Addie at 26 Months

Addie has changed so fast during the past couple of months. She talks in full sentences now, and random people are always commenting on how well she talks for a 2-year-old. She also has the most amazing memory. One of her favorite things to say lately is, "Remember that, Mommy?" or "You remember that, Daddy?" Then she will proceed to tell us about something that happened weeks or months ago. She will see something that reminds her of an event that happened in the past, and I guess it just triggers her memory. Here are a couple of examples:

Last weekend I asked Addie if she wanted to go play with her friend Morgan.  A few weeks ago I invited Morgan and his mom Aimee over to play and then sent some of Addie's toys home with him.  At first she was just fine with Morgan borrowing some of her toys, but when it came time for them to leave, Addie got a little upset.  So yesterday when I asked if she wanted to go play with Morgan, she looked at me suspiciously, and said, "Sure, but he's NOT going to borrow my Nemo!"

The other day we were playing in the office, and I mentioned something about a flash of light. Addie said, "You remember that, Mommy? When he flashed me and I was hanging from the bar?"  At first I didn't know what she was talking about, but then I realized she was thinking back to her photo shoot over a month ago where she was playing at my friend's workout studio, and the photographer was "flashing her" (taking photos using a flash).  She then said, "I had fun hanging, and I danced in the mirror, and I played with those big balls..."

I can barely remember things from month to month. It amazes me that she can.

She is also starting to understand the concept of humor and will "laugh" when we do during adult conversations. She even made a joke the other day - we were in the car talking about dance class and gym class. I asked her if she would like to attend again. She said, "Sure, Mama, you can take me to music class." And then a long pause....and she said, "And maybe Jim can take me to gym class" with a big smile on her face, like she knew it was funny.  I thought that was very intuitive and smart that she made that language connection.

Addie has picked up some not so nice words, such as "crap."  That one is courtesy of Jay...he uses that word all the time without even realizing it.  The other day Jay was helping Addie watch her favorite videos on Youtube. She asked to watch Nemo, so Jay found the one he thought she wanted.  Once she realized it was not the video she was expecting she said, "No, Daddy, no!  This one's crap."  Jay tried not to laugh and told her that wasn't a nice word to say, so she thought a minute and then said, "No, Daddy, not this one.  This one's terrible."  Another word Jay uses often :)  Guess we're going to have to start being really careful with what we say!

She is still a pretty light eater...she's just too busy. When she does eat she still loves her ice cream, hummus with pretzle chips, and most fruits. She also loves freezies, string cheese, and anything salty.  I tried to give her some crackers the other day, and she said, "No, Mama, I want the salty ones."  We were at Jim's pool last weekend, and he always has big pretzle rods for her to eat. He scrapes the salt off before giving them to her.  I guess she has finally realized that because she saw me scraping two pretzles together to get the salt off, and she said, "Stop, Mama, stop! I LIKE the salt."

Sleeping is still not her strong point. She goes to sleep in her bed just fine, but around 12 or 1 in the morning, she wanders into our room and either wants to get in bed with us or else she wants me to take her back to her room and rock her. Sleeping with us would be fine if she wasn't such a restless sleeper! She rolls around like crazy and ends up completely perpendicular between Jay and I, with her feet in his face and her head right against mine on my pillow. She also HATES to have any blankets on her, so if we try to cover her up, she will immediately kick them off.  Jay ends up going to the guest room at some point most nights. Addie has even taken to calling the guest room "Daddy's room" and the bed in there "Daddy's bed."

Addie loves to play with and "snuggle" Dakota. She also loves to walk to Grandma Julie's house where she can play in her little pool, her sandbox, and with her new playdough table. She and Ashly (nanny) do lots of fun things during the week like go to storytime at the library, visit the pet store, go to the craft store and toy store, visit the Ringling museum, go on some playdates, and play at the park. Ashly has been our nanny for almost nine months now, and Addie really has a good time with her.

Addie also likes to help in the kitchen. She enjoys chopping veggies with the chopper and helps stir whatever we are making for dinner. This weekend she helped me make cupcakes and even tried frosting them herself. That was a huge mess, so then I had her stick to putting on the sprinkles. We also made monkey bread, and Addie loved helping knead the dough. I hope her love of baking lasts a very long time!