Nearly Two

Our vivacious, spontaneous, spunky, demanding second-born will be two in just a few short weeks. This is a great opportunity to tell you what she's up to.

She currently says about 40 words consistently. A few sound perfectly clear (apple, bubble, pickle), but many are understood only by us. For example: "Papa" can mean grandpa, popcorn, or puppy, depending on the situation. Also, she yells "ELL-ME" (Help me!) several times a day. "Moke" is any beverage in a cup (ironically, milk is usually NOT what she's after). When she greeted Ally the other day (after Ally came home from school), she grinned and hugged her, saying "OME!" (Like "You're home!"). This is such a fun age. She is learning new words, and really practicing them, every day.

Other words she knows? "Uck" (anything dirty, sticky, crumby), "Mosh" (mess), "Sucko" (sucker...yes she has had them and I refuse to feel guilty about it), "Shlide" (slide), "Bush" (brush, as in teeth), "Cack - Cack" (duck), and "Doe-Doe" (donut). Her favorite TV entertainers? "Weee-Goes" (Wiggles) and "Elmy" (Elmo, of course!)

She's so full of life. Here are a few of her recent antics:

• Practices her counting by pointing at groups of things and saying, "Ooooooooone...." (She hasn't yet made it to two.)
• She can recognize a few places in town and screams when we pass them: Fazoli's, the mall, the chiropractor's office. (Yeah, that last one stumps me too.)
• She hates Walgreen's and screams when we pull into the parking lot. (Again, no idea.)
• After showing her two ornaments on the Christmas tree that play music when they're squeezed, she proceeded to walk around the tree, squeezing every ornament she could reach.
• The first morning we had their Little People Nativity scene on display, she pulled out the Baby Jesus and said, "BINKO!" (her word for binky, our word for pacifier). She raced over to the basket where we keep her brother's pacifiers and promptly returned to give it to the tiny Baby Jesus. (Two things I must point out: 1) Notice she DID NOT remove the binky from her own mouth to give to Baby Jesus, but instead sacrificed her brother's. 2) The pacifier was only slightly smaller than the entire Baby Jesus and the manger combined.)
• She could make the motions for "Wheels on the Bus" while I sing it ALL DAY LONG. That is, if I would sing it all day long, which I will not. (My limit is somewhere around 27.)
• She LOVES playing Peek-A-Boo with Christopher. She screams, "PEEK-A!" and he nearly jumps out of his skin.
• After seeing something similar on her favorite show, she races around the dining room with a blanket around her shoulders like a cape and screams "BY!" (FLY!). Stinkin' cute. (If I can catch it on video, I'll definitely post it here!

Just thought you might enjoy some of her sweetness. It's contagious.

(And her piggytails are irresistible.)