23 Months

Today marks just one month until our sweet girl turns two. TWO. 2. Whoa. It's crazy how fast the time has gone, and it makes me want to stop and cherish every single moment with her. Before we know it, she'll be all grown up, no longer just playing dress-up.

She has made some marked improvements in her vocabulary and is combining words to form these mini-sentences that are just too cute. Most everything she tells us is related to being all-done with something, like "all done with bath", "all done with cleaning", "all done with (insert food here)". She likes to tell us when we're all done with something also.

All day long we hear "help you?", which really means "help me", but she doesn't actually want our help. She wants to do it herself, but we are to be aware that she's struggling and we need to be on stand-by just in case.

All girly things are "oh pweepy" (pretty), and she wears necklaces nonstop. I found some old beaded necklaces and that charming teddy bear on a shoelace necklace, seen in the above pic, at our MOPSwap a few weeks ago and she's been wearing them ever since.

She loves to read her Bible and will bring it to me during random parts of the day to sit and read. She loves the picture of the formation of the sun, moon, and stars the best, because Daddy taught her about those one weekend. She points them out anytime she sees them.

She hates having her face wiped, though she asks to have her hands wiped after every meal.

More often than not, when she says, "uh-oh" and holds her hand out, it's because there is a booger on her finger. And more often than not, I forget this and absentmindedly wipe it off, and then realize I now have a booger on my finger.

Bear and Baby are still her constant companions around the house, and they are propped up in her crib every naptime and bedtime, tucked under their own special "beking" (blanket).

We play outside almost every afternoon with the neighbor kids. We have new neighbors that have a 3 year old daughter and they are quite generous with their toys and snacks. Everyone congregates outside to enjoy the glorious weather, and the parents get to talk and the kids play until dinnertime.

As a consequence of playing outside so much and making friends with the neighbor kids (all but one are girls), we now have 8 and 9 year olds knocking on the door asking if Avery can come out to play. Really, they just want her toys. Last night, they knocked 4 times. I told them twice that we couldn't come out that day, and I just didn't answer the door the other two times.

She is still loving to read to herself, and it's becoming much more involved. Her Yummy, Yucky book is a favorite, and she points out all the yucky things first, though she hasn't been able to name them like the yummy things. Today I overheard her pointing out the "ucky kitty poopoo". It's really labeled kitty litter in the book, but try explaining that one.

Discipline is something I think about all the time, simply because she's pushing boundaries and I'm never sure of myself. We have a system in place, but it's time to re-evaluate it. However, I have noticed that she is responding quicker to my requests, and I praise her a ton for obeying Mommy. Tantrums have decreased, as I'm able to explain why we have to leave, and what we get to go do now.

She seems to be stuck on hot chocolate, though we haven't had it in weeks. It's a constant request. She now seems convinced that Nutella is also hot chocolate, and this paired with some fruit seems to satisfy her.

We've reached a milestone in family relationships. She has been a little wary of some of her aunts and uncles, but she went to them with no problem this past weekend. Hooray!! She's recognizing people that we don't see as often, and it's such a relief for me, and I imagine for them, also.

We are still working on counting, though we only get as far as 2, and then sometimes she throws in the number 9.

On the way home from Bible study today, we talked about the sky, and everywhere we turned, there it was!

She also hops right into nursery, as long as her lovie is in hand. She helped herself to one of the worker's laps as soon as she stepped in the door today. She seems to know that a lap is a safe place until she can gauge the activity level of the other kids.

Anytime we drive somewhere, she asks if we're going to eat, or going to "eat fries?" We don't eat out that much, but she loves her some french fries!

She recognizes common patterns when driving, like going to a favorite friend's house or to pick up Luke from work or when we head back home. If she isn't ready to go home, she starts crying.

We're using training toothpaste now, though it'll be a long time before she understands "spit".

She has this insane laugh when she finds something hysterical; it sounds more like crying, and friends are always telling their own kids to stop pestering her and making her cry.

She loves to color, and she's mostly kept it on the paper, though her table and chair and a favorite book are now sporting some of her artwork.

And, more pictures to come like the one in this post. A friend of mine borrowed her for a practice photo shoot. She's working on building her website right now, so when we get more pics, I'll link to them. Isn't it great?!