Thursday, September 6, 2012

Slugger- 2 years old



Slugger

Age:  2 years old (and a month)
Weight: 25 lbs.
Height: ~34" tall
She is in the 25% for her age for weight and height.

Schedule:
~8 am Wake up
     She asks for milk right away which she drinks while watching "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse"
    Breakfast time
Noon- 1.5-2 hr nap 
2 pm  Lunch
5 pm Snack or early dinner
7 pm Snack or second dinner
10 pm Bedtime

Foods
Favorite: 
She loves scrambled eggs (fresh from our two egg-laying chickens, no salt or pepper), turkey bacon.  She takes after daddy in that she loves meat, sausage, bacon, kalua pig.  You have to give her the turkey bacon at the end of breakfast or she'll only eat that and nothing else.  She has started to eat cereal and milk out of a bowl with a spoon.

She loves apples and grapes but I think apples are her favorite.  Still true to her first loves of broccoli and zucchini.  And sadly, she recognizes the drive-thru of McDonalds and we hear "ies....ies....ies" from the backseat as she asks sweetly for french fries.

She's a horribly picky eater (just like her mom).  We struggle to find things...she'll try most things but she just won't eat most of it.  She'll eat a few bites and then proclaim she's done. Whereas if you give her something you know she'll like, she'll eat four times as much.  She's an avid snacker on goldfish crackers and veggie fries.  We hope between that and broccoli, she gets enough nutrition in the day.  She also seems to alternate meals.  She'll eat well at one meal and then hardly anything at the next meal.  She is going through a milk phase and asks for it throughout the day multiple times.  Just water and milk for this girl.

Language
It's awesome to reach a point where her comprehension is advancing.  All we have to do is ask and she'll help us find the remote, or throw something away, or bring something to us.  Her vocabulary is growing but it is still limited.  However, that doesn't stop her from having full conversations with everyone and herself.  Her favorite thing to to do is to call us by name

"Mommy?"

"Yes, Slugger."

"...baby babble"

pause

"Mommy"

"Yes, Slugger"

"...baby babble."

And this might continue on for a while or so.  Words she knows well
Mommy     Daddy    Nana    Papa (Grandpa Pat)     Stanton (uncle)     John-John
Baaaa (Brad)    cow    moo   hor-hee (horse)   minnie ( for both mickey and minnie mouse)
il (milk)   peash (please)    moa (more)    wawa (water)    eeyore and elmo (bedtime stuffed animals)
Scah (Scott, which she likes to yell out)

She went through a phase where she sang "Old McDonald" constantly and thus that became the theme of her 2nd bday party.  Now, I never hear her sing it...her new song is Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.  She can't talk  yet but she does the melody and sounds out the words and it's shockingly dead-on.

She also counts.  You can tell by the intonation and the fact that she's pointing to things as she does it...but it doesn't become intelligible until she hits "eight...nine...ten."  She can't count one...two...three.  But she knows 8-9-10.  Scott is trying to teach her 7...and we figure we'll work backwards from there.

She loves to sing.  She sings to herself (all babble and self-composed melodies) in the bathtub or when she's playing by herself.  We have a napkin holder at the table and it has a metal rod with a bulbous end...it becomes her meal-time microphone that she likes to use.

Milestones

-walks great
-runs
-can finally jump and get both feet to momentarily lose contact with the ground
-walks down the two stairs in our house without using a railing (scares us sometimes)
-climbs on everything
-can do a front roll (Uncle Ted helped teach her that)
-can draw amazingly well, loves to make circles and swirls
-just started putting two words together "moa peash" (more please)
-knows the parts of her body
-has fallen in love with pretending to cry or pretending to sleep

At 18 months, she was all about toys that made noise, music, or talked.  Now, she's obsessed with puzzles and books.  She has two books that she has to find things and those are her favorites.  "Where is this _______?"  She loves to draw.  We allow her to draw on herself.  Paper and her legs...okay.  Walls and furniture, not okay.

And she discovered the act of pretending.  At the end of every car ride, as soon as the car stops, she pretends to sleep.  She's actually got quite convincing that sometimes I think she's actually asleep.  She won't break character either as she helps you get her out of the carseat all with her eyes close.  She loves when we make a big fuss

"Oh, shhhhh, everyone, Slugger is asleep."

She starts to smile with her eyes still closed.

But if you bring up the idea of actual sleep...

"Oh, she's so tired...maybe she should go nai-nai"

She'll emphatically shake her head or say clearly "no,"  still keeping her eyes closed and the pretense going strong.  Then she loves "waking up" and we make a big fuss out of greeting her.

She's gotten a lot more affectionate.  She also watches more shows so she's happy to climb up on the couch and cuddle with you while she watches her shows.  We didn't realize she had so many favorite TV shows but she does watch them at her grandparents and babysitter's house.  It's not until she excitedly yelled out "Digo" while we were flipping through Netflix that we learned that she loves "Diego" and "Dora." "Super Why" and "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse" area also now permanently on our TiVo.  Still, her ultimate favorite and one that she starts going crazy as soon as it starts playing, Yo Gabba Gabba.  I can't stand that show so we rarely let her watch it at home...when she was sick, we let her have a marathon of YGG.

She hugs and kisses good-bye and has gotten really comfortable with the friends in our lives.  She wants to be anywhere but home.  She recognizes when one of us is putting on "outside clothes" and runs to the door.  She'll break down crying when someone leaves without her.  She's also become daddy's girl.  In my last trimester, I had a rough time so daddy and Slugger spent a lot of quality time together.  She still loves me but I do get jealous sometimes=)  I miss when she clearly favored me=)

We seriously love this age.  She's just adorable and fun.  She's quick to cry but quicker to laugh.  And now she's going to be a big sister.  Literally any day now.  Which is why I'm trying to quickly bang out this blog.  Part of my nesting routine was I put some serious headwork into her baby book and realized how valuable this blog was in looking up important milestones.

2 years and 1 month.  How amazing!!!

At the end of May, she visited her cousins on the Big Island and went
to her second rodeo.  I was nervous she would be terrified of cows and horses
up-close and personal but it was the opposite.  I had to run after her to keep her
from climbing into the pens with them.
She met her newest cousin, Anaiah, and got to play with her
favorite buddy, Zylin.  She's seen him just three times in her 
entire 2 year life but they have a closeness already.  She follows him around
and laughs at EVERYTHING he does.











Then a July trip in Maui to visit mommy's high school friends.  
We had a great visit to the lavendar farm.




And a small backyard party with family to celebrate her 2nd birthday party.
Theme: Old McDonald!









Her very first cupcake: Lemon cupcake no frosting...she LOVED IT!