At 2....

This is the last post I will do monthly about Collette! Now that she is a big, two-year-old girl, we can probably do away with the monthly updates! But since I mainly blog so that I can remember things, I'm going to do one last post about Collette at 2. :)

(And can I just interject that it is totally crazy to me that soon I will doing monthly updates about a new baby?!? Really.  Just insane.)

So Collette is two whole years old.  What's she up to?

~ She is a total chatterbox, and it is so fun for me to hear! We can have real conversations now, and she is talking in longer sentences.  She usually verbalizes what she's doing, even if I'm talking directly to her.  Like, tonight she was trying her pajama pants on her new Minnie Mouse, and instead of just doing it, she said "Where's Minnie? Oh, there she is! Put jammie pants on Minnie? El-phant Jammies. Uh-oh! No fit!"

~ She is so over her high chair.  She likes to be a big girl and sit on a stool at the island to eat, and will often ask for a "book" (usually a magazine) to look through while she eats breakfast. Wonder where she picked that up? LOL

~She is still a great eater.  She asks for yogurt every day; it may be her favorite food right now.  But she also loves all kinds of fruit, and most vegetables.  She's not a big fan of potatoes and other breads/starches-- which I find surprising. She will go for broccoli over mashed potatoes, and green peas over rolls! She loves her pasta, though! She still isn't a hug fan of meats, but she does like some of the "unhealthier" meats like hot dogs,and chicken nuggets, and she's a fan of meatloaf.  For snacks, she usually asks for raisins, goldfish crackers, pretzels, or apple. She also has a sweet tooth, and knows that Grandma and Pap keep candy (usually Hershey's Kisses) at their house.  She makes a bee line for them, but is good about only taking one.  If she takes one "for Mommy" she will always bring it to me. :)

~She still sleeps well.  Collette will usually go to bed around 8:30-8:45 and sleep until around 7am.  She is almost always happy when she wakes up, and we will hear her talking and singing and her crib. She usually will start calling for Daddy if we don't come get her.  Lately, she's been a stripper at night. :)  She has been taking off her footie jammies every night and just sleeping in her diaper.  She will keep her blanket over her, so I'm not sure if it's just the novelty of being able to take of her jammies, or what. :) Hopefully she gets over that soon! She hasn't ever had one blanket/animal that she HAS to have to fall asleep, but she will usually ask for a variety of stuffed animals and a blanket to be in bed with her.  She will usually nap for about 2 hours every afternoon, but if she falls asleep in the car or gets any sort of "cat nap" for even 5-10 minutes, she will not go back down!

~She is my great little shopper.  She likes to go shopping with me, and usually does very well on shopping trips.  Today when we went shopping she was in the car saying "Yay, shopping! I love you, shopping!" So cute.  She's also very excited to have her very own little shopping cart at home to play with. :)

~She is getting much more opinionated about her clothing and shoes (and let's be honest, everything else too LOL).  She likes to pick out her own outfits and has definite ideas about what shoes and jacket she would like to wear with them.  Since Halloween, she has been a big fan of wearing her Tinkerbell costume, and her "barkley" (sparkly) shoes, and she loves anything with a "character" or animal on it especially.

She loves her new Turkey shirt from Amanda at Stitched! She kept saying "Turkey! Gobble gobble!" :)

~She still loves books and is getting better at sitting to listen to stories.  She also loves playing with her baby dolls and stuffed animals.  She will often ask for me to pet her animals, and will rock, feed, and change her babies. She likes to color, use her new chalkboard, and play with play-doh.

(My little stripper getting ready to diaper her care bear)

~ She is very into colors right now.  She likes to point out the color of everything! She does pretty well with her pronunciations, but "green" always comes out more like "bean." :)  She also likes to point to letters and have us tell her what letter it is, although I'm not sure she "gets" that they are letters and they "mean" anything.

~She is starting to get more interested in shapes as well.  She can identify basic shapes like circle, triangle, square, and star, and is working on more. She also likes to count, although we are still working on getting all of the numbers right.  :) She does will with smaller numbers; she will tell me how many spoons she has as she gets them out of the dishwasher, etc. ("Here, Mommy. Three spoons!")

~She loves to pretend to talk on the phone. (I wonder where she got that? LOL) She will turn anything into a phone, and will usually call Mimi or Daddy, have a conversation, and then have me say hello before hanging up.  If I'm talking on the real phone, she will say "I talk! I talk! My turn!"

~She is still big for her age.  When we go to MOPS or Sunday School, she is usually closer to the 3 yr olds in height/weight than she is kids her own age.  At her doctor's appointment this week, she measured in at 35 1/4 inches and 30 lbs., putting her in the 75-90% for both.  Between that and her hair, people usually thing she's older than she is. :) So far, her height seems to be the only physical trait she has inherited from LL!

(Collette and Minnie waiting for the doctor in the exam room.)

~She is FINALLY getting some more teeth! I asked the doctor about her lack of teeth, and he said that while it's a little bit unusual, it's nothing to be worried about at this point.  Her two bottom eye teeth are almost in, and she is starting to get a top eye tooth.  She is still missing 4 teeth on top (or 3, if you count the just starting eye tooth).

~She is very compassionate.  If one of her cousins gets hurt, she will right over to hug and kiss them, saying "It's okay!"  She will also ask us if we are okay if we cough, etc. She's usually very polite, too.  She says thank you, your welcome, and please without prompting, most of the time. She really is a sweet girl :)

~Of course, she still loves her dogs, and has fun going to see and feed the pigs with me every day.  She says Bingo's name well, but still calls Byron "Bundon".  I'm not sure if it's just out of habit or if she really can't pronounce it :)

~She still loves Mickey Mouse and Sesame Street (particularly Elmo and Abbey), and is likes Dora now, too. She likes to read books about them as well as watch them on TV. My parents and grandpa got her a stuffed Minne Mouse and Minne outfit for her birthday, and she and Minnie have been inseparable!

~I haven't pushed potty training yet.  I figure that with moving to a new room soon and welcoming a new baby brother, we will have enough changes to adapt to. (Plus, Mama doesn't need the stress yet either! Ha!) She does ask to sit on the potty some, but I don't think she is really making the connection yet.

She is such a fun little girl, and such a joy to us! (And I really do mean "little girl"-- although her Daddy likes to call her "Baby," she is soooooo not a baby any more!) I can't believe it's already been two years!