2 Years Old!

Yes, folks, it’s true-- our girl is two! I can’t believe it but she is getting so big so fast. We are enjoying every minute (well, almost!) of what we are calling the “Terrific Twos”...so far, so good!

Here are the new things going on with our girl:

-- She is speaking almost totally in complete sentences. She says please, thank you, thank you very much, and you’re welcome after almost every request. She also copies a lot of what we say. She is learning probably 5-10 new words every day. Today it was “soon” (“What is soon?” is what she asked me!), “Christmas trees”, “Nutella”, “tear it” (as in, “Please don’t tear it, Emily...we want to color it, not tear it”) and “soup” (which she called “suit”). The words are not 100% clear but she is saying long strands of words and I can generally understand her...so can Paul and Miss Jamey.

-- She can jump with 2 feet and can jump across the Tumble Trak at gymnastics.

-- She can draw a face. I’m not even kidding. She has a little Magna-Doodle and asks me all the time to draw faces for her. I always draw a big circle, then 2 eyes, then the nose, mouth, ears, and hair. The other day she said “I draw face” and proceeded to draw a big circle (she’s been doing that for about a month now), then very slowly, deliberately drew 2 eyes. When it came time for the mouth her hand slipped, but it didn’t matter...I stole that face away so fast! I am going to take a picture to show ya’ll....you won’t believe it!

-- She can operate any and all doors in the house. This is challenging, to say the least.

-- She is very interested in sitting on the potty but nothing really happens while she’s on it. I still will let her sit there 200 times a day if she wants, though, because I want her to have access and I keep hoping that one day, something will come out! :)

-- She helped me bake cookies 2 weekends ago and I think I’m going to let her help me cook something like that around 1 or 2 times a month- she had a great time and was actually very controlled. I think she thought she was big stuff standing on a chair by the counter!

-- She is beginning to pretend play. She will feed Barney and Baby Bop (holding out spoons of food from her Tea Party set into the air and saying, “Here Barney!”) Also she took some food out of her oven in the play kitchen she got for her birthday and used the oven mitt to get them out. It was SUPER precious!

-- She is beginning to understand pronouns....it is MY blanket, MY toys, MY cup, etc., which is normal...but she is also experimenting with YOUR purse, MOMMY’S car, DADDY’S shirt, etc. So amazing how much she is learning!

-- She seems to be getting some toddler eccentricities, which I have to say I love to pieces. The other day she needed to wear 2 different shoes and I was totally ok with it. I really think toddlers need to have some control over their lives and if it comes down to wearing crazy outfits, I’m ok with that! I think it’s super cute.

-- She has learned to ask us for what she wants to eat. This is both helpful and hilarious, depending on what she says. For instance, we were out on her birthday day and she said she wanted spaghetti, so we bought it. She ate it, and all was good. Apparently, though, she also LOVED the taste of birthday cake because nearly every morning this week she has said, “I want birthday cake!” when I ask what she wants to eat. So funny!

-- She is getting very good at counting (to about 16) and at identifying numbers. At gymnastics yesterday she was standing on a hopscotch mat and showed us the 2, 4, 5, and 7. On the way out to the car Paul was holding her and said, “Daddy was proud of you for knowing your numbers!” and she said, “I knew about five”. I thought Paul might drop her he laughed so hard!

That is about all I can think of for now. She continues to amaze us every day with something she says or does. It is so incredible to watch her growing and changing all the time!