23 Months!

Talk, Talk, Talk!

That is how I would characterize my sweet Beanie's development the past month.

I love her constant chatter and watching her play with her toys with the adorable commentary, such as "Cow sit here", "Monkey sit here, alshow (also)".

She is routinely saying 6-7 word sentences now, such as telling my Dad the other day, "Dada, go outside and fix Gammy's car now".

Some other fun things to document:

• She loves singing songs. I catch her many times singing the ABC song or Twinkle Twinkle on the top of her voice. She can say most of the words quite well, some she cannot pronounce, but she can maintain the tune which I find fascinating. In fact she is now getting to a stage when she will sing the song in funny exaggerated way, just to make me laugh.
• She recently learned to say "cry". So the past week or so whenever she is getting sad about something sh will say "cry" or "mine cry".
• She still says "mine" not I, and calls herself "Dameena". 
• She is eating all sorts of foods now. See, I am so glad I did not stress over it. If you recall, the pre-school director was trying to get me all worried about it. It happens in its own time! Now Beanie is trying different cuisines and enjoys chicken, fish and beef.  Today I made organic taco meat and gave her mini burritos which she loved.  Her favorite is still Mac n Cheese!
• She is getting inventive, and makes up games. For example, she will put a toy car in front of her Thomas engine so the engine pushes the car along. Its interesting to see her try new things. I try to be very encouraging of such endeavors so she feels she can do things for herself and see if they work or not.
• She can soap herself during bath time and loves to put lotion. Again while I encourage her independence, a part of me is screaming - no don't grow up so fast!!! She loves helping me with diaper changes.
• On the potty training front, we are taking it really slow. I have a potty upstairs and downstairs and have told her to go sit on it if she feels she needs to go. Several times the last week, she has on her own accord, stopped playing suddenly and declared "mine go potty" and will sit on it for a few minutes. She is still dressed but its good start to get her into the habit.
•  She has a very sweet disposition and is very loving. In fact she is so well behaved that one of the other Mom's asked me about it - there was Beanie sweetly standing in the driveway of the school holding my hand while I talked to this Mom, while this lady's daughter who is Beanie's age was running around like a loon while her grandma tried to get hold of her.
• She is very much into "having a party". So everyday there are parties being had in all corners of the house. Some are tea parties, others are picnics (my niece has bought her some fun gifts).  The guests are all the various stuffed animals she owns- mouse, puppy, pig, goose, cow, panda, lion, the list goes on. We make pretty table and cook a plate full of food in her kitchen, eat and sing songs. BTW I love the soft toy fruits/veggies from I.KEA.
• She knows her birthday is coming and says she will be a "big girl" and will be "2".

This is such fun age, but I say that every month I think ;-)

Sure there are those frustrating moments of her not doing what is asked of her, but 80% of the times she complies without fuss.

I have to be creative though.

Last Friday she refused to go to school. "NO!!" she yelled when I said  "lets go up and get ready". I lured her upstairs somehow but she was still refusing to get dressed. So, I told her "okay well then someone else will get to eat your pizza lunch if you are not there today". (They get pizza for lunch on Friday.).

Boy, did she get dressed in a hurry and while I was tidying up the room, she marched out saying, "Bye Bye Mama see you soon!".   :-)

I love you, baby girl.  I cannot believe you are almost 2!

You are the sunshine of my life and bring me so much joy each and every day!