101 Things My Daughter Does to Make Me Smile

God sends children for another purpose than merely to keep up the race - to enlarge our hearts; and to make us unselfish and full of kindly sympathies and affection; to give our shoulds higher aims; to call out all our faculties to extended enterprise and exertion and to bring round our firesides bright faces, happy smiles, and loving, tender hearts. My soul blesses the great Father, every day, that he has gladdened the earth with little children.
Mary Howitt

Of course, I could only think of 20 right off the bat, but it would be good for me to think of 20 more when I'm having a bad day or when my daughter is particularly trying my patience. I will eventually get to 101 and probably more. So here are the first 20.

1. The way that she comes up and gives kisses for no reason.
2. The way that she tells the dogs, “No, no, back!” when they get too close to her.
3. The way that she tells my husband “Bye-bye!” with the phone in front of her face rather than next to her ear.
4. The way that she tries so hard to put her shoes and socks back on in the car when we are nearing our destination because she knows that she’s not supposed to take them off.
5. The way that she says, “Chee, peas (Cheese, please).” Cheese is her favorite food.
6. The way that she “yells” at her baby doll and tells her, “No, no, no!” when Emily is not sitting perfectly in the doll stroller.
7. The way that she gets so excited to see the jogging stroller come out.
8. The way that she doesn’t want to sit in the basket at Walmart.
9. The way that she pull the chocolate syrup and the milk out of the refrigerator to make chocolate milk even though she can't lift the milk off the floor.
10. The way that she dances whenever any music comes on. She reminds me of the Dancing Gopher from Caddyshack.
11. The way that she knocks on the bathroom door when my husband has closed the door specifically to keep her out.
12. The way that she gets this little gleam in her eye when she’s about to do something she knows is wrong (and of course the mischievous little smile that goes with it!)
13. The way that she loves to play outside no matter what kind of weather. She’s going to be an outdoorsy type.
14. The way that she swishes back in forth when I put a dress on her so that she can see the dress spin around her.
15. The way that she runs to me when I pick her up from daycare in the afternoon.
16. The way that she lets out a little screech of joy to see me when I pick her up even though her daycare teachers tell her every day to use her inside voice. Should I try to reinforce that by saying something to her? Well, let’s see, they gave the pacifier back to her after 3 weeks without thinking about reinforcing what I want, so I think not. Screech away!
17. The way that she has her daddy wrapped around her little finger.
18. The way that she cooks in her little play kitchen even waving the oven mitt to dispel smoke from the imaginary smoke detector. (Yes, I honestly set off the smoke detector almost every time that I cook. If I’m lucky, it’s because there was something on the burner).
19. The way that she tries so hard to help me even if she’s getting in the way.
20. And, of course, the way that she smiles at me.