23 Months Old

Better a week late than never!

My baby girl will be two in 3 1/2 weeks. How on earth have I been a mom for that long already? I can't imagine what I'll be saying/thinking when she's 16, or graduating from college, or getting married...

A typical playtime in our house these days.

Anyways, I digress.

In the past month Lane has really seemed to grow up a bit.

At 23 months (and 6 days) old, Lane:

*has a blossoming vocabulary. While her pronunciation definitely needs some work, she is talking more and more. New words this month include: ball, blue, bye-bye, purple, pickle (puh-ka), more (moe), Layla (what she's named her Auburn cheerleader doll), nut (nuh), banana (neenee), grandma (mamoo), mimi, papa (baba), baby, poo-poo (bobo), hippo, bowl, ewwww, yeah, Nonna, cookie (guhgee), cracker (kaker), bread, excuse you (scoo-oo), Bible, stool (as in step stool), me, eat (eee), reindeer (dehdeh), bubble.

One of her favorite games these days: get daddy to push her around the house in his office chair.

*is learning how to be gentle with Noel. Lane likes to pat her on the stomach, stroke her face, or give her kisses. She's not big on holding her, nor is she very aware of needing to be careful around her, but that will come with time.

Helping Elmo kiss the "baybee."

*got some new books for Christmas that she really likes: Where, Oh Where is Huggle Buggle Bear and The Very Lonely Firefly.

*is getting better and better at playing pretend. She'll put Elmo's hands together for him to "pray," feed any of her Little People, dolls, or stuffed animals real or play food, have them give us "five," and so on.

Giving kitty a drink of tea.

*has turned into a "typical girl," according to Shannon. This translates into: she can't make up her mind about anything. She can't decide which show she wants to watch, which book she wants to read, or which food she wants to eat.

*loves hummus. I'll give her a spoonful with five pretzels and she'll skip the pretzels and eat the hummus with her fingers.

Mmm, hummus.

*is starting to test boundaries. For example, we'll tell her not to throw something and she'll look right at us, hold it over her head, and drop it, like asking, "is this throwing?" She does the same thing with jumping on the bed, sitting down on couches or chairs, and so on.

*is pretty much all out of her 18-month clothes and only wearing 24-month or 2t things. There are a few miscellaneous 18-month articles in her closet and chest of drawers, but for the most part...she's out of them. She's still wearing size 6 shoes. It feels like she weighs a ton.

Feeding the zoo animals (and the cow).

*is sleeping better. We put a latch-hook lock on the outside of her door and within a week she was going to sleep at a normal time and getting up at a normal time (i.e. not in the 5 o'clock hour). We don't let her out of her room until 7:00 (about the time it starts to get daylight) most days, but she seems content to play with her stuffed animals in her bed or go back to sleep if she's awake much before then. I usually lay down with her at nap time until she falls asleep, because it's just easier than fighting the fight that she puts up most days. I'd rather sacrifice 15 minutes of my afternoon to lay down beside her than to sacrifice an hour of continual door-watching/listening and repeated spankings! For now...this works for us. We'll see how long it lasts before we decide she needs to learn to fall asleep on her own at nap time without getting out of bed a million times.

*can stack blocks at least 12 high.

Now that she's mastered sorting the shapes she likes to stack them.

*is still a bit picky about certain foods (she's really not big on meat), but for the most part will still eat most anything. She loves bread and carbs. She definitely doesn't like to eat the same thing over and over again. She likes variety, so if we eat the same thing more than twice (as leftovers), she probably won't really eat it the third or fourth time.

*is definitely opinionated. She has opinions about when I can sing, what song to sing her at bedtime, if the way I'm playing with her toys is correct, how she should be helping me in the kitchen, and so on and so forth. She wants what she wants when she wants it. Like any toddler, I suppose.

Notice each animal has their own cup?

And there you have it. 23 months. My lovely, lovely mess of a girl. Golly I love her.