The terrific twos are here! I honestly can say that I love this age. I know it will be full of challenging moments, especially as Evelyn develops a stronger will of her own and we clash on expetations. But, there is so much learning taking place during this time; her interactions with people and her ability to learn new skills are so much fun to watch-I love it!
So, here is a glimpse of where she is at now.
She never stops talking. No really. Never. She uses 6, 7, 8 word sentences easily and with proper grammar, saying things like, "I dropped my cup on the floor, mama get it please?" It cracks me up and makes me sad at the same time-she is turning into a little girl. It is really nice though because she can tell us what she wants and can also carry on a conversation about her day. When we ask her what she did in Toddlerville (her class at church), she'll say "Play playdough, make a camel with Teacher Kim." (Kim is much more talented at making playdough animals than I am!) or, "Ate fishie crackers at the table, sing Ring Around Rosie." How fun is that?! Her personality, likes and dislikes are coming through so much more now that she can talk and it's just a blast.
Cognitively she is brilliant ; ) She now recognizes all her letters, some words, knows how to spell her name, recognizes her numbers and can count to twenty. Recently Bard taught her that she has a left foot and right foot and now she knows that as well-much to my surprise! I love exploring what new concepts she can learn, like sequence of events, what happens on certain days, and how she processes information. I'm excited to see where this all will take her-what subjects she will like in school and what areas she will focus on-she has everything ahead of her!
Physically she is still exactly in the 50% for everything. Which is funny cause it means she is pretty much an exact mix of me and Bard! She weighs 27 lbs, 8oz and is 34 inches tall. At this age you can roughly double their height and get what they will be when they are adults-which means she would be close to 5 ft 8 inches. That is so crazy to think about! She just passed the milestone of being able to jump and get both feet off the floor and she can also balance on one foot, for a few seconds. She likes physical activity a lot more than she used to, she tries climbing things now, we go for walks almost every day and she can go much farther (about four blocks), she loves to march, gallop, and run. Her favorite though is to go to the park. She loves swinging and going down the slide. Yesterday while I was finishing dance class at the Y, Bard took her out to their little park to play for about a half hour. She had a total meltdown when he said they had to leave, crying and arching her back so he couldn't get her in the stroller. Ahh, twos : )
One of her favorite activities these days is listening and dancing to music-top three requests: I'm in the Lord's Army, Boom Boom Pow, and Mama Mia. Crazy girl! She also loves her baby dolls and will carry them around all day, feeding them, changing their diapers, putting them to bed and pushing them in the stroller. Her other two big interests are whales and airplanes. No, I don't know where that came from! She loves books about them, seeing real ones, pictures or videos on the internet and just talking about either one in general. If we could find a toy airplane flown by little toy whales, that would be a huge hit!
She still loves people and talks more about them than anything else. If we are going someplace, she knows who is associated with that place and will talk about him or her the whole way there. She has favorite people and will ask where they are and what they are doing. Right now one of her favorite people is my friend Leslie's little boy, Micah. They come over on Thursdays for Small Group and Evelyn talks about him all day. "Micah is coming at dinner!" or, "Eat chicken nuggets with Micah!" "Go to play in basement with Micah!" When he finally arrives she is so excited she just yells. It's pretty cute : )
I'm sure there are other milestones and fun things about this age that I am forgetting. She loves coloring and painting, especially with stickers. Whenever I am baking she always wants to help me stir and pour ingredients into the bowl. The moon fascinates her and we always look for it, day or night. Mostly, I am just loving this time. She surprises me, melts my heart and cracks me up every day.
When I was in my second trimester with Evelyn, the song, "Lady Marmalade" came on the radio. If you're not familiar with it, you're listening to the wrong kind of music! Just kidding : ) It's a very upbeat song that came out several years ago as part of the Moulin Rouge soundtrack. I love that song so I turned up the volume and when I did, Evelyn started kicking! She was dancing in the womb : ) Throughout the rest of my pregnancy I noticed several times that when I was playing hip hop/r&b type music, she would kick. I joked with Bard that she was a hip hop baby and it drove him crazy because he is a bit more on the alternative rock side (which I like as well) and not a fan of hip hop.
