Lily's 2!

Remember this face?

My little baby is 2! I can hardly believe it. The second year went by even faster than the first. I hope they don't continue to speed up like this. She continues to amaze us of course. She seems borderline genius to me and I'm definitely not biased about these things.

A few milestones:
--Wearing a size 3T tops and 2T bottoms.
--Wearing a size 5 or 6 diaper depending on the brand.
--Wearing a size 7.5 or 8 shoe.
--Is currently obsessed with her "baby and mommy" puppies. Two small stuffed dogs.
--Current favorite book is "How do dinosaurs say goodnight?" by Jane Yolen
--Also currently obsessed with dinosaurs, the "dinosaur museum" aka the Peabody Museum at Yale, and just driving past the Peabody to see the large triceratops statue in the front (pronounced "cera-tops").
--Likes to categorize animals by size, big ones are "daddys", little ones are "babies", etc. If there are two it's usually a daddy and baby and then she'll ask, "Where'd mommy go?"
--Can count to 10, and knows many of the numbers up to 20, but not in the correct order yet.
--Can say the whole alphabet.
--Recognizes all but a few letters, V is sometimes called W, X is sometimes K, mostly letters that look similar to other letters.
--Recognizes all numbers 1-9.
--Has had a recent increase in appetite and eats up a storm.
--Favorite foods are typical toddler favorites: mac & cheese, hot dogs, grilled cheese, quesadillas, etc. But she's also really good about eating fruits and vegetables and will ask for things like broccoli without prompting.
--Drinking 1% milk now instead of whole milk.
--Is talking more and more in complete sentences. Sometimes a word is left out but she isn't just saying single words any more.
--Is very concerned about ownership of things and often tells us who things belong too, "mommy's fork, daddy's fork, Lily's fork". She also likes to claim things as her own if she wants them, "Lily's iPhone" is the most common one we hear.
--Getting her 2-year molars in. One is already in.

She is incredibly excited for her little sister to be born. She loves going to mommy's doctor's appointments and hearing the baby's heartbeat. She talks about hearing the heartbeat all week long in anticipation of going to the appointment. She also likes to put her head on my stomach to listen to the baby, which she says she can hear. And she likes trying to feel it kick, but she usually isn't patient enough to wait to feel it. At a recent visit the doctor put the doppler (what they use to listen to the baby's heartbeat) on Lily's chest so she could hear her own heartbeat. This has only convinced her more that she has a baby in her own stomach. She frequently tells me "baby kick Lily!" I think sometimes she's telling me this when her stomach hurts or just when she wants attention. She's also already sharing with her baby sister. She gives my stomach things and tries to show it things like toys. She even gave it her blanket and pacifier, her most prized possessions. She's also very concerned that the baby is hurting me and will talk about the "owies" the baby is giving me. So I have to make sure she knows that I'm not hurt and I have to cover up my hobbling around a little bit so she's not worried.

Despite her excitement about being a big sister, she is convinced that she's a baby. When asked she'll say, "Lily baby, not big girl". And she asks Scott to hold her and rock her like a baby. Sometimes she'll also ask to be fed like a baby. She also calls all kids "babies" even kids bigger than her, so her definition may be a bit off. Actual babies are usually "tiny baby" or "really tiny baby".

Her memory is amazing. She remembers the smallest details and it often takes me a while to figure out what she's talking about because she remembers small details from days or weeks earlier. When revisiting our day at the zoo today she was talking about the monkeys and remembered that they were eating carrots. She loves learning all these little tidbits and facts about things--animals especially. She'll tell you that a daddy lion has a mane, a baby horse is a foal, a cheetah runs fast, and a tiger has stripes.

She also has a new "job chart". This is partly to remind mommy and partly to give Lily responsibilities. Her "jobs" are mainly things she should be doing every day like brushing her teeth and getting dressed and she gets stickers for doing each task in the morning and at night. We started with a big wall chart but we've moved on to a smaller chart on a clip board so we don't have to come back downstairs after teeth brushing and face washing to put the stickers on the chart. There isn't any reward for any of this, the stickers are enough of a reward for her at this point. She loves doing her jobs to get the stickers. One of her jobs is to "pick up toys" which is pretty hard for her to do (she's easily distracted and wants to play with whatever she's picking up) so that's the one we're really working on.

She found some eggs in the front yard on Easter.

Lily running around the backyard at The Breakers, a Vanderbilt mansion. It was actually large enough for her. I took advantage of the grandparents being in town and let Bauby do all the chasing--I enjoyed the audio tour and then sitting in the grass.

Wants to eat whatever Daddy has--in this case a pickle and a couple potato chips.

At the Cherry Blossom Festival where she got her face painted.

Exploring the neighborhood. She usually tells you where to stay and then explores different areas.

Drinking water with mommy on a hike at Wintergreen Lake.

A trip down memory lane:

In the hospital after her first bath.

Lily and Daddy on her birth day.

First day home from the hospital.