2 1/2 years

Today our little Luce Goose turns 2 1/2 years old. I know, it's not really a birthday. But when you only have 2 years of life to chalk up on the board, another 1/2 year is something to blog about!Lucy is such a darling girl. I love her to pieces and I'm so happy I get to hug her, kiss her cute cheeks, and dance around with her whenever I want. Of course I also get to clean up her throw-up, deal with emotional rollercoasters, and teach her manners...but that's all part of the fun.

Here's what she's been up these past 6 months:

* She's become a parrot. She copies many things we say.
* She's obsessed with saying "I don't know" and it's adorable each time she says it.
* At 2 years old she hated it when I sang. I tried not to take it personally. Well, now...she LOVES singing! In fact I kinda miss the old days of listening to the radio in the car. But we have fun. She has a repertoire of requests for me to sing and other songs that she knows the words too.
* She LOVES the alphabet. Her favorite song is probably "A, B, C's"
* She can spell or recognize a few words: Dog, Cat, Lucy, Mom, Dad, and Owen

* She's great at playing Make Believe. She will honestly play for hours with her animal toys or any object she's holding and pretend that they are people who need to go to Target, or the mall, or the park, or church. She walks them around on the furniture. They talk to each other. They go pretend swimming. It's real cute to watch and especially funny to see her doing it with something as dumb as fruit snacks. The other night she was tucking each individual fruit snack into bed with one of her rags. And people wonder why she doesn't eat? Come on.... food is for playing, not eating!

* She's still a fairly obedient child. We have no fence around our front or back yards. But I know that she's always near the house. She often takes her animals and crayons on the front porch, sits on a cinder block and hides toys in that pillar to her left:

In the backyard she likes to play with rocks, look for sticks (we do actually have toys too. This isn't 1820). She hides (and finds) Easter Eggs. And often she likes to push things down into the bushes, ask "where did it go?" and then answer her own question by finding it:
* She's confused Thank you with You're Welcome. When I ask her to say Thank you, she smiles and says You're Welcome Mommy. It makes me smile every time.

* When she wants to watch something on TV she says "Whatdoyou wanna watch?" She then makes me rattle off a slew of options and basically waits for me to say "Super Why?" At which point she lights up and says "Super Why?!" It's a very educational show so I don't mind her watching it.

* She likes the Disney songs: Following the Leader and Let's Get Together

* She loves Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. Grandma Linda has the whole figurine set. Yay! Going to Disneyland this time around is going to be a whole new experience.

* She still sleeps about 11-12 hours at night and will take a 3 hour nap during the day if I let her.

* She HATES trying on new clothes and usually bawls when she has to. I just try to ignore it as she says "take it off? off?" Eventually she comes around and is fine the next time she wears the piece of clothing.

* She loves to be out and about doing things. We often go to the mall to walk around and play on the toys: Her favorite thing about the mall though is the "Doggie Store", and not because she wants to see the real dogs in their kennels but because she wants to play with these fake dogs and you know, do the normal make-believe routine mentioned above: * She's very agile, loves to jump, dance, and these days...swing from anything that needs swinging:
* She's become a bit prissy. Sometimes she enjoys playing in the dirt and water but at other times, it drives her (and me) crazy. If she gets something on her hands, she'll whine at me that she needs to wipe them off. If she spills water on her shirt she whines that it's wet. What kid notices these things?? She's even funny when it comes to playing in the water. She likes to gather it in a cup rather than play in it. But sometimes it's hard to avoid:
(she does own a swimming suit but she had thrown-up on everything at this point) Which brings me to....

* She still drinks WAY too much milk. That's a project for next week, teaching Lucy to eat. I dread it. * She's got energy, energy, energy but at the same time she's not exhausting. She expends most of it on her own, playing and having fun. In fact I often get that comment from people who haven't been around her very much. "She never stops moving does she?" Nope. Even in bed, she's still reading stories or singing songs to herself.
* She's such a joy. Any of her little quirks are greatly out-weighed by her cute personality and adorable little face. It's so exciting watching her learn to talk and put words together. I'm just now realizing that the fun has only begun.

We love you Lucy! Happy two and a half!