Soccer Dad

Two years

At 1:15 AM this morning she turned 104 weeks old.

I'm not waiting for her actual birthday, which is September 4. After all she (and her sister) were both born (appropriately enough) on Labor Day.

I've developed a hypothesis about the terrible twos. She has gotten a lot more tantrum prone in recent weeks. More often than not her tantrum is a result of the difference between what she knows she can do and what she is really capable of.

Getting her dressed recently has become an adventure. She is convinced that she can dress herself, so when someone helps her, she gets very frustrated. She can pull on a pair of pants. But usually two legs are in the same hole. And she can pull a shirt over her head, getting the arms in are a little more of a challenge. But since she knows she can do it, she objects strongly when someone bigger tries to help her.

All of her clothes are "pretty clothes." And her pajamas are "pretty jamas."

The problem is that I seem to remember our other children experiencing the terrible twos when they hit three and were thus capable of a lot more and should have had less of these frustrations.

Her language continues to develop. For one thing, if there's something that she's trying to comprehend, she likely will repeat the word or words. She speaks in sentences if not with perfect syntax. Other than "my" or "mine" she doesn't really use possessives.

In fact a lot of her talking is narrating. "I open door." I suppose it's a way of becoming familiar with language. This is a very cute stage.

She likes to color. One of the challenges has been getting to color only on paper. When we open a book that's been colored on she'll observe that.

She's learning how to get off the ground. She has a unique jump. She'll jump and then jackknife landing on her backside. And she thinks that's a riot. It's actually a variation on something she used to do, which was jump down onto a box of diaper wipes.

Her favorite food is "macaroci."

Two weeks ago we went to the Catskills to visit her brother at camp. We found a pizza place, but it didn't have apple juice, so for the first time we gave her soda. Now she loves soda. On Shabbos, the only time we give the children soda, she asks for it now. There's no going back.

The other drink she really likes is water. Well not water by itself, but water in a water bottle. Any time she sees someone drinking water from a bottle she goes "water bottle," which is not a description but a request (or as these things are with a two year old - a demand.)

One of her favorite game - other than running away when we're trying to dress her - is when I lift her up and put her down. "Up and down." And she always asks to do it "agin." I don't always have the energy to do it as many times as she asks, but I do try to keep her happy. (Unlike the two children immediately older than her, she doesn't like riding on my shoulders.)

She loves when we read to her. She'll also ask to do that "agin."

She doesn't have a full set of teeth yet. In fact looking at her mouth you might think she had just turned 1. If you saw her height, you might think she was 1 1/2. But she does 2 year old type activities.

Her favorite object is her "wankee." She sometimes needs it for security, sometimes to go to sleep. Today when she went in for her nap, she lay down on top of it, and pulled another blanket over her legs. I had never seen her do that before.

Here are some pictures.
With her two older brothers at camp, a few weeks ago

Both of her older brothers treat her like a princess. Given they're absence from home she really appreciates them when they're around. She'll often mention them when they're not around and will run to them when she hasn't seen them in a while.

She treats our oldest daughter much like her parents. And our (nearly) 7 year old is her best buddy. I haven't quite figured out her relationship with our 9 year old. But they do get along very well.

Yes we've put her to work in the yard harvesting tomatoes.

She gets very possessive about the tomatoes she picks and puts into a bag. It's difficult to get the bag away from her. Hopefully we won't get into trouble for child labor laws.

On the way to Rita's

She's very sure of herself. She insisted on carrying the bag out herself.

At Rita's

Nothing like melting strawberry ice on a late summer day.

Running with her 9 year old brother

I love the way she runs. It's hard to imagine that she can avoid falling given her odd gait. But she runs just fine.

This post will be updated throughout the day.

Previous related entries:
23 months,
22 months,
21 months,
20 months,
19 months,
18 months,
17 months,
16 months,
15 months,
14 months,
13 months,
One year,
11 months,
10 months,
9 months,
eight months,
seven months,
six months,
five months,
four months,
three months,
two months,
One month.

Posted by SoccerDad at September 1, 2008 6:59 AM