Two-Year (Really??) "Miss"-cellany

I did a short post on Miss's birthday. Now I have some time to write about what my big girl is doing at two.

She is such a funny little girl. She's very active and curious. She is starting to get into pretend play more and more. She's enjoying dress up, taking care of her dolls, cooking in her kitchen, etc.

Here's she giving her doll a bath. The other day she was "feeding" her Elmo doll, by holding him up to her chest as if nursing him. She cuddles and bounces and "burps" her dolls, and I see her rocking and shushing them. She's such a good little mommy.

She's also an active little monkey. She loves to climb and romp. She can jump with two feet, balance briefly on one foot, and kick a ball. She likes spinning around, or being spun around, to get dizzy. She also has quite good balance. Today her fun new thing was "I wanna stand on Mommy's back." She managed to balance very well up there.

Yes, she's holding my hair here to get herself steady.

After she mastered balancing on my back, she thought it was very funny to jump up, straddle my back, and drop down on her rear end onto me. Yeah. Ha. Ha.

She loves music and dancing, but you knew that already. . . She is in gymnastics and music classes, each once per week. She sings a lot now. Sometimes she busts out singing all the words to songs that I can't believe she even knows. Like "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" and "Rock-a-Bye Baby." She knows these songs even though I'm pretty sure I've only sung them to her a couple of times. The other day she started reciting "Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed" word for word while we were driving in the car, except she didn't get the counting down quite right. It was adorable, by the way.

She loves reading and can recite many of her books, almost in their entirety. "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?" is one she can pretty much "read" herself.

Her language amazes me more and more every day in how rapidly it is improving. She nearly always speaks in complete sentences now. She sometimes busts out with the funniest and cutest things too. "It's pretty windy today, Baba," or "Don't worry Mommy," or "Just be patient Lass" (when Lass started fussing to eat and it took me a minute to get to her). When she says "no" to something, she often likes to give a reason. Like, "Miss, would you like a snack?" she'll say, "No, I too tired" (which sounds like "toy-ed") or "Let's put your socks on" she'll say, "No, it's too little." Too tired and too little are her her standard responses these days.

The other day she was rubbing Lass's hair and she noted that it was soft. She then commented that her own hair is soft as well. I asked her about Mommy's hair, and she agreed that my hair is soft too. Then I asked her about Daddy, and she said, "No, Daddy's pokey!" She can repeat nearly anything that is said to her or within her hearing. She is really into identifying people by name. Today she pointed to herself and said her name, then pointed to Lass and did the same, and pointed at me and said "Mommy." Then she said, "That's my family." After Daddy came home from work this evening she correctly listed all four of the members of her family. She is getting a little better at using the correct pronouns, though she still makes mistakes with this quite a bit. She knows all of her letters and the sounds they make. She is starting to be able to identify what letter a word starts with by sounding it out. She knows all of her colors and shapes. Seriously, I am amazed by the capacity of her two-year-old learning every day.

She loves to do crafts. Coloring, painting, gluing, etc.

Of course anything that she can manipulate with her hands is fun. Play-Doh squishing is a joy for her.

She is pretty good with her spoon and fork now, though she often chooses not to bother with them. She eats very well most of the time and is a pretty adventurous eater. She has always eaten dinner at the table with us and pretty much eats what we eat.

She loves her sister. She likes to get down on the floor near her and give lots of kisses and hugs. She calls her "Sis" and gets very excited when Lass "talks" to or smiles at her. She tells her that she loves her, which just makes me want to press the pause button and savor such moments with my littles.

I know I say this every time I do one of these posts, but I really love this age. Miss's personality is really emerging and I am enjoying her so much. She's smart and funny and sweet. She gives hugs and kisses freely and often without prompting. I'm so blessed to be able to watch her grow every day.

And in case you were wondering, Lass is 6 months old, and I'll do a post to update on her achievements very soon!