February 15, 2015

elsie - twenty four months

And she's two!  Time just won't stop flying.  But the good news is I think it's because we're having fun.  :o)  As trying as this age can be, it truly is a blast, and watching Elsie's little personality emerge and come to life is pretty exciting.

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When Elsie was born she was somewhere between the 6th and 9th percentile for length and weight.  I was astonished when she jumped to the 40th ish percentiles by her first birthday.  And now as she turns two, she is 28 pounds 2 ounces (70th percentile) and 35 inches (81st percentile).  Say what?!?!  It's obvious that she is on the bigger (but proportional!) side.  She is at least an inch taller than Collins, who is just under 3 months older than her.  It's just crazy to me.  I finally brought up all of the 2T clothes because ALL of the 18-24 month stuff was just too small.  Yeah, there is quite a bit of summer stuff that I'm pretty sure she'll grow out of before she ever gets to wear it.  I put a pair of pajamas on her that I pulled out of the bin and her belly button is hanging out.  Back in the bin they go!  She is still fitting in to her size six shoes, but I bet if I brought up the 7's she'd be able to wear several of those.  Also still in a size five diaper.  And her hair is still SUPER curly (we can't go anywhere without at least one person commenting on it) and I'm starting to think maybe, just maybe, it might stay curly.

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Sleep has been much better this month.  For the most part the times are still the same, but sleep isn't a battle.  She goes to bed right around 8pm, and usually sleeps until somewhere between 6:45am and 7:15am.  She'll randomly wake up around 4:30am upset about something.  One time it was because she couldn't find her owl.  She was laying on it, naturally.  But other than that she is a great night sleeper.  Elsie usually naps about 2 hours, going down sometime between 1:15-1:45.  We're still holding strong in the crib, and she seems less inclined to climb out (she never has, just throws her leg over the top to tick me off on occasion).  Still, I'm just not sure how long it will last.  If we can make it until we move that would be awesome, to not have to deal with that transition.  However I'm not sure if moving, and kicking her out of the crib, and her new baby stealing it within a month or so would be too much.

Elsie girl continues to be a pretty great eater (as evidenced by the high percentiles on the growth charts!).  Meat and vegetables are the hardest to convince her to eat, but other than broccoli she'll try almost anything, especially if she has a dipping sauce.  Her favorites include bananas, blueberries, raspberries, Panera Mac 'n Cheese, pizza, avocado, and of course sweets.  Girlfriend loves sweets.  She is also still a huge fan of soup.  Every now and then we order sushi and I get a bowl of egg drop soup.  Elsie always wants to eat it, but she is so bad at it.  :o)  She is much better with a heartier soup.  Either way though, I'm glad someone else shares my love of soup and will eat many different kinds with me!

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Though it hasn't been as much of an issue in the last week, this month Elsie has been quite the little turd about getting in her car seat.  She finds herself quite hilarious as she goes completely stiff and refuses to allow me to buckle her in.  We ended up turning her seat around about two weeks before she turned two, in the hope that if she couldn't push up against the seat it would be easier.  Yeah, not so much.  She still just goes completely stiff and rolls around making it nearly impossible for me to buckle her.  It makes me so livid and irrational.  And I often avoid going places because I can't handle the thought of fighting with her.  It's so sad.  I'm hoping she just grows out of it, because no amount of yelling or pleading or praising her when she makes good choice, or anything else you can think of seems to help.  Gah.  She also has a tendency to take off her shoes and socks and rip out her hair clip EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. we get in the car.  So dang annoying.  She is definitely testing her two year old limits!!

Elsie continues to pick up so many funny little phrases.  She talks non stop and the sentences she puts together certainly surprise me.  She regularly asks us, "What doing Daddy?" "What doing Mommy?" E has picked up from Ryann (and probably myself) when she is doing something and I ask her to stop, "Just one more second!"  When Ryann goes in her room because she needs a little space, Elsie will sit outside and bang on her door, "Sissy!  Sis-SY! Sis! SIS! Wet me in! Open door, RIGHT NOW!  SISSSSSSSY!"  It's kinda funny, even though I'm sure it drives Ryann crazy.  And speaking of 'right now', she'll tack that on to almost anything.  I truly can't figure out where she picked that one up, and a lot of times it pisses me off, but it is a little bit funny.  "Want a 'nack, RIGHT NOW!" "Wet's play legos, RIGHT NOW!" "I want down RIGHT NOW!"

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Miss E loves loves LOVES to drive Ryann crazy.  She takes her toys and runs off.  She pokes her.  Pulls her hair.  Sits on her.  Etc. etc. etc.  But Elsie can really be the absolute sweetest thing too.  She regularly runs up to Ryann and gives her a big hug, saying "Mmmm, love you so much!"  And man does she have a thing for Grammy.  When my mom is around Elsie can't contain her hugs and snuggles.  She pretty much just has to be on top of her at all times.  She is also really starting to care about her friends, wanting to give them hugs before we leave, telling me things like "Tollins (Collins) my friend, I wike her." "I see Kaya today! We friends.  We hold hands!"  I mean it doesn't get much cuter than that.

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Elsie is still absolutely OBSESSED with her belly button.  She has to have access to it at all times.  She regularly flashes it to anyone and everyone who happens to make eye contact with her.  And possibly even funnier than when she said Merry Christmas to her belly button... The morning of her birthday party I brought her out to see the decorations we had put up.  The first thing she saw was the polka dot back drop.  She gasped, then slowly pulled up her shirt, "belly button see it too!"  I mean honestly, is anyone else's child THAT obsessed with their belly button?  It is discolored because she messes with it so much.  Chris had a specific name for the discoloration, but basically the girl won't leave the dang thing alone.  Eventually she'll grow out of that too, right?

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trying really hard to put up only two fingers

E has become more and more interested in letters.  I know she has added some to the ones she can pick out by sight, but I can't think of any other than Q right now.  She loves the letter E, and in her world E is ONLY for Elsie.  Any E she sees she screams out "E for Elsie!"  And also thinks anything with the letter E in it must say Elsie.  "It have E, it say my name!"  She still does pretty good with shapes and colors, and counting too.  A lot of times she'll scream out "2 3 6!" but if you ask her to 'count for real' she'll start with 2 and go to 10.  Getting her to start with one is still a bit of a challenge.

She has taken an interest in some of the longer books we have.  I'm sure she would have liked many of them before, but most of the bigger books are in Ryann's room or the family room, and we just have a lot of board books in her room.  Still some favorites this month have been Cats Night Out, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom (which she calls Chicka ABCD), Max the Minow, Goodnight Goodnight Construction Site and Put Me in the Zoo.  Some other favorite things are Hello Kitty, playing Legos (or so she says), the color red, playing outside, the iPad, helping with laundry and the dishwasher and having an excessive number of stuffed animals in her crib.

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Happy second birthday Elsie.  I can't believe you're two.  We all love you to pieces!

2 comments:

Brooke said...

My almost 5 year old has been in love with her belly button since before she was 2. She refused to be put in anything that kept her from getting to it because she loved to stick her finger in it. We always joked it was her lovey. Her belly button is so special that it can be an innie or an outie. Its kind of disturbing how far she can pull it out but then she pops it back into its spiral & it looks like an innie. She recently had a virus that covered her body in blisters (gross) & she was really said that there were blisters in her belly button becasue it hurt to stick her finger in it. All that to say, her obsession has dwindled down but its still there. Last thing, I have a friend who said she was the same way as a child & even now if she gets upset or scared, she finds her hand sliding towards her belly button. HAHAHA.

Erin said...

Um yeah Annie is still obsessed with her belly button at 5. She is pretty okay about it in public but I find her messing with it sometimes over her shirt when she's sad/stressed. My friend told me her adult friend still does this too. OMG. Disturbing.