Two and a Half

Our baby girl is two and half years old today. 

Fortunately for all of us she more adorable and sweet than she is frustrating in her two-and-a-halfness.

She has become quite a little chatterbox.  Her speech can be difficult to understand, but that doesn't stop her.  She likes talking to people, but will happily carry on one-sided conversations with her babies and stuffed toys or just chatter away to herself.  She also likes to sing.  

She walks, gallops, runs, and hops everywhere.  She also likes being carried up the three flights of stairs to our apartment.  If I explain that my arms are full she asks me to come back to her, often telling me that "[her] wegs are bo-ken."

Though not the most adventurous physically, she does love to climb.  She's pretty good at it too.  

I don't know how it happened, but we have a girly girl.  Her favourite colours are pink, purple and gray ("gay"). She loves to wear skirts, or better yet, two skirts layered one over the other.  Her dress-up  persona is a "ballewina pincess" who has a tutu, magic wand, and does little other than twirling and turning the people around her into kitty cats.  

She also loves to pretend to be Melissa (McClelland) from the band Whitehorse, married to The Bean's favourite musician, Luke Doucet. This mostly involves her stuffing a blanket under her shirt (their baby), going backstage (the kitchen) or "frontstage" (the living room) and talking to Luke (me) or playing instruments (whatever she digs out of our instrument basket). The Bean also likes to be Melissa when we play this game.

While she likes to play with people, she is usually quite content playing independently for periods of time. This floors me and Jen as it is something The Bean just does not do. She will draw, do Play-Doh, read books, do puzzles, play with stuffed animals, etc. 

She loves arts and crafts. Again, something The Bean isn't really into.  She'll often request to colour, paint or do Play-Doh.

  

We sometimes call her "Ms. Independent" for the obvious reason that she likes to do things herself. Not everything, mind you, but if she has her mind made up about something... She's quite a stubborn little thing.

Along those lines it should be noted that she is very nearly potty trained. She wears underwear when she is awake and can "hold it" for several hours. I can't remember the last time we had to change a dirty diaper. We do bring a travel potty and a change of clothes with us most places, the former which we use fairly often, which means the later hasn't been necessary. The down side is that she uses having to go to the potty as a major stall tactic at bedtime. Can't win them all, I guess. 

Her favourite books right now seem to be the Angelina Ballerina books and Dora books we have. She LOVES being read to and will snuggle right in for story time.

She is a pretty snuggly kid, overall. She's very, very clingy attached to me. I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that I'm primarily at home and that she still nurses 2-4 times a day (wake up, before/after nap when I'm around, and before bed). She "loooves nursing!" but tells me she will stop when she's 26.  Um. Yeah.  

Her best friend is clearly her brother. She goes along with 90% of his plans and is pretty much his shadow. She also really seems to like hanging out with my cousin's son who is seven months younger than her. She adores her Grandma too. Oh, and my cousin Paul. 

  

She still isn't big on breakfast, but overall eats decently well.  She's fussy about mean and won't eat chicken breast or pork chops, but will eat chicken fingers, hot dogs and sausages. Most grain-based foods are fine and she eats enough of a variety of fruits and vegetables that we're not overly concerned about her diet.  

She's a big kid. She's in size 2T and sometimes 3T and now wears size 7 shoes. I frequently get asked if she and The Bean are twins (though she is still quite a bit shorter than he is).

And finally sleep.  This is the one area I wish were significantly different.  I can't figure her out.  I feel like she should be getting much more sleep than she does, but it's a nightly battle.  Bedtime is 7:30pm, but she nurses until about 8pm and then usually doesn't fall asleep until 9 or sometimes even 10pm and is usually awake and coming into our room by 5:30am to nurse.  It's brutal.  She naps from about 1:00-2:30pm most days.  I don't know if she is overtired or overslept or what, but I am hoping something changes.

 A few more pictures of the little monkey from the past few months: