Lucy is TWO

This is my very long and boring post to describe Lucy at the age of two. It is to document who she is at this age and her habits and personality. It will be long and boring.

Lucy at the age of 2 is by far my most spunky kid. She likes to say hello to strangers and tell them her favorite joke, "I throw up! Blech!". It's a great one. Kids think it's hilarious and adults immediately get nervous. She is a great talker and communicator. She has lots of words in her vocab and enjoys using them all. She still has her jabbering moments where no one is really sure what she is saying but for the most part we can understand most of what she is trying to get across.

Lucy has begun to have small temper tantrums. If she does not get her way she will fall face first onto the ground and start crying with her feet up in the air. Textbook tantrum pose. She also is not afraid to push her big brother or sister around. If she's sitting on my lap and one of them try to join in the snuggle she is not having any of it. She has a hard time sharing the screen when we are Facetiming aunts and usually shoves Liam or Caroline out of the way. She also likes to hit them. Usually she will hold her hand high above her head for about 5 seconds before finally bringing it down on her victim. Plenty of time to get out of the way or to block her in my opinion but Caroline hasn't quite figured that one out yet. Lucy also likes to throw her food on the floor to make Liam and Caroline laugh at her. Butters thinks this behavior is great as do the kids but mom and dad don't think its as hilarious. Lucy goes to time out for these offenses and understands that she has to say sorry to get up as well. Pretty good for just turning two in my opinion.

We are for sure at that stage where she is testing the waters to see what happens when I do this; how does mom or dad react? Such a fun stage.

Lucy loves to sing songs. We recently put the two girls together and moved Liam into his own room and this has resulted in Lucy singing 'Old McDonald had a Farm' over and over again until well past 9 pm. (before this in her own room she was usually quiet when lights went out) She also likes to pretend she is on the phone with any object. Sometimes its a magnet and other times its a block. She has a great imagination. Lucy loves her dolls and enjoys changing their clothes, giving them bottles and putting them to bed with a blanket. She also LOVES stuffed animals and usually has several different ones in her crib during nap and bedtime.

Lucy still takes one afternoon nap that will last for 1 1/2-3 hours depending on the day. But there are days where if we are busy she doesn't get a nap until later (rarely except for Thanksgiving day) and she is pretty content and still will play nicely with others without falling apart. She goes to bed by 8 pm or earlier and doesn't wake until 7:30 the next day.

She has started to become a bit more picky with her eating habits. Usually her favorite foods are grilled cheese, macaroni and cheese, sliced cheese or string cheese (notice a trend?), Cinnamon Toast Crunch, spaghetti and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. French fries and suckers are also a huge deal. We have had Halloween candy in the house for so long now she thinks that its not dessert unless its candy. So cookies, cake or pie do not meet her criteria for dessert.

Lucy loves books and being read to but also enjoys just flipping through pages by herself as well. Lucy loves to play any sort of imagination play with Caroline and the girls get along pretty well together. She also adores Liam and any time he plays with her it makes her very happy. Lucy also loves to draw and color with Caroline. Her favorite is markers; she likes to take the caps off and drop them on the floor, color with the marker, drop that on the floor and then move to the next color.

Lucy is very good at counting and can easily go up to 8 by herself. She needs help to go up further than that. We are still working on identifying any colors but she does enjoy singing some of the alphabet. With all of her practice taking her shoes and socks off she is very skilled at putting her socks back on by herself. She feeds herself with a spoon with no issue and loves to brush her teeth and wash herself in the bathtub. She has begun to request to walk instead of being carried as well.

She just had her two year wellness exam where she weighed 24 pounds (16th percentile) and 34 inches tall (61st percentile). She wears 2T or 24 month clothes and size 4 diapers.

We are so excited to watch Lucy grow up and see how her personality blossoms!

Lucy's 2!

This fun, spunky, loud little girl used to be a tiny little turkey. 

Where has the time gone? 

Caroline funnies

At preschool this week Caroline is learning the song, Feliz Navidad. She started singing her version of it for Evan on the way home.
C: "Belief Mama Doug, Belief Mama Doug."
E: "Uh, are you sure that's how it goes?"
C: "Yes."   #confidence

She also made us all aware at dinner time yesterday that she is going to marry a boy in her class named Killian. He told her that he was going to marry her. So I guess it's a done deal. #itstruemom #forreallife

Tonight on the way home from AWANA she informed me that a woman came to the school and talked about being a nurse. So when she grows up she's going to be a nurse, dentist and a doctor. She also still wants to sing and ride on a horse. #setthebarhigh 

Caroline also told us tonight that after she was done being a nurse for the day she would come home and give her two babies to Killian so she could go ride her horse. #holdmybabyimgoingriding

To which Liam replied, "Caroline, Caroline, Caroline, Caroline. You can't get married until you've dated. And you can't start dating until you go to college." #speakthetruth

To which I said, "Caroline if you want to be a dentist, doctor and a nurse; plus sing and ride on your horse you need to focus on school and learning, not on boys." #educationfirstbabiessecond

Another sweet tooth

Tonight at dinner Lucy and I had this conversation:
L:"All done!"
M:"Well, Lucy we still need to have fruit. Would you like oranges, peaches, pears, applesauce..."
L: "Candy corn."
M: "No, Lucy. Fruit first."
L: "Candy corn. Liam! Candy corn!" (meaning, Liam get me candy corn)
M: "Lucy, you can have candy corn but first fruit. Oranges, peaches, pears...."
L: "M, M! LIAM! M, M!!!" (now asking Liam to get her M&M's)

She did end up having peaches. And we did make her eat them before she got to have her dessert. Now that she's almost 2 she needs to follow the rules. Healthy food first; candy last.

on the verge of being 2

Lucy is on the verge of turning 2 and already has so much personality!

Lucy loves to sing. She will happily sing along with any song you are singing but many times she will approach you and start a tune or a Mother Goose rhyme on her own.

She also LOVES Moana. She will sing one of Moana’s songs “Away, away” and with Halloween right around the corner gets very excited when she sees Moana costumes hanging up at the store. Elmo is another favorite character whom she always wants to watch.

Lucy loves milk. This may sound obvious as she is a toddler but if you try to hand Lucy any other drink, such as water, she will furrow her brow towards you with a look of disgust and demand milk. Even if you assure her that we are out of milk and this is all that there is she will remain disgusted, refuse to take the offensive drink and cry. Eventually she will admit defeat as you will see her tiny hand reach up and take the cup. It’s adorable.

Lucy is incapable of riding in a shopping cart in the traditional fashion. It does not matter if I use the strap around her waist she will somehow turn herself around so she doesn’t have to ride backwards. It also doesn’t matter how short or long these trips are. She immediately turns herself to the side or completely around. Many times she also tries to stand up resulting in myself looking like an incompetent mother.

She also has decided that she cannot be bothered by wearing socks or shoes. Every time, and I mean every time, once in her car seat she will immediately remove the shoes that we just spent 3 minutes putting on before leaving the house, and then we will hear her crying in frustration as she works on pulling off the socks as well. Then once we arrive at our destination we have to discuss with her how she should just leave the shoes and socks on because she has to put them right back on. Did I mention that we are usually either right on time or late for everything? So the additional time to put the shoes back on is extremely frustrating. When I know we are going to be running late most of the time I don’t even bother putting them on her as I know they will be on the floor when we get there.

Lucy adores her big brother and sister. She always asks where they are in the morning when she wakes up and she knows that when she wakes up from her nap Liam should be home from school. She has begun copying her big sister but unfortunately that behavior so far is usually screaming. Less than ideal.

She is a big talker and always has been. For the most part her words are pretty clear but even six months ago she would try to have conversations with you which was just babbling but the look on her face was of complete seriousness as she knew exactly what she was saying to you.

So far I would say Lucy is a very driven, active, particular kind of gal. She sounds very much like her mother. Oh brother!

Caroline funnies

A recent conversation with Caroline:

C: "Mom, when I grow up I'm going to have 2 kids.  A boy and a girl."
M: "I think that sounds nice."
C: "Why do you have so many kids?"
M: "Um, I guess I just wanted to have three. Do you think that's too many or not enough."
C: "Definitely too many!"
M: "So who should we get rid of?"
C: smiles "Nevermind."

Caroline has also recently been enjoying pretending that she has a baby in her belly. This weekend she kept coming into the kitchen as I was doing the dishes, hiding a baby in her belly. Then she would tell me to look away so the baby could come out. She had 3 babies in the span of 5 minutes. When I congratulated her on triplets she corrected me by saying they were all different babies but that she didn't keep them, she liked giving them away.

A few weeks ago we met up with Ellen and Briggs at the pumpkin farm and then went to lunch with them afterwards. Ellen was encouraging conversation between Caroline and Briggs by having them discuss how their preschools were the same and different. While Briggs was trying to give an example to Caroline on how his preschool was different than hers, Caroline interrupted him by saying, "Briggs, you should really chew your food before talking. I can't even understand you!" Through my own laughter (and Ellen's) I corrected Caroline by making sure she knows that its rude to tell another person not to talk with food in their mouth unless they are the persons mommy or daddy. I know exactly where she got this table manner lesson; it's something that we say to Liam on a daily basis. Kids hear and see everything!

Piano

We are about a month into Liam learning how to play the piano. I would say he is doing extremely well so far. He has mastered where all of the white notes are, he has great rhythm and has already memorized some of his pieces. He understands the difference between forte and piano and his teacher says he is very aware of what he is doing while she is working with him. It helps to have Grandma Fink give us all sorts of tips as well so that our practicing sessions are great!

Liam practices about 5-10 minutes each day which is just perfect. He is beginning to understand that while a new piece may be difficult at first it doesn't take long for it to sound the way it should if he works hard at it. 

His teacher is just a few short blocks away so every week he and I get to take a walk together.  (without the girls!) I've discovered that these walks may be one of my favorite times of the week as Liam is usually very talkative about school or even just about anything. Last night we discussed the differences between crickets and grasshoppers and then about how the moon is getting larger every night. 

I cherish this one on one time with him. Even if it is just for 5 minutes. It helps me appreciate his personality and his thought process. I'm sure he doesn't think too much of it but he still wants to hold my hand which I know the time is ticking away for my little boy to think that that is no longer something to do in public with his mother. 

Maybe one day when he's an adult he'll look back at these walks and understand just how special they are. I already know.