Two Years Old

Goodness gracious, I don't have a baby anymore. Lydia turned two last Saturday. Two years old! And gosh, this is such a fun age. Lydia is learning new things every day.

Enjoying a morning in the park

Attempting a somersault

Going for a swim

She can talk. Over the past few months Lydia has moved on from just repeating what we say to actually communicating with us. She tell us what she wants to eat or drink: water (sounds like "wager", juice, milk (sounds like "mulk"), peanut butter (sounds like"pita butter"), ice cream, cheese. She tells us what she wants to play with or do: outside, run, walk, blocks, bubbles, balloon, nap, sleep sack, bed. And how she feels: sleepy, scared, happy. The list goes on and on. It is so wonderful to be able to communicate with her! Although sometimes when I ask her what she wants for lunch or supper she'll say, "Ice Cream!" Gotta love that! Her birthday weekend she said a 4-word sentence, "I want this pizza!" We are trying to teach her to say "excuse me", "please", and "thank you". She likes to say them, but never at the appropriate time of course. Case in point, one afternoon she danced and played outside with bubbles while saying "excuse me" over and over. Ha. I still can't get her to say "please" when she asks for water. She just kind of freaks out and yells WAGER WAGER over and over until you get it for her. If I ask her to say please, she basically has a meltdown.

She can sing. At any moment she might break out singing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, the Alphabet Song (it's a jumbled mess, but she loves saying "X"), Itsy Bitsy Spider, or This Little Light of Mine. I play the Pandora Toddler Radio station a ton. She just loves it so much. We sing and dance together to it in the mornings while I get ready for work. She loves songs that have movements like London Bridge (we do our arms up and down on the first verse, side to side on the second), Ring Around the Rosie (she loves to say "Ashes Ashes...FALL DOWN"), Wheels on the Bus, and If You're Happy and You Know It. I have so much fun teaching her all of the movements, and at this age she just eats it up!

Lydia is really easy to entertain these days. She likes playdoh, coloring, and bubbles. She loves being outside where she can gather sticks, leaves, "eggs" (egg-shaped nuts from the hickory tree), and pick all my flowers. We are working on colors. She can point out the correct color when you ask ("Which color is yellow?") but she can't tell me a color with accuracy quite yet ("What color is this?). She can count to ten, but six is her favorite :) For a long time it was 1,2,3, 6,7,8,9,10! I have started on 11 and 12, but she hasn't said those yet. The child LOVES Peppa Pig. She asks to watch it all. the. time. We try to allow only 30 minutes per day, but it is tough!

Lydia's daily schedule and routine hasn't changed much. Up by 7 am with a bedtime at 7:30 pm. The biggest new development with her routine is that she started at Montessori school! That's a whole new post that I'll get to this weekend I hope.

Lydia is finally tolerating cow's milk! Gosh that is such a relief for me. We had to do toddler formula until almost 20-months because dairy made her terribly constipated. We now do 8 oz whole milk (from Oxford's own Brown Family Dairy) in a bed time bottle and 6 oz in a morning sippy cup with a scoop of PediaSmart (like PediaSure, but not full of weird chemicals) added for extra calories. We're still trying to fatten her up. At her last checkup in July she was only 17 pounds... still not on the growth chart.

Lydia and Mimi

Lydia and Mommy

We've had some challenges since she started at school. A stomach bug hit us hard the second week, and Lydia's had trouble with dairy again every since. We're working through it. Also, we've started potty training, but it isn't going well. She's scared of the potty. I don't know why because we've had the potty for months, and I let her pretend to go on it for months before actually allowing her to go in it. I'm hoping that the resistance to it is related to starting school at the same time. Also, this past week she really, really disliked me and wanted her Daddy constantly. It broke my heart, but Friday she finally warmed up to me again.

So, about the blog... I don't get a chance to post nearly as much as I'd like. It is just hard to find the time and hard to know what to share or document here. I guess when I feel like writing, I'll write. And here's a hint: it will be about my garden, my kid, or food.