Abigail: 2 years old

This is a very belated 24 month post that I have been writing in my head for some time! I am trying to keep things accurate to around her birthday.

Eating:  Abigail is a good eater overall and continues to go through phases of having a bigger appetite alternating with less interest in meals overall. She still loves to eat cheese and bread and carbs. We make a lot of chicken for dinner and she does pretty well with that, and loves pancakes for breakfast on weekend mornings. At breakfast, she decided she likes to have JP’s rice chex (aka “blue cereal”) to be just like him, although she alternates that with bread and peanut butter at times too. 

Abigail and I stopped nursing in late October, just shy of 21 months. She had dropped the night feeding and was down to mornings, for the last several weeks. At the end, she would nurse for just a minute or two, and then began to skip days entirely, so after a few days in a row, I declared us to be done.  I have redirected her attention to either trying to go pee on the potty in the mornings or just going to eat breakfast and she has not seemed to mind.

Sleeping:  Finally some good news on sleep! With the days getting shorter, Abigail has begun to sleep in later and later.  Most of the past year or so, I have considered her sleeping past 6 to be a victory, and now she has been sleeping in until closer to 7.  I even had to wake her up a few times to get ready to get out the door in time in early December.  She is usually going down between 7:30 and 7:45.  Naps have been decent at school but starting to be more inconsistent at home, so we have ‘quiet time’ in her room in the dark even if she does not fall asleep.  We will see how long the naps last. Unfortunately, while she collapses asleep very quickly on days she does not nap, she often will wake up within the first two hours screaming like a banshee and will need some intervention to help her settle back down.

Playing:  Abigail is so much fun right now! It has been great to see her start to engage in pretend play, changing the baby doll, putting her to sleep, or making food for us in the play kitchen.  We still do a lot of playdoh, some coloring, and books.  Abigail knows a lot of the stories we read regularly now and tells us what is going to happen.

Abigail also loves to play hide and seek, and we often play her and me against JP. She is pretty good at hiding and being quiet (with lots of coaching) even when JP tries to trick her and ask questions.  She does like to hide in the same place over and over again, so that part of hiding we probably still need to work on.

Growth:  At her 2 year check up, Abigail was 28 lbs and 35 inches or so. She continues to be well on her growth curve and we have no complaints. She is in solidly 2T sizes and some 3T in some brands that apparently run small.  

She has learned how to take off her pants and is working on putting them on as well as socks and shoes. She is good at taking off her shoes, especially in the car after we have asked her not to!  She also learned to take off her pants and diaper, so I have taken to putting a cloth diaper cover over her diaper at nap and night to avoid messes when either she does not nap or I cannot go get her first thing when she wakes up. So far she has not figured out how to undo the snaps.

Abigail got the first set of molars so I think we have a little break on teeth for a while. She is not a fan of teeth brushing but we do it twice a day regardless.

Communication:  Abigail’s language is just incredible. She is consistently saying 4-6 word sentences and seems pretty easy to understand, although we obviously know more of what she is saying since we spend so much time listening to her.  It has really exploded over the past few months and it is so much fun to talk to her about everything. She is turning out to be a silly and sensitive little personality, and it is entertaining to hear her talk to herself and her toys in echoes of us, “we going to mai mai’s house, okay?” “Elmo you have owie, it’s okay” and hugging her toy.

Abigail knows all her colors, can count reliably to 5 and often to 10, although she can consistently produce the next number in the sequence when she is given the lead up (i.e. 5, 6, 7, and…8!). She is curious about everything going on around her, so we talk constantly on the way to and from school in the car about the bikes, buses, and trucks we see. When we ask her how her day was at school, she tells us “I don’t bite Cooper today”. Cooper is one of her buddies in class but I don’t remember her ever biting him. When she sees people, she now asks, “what her/his name?” She has started to talk about the feelings of others (baby crying, baby sad). It is great to watch her learn grammar by immersion, like when we ask, “Do you see it?” and she knows now to say “I do see it.” 

Even though she talks so much and so well, there are still some toddler quirks that I love and am in no rush to correct.  For example, she says “Mama hold you” (hold me) and “Mama pat you” (at bedtime) and I just think they are so cute!  She will outgrow them before I know it so I am just enjoying them right now.