Two Years!

MB! This update is over a month late and you keep giving us more material to add on here so I figured it was time to write things down about what you are up to these days. Actually, what are you not up to? You are into everything and anything!

- These are some of our favorite phrases that you say: "Nice tent" when we hide under the sheets; "Oh weally?" when we tell you something new; "I get it mama" when you are helping us pick things up; "Mama get up" when you want me to play with you; "Dada, MERE!" when you are bossing your daddy around; "C'mon guys, tea party" we have no idea where you picked up on guys; "I no like it" at the dinner table; "Market, home, beef, none, weeeehweeeehweeeeh" when you are doing your version of this little piggy; "Matter mama?" when I am upset about something; "Doin mama?" you are a curious little thing; “Here go dada”; “Mon dada” when you want him to follow you”; “There go mama” when you hand me things; “Bite Finger” when you wanted us to see the pointer fingers that you used to bite. The pigment is darker there because of it but fortunately, you do not do that any anymore. “Look mama, look dada, look Mawy Bef”. You often refer to yourself in third person.

- You love having tea parties although you like them best when it is only you and your daddy. It took me forever to get an invite and that only happened after dada was out of town for a while. You also love playing grocery store and you have quite the list of things that you buy. You never forget eggs, a bowl and a pan. You love playing with and throwing balls, hammering and dumping out all of your bowling pins. You like to clean up as long as I am singing the Barney clean up song, hey, whatever works. You always want to put on our flip flops and you can actually walk pretty far in them.

- You love your big girl bed so much and you have three stuffed animals that must be in bed with you and a fourth that is right behind them. They are teddy bear from Uncle Coop, dada duck (an Aflac golf club cover that daddy won in a tournament), baby bop that Cheryl gave you and piglet. You also request blanket and covers and then say "close eyes" so I guess I tell you that a lot. You still have not gotten out of your bed yet and we are so amazed and thankful.

- Your newest thing is wanting to blow your nose ALL the time. Even when you do not have a tissue, you will blow right into your hands. It’s gross and we are working on it but it’s nice not to have to use the suction thingy that we got from the hospital when you were born. You still love baths and now you also take showers by yourself. This has been really helpful to me because I have a hard time bending over the tub with baby brother in my belly. You always want to wash your hands and do not like for them to get dirty. You even enjoy brushing your teeth most days.

- You despise wearing shoes inside and you do not like it if we are wearing shoes either. You often say “shoes off” and will not quit until we give in. I am mostly to blame for this because I rarely wear shoes either. You are going to have to wear tennis shoes when you start going to school on Monday mornings and I already can sense a protest.

- I don’t really think that you are a picky eater but you still don’t eat very much. We don’t understand how you can be so uninterested in food but there are a few things that you love. Poppickles, fwuit snacks, ice cweam cones and sour cream. I am stumped over what to pack for your lunch when you go to school. You normally eat leftovers or soup and those are not easy things to pack. You do not like bread so sandwiches are going to be tough. So far I have bought some cups of applesauce and small bags of cheetos. What a healthy meal to send you off with. I may have to throw in a few other things so your teachers won’t talk bad about me.

- When you run fast only one of your arm pumps and the other one you tuck under your side. We finally caught it on video and it is pretty awesome. You can jump so high and we are pretty sure you have the makings to be a great pole-vaulter like your daddy. We can only hope you didn’t get my athletic skills or graceful moves. I think you would love gymnastics and soccer so we may give those a try in the next year or two.

- Your manners are so good these days. You almost always say thank you or please and if anyone sneezes (including yourself) you say Bless you. We are still working on yes sir and yes mam but those are harder to learn.

- You are one of the most persistent people I have ever been around. You do not give up for anything! This will be a good quality that I hope serves you well when you are older but for now, it gets you into trouble. It keeps you from minding and wanting to obey us and it can be so very frustrating. I just keep reminding myself that God put that strong quality in you for a reason and it is our job to help you learn how to use it in the right way. Discipline is one of the hardest parts about being a parent and definitely my least favorite. We are doing our best to be consistent and loving but know that we will mess up many times over.

- You are really bashful around new people and if you are uncomfortable, you look down and lower your eyes. It’s like you become frozen and sometimes you will not look up, even at us, for ten minutes or more. I don’t think of you as being shy but you totally are when strangers start talking to you and they are really close. Strangers that are far away have the opposite effect on you and you will wave and say hey or bye even if they are not even looking at you. Any time you see a baby or a boy out in public, you will point them out and stare at them as long as you can.

- You currently are wearing size 12 or 18 month shorts/skirts and 18 or 24 month dresses. You wear a size four diapers. We are going to start potty training full force towards the end of September. We are going to wait a month or so after you start the moms morning out program and I wanted to wait until I would be home with you every day. Your stats are definitely improving and you weighed 23.4 pounds (10%) at your two year appointment and are in the 55% for height but I can’t remember the number of inches.

Here are a few pictures that haven’t appeared on the blog yet.

Showing off your running skills.

Practicing with a big girl cup and wearing my "bracelet".

The day we set up your big girl bed, you were so excited!

Sweet hugs for daddy.

Attending your first big screen movie with Lucy. We went to see Winnie the Pooh and you did much better than I expected. You sat in your chair for the previews and the first few minutes of the movie and then you wanted to stand up for the rest of the time. You both talked to the screen and we were so relieved that only one other kid was in the theater. I expected to have to leave half way through the movie but we made it to the end. I think we will wait a while though before we attempt another movie, you aren't quite ready yet. We were lucky that the movie was only one hour long!

Ice cream cones are the new favorite.

Playing dress up and channeling cousin Sadie. The head piece was a little big but you thought it was a necklace so it worked.