Two and a half

I have been referring to Blakely as 2.5 for a month or so but I knew that technically she wasn't.  Until last Sunday.  EEP!  Since this is a pretty big milestone and I haven't done a Blakely lately post recently I thought I would jot down a few things she is doing now.  You know the drill.  Feel free to skim!  

EATING:  She goes through phases with eating.  Some times she wants to eat all day every day and then she will go a while just picking at her food.  I have no complaints because she is a good eater and always has been (thank you B).  She will try new things and she likes healthy food along with the not so healthy.  She has been getting more "treats" that I would like lately.  Occasionally at MDO they give the kids skittles if they help one of the teachers with something or for going to the potty.  She doesn't get them for pottying since she's been doing that for over 6 months but she does like to help them clean up or close the blinds or whatever.  I think it is okay since she is only there 2 days a week.  

Some of her favorite foods are

anything (and I mean anything) dipped in ranch dressing.  

cauliflower

peas

quesadillas

any kind of chip

eggs
corn
cashews
macaroni and cheese
yogurt

She loves all fruit but especially strawberries, raspberries and blueberries

(As I was writing this I asked her what her favorite thing to eat was and she said strawberries.  So there ya go...she could write this post herself.)  

She is pretty good about trying anything but she HATES tuna fish.  I have tried many times over the past year and she just isn't going to go for it.  I'm actually okay with that because Lonnie hates it too so it is the only thing that I can make and not have to share with anyone!  

This is random but it has been going on for a while so I thought I would document it.  For the most part Blakely wants to have her food separated on her plate.  She isn't really interested in any casserole that I make but if I put the exact same ingredients on her plate just separately then she will chow down.  This drives me nuts.    

SLEEPING:  Ehh.  Sleep has been hit or miss since she turned 2.  Around that time we went through a crazy phase where she would wake up at about midnight screaming her head off.   Like screaming before she even woke up or stood up in her crib.  I would go in and get in her queen size bed that is in her room with her.  I was being lazy because I was super tired.  I knew she would go right back to sleep with me.  After about month of this I knew I needed to break the cycle.  It was rough but I did.  Then her sleep was fine for a while.  Now we are back in a stage of waking up screaming bloody murder.  Thankfully I can calm her down after 10 minutes or so and she will fall back asleep in her crib.  The main problem with this is she won't let Lonnie calm her down.  She screams and screams for MOMMY!  Makes me sad but at least I can calm her down.  Also, crib. for. life.  I am so not ready to move her to a big girl bed.  I think part of this is because it is the last "baby" thing and I am hanging on to it for dear life.  

POTTY:  Blakely has been potty trained since last summer.  She has been napping in panties since the beginning of the year.  She was still in pull ups for naps at MDO but would always wake up dry.  I told them to start napping her in panties a few weeks ago and she has done fine.  I knew she would since she naps 4 out of seven days at home in panties with no problems.  For some reason I just never told them to stop using the pull ups.  Anyway, I don't have to buy pulls ups anymore.  She still sleeps in a diaper at night.  I am in no rush to change that.  She wakes up wet in the mornings but it is starting to get less and less wet.  Now she wants to immediately take off her wet diaper when, up until a month or so ago, she didn't mind leaving that wet diaper on for a while.  So we will see how that progresses but I am not pushing it.  Mainly because she is still in the crib so I would have to get her out to help her go in the middle of the night.  (Random but she woke up dry this morning and was so proud of herself and asked for a marshmallow?!)  

CLOTHING:  She wears mainly a 3T.  She can wear some 2T shorts but not pants because they are usually too short.  My girl is tall.  Sidenote...I am obsessed with toddler clothes.  I didn't really buy her much stuff for the winter because she could wear most of the stuff from the winter before.  (Since she was in cloth diapers then her clothes were a size or two up..so they still fit once we ditched the diapers).  Now that it is warming up outside I realized she had no spring/summer clothes.  She had a few shirts that barely fit but they were very worn and borderline crop tops!  So I went on a little shopping spree.  I've been getting about a package a day for 4-5 days and holy fun!  Unfortunately for Lonnie she seems to be as excited to try on her new clothes as I am buying them!  

When I was doing the online shopping with Blakely in my lap I came across some adorable leggings and said HOLY!  Blakely immediately chimed in with SMOKES!  Can we talk about how happy I was that she didn't say shit.  Because that is definitely what I thought was coming out of her mouth at first.  

TALKING:  I love listening to Blakely talk.  She is in the stage right now where she has conversations with her stuffed animals.  I love eavesdropping on that and seeing if I can figure out her little convos.  It usually consists of her asking Minnie if she wants some tea, giving her the tea and then asking her if she likes the tea.  Or a whole conversation about going "night night" and "time to wake up".  She asks soft bear if he wants dinner.  Then she says okay me make you dinner.  Yummy!  I love watching her imagination come to life.  

She is sort of obsessed with peoples names right now.  She asks me all the time "what's her name?" or "what's his name?"  She does this in public or she will point out every character in a book and ask me that.  If I know the name I will tell her and she never forgets.  If the character doesn't have a name then I tell her she can make one up.  Usually she names people Susie (shoo-dee) or Olivia (uh-wib-ee-uh).  

She still mostly refers to herself as "me".  Occasionally she will say "I" but mainly it is "me do this or me do that".  I correct her occasionally but I'am not crazy about it.  I will miss it when she corrects herself.   

On Sunday I told her it was her half birthday.  She said "What?  No, mom, it's my WHOLE birthday!"  Ha!  

SCHOOL:  She goes to MDO 2 days a week and she goes with Juanet 1 day a week.  I love this schedule and we are planning on keeping it next school year as well.  We won't have Juanet in the summer but MDO has just changed and they are going to be open just two days a week during the summer so we are going to still do that.  Blakely loves going to school and doesn't usually have a hard time when I drop her off.  I think it is a great place for her and she learns new stuff all of the time.  They say she is a little mama there.  Always checking on the babies (they have to be a year old to go so they aren't really babies) and rocking the stuffed animals all the time.  She tells me about all the other kids each day when I pick her up and she knows all of their moms too!  I don't even know that.  They also tell me that she likes things put in their place.  They've mention this a few times.  When they pick up their toys she has to make sure they are put up in the right spot.  Or when they stack the carpet mats up after learning circle she has to make sure they are stacked just right.  She is a little OCD like this at home too but I don't think as much as she is there.  Hey, at least she is cleaning up!  

She absolutely loves going with Juanet and when she comes to get her in the morning she runs right out to her car and hops in.  They go over to Juanet's friend's house as she keeps her little boy too.  Blakely is in MDO with him one day and with him at his house one day.  They are great friends and pretty darn cute.  She missed a week when we were in Denver and he told Juanet that he missed Blakely.  Then he told her that he wanted Blakely to come be his cheerleader at his t-ball game!  How adorable is that?  Juanet is so so good with them and I just can't say enough how thankful I am that we have her.  She is just the best and I know she takes wonderful care of my baby girl.  

ATTITUDE:  Well I know I have said before that my girl is sassy.  She is.  There is just no getting around that.  She has a little attitude but for the most part we are able to keep that in check.  The good news is that she is not this way at MDO or with Juanet (for the most part).  She saves all of that up for me.  Ha!  She doesn't give them any trouble but I do know that she watches everything the kids that DO get in trouble do.  Then she breaks that crap out at home.  Thankful for that, at least.  At the point of this writing (because it changes every day) she will listen to me if I threaten to give her a timeout.  But I only threaten it if I am going to giver her one.  She knows that and that is why I think she listens a little better now.  She hates timeouts and cries so hard when she does get one but she will stay in the chair so that is good.  It seems to go in spurts where she will get a bunch of timeouts for a few days and then she will mind well for a few days.  

OTHER TIDBITS:

This girl loves her gymnastics.  I am so impressed with how well she minds there now.  It used to be me chasing around a crazy child.  Now she does what the coach (?) asks of them and she is patient in waiting her turn.  Awesome.  

She has pretty good manners!  She says "pees" and "shank you" all the time.  She is now saying "no shank you" when she doesn't want something she's been offered.  We are working on "ma'am" and "sir".  Don't get me wrong though, here are plenty of times where her manners are terrible (screaming that she is done with dinner and WANTS DOWN NOW)!

She still loves singing.  It is a new song or rhyme every week.  Last week I heard her singing something about a turtle.  Then she would mumble a few things and then yell POP.  I kept asking her to sing it again and again so I could figure out what it was.  Finally I realized she was singing Tiny Tim.  Once I figured it out she was so excited!  I had to google the words so I could sing it with her.  I asked her who taught her that song and she said JUANET!  So thankful for Juanet loving my baby girl so much.  

The other day I heard her say something about God.  So random.  Then I paid more attention as she was talking to her peeps at her table.  She was saying "God is great.  God is good.  Let us thank him for our food.  A man."  Ha!  I know she didn't learn that from me so I asked her where she learned that.  She said at school during lunch.  I was unaware of this but it is a church program so I'm not surprised.  I guess what surprises me is that I can ask her these things and she can tell me.  So grown up.  

Soft bear (in the pictures) is her main peep right now.  We have a big one and a little one.  I usually sleep with the big one and she sleeps with the little one.  He goes to MDO with her too and she talks about him all the time.  

They had Dr. Seuss week at MDO at the beginning of March.  Since then she loves to read those books.  We have 4-5 of them and she always wants to read "just one more" before going to bed.  I'd say her favorite is Go, Dog, Go.  She can practically "read" it to me.  Which basically means she has memorized it.  

Speaking of memory, I swear this girl doesn't forget anything.  It honestly amazes me and kind of freaks me out sometimes.  While driving she points out everything she recognizes.  If we go somewhere new she never forgets that place again when we drive by.  I guess I just didn't realize how much she would remember at this age.  She remembers stuff from many months ago.  She has quite a few of her books memorized so I will let her "read" them to me sometimes.  Pretty cool but it means Lonnie and I can't get anything past her.  If we tell her we may do something then she holds us to it.  The days are gone when I could bribe her to go down for a nap by telling her we can paint when she wakes up and then hoping she will forget it.  Oh no.  She wakes up yelling "Mommy!!!  Me paint!"  

We have moved on from Mick.ey!  I repeat...we have moved on.  This mama is so happy.  Now I love me some Dis.ney but I just felt like she had learned all that show could teach her.  And I was so annoyed by it too.  Anyway, now she is obsessed with Bubb.le Gup.pies.  I do like this show because it teaches her different things than MMCH and apparently my child likes dinosaurs.  Who knew?  She only gets to watch 2 episodes a day when she is home with me all day (before nap and before bed) and one a day on school days (before bed).  

This is a totally random story but it's funny so I want to mention it.  I have a huge pimple on my face right now.  Like haven't had one like this since high school.  Anyway, here is a conversation with Blakely about it.  
B:  You have a mole on your face mom.  
me:  No, babe, that is a pimple.  
B:  WHAT?  Mommy has three nipples! ONE, TWO (as she points to my actual nipples) and THREE (as she points to my pimple)!!

Then she ran proudly to Lonnie and told him about my three nipples.  

Let's hope she doesn't go to school saying that today.  :/

Happy 2 and a half sweet and sassy B!