. She buttered her own bread for a grilled cheese sandwich the other day, and, boy howdy, she thought that was the best sandwich ever. Guess we're going to start cooking more and more together. I just wish it didn't take so much planning and preparation in order to have her help. I'm enjoying all these firsts, I can hardly wait to see what she comes up with next. Hopefully, it will be going potty.