25 Months Old

This month flew by!  We had a great month, with lots of exciting things - a trip to Siesta Key, FL for a week long beach vacation, your friend Hannah's 2nd Birthday Party, an Ice Cream Social at your future preschool (starting in September), an Easter Egg hunt at the public library, Easter, and lots of time with family and friends.

We started the month in Siesta Key, FL for a week long vacation.  We visited Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa Walko and celebrated Great-Grandma's 86th birthday and your 2nd birthday.  You spent lots of time playing with Great-Grandpa and you both loved it!  He loved playing with your bunny house with you and your baby doll.  It was such a precious time!  We were sure to get a lot of pictures of the two of you playing.  This was also your first time being old enough to play on the beach.  You didn't do much playing on it though because you just weren't a huge fan.  You didn't want anything to do with the water (it was a bit cold) and you wanted someone to hold you instead of having to walk in the sand yourself.  When you did walk, you had to have your shoes on at all times.  We did manage to get you in a bathing suit one time and took a few pictures of you playing in the sand.  By the end of the week you started to warm up to the sand a little, but still weren't a beach bum by any means!  Overall it was a wonderful and relaxing week!

This month you started taking great naps again, 1.5 hours or so.  Love this!  However, your night time sleep has been a bit off this month.  You are taking a long time to fall asleep and waking a few times in the night.  We don't normally have to go in your room, as you don't cry for long, but it's still enough to wake me up, which I'm not thrilled with.  I don't know what is happening, maybe you are getting your two year molars?  Or maybe because you are now taking longer naps, your night time sleep is being affected.  You just don't need as much sleep as most 2 year olds, I guess.  Near the end of the month you started screaming your head off every night before bed (one night for 2 hours straight!) and every time we went in to check on you and find out what was the matter you would complain that your hands and/or feet were cold because they were out of the blanket.  We started putting you in socks and put a twin size sheet in your crib that we now tuck in on the sides in hopes that it doesn't move around, therefore uncovering your hands and/or feet.  I'm hoping that you will soon figure out how to cover yourself up so we can stop going in 50 times a night recovering you.  One very precious thing that you started this month is singing yourself to sleep.  You are obsessed with the "I love you" Barney theme song and sing it non-stop, all day long!  But the best is at night when you sing our names to the Barney tune...."Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy....", then "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy....", then "MooMoo, MooMoo, MooMoo, MooMoo, MooMoo, MooMoo...." (for MeMaw), then "PaPa, PaPa, PaPa, PaPa, PaPa, PaPa..." and on and on you go.  It's absolutely precious!

Near the end of this month, I started being more purposeful in teaching you letters and colors and numbers.  This has always been something I have wanted to do with you, but with my sickness the past few months, I haven't been able to.  So this month we did an Easter focused unit where we focused on the letter 'E', the color purple, the number 7, and the nursery rhyme 'Humpty Dumpty'.  You already knew the letter 'E', so every time you saw it you would say, "E for Emma" and then we would talk about how the word egg also starts with 'E'.  We talked about big E and little E and played lots of games with plastic Easter eggs.  You had no difficulty matching the color of an egg with a colored dot drawn inside an egg carton.  So smart!  You also learned the 'Humpty Dumpty' nursery rhyme after just one day of saying it to you and loved reading our Humpty Dumpty books.  The color purple was a bit more difficult for you.  Nearly every time I would ask you what color the purple egg was, you'd say, "green" with great authority.  You were convinced it was green!  While you had no trouble identifying the correct color egg with the correct color dot inside the egg carton, you had a lot more difficulty verbalizing the correct color name.  We'll keep working on it!  (You undoubtedly know the color pink and it is by far your favorite!)

You are talking in complete sentences all the time now.  Having a conversation with you is so fun now because you understand virtually everything we say. 

This month we started focusing on discipline a little more, knowing that we are at a critical age right before temper tantrums begin.  (NOT looking forward to that!)  We started a new "Yes Mommy" rule where every time I say your name you are supposed to look at me and say, "Yes Mommy" before I give you an instruction.  You have taken to this surprisingly well!  I usually have to say your first and middle name before you will really listen, but when I do, you almost always look at me and say, "Yes Mommy".  It doesn't always guarantee that you will do what I ask, but you have definitely made progress!

At the beginning of this month, your appetite dropped dramatically.  Since you have been eating like a grown man your entire life, I didn't worry too much about it as I knew you would slow down at some point.  But most books say there is a dramatic decrease at 1 year, not 2, so I guess you just decided to make your own rules....what's new?!  You are currently obsessed with yogurt ("yogi") and would eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner if we let you.  You have decided that you no longer like bananas or grapes, but have started to really love honeydew melon....random!  You still love raisins, peas, prunes, most carbs, all "snack" foods (cookies, crackers, dried fruit, etc.), and blueberries.  At Easter Grandma made Spinach Pie and you fell back in love with it (it had been a while since you had it last).  For Easter and several days after you have eaten a full adult sized piece and continue to ask for more.  I don't blame you...it's delicious!  Another new favorite food this month is quesadillas with sour cream. Yum!

This month you shockingly started wanting to drink milk!  Once you weaned from nursing (at 14 months) we went straight to water and nothing else.  You always loved your water (and still do) and the very few times I offered you milk (regular or almond) you refused it.  So on your second birthday when you requested a cup of milk, I was shocked!  You still don't drink very much, maybe 4 oz. all day tops, but I'm glad to see you expanding your horizons! :-)  We only give you organic low fat milk.

We are still not attempting to potty train you as you just aren't ready yet.  You still say "No" when I ask you if you want to sit on the potty, but one time this month you said you needed to go poo, so we asked you if you wanted to sit on the potty and you shockingly said "Yes".  You sat there for several minutes and just a tiny bit came out.  When I could tell nothing else was going to happen, we put your diaper back on and I showed you what was in the potty.  You immediately started crying!  You were scared to death of that tiny drop of poo!  I don't know why, but I was quick to get rid of it and we didn't talk about it anymore.  Now every time we talk about the potty you say, "I pooped in the potty and I cry".  You never will tell me a reason for your crying, but you haven't forgotten about that moment.  Very strange.  I also showed you your big girl underwear and you were very interested in them.  One day you asked to wear a pair, so I let you.  For a full hour you didn't have any accidents, but of course every time I asked you if you needed to sit on the potty, you said "No".  So I knew it wasn't going to end well.  When you started peeing, I tried to sweep you up and take you straight over to the potty, but you started to scream and cry.  You are truly terrified of that thing!  Needless to say, you won't be wearing an big girl underwear again for a while...and you don't seem to bothered by that.  I'm trying not to stress about your fear of the potty, but it sure is hard when several of your friends are already potty trained.  I'm just hopeful that you don't go off to kindergarten in your diaper!

This month we weaned you from sleeping with your sippy cup of water. This was not an easy process as you were really attached, but we did it. We knew we needed to break that habit before we started potty training because unlimited access to water throughout the night would make for a messy bed once diapers were no longer an option. So I'm glad we have at least made one step in the right direction as far as potty training goes. :-)

Every night before bed we pray with you and ask you what you want to thank Jesus for.  This month your list was always the same, "MooMoo (MeMaw), PaPa, Moon, Sun, Mommy, Daddy, Emma, Great-Grandma, Great-Grandpa, my Gama (Grandma), my gapa (grandpa), friend Hannah, Anne, Will, Baby Blake, Baby Matthew, and Dominic".  It is absolutely precious!  You will also usually ask to say your own prayer, which goes like this - "blah blah blah, Amen".  LOVE!

We celebrated your third Easter this month.  Grandma and Grandpa Vaccaro came into town to celebrate with us.  We had a lot of fun enjoying the beautiful weather!  A few days before Easter we went to an Easter egg hunt at the public library and you loved it.  You found 4 eggs and actually seemed to understand what was going on.  I even let you have your first piece of candy - a tootsie roll (you chose that over all the other candy).  We had a lot of fun!

Other 25 Month Stats:
-You wear all 2T and 3T clothes now.
-You weigh 30-31 pounds
-You are 37" tall (the size of a 3 year old!)
-You continue to wear size 5 diapers, day and night, however as soon as we run out of size 5 overnights, we are moving you to a size 6, as the 5's are starting to leak.
-You wear a size 7 or 8 shoe.

Time is flying and I am ready to freeze time!  You are at the perfect age right now (yes, I know I have said that before).  You are such a happy girl, with very little fussing throughout the day and are perfectly content to play on your own for an hour or more.  You are so pleasant and really haven't hit the "terrible two's" yet (praying you don't!!).  I love spending every day with you and wouldn't have it any other way.  You are such a joy!  Mommy and Daddy love you more than you can imagine!