Well, now that it's been exactly 1 month since Elizabeth turned two, I've decided to do a 2-year old post. It's really so hard to believe we've had her in our lives for 2 whole years! But it also feels like she's always been with us.
Let's start with the basics. At 2 (and a few weeks), Elizabeth weighs 25 lbs and 10 oz (30th percentile) and is 35 inches tall (75th percentile). Somehow Eric I produced a tall skinny child!
She's talking up a storm -using sentences and really communicating with us. Often this ends up being "commands" - "Daddy sit floor." "Mommy carry E-zabeth". If we remind her, and sometimes on her own, she adds a "Please" to these commands - but it is clear, she thinks she's the boss. Earlier this week we had a whole meltdown b/c Eric was driving and for some reason she wanted me to drive. (Obviously there was no good reason for this, other than she wanted to be the boss.) The whole 10 minutes we were in the car, she cried "Mommy drive! Mommy drive!" I hope that having a baby brother will help Miss E realize she doesn't always get to be the boss.
She knows all her friends' names, words for most animals (including octopus and zebra), all her body parts, colors, shapes, food items, pretty much anything that is part of her life. And she knows concepts too "off" and "on" for the lights, "coffee is hot" "milk is cold". She also can sing all the ABCs and count to 10 in English and Spanish. We love our school!
I bet we understand 85% of what she says. Of course that makes the 15% we don't get very frustrating for all involved.
We thought we were parenting geniuses on the potty training front for a few weeks, but have now been humbled. Several months ago she started using the potty regularly (for tee-tee, never poo-poo), like 5 of 6 times a day. At first, she'd just go a little bit, but then she was really going and having dry diapers. We thought we'd be potty trained by age 2! But now she seems to be over the whole thing - will use the potty at school, but rarely at home. She just says "no" when we ask....sometimes, she'll even tell us "no potty, change diaper" actually choosing to keep wearing diapers instead of using the potty. Everything I've read, which is confirmed by our pediatrician, is to let her go at her on pace and not push. So we are not. Although last night I told her if she used the potty she could have a stamp (Cousin Boston gave her a stamp set and she loves it). We're going to try to make the stamps into "potty stamps" for using the potty only. Some people have great success with stickers this way, but stickers are a part of her everyday life now - lots and lots of stickers - and I'm not sure how to back up and make them only for using the potty. So we'll see if we get anywhere with the stamps.
She's still in her crib, but we are starting to talk about the big girl bed and I ordered bedding for it last night. That was a chore - her room is lavender, but her favorite color is clearly green. So trying to find mostly green with a little lavender was hard. Pottery Barn Kids had the perfect one but was out of stock. So I found it "new with tags" on ebay...we'll see how that turns out. We're planning on getting rid of the paci the same time we move to the big girl bed. She only uses it in her crib - at school she naps just fine without it. And she knows its only for the crib - she takes it out when she's ready to get out. So once the crib is gone, no more paci. Doing these two things is either a great plan or a horrible idea. We'll see.
She's a very big helper at school. Often the report is she was the only one of her friends to help the teacher clean up after an activity. She's pretty good at home too.
Her school gets the credit for the good manners she is developing. My favorite is she says "excuse me" when she burps. She's very good with "thank you" and off and on with "please." If she thinks you hurt yourself, she'll come over, put her hand on you and say "Mommy ok?"
Her favorite toys rights now are her babies and all their gear. She loves feeding the babies, putting them to bed (on their tummy, with the blanket covering their heads and forcefully patting), burping babies, taking them for stroller rides. It is so cute! Although I have been resistant to gender-stereotyping toys, I love how sweet she is with her babies. And hope baby brother will enjoy nurturing the babies just as much! Boys and girls need to learn how to take care of babies. But still no princess stuff for this girl!
She also love matchbox cars. They are the perfect size for her hands and she loves the colors. She'll line them up front to back and push the whole line of them around. She'll also share these with you pretty well - unless you want the green ones. Green is clearly her favorite color and all green things belong to her.
She's a great eater at school - almost always two servings of everything - main course, fruit, and veggie at lunch. But at home, she is a bit pickier. We are starting to get some things that we can eat together (which would probably be easier if I cooked more), but lots of nights she still eats something different from us.
Her favorite treat is "pop-pops" (dum dum lollipops). Although they've become more of an everyday treat than a special treat. Somehow we got in the habit of giving her one everyday after school so now she thinks that's suppose to happen. Since she doesn't eat any other candy and we don't keep cookies or other desserts around the house, I've decided to be ok with the daily pop-pop habit. But am a little surprised I let it get to the point of a habit.
She still loves her kitties - or anyone's kitties - but does NOT like dogs. Even little ones. She pretty much freaks out if there is a dog around, even if it isn't bothering her. I'm sure this is because we are hardly ever around dogs, but we probably need to work on this a bit.
She is so much fun to be around these days. She really is a little person with thoughts and ideas. It's so fun to talk to her about what she's thinking and what's going on. Even though we do have occasional meltdowns over minor things, she is usually very sweet and a joy to be around. Can't wait to see how she and her baby brother will interact!
Here's a few other pictures from our holiday/2-year old photo shoot.
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