2 years

My baby girl is now 2 years old.  I want to be able to look back at all of the things that she is doing right now.  Feel free to skim this one or just skip it altogether because it is going to be long!   
  
FEEDING:  I guess I will say that Blakely is a good eater.  We are going through a phase right now where she just wants to snack all day long.  I have a very hard time getting her to sit down and eat a meal.  When we sit down and eat dinner she will eat a few bites and then want to get down.  Then 30 minutes later she is raiding the pantry.  She rarely wants to eat breakfast and only eats some of her lunch at school so I am assuming that is why she wants to snack all evening long.  At first I was just letting her snack because I figured she was hungry but I am going to try to cut down on that to get her to eat more "meals".  I was thinking I would try for dinner and then a heavy snack before she goes to bed.  We will see.  

Some of her favorite things are :
apple slices (still has trouble with the peel)
peanut butter (eats it by the spoonful)
Annie's cheddar bunnies (or cheddar squares)
chips (any kind.  I can't keep them in the house or she will find them.)
baby carrots (I think they feel good on her molars)
pasta (always have to dip it in something)
nuts (any kind really but her favorite are almonds an cashews)

she made dinner...

chip thief

SLEEPING:  Oh the sleeping.  I may have to write an entire post on what is going on in this department.  She has always been such a great sleeper and we have never had a hard time putting her to bed.  That all changed about 2 weeks ago.  A few different things are happening.  
1.  She doesn't want to go to bed.  She stalls and stalls.  We don't usually give in but she knows exactly what to say to make us think about giving in.  "More pee pee" and then if that doesn't work she tries "Blakely poop".  Smart girl that one.  Sometimes she goes to sleep after a few minutes of crying and then other nights it takes over an hour.  On the long nights one of us usually goes back in to calm her down which is why I am sure she keeps crying.  Sigh.  
2.  She is waking up in the middle of the night completely and totally hysterical.  I am not talking whining and crying.  I can handle that.  I am talking full blown screaming and crawling to get out of her bed.  Yelling so much she coughs and gags and gets choked and /or vomits.  She goes from sleeping to hysterics in like 5 seconds.  She sounds scared and that I can not take.  I go in there and she either a) immediately lays back down but freaks if I try to leave the room or b) stays hysterical until I pick her up.  This has led to me sleeping in her room for the past week or so.  
3.  She doesn't want to nap when she is home with me.  They tell me that she naps at school but it isn't always a long nap.  She naps for a good 1.5-2 hours when she is with Juanet.  I know part of the problem here is that one of her teachers lays with her until she falls asleep.  She wants me to do that at home and that just isn't happening.  I left her in her room for an hour on Saturday and she cried for the first 10 minutes and then she just whined and talked to her babies (which is why I let her stay down there for an hour).  So we have had no naps for 2 days.  She is with Juanet today so I am curious to see what happens there.

I know all of this is just a phase and it will get better soon.  I also know that I do not mind snuggling with her one single bit!  I watched her sleep for an hour last night before I fell asleep and it was so good.  She was holding my hand so tight and it made me wonder why I even try to get her to sleep by herself. 

Here is a list of the MUST HAVES in her crib at night.  I want to remember this because I slept with my soft bear until I met Lonnie.  Don't judge...  ;)
pillow
Minnie
Big soft bear
Little soft bear
Jaffy
Dotty
Baby Doll 

attached to mommy

TALKING:  This girl talks up a storm as I know I have said before.  She is definitely talking in sentences and it is pretty weird to hear that.  This morning she said to me "wash Blakely's hand pink soap please".  We can have full on conversations.  Well I guess you would call them that.  They usually go a little bit like this.  
Blakely: "Mommy sit pink chair"
Me:  Okay.  (I go sit in her pink chair.)
Blakely: "NO!  Mommy sit dis chair"  (points to her rocking chair)
Me:  Mommy's booty is too big to sit in that chair.  
Blakely:  "Mommy big booty.  Otay...Mommy sit down here" (points to the floor)
Me:  Okay.  Do you want to sit on the floor with Mommy?
Blakely: "No ma'am mommy.  Blakely sit pink chair."  (I know...ma'am.  must be from school)

Basically she bosses me around all day.  Ha!  

She talks so fast sometimes and I have to tell her to slow down and say her words correctly.  Instead of saying "baby doll" she will say "bay doll".  Or when she is saying Blakely (which sounds like Boppy) she will shorten it to just "BA".  She gets frustrated sometimes when I don't know what she is saying but if I can get her to slow down and "say her words" then I can understand her.  Now if I ask her to say something again she will look at me and say each word slower.  It is pretty cute.  

A few of the phrases I hear the most often are:
more eat please
more pee pee
up mommy up
Boppy go outside
hold mommy hand
play mommy hair
ME DO IT!

Some of the funny things she says...or things that sound funny the way she says them.  
Sit still sounds like shit.  
Princess sounds like penis.  This one if fun.  She will say "Mommy play princess!"  oh dear.  
She has started saying OH NO!  which is way cute.  "OH NO Minnie fall.  Kiss Minnie boo boo"
Football is still shitball.  

POTTY:  I am sure she will love that I put this section out on the internets but oh well.  She is fully potty trained except for sleeping.  All of her naps at school she wakes up dry (wears a pull up for nap there) and most of the time here too.  She isn't scared to use public bathrooms anymore so this is very helpful.  She is even to the point that she will hold it if I tell her too.  LIke if we are almost home or we are about to be finished with lunch somewhere.  We have had very few accidents throughout this entire process.  The only one I can even remember in the last month or so was when we were outside and she just refused to come in.  I  knew she needed to go but I wanted her to understand what would happen if she didn't go when she felt like she needed to.  So we stayed outside.  10 minutes later she looked at me with big eyes and said UH OH PEE PEE and bolted to our front door.  She had just gone a little bit in her panties but she didn't like it one bit.  I am very proud of her for doing so well with the potty.  And I am LOVING not having to wash and fold diapers!  

Ok.  Surely I am not the only mama who thinks this but when she poops she is so freaking adorable!  She will work so hard and then when she has success she will say "YAY!  Boppy BIG poopy".  I mean seriously.  It makes me laugh every single time.  I know she gets this because once we started potty training we would always do big cheers for #2's.  I had heard that some kids would pee on the potty but had a hard time with the other.  So when she would go we would basically throw a party.  Now she throws her own little party and entertains the heck out of us!  

TEETHING:  I know she is getting one of her 2 year molars.  It is about halfway in.  But I am pretty sure she is getting one or two more.  The amount of drool has increased dramatically and I catch her with her fingers in the back of her mouth often.  She has also started putting things in her mouth again.  Stresses me out.  I had to talk with them at school about it because she was putting little things in her mouth here and she hasn't done that in like a year!  She choked the other day on a little toy we had here and I freaked out.  I saw her putting it in her mouth and immediately said NO! and ran over to her to get it out.  Being the 2 year old that she is that just made her shove it further in her mouth.  Her eyes immediately got wide because she knew she couldn't get it out (she had it folded over and when she let go it unfolded and lodged).  Long story short, I reached in there and swiped it out.  It was very scary and we both cried after it was over.  She hasn't done anything like this since because I know it scared the heck out of her but I am still worried about when she is away from me.  

CLOTHING:  She wears a mix of 2T and 3T.  2T would fit her better except that the sleeves are starting to be too short and the pants aren't quite long enough.  My long and lanky girl.  Summer 2T stuff is perfect but for winter stuff she definitely needs a 3T.  She wear a 7-8 shoe depending on the brand. 

HAIR:  Her hair is a light brown and is fine.  I have no clue how she has fine hair with the coarse, thick mane I've got and the sheer volume of hair Lonnie has.  But fine it is.  She is getting more and more hair though and it does have a little bit of curl on the ends in the back.  

EYES:  Big blue eyes.  Just like Lonnie and I.  

WEIGHT:  I am guessing about 27 pounds.  I'll update this when I take her to her 2 year check up.  ****She weighed almost 29 pounds at her checkup and jumped up to the 75th percentile***

HEIGHT:  35 inches?  36?  I am guessing.  ****She measured 36.5 inches.  I think that is not quite accurate as she was squirming and didn't want to stand up against the wall.  I'd guess closer to 36 but either way she is a tall girl!  99th percentile!***

BLAKELY'S FAVORITE THINGS:
Minnie nightgown
Snow White doll
bubble baths

getting in the shower with mommy
pushing her babies down the slide

Mick.ey Mou.se Clu.bhouse (seriously trying to get her on to a new show)
letters (singing them, pointing them out, etc)
speed bumps
strapping herself in to things (grocery cart, car seat, booster seat)
hiding
playing chase (she prefers this with daddy)
playing "night night"...kisses each doll, lays them down and puts a blanket over them.  

being naked.  She says "BOPPY NAKEY!"
eating off daddy's plate
playing with mommy's hair
Wheels on the bus
seek and find books

A FEW OTHER THINGS....

Blakely can count to ten.  She gets to ten and then starts back at seven and repeats "Sheh-sheh, eight, nine, TEN" over and over and over.  It is pretty adorable.  

She is sort of obsessed with school buses.  I take her out to the school a few days a week and we watch them go by.  When we are driving down the road she can spot one from so far away.  She gets super excited and yells "Shoo Bus!"  Then she asks for a pink school bus...

She can sing the ABC's up to the letter V.  I am not sure what the deal is with W, X, Y, and Z because she knows them just won't add them to the song!   

Any time she sees words on a sign or something she points and yells ABCD!  ABCD!  This girl loves some letters.  

She is finally starting to get her colors on a consistent basis.  Lonnie was seriously thinking she was color blind.  (He also thought she was allergic to the sun when she was 2 days old....ha!)  I try to remind him that SHE IS ONLY TWO.  When she points things out to me she will say the color first.  (Pink shirt, orange balloon, red cup, etc)  

She loves going to school and going with Juanet.  We have no trouble at all when Juanet comes to get her or when I drop her off at school.  I am thankful for this and hopefully it will stay this way!  

She loves stairs, any stairs.  The child can find them anywhere but ours are definitely her fave.  

When watching MMCH she will gets very distressed if Minnie seems to be sad, hurt, or upset.  She will start whining and saying uh oh Minnie or oh no Minnie.  We can't watch the Wiz.ard of D.iz or the one where Minnie, Daisy and Pluto get carried away by the balloons (meltdown!).  Our girl is pretty sensitive to others being in danger or hurt.  Especially Minnie...don't be messing with Minnie.  

She loves to jump off of things.  She always jumps off of the last step wherever we are.  She jumps off of her pink chair, our ottoman, the big mats at gymnastics and is working on jumping off the couch.  This is scary for a mama.  She is good at it, I can't lie, but it gives me a stroke.  

Speaking of gymnastics, she is doing really well there.  Not that I care about her doing actual "gymnastics" because, let's be honest, I am paying to use their space to let her run around.  I don't give a flip about her becoming a gymnast!  In the beginning B wouldn't sit down to warm up and she didn't follow any instructions...she just wanted to run and play.  I don't blame her.  But now she loves singing the warm up songs and doing all the stretches. She lets the teacher show her new things and really does well most of the time.  I remember when we first started going thinking that there was no way my child would sit in a circle for 10 minutes and "stretch"...now she does.  Big girl. 

She is very independent.  She wants to do everything herself, from tying her shoes to climbing into the car herself.  She will get frustrated if she can't do it (ME DO IT!) and I always try to let her do it herself before I "help" her.  I hear "no help" a lot too.  

She loves going to GranDi's house every Sunday.  She knows that GranDi, Jenni (which sounds like GiGi) and Grandmama (GEEE-mama) are all going to be there and will basically do whatever she wants to do.  She also knows that we stop and get GranDi "ICE T!" on the way over.  

Jenni snuggles

NICKNAMES:

B

Blake

Blakey

Boppy

Buggy

Bug

B-bug

boo bear

Bop

B-bop

bopper

bugger

boo boo chicken

Dear sweet Blakely Ann,
     I can't believe you are two years old.  You are the most amazing little girl and I am so proud to be your mommy.  You make me laugh until I cry and not a day goes by that you don't show me how much you love me.  I am thankful for that.  Your kisses are sweet and your hugs are gigantic.  I hope you always give them to me freely.  I hope you know how much your daddy and I love you.  You are the best Blakely.  You are silly, sweet, smart, and sassy.  You are just everything.  There is no other way to put it.  Everything.  I am not sure how we got so lucky to have you as our daughter but I can tell you that we are thankful every single day to be your parents.  We love you buggy!