Papillon: 24 Months

Tuesday was Papillon's 2nd Birthday. 

I just looked back at her 18month post and I think I need to get back to doing these posts more often! Soooo much has changed in the past 6 months. At 18 months I thought she wasn't a baby anymore, and now I look back at that age and she definitely looks like a baby compared to my all-grown-up 2 year old.

 At her 2 year check up she weighed 26lbs, and was 34 inches tall. Putting her right at the 50% for both.  She got a clean bill of health, and is on target for all her developmental milestones. Apparently the 2.5 year check up is mostly optional. And our pediatrician told us to skip it cause all the things he would look for then, she is already doing. So her next check-up isn't for a full year! Crazy!

 At 24 months, Papillon....

....sleeps through the night in her big girl bed. Usually 7:30 or 8pm until 7 or 7:30am.  Other than the few weeks following Ingrid's arrival where she slept by her door instead of in bed, she has been a huge fan of the big-girl-bed from the get got. She runs into her room and shouts "Jump on da bed!" (half the time she jumps onto her sofa, which she also loves.

....talks in full sentences, using various tenses, adding adjectives, possessives, and all around being able to say anything and everything she wants.  Its fun to see her work on learning a new word or new concept. Using the word "mine" instead of saying "Papillon''s" for example. Recently she worked out how to use "did" "do" and "does" and now uses them like a pro.  ( "I did jump on the bed"  "I do like it!"  We are working on teaching her to do more than just say "please" when we tell her to ask nicely. More and more often she succeeds in pulling out the "May I please have a cracker" rather than "cracker please".

...has reached the "why" phase. Everything you tell her gets a response of "why".  Eventually, when you run out of reasons, or you just don't feel like responding and you tell her something like "because mom said so"; she will respond with "why-cause", which is her way of answering her own question I suppose.

....has learned how to use her language skills and her adorableness to her advantage. The other day she came up to me, batted her pretty little eyes at me and held up two fingers, saying "2 please?" very sweetly. "Two what?" I say.  "Two lollipops, please" she says, just as sweetly. "No, you can't have two lollipops right now".  "Uh, ok. Just one!" very matter of factly.  How could I refuse! She has such good bartering skills!

....is still pretty shy.  She sucks her thumb with her finger up her nose (a habit we are working on) whenever a situation is too new or over stimulating. But she does love her friends. She plays Ring a Round the Rosy. After her birthday party (at which she was a bit overwhelmed and did a lot of just standing and watching the other kids play) she got up from her nap and the very first thing she asked was "where friends go??". 

...has a disobedient streak, but is generally quieter about it than other kids. On a recent mall-play-date, a friend a little younger than herself, got pretty tired and started screaming and throwing a little fit anytime her mom asked her to walk, or get in the stroller, or anything. Papillon got equally tired, and got a quiet mischievous look in her eye, and while walking along holding my hand, would sit/lay down on the floor of the mall and chuckle. Her sit-down protests may not have been as loud as her friends, but believe me, they were equally as disobedient.  We are currently working on a a time-out system of discipline; at this point, I would say that it makes sense to Papillon and works to re-set her rebellious attitude about 50% of the time.

...is all girl. Even though she will sometimes protest when I fix her hair, she loves having bows in her hair, shoes on her feet (preferably pink), necklaces around her neck (and arms, and everywhere), and has even let my sister paint her toe nails. ("Mimi paint da' toes!!" she proudly exclaims to anyone and everyone.  She recently explored a Claire's store with Grandpa, and oooed and ahhed over everything in there. She is apparently also very frugal because when my dad offered to buy her something, she firmly replied "no. no buy it."

...has a few favorite friends who she asks about all the time. And at night, when we pray before bed time, she insists that we pray for them.  It may be a pre-bed stall tactic, but its also very sweet. So we take time to pray for all her friends, every night.

...can count to 12 (most of the time), recognizes a few letters (O, H, and a few others), knows some shapes (circle and triangle she is a pro at. Anything with sharp corners, like the letter M, gets called a triangle), knows most of her colors (though green tends to get her tripped up), and loves to sort and match things. 

...loves loves loves her sister. Yesterday she asked to play Ring Around the Rosy with her, so I held Hibou up and Papillon held her hand while they walked in a circle. Papillon thought it was hilarious! And Hibou was so taken by Papillons laughter, that she enjoyed it as well.  In the picture below, I had set Hibou up to watch while I made dinner, and I figured Papillon would want to get her stool to stand by the counter and help. Instead, she goes over, and very nicely asks Hibou to "scoot over" before sitting down next to her and pretending to share her snack.  "Hibou, cracker, yes?" she asks sweetly, in a mothering voice, before following it up with "Hahaha, noooo, too little!" since obviously Hibou is not at the cracker-stage yet.

I have a little video of Papillon answering a series of questions (What's your full name? Where do you live? When is your birhtday? etc) but I opted not to post it here since she is giving away a fair amount of info. If you want the link to that video though, leave me a comment and I can send it to you.

For the blog, here is one of my (failed) attempts to get her to answer those questions.  The questions were clearly not as important as documenting her lollipop. Enjoy.

Happy 2nd Birthday, Papillon! 

And yes, in case you are curious, I am loving 2 years old even more than 18 months. I don't know how long this can keep up, but it just keeps getting more and more fun around here! 

(a post about her birthday party will follow eventually).