When we asked you what you wanted for your birthday present this year you said "happy." Little do you know the happiness you have brought to us over the last two years. You are such an amazing little girl!
Here are a few updates from the last 6 months before you turned 2 (it's kind of long but 6 months is a lot to blog about):
- Your little words crack me up - you love to say "oh cool" or "oh no" or when mommy or daddy says something silly you say "oh momma" or "oh daddy"
- You love to chase after bubbles
- You scratch your moskito bites while you are sleeping
- When you say "I love you mommy" it melts my heart. You say it with such sweetness in your voice and I hope I never forget how sweet it is when you say it
- You like to look at pictures of puppy's on mommy's iPhone
- You also like to record videos of yourself and then watch them and imitate what the video is doing
- You call any and every kid around your age, older than you or younger than you "baby"
- A kid at daycare calls their blanket "dee dee" so now you always call your blankets "dee dees" and you love your "dee dees." If you see one of yours you need to take it with you or take it to bed or you cry
- You also are obsessed with mom's boppy pillow. You call it a "bumbo" and sleep with it every night.
- Daycare calls you a nurturer - she says you pat other kid son the back when they are crying or try to give them a toy when they are upset
- The older you get the more I see those nurturer skills in you. If someone coughs or sneezes - you will say "momma - you okay?" actually you will chime in when anyone coughs or sneezes to say "okay?", when mommy was sick the other day you said "mommy sick - uhhh" in a sad voice and when we are taking a nap together you will rub mommy's back or stroke my cheek like mommy does for you when you are going to sleep
- Daycare also says that you are always teaching them something but the stories usually involve you showing them boogers as "icky" and trying to get them to take them
- You love to brush mommy or daddy's hair. Your favorite part is the water spray bottle and then you like to put bows in too
- Not only do you love doing hair but you also love it when mommy paints your finger and toe nails - "pretty" you say. You are such a little girly girl
- You take a while to warm up to new people but once you do, you are all in
- You started saying "excuse me" after you burp and you are doing better with all of your manners - "please", "thank you", "your welcome"
- You started gymnastics in January and you LOVE IT! You get so excited to go every Monday and you love going from station to station to get all the stamps you can get. You can do a somersault on your own now too and you are really good at your "ta da's"
- You also love to hang on things like a monkey. You hang on any bar you can see including trying to hang on carts in stores, etc.
- You love to take showers and would stay in there for hours if we would let you
- You love baths with bubbles
- You went through a stage where when you didn't know the word for something you would call it "ga ga"
- You love to color, especially with markers
- You can say full sentences. Your favorite "I wanna go bye bye." You love to repeat things too.
- You sing all the time and can use anything as a microphone to sing us a tune.
- You love to put your own lotion on and want to put lotion on every time you see the bottle
- You transitioned into your big girl bed on August 21 and you do great with it. Only took a few days to get you to stay in it. You still are a crazy sleeper and mommy comes into the room and you are half on the floor or totally turned around in bed. It's partly because you have so much stuff in your bed it doesn't leave much room for sleeping. You insist on sleeping with your big (about 2 ft long) pink puppy, your bumbo, your elephant (that plays rock-a-bye baby that Parker gave you), 2-3 pillows and about 6 blankets. It's a funny site in your little toddler bed.
- You spent a week at Grandma and Grandpa D's with your cousins and you came home with Parker's eye roll :-)
- You had your first fever for mom and dad at 102.5 but you still acted fine - were just hot
- Love watching other kids
- You like to swat flies with the fly swatter when you see them
- You are amazing with your iPad already. It's crazy how fast you picked up on playing the games by yourself. You love to do puzzles, have books read to you, play candy crush, watch movies, look at puppies and play with your baby spa or puppy grooming game
- You had a trip with the Dschaak family to Ft. Myers, FL for a week and it was a blast with tons of swimming
- You feel the need to snap your own buckles on your car seat or booster seat
- You will sit and play by yourself for a few minutes at a time - a nice treat for mom and dad
- You LOVE to swim! LOVE IT! You can swim all by yourself with just floaties on really well already. It really impresses mommy
- You say "eat" when you are hungry
- You know most every animal and the sounds that the animal makes
- You will randomly shout out that you are "happy, happy" then ask if mom or dad is "happy mommy?" "happy daddy?"
- Love to play ring around the rosie - especially if your daddy flies you around in circles
- You say your name all the time now but mostly to say something is "Leah's"
- You prefer eating sitting at the kitchen island on the bar stools rather than on your booster chair at the dining room table
- You had your first store meltdown at Wal-mart over not getting a toy you wanted. It was over the shopping cart noted as a favorite toy below. We ran into Chas at Wal-mart after the breakdown and the cart was delivered to our house the next day -- such a spoiled little girl :-)
- You do have a little attitude and you will hold our pointer finger up and tell mommy "no, no mommy"
- You love playing with your babies and pushing them around in their stroller or shopping car
- We started potty training on January 17. You are doing well although mom just wishes it was over with. You are better at going poopy in the potty than you are pee but we will get there. Unfortunately "chips" doesn't work for you anymore so we will have to find a new treat.
- You think it is funny to pretend sleep in the car or at home when daddy wants to give you a kiss - you love to mess with your daddy
- You know all the kids names at daycare and say "bye" to each of them every single day
- You can take off your pants and some shirts by yourself
- You are starting to want to pick out your own clothes - especially your shoes - you will tell us when you don't want to wear the ones we picked
- I think you have all your teeth in but I'm not sure - your mouth looks full. You love to brush your teeth especially running the toothbrush under the water
- You still love to dance
- Favorite foods: ketchup, ranch, white powered sugar donuts or cottage cheese. You could eat cottage cheese every single day
- You also like bananas and apples
- You must have your spoon (fork or spoon) anytime you eat, even if you don't need to use it
- Your favorite songs: Rock a Bye Baby and Ashes, Ashes - We All Fall Down
- You sing Rock a Bye 'mommy' or 'daddy' or whoever and really like that song sang to you before you go to sleep
- Favorite TV shows (and you really love t.v.): Paw Patrol, Dora, Bubble Guppies and you recently starting really liking Sofia the First
- Favorite color: blue
- Favorite toys: cash register, shopping cart, babies, scooter, little people castle
- You are in size 4 diapers (or pull-ups now as we potty train), mostly 2T clothes but some 3T shirts fit you because of the length
- Your recent favorite sayings are "no way", "I don't know", "I want to" and "don't mommy"
- You are stating to learn to count but usually get stuck on some of the numbers. You do pretty well up to 5.
- You make us smile and laugh every single day. I never get sick of your sweet little voice and personality.
Love you to pieces little girl!
