23 months old - a month of new beginnings

There are a lot of new things that have been happening this week as Lexi turned 23 months old on Monday, the 3rd, and we only have a month to go till the Big TWO!The biggest excitement so far in month 23 was that last night I asked her to go potty before I put her in the tub. While I was running the water and preparing her bath she went and sat on the potty (our usual routine). Well, I asked her if she was done and she said "uh-huh" and then came waddling back to the tub with her cute little bottom. So I put her in the tub and went to check the potty - much to my surprise she actually went pee-pee in the potty. I was so excited - this is a first for Lexi (she usually just sits there and then waddles back to the tub and tells me she went potty but the potty is empty). I was praising her and telling her what a good job she did. So then I ask her, "Did you go pee-pee in the potty?" And the little twerp says "NO". Of course, that is the answer I get to every question these days. The potty training will officially begin the beginning of next month, when we return from our vacation in New York. For now, we will be happy with the few surprise incidents when she goes in the potty.
Everyday, Lexi is learning a new word. I can pretty much understand what she is talking about when she talks to me by making out just a couple of the words in the sentences. She loves to sing and dance and it is funny how she gets the tune down and I can tell what song she is singing. A few favorites she likes to sing are: Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star; Abcs; Itsy, Bitsy Spider; Round Ball; Where is Thumbkin?.
Lexi runs everywhere, all the time. A few bumps and bruises have started to appear.
She has an infatuation with Mickey & Minnie Mouse. She refers to them as "Mimi" and "Mice". I had to stop her the other day from almost tackling a child at the library who had on a Minnie Mouse t-shirt.
Her favorite activity is to "cook" in her kitchen. She will play for an hour without any interruptions. Here she is playing in the kitchen at the museum on Thursday. She likes to set the table for her babies to eat. And the baby gets a bottle non-stop during the day. And we always tuck the baby in the cradle at night.
The new things she doesn't care for are clowns and mommy holding other babies. I was holding my girlfriend's newborn baby boy and Lexi was MAD. She wanted "up" and screamed and stomped her feet. Lexi has always liked dressed up characters when we have seen them places and usually won't leave their side. But, on Wednesday we went to see Ronald McDonald at the library and she wanted nothing to do with him and especially not a picture beside him. This was as close as we got to Ronald.