Lola- 2 Years Old

2 Year Stats:
Weight- 21.5 lbs (below 5%)
Height- 32.75 (between 10-25%)

Lola at 2 years old:

Wears size 18-24 months clothes but is just starting to need 2T in dresses and some tops (for length). It makes me so sad to not shop the 'baby' sizes for her anymore. She is a shoe size 5.

Cut her 1st 2-year molar the last week of January, the 2nd the first week of February and the 3rd on May 9th for a grand total of 17 teeth (if I counted correctly)!

Is eating a lot better these days. Eats like a typical toddler- some days all she'll eat is a few bites the entire day and other days she'll scarf down everything I put in front of her (even asking for more). But its a huge improvement from eating just a few bites all day every day. She loves to dip her food and suck the dip, whatever that may be, off. Her Dad taught her this and now she thinks she has to dip everything into something! She's also been more willing to try new things- some new favs are Italian chicken, yogurt smoothies, fruity pebbles cereal, and snow cones. One of her favorite activities is taking walks to Bob's Brain Freeze for a snow cone. They've only been open 3 weeks and I think we've gone about 8-10 times (its one of my favs too) :)

Sleep habits are still the same- She goes down for bed around 830 and wakes up around 8/830. She takes a nap around 1 for 2-3 hours. And lately she's been telling us when she's ready to go nigh-nigh (bedtime or naptime). She's definitely her mothers daughter and enjoys her sleep :)

Comes to me when her diaper is wet or dirty, takes me over to the diapers and lays down to be changed. Still no real interest in the big-girl potty.

Has become even more attached to her silky and binky these last few weeks. I've always let her carry her silky around but have made sure the binkys are put away, unless its nap/bedtime or we're going in the car, but its gotten to where she frequently asks for her binky all throughout the day and often gets upset with me when I tell her no. I'm definitely ready for her to get rid of the binks- I cant wait for the day when we can leave the house without worrying if we have one plus a spare or two and for her to not have a total meltdown if we don't but also a little worried about how she'll do at bedtime without it. Its a tough decision on when to ditch the binky...

Still loves playing with her baby dolls and playing outside/going for walks in the stroller. She especially loves to swing on our neighbor's playset and once outside its always the first place she runs to. She would swing ALL day if you let her. For her birthday she got a play shopping cart and set of play food that Velcros together and you can cut apart with a play knife. She is obsessed with these and loves to cut up her food then put them in her cart and push it around the house. I'm thinking a play kitchen might be a good thing to ask Santa for next Christmas :) She has recently started watching movies and will sit through most of one if she's interested in it. Her favorite movies right now are Curious George and Toy Story.

Some of her current dislikes are sharing, washing/wiping her face, having to sit in the cart at the store and occasionally getting her teeth brushed and hair done- she's getting better about these two.

Has recently learned (from her little neighbor friend who's the same age) to push, pull hair and scratch when angry/frustrated with others. So far she hasn't dared to do it to me- mostly just to the neighbor girl and her younger cousin, Lincoln, when she's mad at them for taking a toy or them wanting to play with her and 'getting in her way'. Needless to say, she's also learned about time out and punishments and now hurries to give a love or hug right after being mean to them. Its kind of funny that when her and the neighbor girl first see each other each day, the friend right away says "No push Lola. No pull hair." and then they give each other a 'truce' hug... but of course it never lasts. Hopefully this is just a phase aggravated by the fact that she can't express herself with words and will lessen/stop once her speech improves and she better learns to share?!?

Is still a very stubborn, independent little toddler. She definitely likes things just so and doesn't like to (wont) do anything she doesn't want to- like talking, using the big girl potty, coming inside after playing, sharing, etc. She can be quite the handful some days but for the most part is really sweet and fairly easy-going. She doesn't usually get into much mischief or trouble- she knows the rules and is pretty good about following them (minus the sharing and running off to the neighbors swing when outside). But she gets this awesome cheeser-smile on her face when she's about to do something naughty or that she knows she shouldn't. I think she thinks Ill find her smile so sweet and irresistible that I wont care or Ill just let her do whatever. Nice try Lola :)

Has recently discovered the joys of play-doh and band-aids. Every time she stumbles she insists she has an owie that requires a band-aid. She thinks its funny to play pretend sleeping and will lay down on random places and close her eyes and fake snore. She loves to laugh at herself when she thinks she's being silly or funny and always wants us to join in laughing too. She also does this fake cough/gagging, for attention, and especially in the middle of a bite of food and then coughs it up all over her tray or plate. It drives me nuts but I try and pretend I don't mind cleaning up her chewed-up food piles in hopes that she'll stop thinking its so funny and quit.

Is learning how to 'count' things- she'll point to each one while counting out deet... deet... deet (one, two three). She has a few new words as well- Gow-wie (owie), Ola (Lola), hello, no-no, no-no (I don't know), where going?, what's that or what's this, go out (go outside) and go-go (lets go). She's had 2 speech appointments so far but has missed the last 2 weeks as we've been out of town to Denver and St George but we start up again tomorrow and this will be her first appointment that will actually have her working on her speech. We have high hopes that she'll be talking/speaking much more in the following 3-6 months. But then this is our stubborn Lola we're talking about so keep your fingers crossed :)

We love our Lola more than I can express in words. I hope she knows the happiness and light that she brings to our family- we wouldn't be complete without her and we are so grateful for her sweet spirit and wonderful personality. She's smart, happy, affectionate, stubborn, adventurous, extremely active, occasionally mischievous and our little ham. She makes life with her fun and exciting and I love watching her grow and learn with each new day. We are very much looking forward to the summer with her and all things warm- swimming, snow cones, picnics, playgrounds, running through the sprinklers, tans, movies in the park, etc.!