Blog | 2 Years ...
That quarter of a year has brought some dramatic changes to my little angel. Here is a quick update – she changes every day!
Sleep: She still sleeps great at home (8-8 during the night and 1-4 during the afternoon), for which we are profoundly grateful! School is a little different, but she seems to handle it fine. Her current routine at night is to get all her toys in her bed (anywhere from 6-10 these days) plus one or two books. Then I have to go to the door and blow kisses, after which she asks me “I talk to you?” She then points to various things in her room while reciting their name – “there’s my clock, and my lamp, and my fan, and my fan, and my barn, and my books, and my toy.” Generally she finishes by either jumping up and down on her bed or laying down with her toys depending on how tired she is. It is soooooo cute!
Speech: Her speech is amazing! She easily and regularly speaks 5-10 word sentences. While I haven’t counted in a while, I’m guessing she has well over 150 words in her vocabulary, and that is probably a very conservative estimate. She started the “why” phase a couple of weeks ago, but only did it a couple of times and then dropped it. We will see whether or not that changes.
Memory: She is quick…when she wants to be (aren’t we all?). She now remembers where she last saw/last put things. She also regularly sings her favorite songs (“Happy Birthday,” “Baa, Baa, Blacksheep,” “On the Way to Grandpa’s House,” “Twinkle, Twinkle,” and “Itsy Bitsy Spider”). We can generally still distract her from things we don’t want her to do or from whatever is making her unhappy, but it is getting harder. She can be very focused at times!
Activity: Some of her favorite things to do are playing play doh, taking care of her “babies” (including all Bla Blas, bears, and dolls), and taking care of her boys (she is quite pleased that all her boys moved up to the next class with her). She also loves to listen to all kinds of music – it truly varies from day to day. In fact, for about 2 months we had to sing pretty much everything to her to the tune of “Goodnight Ladies” – it was adorable, but I am a little glad she has forgotten about that for a bit! And, as with most two year olds, she rarely walks anywhere – she gets from point A to point B by running and jumping!
Attention Span: She is very good at playing by herself for a 10-15 minutes (sometimes longer) and she can sit very still when something has her attention (Cars, some books, etc.). Just yesterday we went to watch an open rehearsal for the Brussels Chamber Orchestra. She sat perfectly still for the first 30 minutes, and only wiggled around a little for the next 30 minutes, until she declared “I ready to go”!
Food: This girl can EAT! While her favorites change from day to day, she will eat most things except lima beans, asparagus, and avocado. She recently has started refusing yellow squash, which was one of her previous favorites. Smoothies, particularly mango smoothies, are still her favorite.
Size: She is roughly 28 lbs. and as you may be able to see from the pictures above, she is roughly 34″ tall. Since she was 34″ at her two-year checkup, I suspect she is a taller than this, but it is difficult to get her to stand still by the giraffe (she thinks it is all a game!), much less do so with her feet together against the wall while standing up straight.
I am sure there is more, but I am drawing a blank right now.
