Before having kids, two-year-olds and teenagers were always my favorite to work with. Now I’ve discovered how much fun babies are, and we’re definitely looking forward to that baby time with our little boy. But having this little two year old is great. She’s definitely become more independent, which is both good and challenging.
One of the sweetest things she does is saying thank you. She says thank you almost any time I give her anything or do anything for her. One of the other things I enjoy is the way she encourages me. When I go to the bathroom, she says “Yea! Good job, Mom my!” (especially in a public restroom). When I throw a piece of ice in the sink, she says, “Good shot, Mom my!” Or when I was using scissors, she said, “Careful of your little fingers,” and when I climb up on a stool to water plants, she says, "Careful, Mommy. Don't fall down."
I also love the way she uses a napkin when she eats. She always wipes her face when she gets food on it, although she doesn’t always get the food off. Some of her favorite foods are balsamic vinegar, eggs, and altoids. She really enjoys eating food out of the garden and has discovered she likes lettuce, tomatoes, and peppers, which she didn’t really care for in raw form before she picked them. She likes almost all foods except for things that are too spicy, though. And she loves eating at restaurants.
Some of her favorite activities are school time and Gymboree, especially the parachute time part of Gymboree. She also loves to cuddle and read books. She’s an entertaining little dancer when she hears music she likes. And she loves to play with, look at, or talk about animals.
It’s amazing the way her language has developed recently. Every week she’s picked up on some other part of the English language. I understand pretty much everything she says, although Joshua and I understand a lot more of what she says than other people who aren’t around her as much. One of my favorite words she says incorrectly is “ponytickles” instead of “ponytail” or “pigtails.” She now usually says her name as “Evawana” rather than “wana” which she’d been using for awhile. When someone asks her her full name, she usually first says, “Mississippi
Thankfully those fits she had a couple months ago only lasted a few weeks, and she hasn’t had any signs of them yet. We’re so thankful for that. She’s still nursing to sleep and nursing when she’s upset about something, but otherwise she doesn’t nurse much at all anymore. She now weighs about 35 pounds and is about 36 inches tall. She is still mostly wearing girls size 5 or small. I think she’s gotten skinnier since I stopped making milk, but maybe it’s just a coincidence in timing. If she’s still nursing when Baby Brother comes, which I expect she probably will be, then she’ll probably gain some more weight this winter. Thankfully she’s healthy enough that we’re not really worried about her gaining too little or too much weight at this point. Her schedule these days is generally fairly predictable, which, for me, is a welcome change from the last two years of not knowing when she’ll be needing a nap or whatever. She usually wakes up right at 7am, takes a 30-45 minute nap about noon, and then goes to sleep at 8pm. Her naptime is sometimes on me on the couch while I work on the computer, but usually it’s in the car while we’re on our way home from whatever our morning activity was. While I love my time with this entertaining girl, I kind of miss having a little computer time to blog, work, send emails, and all that sort of stuff (that I’m right now doing after her bedtime).
We love this sweet little girl so much. I’m so thankful for all the time I get to spend with her. And we’re glad for her health and enjoy her kind spirit. I’m really looking forward to this next year with her.
