Shopper in Training

Today turned out to be a beautiful day here in Raleigh. Matti woke up around 7:15am this morning ready to go.
I had a few errands to run so I loaded Matti up in the van and we ventured off to pick up a few things at the grocery store. Usually Matti lets me carry her in the store and put her in a cart, usually she wants one that looks like a car, but today was different. She wanted to walk and not ride. Of course, I kind of panicked, but decided to let her push the "Shopper In Training" cart. She was so excited and was such a big girl. She followed close beside me pushing her cart. We talked up and down the isles to get the things that we needed. I knew if I kept her interested in what we were doing I would avoid a nightmare of a shopping trip. I let her put the groceries in the cart and let her look at my list to see what we needed. As we pulled up to the check out she wanted to get the groceries out of the cart herself. When it came time to pay she stepped off to the side and allowed me to pay. I guess I will be paying for a long time. She seemed to have no interest in that at all. She waited patiently as I felt a hot flash coming on. I just knew she was going to dart off somewhere, but to my surprise she did not. I grabbed the bags and gave her a small one and we walked out to the car together without a fight. Man, she is growing up too fast.
It was such a pretty day I decided to take her to the park again. When we got there our little neighbor Maddox was there with his father. Maddox is 2 1/2. The funny thing was that Maddox and Matti have met a few times and never really played together, but I did not hear Matti say "My turn" or "My slide" the whole time. They played nicely together. I am starting to figure out she only does that when girls are involved. She does not do that when it is only boys at the play ground. Weird, huh? They chased each other, squealed, went down the slide, got on the swings, and just had a great time. By the time we got home Matti was completely exhausted. She fell asleep before I could finish reading her nap time book.
Matti started calling Matthew Daddy this weekend instead of Dada. It was so sweet to hear her say it that way. She had really become "Daddy's little girl" here lately. She also has started saying three worded sentences. A couple that stick out in my head from this weekend are "No Daddy, I do it", "I don't Like", and "What you doing". She always wants to know what we are doing. I guess because she always hears us saying "Mattison what are you doing, you are being too quiet". It is really funny hearing her talk and just be so matter of fact about things.