The Pope Kiddos: 23 months!-

The wet shirt is practicing drinking from a regular cup, which usually goes better than this.

Wow, another month has gone by. Only one more month until she turns 2. I can hardly believe it.

She growing in leaps and bounds every day. She's talking up a storm, she's basically talking non-stop all the time. She has an opinion about everything and she likes to tell everyone about it. Some popular phrases:
Want it now!
Holded it!
Mine.
More candies.
No.
No way!
Lily run away.
Avery, Skylar. (Her buddies that she wants to play with all the time.)
Oh No! (With both hands on her head.)

She can count to 10, although sometimes gets caught up and repeats numbers. She's starting to go above 10 now. She can sing her ABCs but sometimes refuses and just wants to sing along for certain parts. She also just likes to sing and when she's driving alone with mommy she's often singing her favorite songs in the back seat on her own. She can recognize a lot of letters, probably close to 10. She knows all of her basic shapes like circle, triangle, and square and a few more complex ones like heart and star and she's learning more. There's an iPhone game that she loves that is teaching her all of these. She's working on her colors but goes back and forth between getting them right consistently and then getting them wrong again. She can identify hundreds of animals. Animals are definitely her thing right now. She's always on the lookout for animals and usually spots them before anyone else. She's especially fond of dogs and isn't afraid of them at all, despite how large they are. When we live in a more appropriate place we're definitely going to have to get a dog.

She wants everything when we're shopping now. If she wants something she'll either say she wants it, or that she wants to hold it. Or she'll just grab it and put it in the cart. Our grocery store has scanning guns so you can scan your purchases as you're going through the store. Lily HAS to be in charge of the gun. She knows what button to hold down. She likes to hold it as we're going through the store but we have to watch her or she'll hold down the button and look at the laser or try to scan other people/things in the store. Overall it keeps her occupied so we can make it through the store though.

She talks to both sets of her grandparents every Sunday on Skype (videoconferencing over the internet). It seems so high-tech now but I'm sure Lily will think it's silly when she's an adult. She looks forward to it all week. And asks for "skype" and "puter" (computer). I'm glad that even though her grandparents are 3,000 miles away she knows them well and really loves them a lot.

She loves TV and movies. She can't really sit through a whole TV show or movie unless it's first thing in the morning and she's cuddling in mommy and daddy's bed still sleepy. Her favorite shows are Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Sesame Street and she loves Finding Nemo. She likes a lot of other of the classic Disney movies too like Bambi and Toy Store, she loves animals and pretty much anything animated. She doesn't watch too much TV though. Usually even if she's "watching" a TV show she's getting up and playing during it and since the weather has recently turned warm so it's much easier to do things and we can be outside now.

Lily has started a gymnastics class that meets every Thursday morning. She really likes it. It's still a mommy & me class but it's much more involved then her previous class which she basically controlled. She's learning things like following instructions and waiting for her turn all of which I'm sure will help her in preschool when the time comes. We still haven't decided if she's going to go to preschool in the fall (very young at only 2 years and 4 months) on a very limited schedule (like 4-6 hours/week) or if we'll wait a whole year until she's 3 years and 4 months. She's definitely interested in being around other kids more frequently. She asks to play with her friends every day so it would just be a matter of finding one that takes kids her age and that we like. We'll see.

She's also started doing "chores" around the house. She has a chart with her chores listed and a drawing of each task next to it. She has to do each job twice a day and she gets a sticker on her chart. At this point the sticker and encouragement is enough of a reward--she absolutely thrilled to get the stickers and is very proud of her chart. Her chores are mainly things that she does already, like brush her teeth, get dressed, etc. so they aren't real chores. But she was asking to earn more stickers so we recently added "pick up toys", where we're trying to get her to pick up 5 toys, this is harder though because she likes her toys too much to put them away and gets distracted. We're trying though.

She has recently started to become more brave around strangers and likes to say hello to people (and will keep saying hello until they hear her and say it back). Some people still make her nervous, especially if they are overbearing or a little strange; it's funny how at almost 2 she can already pick up on social cues and knows when people are acting a little differently.

She's a very good girl most of the time. The parents of other kids close to her in age are always remarking on how well-behaved she is. She's very good at sharing toys and unless something is particularly precious to her she'll share it with another kid (or not scream if it get's taken). Of course I don't want her to be a pushover either so we don't make her just give all her toys away. She also doesn't often throw tantrums or fits about things and we think she's aware that whining/throwing fits means we're leaving and the fun is over. Our only problems happen when she hasn't gotten enough sleep, so the issue is usually pretty quickly resolved. She also likes to be chased so she often runs away from us, usually laughing and then saying "Lily run away!" She'll come back if she's not chased but she often does this places where she just can't be left to run until she decides to come back (like through grocery store aisles where I lose sight of her).

She is so excited about her little sister. She talks about her a lot. She likes to rub mommy's tummy and say hello and give her kisses. She talks about coming soon and how she's going to share her toys and read to her. And she's very concerned about her kicking mommy and giving owies. She's very protective of mommy and doesn't like when something is hurting her at all. She fond of pushing her (and daddy) in the rocking chair and giving back rubs (which is very sweet). She is very fixated on baby sister being "born soon" and talks about it all the time.

Her bauby and papa came to visit just as she was turning 23 months and she absolutely loved it. They arrived very late (after she should have been sleeping for a couple hours but was still laying in bed silent). So she got up and was a little overwhelmed and confused for a few minutes. She warmed up very fast and was so excited to see them. She already knows that when mommy or daddy says she has to do something she doesn't like she just needs to say "Bauby help me!" to try and get her way. Now as soon as she wakes up every morning she has to make sure they are still here and is SO excited to see them. I know it will be hard for her when they leave, but they'll be back soon when #2 arrives. And she's already talking about her cousin Bella coming to visit in a month and a half and sharing her toys. So she has something to look forward to very soon.

Potty training has sort of started. She's had a potty for several months and she has sat on it many times but nothing has ever come of it. She recently got some big girl panties with the Disney princesses on them. One morning she said she wanted to wear them so we gave it a try. She wore them all morning without accidents and she sat on the potty several times without any success. Then right before nap time she peed on the potty! We were very excited for her but so far that's been the end of it. We tried again after nap time and had an accident so we haven't really pushed it since. We'll go at her pace, we're not too worried about it yet since she isn't even 2.