twenty-seven months

Ski told Renee he was going to get her a glass of milk the other day and then forgot about it. She waited patiently for about five minutes and then said, "Dad, where is my milt?" He said, "Oh, I'm sorry, honey, I totally forgot" and she looked at him totally straight-faced and said "It's OK, Daddy, it's not YOUR fault." I'd like to know whose fault it is.

She's really in to everyone having a mommy. Her little safari animals are her favorite. She'll find the little giraffe and say "I wonder where his mommy is. Oh, THERE SHE IS." And then she looks at me and says, "And YOU'RE my mommy. I love my mommy." Let's say it all together now. AHHHHH.

She likes stickers the best. Window stickers, Fancy Nancy, Dora puffy stickers. She carries them around in this little Christmas basket with bells on it. Her second favorite toy is a toothbrush. I can understand her brother liking the toothbrush (he's teething) but I find it odd how many times a day she wants to brush her teeth. And she wants to use MY toothbrush. Gross. There are some things just not worth arguing about though and this is one of them. Toothbrushes are cheap :)

I love how she has figured out that asking nice gets her further than demanding. For a while there she'd start yelling and screaming demanding fruit snacks or candy or "something special." Then one day she said "Mommy I want some fruit snacks PLEASE"and she smiled sweetly and she got her way. So now she'll demand TV and milk in her whiny voice and when that doesn't work she shifts to "Want to watch ONE show and have a glass of milk PLEASE." She plays me like a fiddle.

When we're laying down in her room at night to read books before bed and I tell her to pick out some books she ALWAYS says "My hands are too full." I do not know where she got this but it makes me laugh every single time. It's like she's saying "DUDE, I'm way too lazy to walk over there and get books, you go get them for me." YES BOSS, I'll get right on that. She has this book with various animal imitations and I love how she runs around her room before bed galloping and saying "Giddyup-a-loo." Cutest.Thing.Ever.

She doesn't forget a thing. I gave her a piece of licorice one day on our way home from daycare and now EVERY SINGLE DAY when I buckle her in to her seat after work she says "Want licorice." I tell her that I don't have any today and she says "Well, you'll have to stop and get me some." She's got it all figured out. Oh you don't have any of that? JUST GO TO THE STORE AND GET SOME, MOM. DUH.
 
She still likes tea parties and her playground and playdoh. She likes to make a huge mess with finger paint and to run through the sprinkler. We started making forts a lot this month and when we build her a good one she says "That makes me so HAPPY." The sheet we often use for the roof has a hole in it and she demands that I "patch it" with a different blanket. The blanket obsession is sort of over-the-top, she goes to bed with about six of them and some of them are queen-size.

We're doing swimming lessons again right now and she doesn't listen to a single word the teacher says. She dances to her own beat, wanting to the exact opposite of everything she is told to do. She can sing entire songs and giggles to herself proudly as she's singing them. Her favorites are No More Monkeys Jumping on the Bed, ABCs, Ring Around the Rosie, Happy Birthday and Itsy Bitsy Spider. I love that she says FIDER for SPIDER.

But the sweetness, oh my god the sweetness. There was a period there where I thought we were going to be arguing with her for EVERYTHING but luckily it only lasted a short while. For the most part she does what we ask of her, sometimes doing the opposite but not in a spiteful way, more in a playful way. When I tell her that it's time to change her diaper she bolts and giggles.  
  
She likes dresses and sparkly shoes (SO PRETTY) but still refuses to let me comb her hair or put it in a ponytail. When the nail polish wears off her toenails she demands that I redo them. The curls are growing longer and more unmanagable by the day and I don't care. I like it wild.

She still loves Dora the best but her infatuation right now is with Swiper. She scrunches up her nose and says "Swiper swipes stuff, Mommy." On our way to swimming class the other night I honestly think she thought Swiper himself was going to jump out of the bushes on our way and take her swimsuit. She kept telling me that I had to "watch out for him." She also is relating words (even the Spanish ones) in the shows to real life. The other night when she was climbing up her playground she started singing "Sube, Sube" (To Climb).
 
She's the perfect balance of rotten and sweet, of funny and serious, of gentle and playful. And once in a while now she'll even let me bribe her with an "EmaEm" [M&M] to take her picture.
 

Comments

[Sarah]

Very sweet post! She is very much like my little girl who just turned 28 months. This really reminded me that I need to keep up with my posting!

[Davina]

The last photo is priceless, it steals my heart. She is just getting too big! It makes me sad how I've missed so much! Miss you guys!

[Nicole]

Give that girl another M & M for being SO DAMNED CUTE! The 2s have their moments, but I love them, and remember how much fun Maren was around 27/28 months.