Where do I begin? It's amazing how much joy a little two year old provides! Keira is just so much fun! She is such a delight and I can't even imagine my life without her! I can't even chose a favorite "stage"- all of them have been the BEST. But I do think this might be the most fun. She is just loads of fun and super funny and can do so many things! I'm constantly thinking she's hilarious and the cutest thing I've ever seen! She is learning to carry on conversations and is such a good little buddy to me. I'm certainly never lonely or bored!
She weighs 26 pounds (41% percentile) and is 2'10.5" (34.5 inches- 68% percentile). She has all of her teeth up until her two year molars. She usually wakes up around 7:30am, naps from about 2pm-4pm ish, and goes to bed around 8:30pm, or earlier if Chris is watching her. I haven't taken away the paci yet. Probably more for our convenience than anything. After our trip to California she felt she needed it all of the time. She's definitely better now, but she still thinks she needs it for naps, in the car, and at church.
When she woke up from her nap she tucked in Mickey and Minnie right next to each other! Sooo cute!
Keira loves Dora and everything having to do with her. She loves watching and has learned a lot from watching the episodes. She knows all of the characters' names. She says stuff like "the tallest mountain, seat belts- so we can be safe" (I was so impressed, thinking Chris had come up with that one!), "Swiper, no swiping. Oh no, better hurry, Swiper is going to swipe our car." and other weird phases that she's learned from Dora. She's also learning some Spanish words from it. She says "empuhen" (don't know the Spanish spelling) when she's pushing something. One night she said "The moon! La luna!" And I can't remember other ones right now but there are at least five words she knows in both English and Spanish. Pretty much the only things she watches are Dora, and the Leapfrog counting and alphabet movies.
Her favorite toys right now are Dora, her princess figurines, and her animal figurine type things. She likes to play with the giraffe, zebra, and the crocodile mommy/daddy and baby. She loves and plays with something for a few hours or a day and forgets all about it. She loves babies and baby animals and always says "Awwww, so cute!" She is also pretending things are her baby. Yesterday she said "I'm making a grass baby." She also said "I'm a big sister!" (I WISH!!!) She loves swimming, going for walks, playing at the park, being outside, swinging, and sliding. She also loves being carried. She thinks that I'm her personal transportation vehicle and often says "Hold me please. Stand up please." Sitting while holding her is not good enough. Before nap time she often asks to "take nap on mommy's shoulder, with my paci, and blanket?"
She loves to help me and wants to help with everything: loading/unloading the dishwasher, doing laundry, sweeping, dusting, cleaning, stirring, you name it!
She's also becoming more independent. She'll want to do something herself like put her shoes on (which she can with several pairs) but then sometimes can't and becomes frustrated. She just started wanting to dress herself which is disastrous and always ends in frustration.
Pulling up her pants.
She's recently wanted to sit on the potty again. I think because the gift if she used it successfully one more time (a dog stuffed animal) has been staring down at her for the last couple of months. And guess what!!! She did it! She went #1 in the potty!!!
She still loves bows, necklaces, bracelets, socks, gloves and accessories. The other morning while I was cleaning and she was playing in her room, I walked in the room to see about five tiny hair ties around her Soccer Dora's wrist. She also had one around her wrist. It was very cute. Another time I said "Wow, gloves, necklaces, bracelets, bows, you look just like a princess." She said matter of factly, "I AM a princess." Even her crocodiles got necklaces.
She is very observant and complimentary. She always says "Nice dress Mommy" whenever I wear one. She also usually thinks my nightgown is a dress and often the first comment out of her mouth in the morning when she sees me is "Nice dress, Mommy." She always comments on my earrings and necklace too. "Pretty necklace Mommy."
She is very into possessives. She is constantly saying "Is it mine? Is it yours? Is it the chickens?" Or whatever the case may be.
If I tell her not to do something, sometimes she says "Only mommy do it?" And a couple of times she's made me feel a little guilty.
She LOVES Jason. Poor Jason. She loves to hug him, look at his lips, give him toys, follow him around, throw balls down the stairs for him, and especially cover him with a blanket. It is so cute and funny. If he's not right there with us (which he always is) she always asks where he is or walks around the house saying "Jason? Where are you?" or will say "Jason good boy or bad boy?" (He's been helping himself to our couch while we're gone to have a better view looking out the window.
She likes older kids more than younger kids and has finally started playing WITH them. In general it seems like she likes men more than women. She often talks about Grandpa, Uncle John, Jaxon, and Uncle Matthew. She also loves Auntie Laurie (whom she talks about the most) and Grammy. She either calls me Mommy, Mom, or Mama, depending on her mood. And same with Daddy, Dad, or Dada.
She can say many sentences and unless she's whining, I can pretty much understand everything she's trying to say. Here are some of her sentences she said one day...
No thanks. I'm fine.
Watch me, guys!
I'm okay! (Whenever she has a little trip).
Can't go out there. Chickens all over the place.
Mommy have stinky diaper? "No!" I said. Only Keira wears diapers, she said.
Perfect, that's perfect! (One of my favorites, she says perfect a lot!)
(I'm) Not Keira, Dora.
Where are my gloves? "I don't know." I said. They're in my room silly Mommy!
I can't, I have my hands full. When I told her to come sit down for dinner. (She often wants to be carried up the stairs and I tell her I can't carry her because my hands are full.)
You're carrying a lot, aren't we? I reply while we're walking up the stairs, "I'm carrying a lot. What are you carrying?" My mommy giraffe.
To both Jason and her friend Chanley she's said, Not your Mommy, my Mommy!
This is my spoon. And this is your spoon.
It's your special day Mommy!
One for you, one for me.
"Who's tummy is this?" Chris says referring to her tummy. She says, Chicken's tummy!
The day after we got home from Cali while I was at work, Keira and Chris were in the car and she said, Are you driving Daddy? Are you stopping Daddy? Is it motorcycle Daddy? Is it bumpy Daddy? I'm a happy girl Daddy!
It's my scissors. "No, it's Daddy's pliers." No, it's my scissors. Going to snip this paper.
She likes to say things like "also, too" and is starting to say "umm." :-( and "together, each other"- I think she says the same word for both. She's also recently started saying "watch me!" Or "come and find me" and will be hiding behind a couple of leaves. If we're playing hide and seek she's not a fan of being the one hiding. She recently started trying to hide, but she won't really hide and as soon as I say anything she'll say "I'm right here!"
She's pretty good at saying numbers, not quite as good at actually counting things. She always counts way more or less than there actually are. She can count from 1-13 but she usually skips the number eight. After thirteen she says "thirteen, thirteen, thirteen" all proud of herself.
I can't remember what we were doing but she was sitting on my lap and we were looking at something with words. She points to A and says "This is aah." Then she points to Q and says "This is letter Q." She points to M and says "Look M." And then she points to the #3 ands says "3." And then to a 9 and says "1." Pretty good! The little cutie!
She loves to sing! She can sing part or a line of "The Ipsy Bitsy Spider, I am a Child of God, Once There was a Snowman, The Wheels on the Bus, Popcorn Popping, If You're Happy and you Know it, I'm Wishing- Snow White, Part of Your World- The Little Mermaid, and a Whole New World- Aladdin.
Keira loves prayers! (Music to my ears! :o) ) She seldom forgets before a meal (sometimes reminding me), although she certainly doesn't like to wait to pray, and she sometimes sneaks a drink or bite during the prayer. She's getting better about keeping her hands or arms folded and her eyes closed. It's so cute to see her little eyelids squished together so tight and at how hard she works at it. Before bed or naps she usually asks for two to three prayers, probably trying to prolong the inevitable. She's learning how to pray. Sometimes she wants to say the whole prayer and in this super sweet, high pitched, soft voice she says "Heavenly Father, Jesus, Amen." She's also pretty good at our usual repeat-after-me prayers. It just melts my heart to hear her pray.
She's our little two year old cutie!
