twenty-one months

There are less than three months until I am the mother of a two-year-old.  To tell you the truth, it doesn't really surprise me.  This little girl is definitely not a baby anymore.

This photo session was definitely not as easy as last month's.  She wanted nothing to do with my chalkboard.  I still managed to get some shots that I love, but honestly all of the bribing in the world would not get her to actually stand still for more than a second.  It was the first time we'd gotten to play outside on a semi nice day (it was like 54!) in quite some time.  Therefore it was as if I had released a caged animal!  Ha ha.

Ryann's next doctors appointment isn't until April 4th, so I won't know any 'stats' until then, but I'm pretty sure she is just getting taller and taller.  She hasn't really thinned out all that much but some of her 24 month pants are starting to look like high waters.  Every time she attempts to stand on the scale it reads somewhere around 25.5 pounds, but she isn't standing on it correctly, so I don't give it that much credit.  And no, I'm not making her weigh herself.  Of course I don't get to pee alone, and when I'm in there she generally drags out the scale and starts pushing buttons and climbs on it.

Her closet is still full of clothing ranging in 18 months - 2T.  I've stopped buying 24 month clothing unless I know it is something we need right now.  Shoes are also still 5.5-6 range.  I bought a pair of size 7 boots from Old Navy for her, and they look like they would work right now, but I think they are just a tad big.  The See Kai Run shoes I ordered from Zulilly are a size 6 and she has plenty of room in them.

Potty training is going pretty much the same as last month.  Ryann will usually go if I ask her, unless of course she is playing with something way too exciting.  She also asks to go on occasion, but it is pretty seldom.  And a lot of times when she does ask she is trying to get out of something she doesn't want to do, such as eating a lunch or dinner that isn't on her 'approved' list.  "Ryann, are you going to take a bite of that carrot?"  "I need to use the potty seat!  I need to use the potty seat!"  Uh huh, sure :o).  In her defense she does always go when she sits on it, but I'm sure it wasn't quite that urgent.  Actually while we were in Omaha and Ryann was up in the middle of the night, she was trying to find any excuse to get out of her crib.  At one point she stood up and said "I need to put poopies in the potty seat!  I need to use the potty seat!"  Manipulative much?

Listening to the things that come out of Ryann's mouth is still lots of fun.  I love that she can tell me what happens when I'm not around.  Sometimes she is being a tattle tell, "Gigi picked up a bag.  Miss Julie tell her no thank you!  Gigi was being naughty."  Obviously I don't really know what happened, but it was funny to hear her recount part of her day.  Or yesterday when we got home from the gym she said, "Did you watch Thomas at the gym? (she still phrases everything as a question a lot)"  "No, I didn't.  Did you?"  "Yeah.  Thomas the train wiggled his eyes.  Thomas is a funny show."  Too cute.  On a slightly different note, yesterday after Ryann went down the slide she said, "Whee!  That was fun Mommy!"  Not sure why but that really made me smile.

Unfortunately one of Ryann's favorite words right now, is of course "No."  She even turned it into a fun little jingle, I'll have to try and record it.  It is actually a universal tune that she'll swap out with different words, "No.  No.  No no no!" or "Dad.  Dad.  Dad dad dad!"  It would annoy me more if it wasn't so funny to hear her sing it.  And she has developed this other odd little voice she uses when she says no.  It is rather whiny, high pitched and drawn out.  But it is near impossible not to laugh when she looks you straight in the face and says, "Nooooooooo".  Another thing I need to just get on video.  Really, you can be incredibly frustrated, ask her a simple question, that odd little no comes out, and it takes everything you've got not to snort with laughter.

We are getting more and more unprompted 'I love yous' everyday.  Just last night Ryann came sprinting into the kitchen, wrapped her arms around my legs and said "I love you, Mommy".  I melted into a puddle right there from all the sweetness.  She also loves on her toys, tells them she loves them, hugs them, kisses them.  And she also makes them kiss each other which is kind of funny.  She'll grab a couple of animals from her Little People sets, push their faces together and make a kissing sound.  Cracks me up.  I'll ask her, "Oh, did the zebra and lion just kiss?"  "Yep."  Very matter of fact :o). 

But you know what gets the most hugs and I love yous?  Why her stuffed ginger of course.  My mom put a stuffed gingerbread doll in Ryann's stocking and I think we might need to find a couple more.  She isn't consistent but Ryann frequently asks to sleep with her ginger.  I was doing my best to keep it at one night time buddy, but she freaking loves that thing.  Between the doll and the two pairs of ginger pajamas she has now, we talk about gingers all the time.  And I truly hope I'm not offending any of the red heads out there.  It really is hysterical to watch Ryann hug her doll and say "I love you ginger!"

 
I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this before, but Ryann has assigned us all colors.  Well not all of us, but while playing with the sorting bears she decided certain colors are for certain people.  The purple bucket is hers, the yellow is mine, Christopher gets blue, red is for our friend Kyle, and green is for our friend Chris.  But now not only are the yellow bears mine, pretty much anything yellow is mine.  She brings me yellow blocks and pieces of her toys.  Yesterday Ryann threw all of the yellow plastic balls out of her ball pit and said "I got your balls out for you Mommy!"  Recently she had some fruit loops in her snack cup, and whenever she would pull out a yellow one she would hand it to me and say, "Here mommy.  This ones yours.  Eat it."  It cracks me up.

these were the 'stop taking so many pictures of me' faces

Ryann is very into spinning this month.  Or playing ring around the rosie.  She'll just start spinning in circles in random places.  We've asked her to only spin in the family room (it's the only carpeted area in our house) and preferably only when mommy and daddy are around (because she goes a little crazy and bashes into things).  We can be in another room doing something completely different and she'll stand up, "Go in the family room?  Spin?  Spin again, please?"  Who knew spinning in circles was so awesome.

Coloring and coloring books also score high on the fun meter.  For a little while there she really wasn't interested in coloring at all anymore, but in the last couple of weeks we have spent hours laying on the floor with her crayons and coloring books.  When she is really concentrating she can actually do a pretty good job of staying in the lines.  It isn't perfect, but it is very apparent that she knows she is supposed to color section by section.  And if you suggest she color a certain part a certain color?  That simply thrills her.  For example, "Ryann I'm going to color Elmo's nose orange, maybe you should color Grover blue?"  "Oh yeah!  Ok!  Find the blue!  Color Grover!"  Like it was the best idea in the world, and then she goes to town.

can't you just hear the whine?  obviously i'm a mean mom who makes her child do horrible things.

Oh, I almost forgot.  Nodding her head for yes?  That has also become pretty awesome.  If you ask her a question she'll do an exaggerated yes nod with a little "Mmm-hmm" thrown in there.  Or a "yep".  I'm partial to the yep I think.

Other random things Ryann is enjoying lately:  Corduroy, letters (definitely solidifies my choice for an alphabet party), m&m's, splashing in the bathtub, looking at Christmas lights, meatballs (I think she would choose meatballs for every meal every day if she could), Peek-a-Zoo on the iPad and Kung Fu Panda 2.  Oh Kung Fu Panda 2.  I'm pretty sure I've already seen that movie somewhere in the neighborhood of five times.  But she loves it (mostly the baby panda scenes).  So I guess I'll tolerate it.

Oh Miss Ryann.  You have loads of personality.  I love you.