beanski

nineteen-and-a-half and thirty-six months

I spend approximately 97% of my time lecturing my children about the importance of sharing so it is fitting that their poor, deprived little selves will have to now share my monthly ramblings about their awesomeness.

The injustice!

Guess what, lovies? Mommy doesn't have time to do them separate because she is too busy refereeing and keeping track of who took which toy from who first. THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT. LEARN TO SHARE.

I buy two of everything and guess what? IT DOESN'T MATTER. Cameron got his own Zhu Zhu pet for RENEE'S BIRTHDAY for the love of all things holy and they are still fighting about them. STILL.

Now that I got that off my chest I really do like the little turkeys and I really do want to take the time to write down the funny things they do and say so that I remember something from this time in my life other than PLEASE STOP BITING YOUR SISTER and PLEASE GIVE HIM BACK HIS BALL RIGHT THIS INSTANT.

You know it's bad when the first words out of Renee's mouth when Cam so much as looks at the toy she is holding is "You can't take this or you're going STRAIGHT to time-out." I reckon they've heard that a few times. I should just buy a tape recorder.

They are best when they are on the go. We can actually do things like go to the zoo and travel for their cousin's birthday parties without upsetting the delicate balance of the universe too much. C-Man still has some adjustment issues when we get home from a busy trip and generally gets up about 19 times a night after we get home just to make sure that things are still cool on the home-front but for the most part it is getting to the point where it's actually fun to leave the house. This is the first time in 3 years  that I can actually say that with a straight face.

We've been all over the state in the last month or so and they have been pretty much melt-down free. We spent all of Father's day out in the yard splashing in the pool and playing on the playground and they had a great time. They were dumping water on each other and laughing. And then crying because Renee dumped water on me! But I did it to her first! But I'm still crying!

They generally both nap in the afternoon so by the time I get one down and then the other I have about 15 minutes to clean the kitchen before the one I put to sleep first wakes back up and is ready to party. What that equates to is from 6AM when Cam starts talking to 9:30PM when Renee gives up her stall tactics and FINALLY just closes her blessed eyes and goes to sleep, I have a sidekick. Either it's Renee who wants to "help" me bake and clean and do laundry (she doesn't follow recipes yet though so my banana bread last night was pretty moist. READ: MUSHY) or Cameron who is screaming and throwing his body around trying to reach some object that is off limits to him, I have one of them at my side at ALL MOMENTS OF MY LIFE. One of these days I'm going to take a pee in private and it is going to be WONDERFUL.

Cameron went back to the allergist where we learned that either the egg allergy has gotten worse or that it was more severe than we had thought initially. We've been on a strict no egg diet (I used to slip him a bite of a cookie here or there because I feel bad for him). The allergist said that he shouldn't have any of it ever and that I am probably making the allergy worse by giving it to him. It sucks to try to travel and feed him not knowing what has eggs and what doesn't. I pretty much have to pack everything for him. I also had yet another wave of guilt after the appointment about how miserable he must have been that first year and how many signs I missed in not getting the allergy diagnosed sooner. I failed him. My poor little baby and his upset belly.

Renee started a new preschool this month. She never liked the last preschool and would FLIP OUT every day when we dropped her off. The final straw for me was going to conferences and having her teacher tell me that she hasn't communicated other than a head nod or shake in SIX MONTHS. It told us that she didn't feel safe there and that they weren't spending any time with her. So we pulled her. The new school is a totally different atmosphere. They do a ton of field trips and take the city bus to the pool once a week and while I have some anxiety about my baby on a city bus (okay, I have a LOT of anxiety about it), I think it will be good for her. She seems to like the action. She has her whole life to learn sign language and the days of the week, I say take her to the park and let her run around like a crazy person all day. Her little boyfriend from daycare, the boy who she insists on sitting next to at the lunch table, is going to the same school too so she was pleased about that. I'm not sure the love affair is mutual but I do know that Renee has her first crush. She talks about him all the time :)

Nena and Grumpa gave us their piano a few weeks ago and it has been so magical to watch the kids sit on the bench that their dad learned to play on and slam on the keys. Nothing makes me happier than getting out of the shower and hearing piano music drifting up the stairs. There is so much history that came with that 30 year old piano, we are truly blessed that our kids will get a chance to learn music on it like their dad did.

Cameron really likes BIG TRUCKS! DIGGERS! MOTOR GRADERS! AIRPLANES! and he calls them out to me as we're driving down the road. It makes me smile. He also tries to get the attention of other people driving on the road and when he makes eye contact he always smiles and says "HI!" He is the polar opposite of her. She would glare at anyone that had the audacity to look at her and he's running over to complete strangers saying "HI!!" He still won't get over his fascination with the drawers and cupboards that have childproof locks on them and he stands at them shaking them with all of his weight trying to get at the scissors. Mom, those scissors are the coolest thing EVER. I want to cut my tongue off! Give them to me RIGHT NOW!

Renee refuses to get over her Dora obsession regardless of how many other TV shows I try to brainwash her with. I'm so sick of Dora that I could puke. The other day she said to me "Mom, I'm back on the Dora wagon." And then she asked for more milk and said "I'm back on the milk wagon too." I just about died laughing. She won't read any book that doesn't have a ballerina in it and spends most of her days talking about princesses and ballerinas and I have no idea where this nonsense comes from. I was a total tomboy and never took a ballet class in my life and when I ask her if we should get her signed up for swimming class she flips out and says "NOOOOO, I want to go to ballet class." Shoot me now, please. And then after I'm dead we'll be off to ballet class because what princess wants, princess usually gets. Princess also refuses to drink out of cups that aren't pink or eat food off of plates that aren't pink. PINK, PINK, PINK. She'll even say "I want the pinkie one" like PINKIE is a term of endearment. Oh you pretty, pretty pinkie, I love you so.

They are a fun bunch and I can't imagine a single day with without them in it. Wait, I can sort of imagine it. I would lay on the couch and eat cereal for dinner and not even once would have to scrub the floor from the mess they made to stop the ants from taking over the house and after I got done laying down for a few hours eating whatever I want, I would miss them so much that my heart would ache.

thirty-three months

I love how she cups my face in her hands right before she falls asleep and says "I love you, mommy. Too much." I've been telling her that I love her "too much" since the day she was born and it kills me that she picked up on it. I smile every time she says it. I love how after she's wound down to go to sleep and I leave her room how she ALWAYS comes out for one last check before going to sleep. I walk her back to her bed and tuck her in and give her a kiss and tell her goodnight. She onlys needs the reassurance once and I love that.

I love how she asks for a boost to go up her slide the wrong way and on her way up says "boosting, boosting, boosting" as she goes up. She tries to get all the way up on her feet and turns around and does this adorable little dance when she makes it. I love that she always wants to go explore the neighborhood for new friends and how she's always disappointed when no one is outside playing. If someone is outside, watch out, because she isn't even going to entertain going home until they go home. She bought lemonade from a couple of girls on the street yesterday and she was so proud of herself. She even told me that she didn't even spill it.

I love how she asks to be pushed on the swing but jumps off the second the swing starts moving. She's scared of swings but won't admit it. She always tells me that Cameron likes to swing a lot higher than her but "that's OK" almost like she's trying to convince herself that it is OK to be super, duper cautious about everything.

I love how she tells me that she is going to get a popsicle for going on the potty even though her pullup is soaking wet. And she KNOWS it. I think she thinks that I might not notice the pee or something.

I love how she tells me that everything is "beautiful" and how she asks to put on a "beautiful dress" every night before she takes her bath. She gets the dress on and immediately starts spinning. I love how she thinks dresses have to have no sleeves. If I try to put a dress on her that has sleeves she cries and throws herself on the floor and says "this is NOT a dress, mommy. I want a beautiful dress."

I love how she stomps her little feet and says "Mommy carry me!" all of the time. If Daddy offers to carry her, well, that's just not good enough. I love how she tells me that she wants to read ALL of her books before bed. She doesn't want to pick one, she wants ALL of them. I mean, seriously, she has like 200 books on the shelf in her room. We'd be reading well into tomorrow if we tried to read them all.

I love how she wants to sit on the kitchen counter and eat her dinner while I'm cooking it. It is sooo annoying that she's already done eating by the time dinner is made but it is adorable that she wants to help. She's gotten pretty good at measuring ingredients and stirring stuff for me. I love how she says that things happened "last morning" instead of yesterday. When I correct her she says "Yeah, last morning." IT'S WHAT I SAID MOM, GET A GRIP.

She loves to paint, color, play with chalk...anything artistic. She's started coloring within the lines of her coloring books and it kills me that she paints Baby Jaguar brown because "he is brown, Mommy!" It seems like just yesterday she'd draw one line on the paper and then walk away, now she'll sit there for HOURS.

The teachers at school are always commenting on how easy-going and pleasant she is and talk all the time about how she's always smiling. I think she reserves her bad behavior for when I'm around. And there has been a fair share of bad behavior lately...mostly notably her complete refusal to even try to keep her pullup dry or to go on the potty when asked.
I love how she lets her brother see her artwork from school and how she'll give him the extra one if she has two of something. Now, if there's only one of something, she's not all that great about sharing but if there is two, there is no one she'd rather share with than her brother. I love how she says "Here Cameron, you can have this" and shoves it in his face even if he doesn't want it. 
She always tells me that me and Mr. Tiger are her best friends and you know I was thinking the other day that she's my best friend too. There is no one I'd rather spend my days with, no one I'd rather curl up on the couch and watch a show with, no one that I would rather cuddle up next to and fall asleep. She my best girl, Renee, my one and my only girl.

thirty-one months

The girl turned thirty-one months the other day. And yes, I'm still counting. I can hardly believe she's been around that long. I have a serious backlog of pictures to post of her because she's been sort of liking my camera these days. It's been a nice change of pace.

She's started wanting to play dress-up and I will not tell a lie: I'm HAPPY about it. Like, when I saw this picture, my heart sighed. My little girl...it's not exactly that I want her to be a girlie girl in the end but I'd like her to be girlie girl when she's two :) I bought this dress on clearance for like $7 when she was like two weeks old and I've been just waiting to pull it out. Also, what she is doing with her hands in this picture? It KILLS ME. I always wonder where a girl is supposed to put her hands when she is getting her picture taken. Her poor baby brother paid the price though because if she is going to dress up like a princess surely we need to find something for Cammon to wear too. (I'm sorry, Sunny. Sort Of.)

For 30 months of her life she was The Sleeper. She went to sleep easily and stayed there. Her brother was the one that we cursed about at bedtime. Simulataneously, Cameron learned how to sleep in his crib like a normal baby and Renee decided she doesn't really want to be in hers. OF COURSE SHE DID. It would surely be way too much to ask to have a night or two of sleep in this house. I'm not sure if it is the new bed or what but bedtime has become a battle with her.

She wants ONE! MORE! SHOW! or a snack or MORE MILT! or OHMYGOD THE WORLD IS GOING TO END IF I DON'T GET TO PLAY WITH MY STICKER BOOK RIGHT THIS INSTANT. There is no worse feeling in the world than ending an otherwise perfectly happy day with dragging your kid kicking and screaming back to her bed for the 15th time. She hasn't been falling asleep until like 10PM and then getting up about 17 times in the middle of the night. It is slowly but surely sucking the life out of me.

She started pre-school this month and I'm not sure what to think about how it is going. She MELTS DOWN at drop off but is smiling and well-rested and excited to show me the pretty pictures she made when I pick her up at the end of the day. Her teachers are always saying how great she did and talking about how much fun she had but when I ask her about it she says she doesn't want to go back there. I'm going to give it another month or so and then look for something else for her if it doesn't get any better. I can't deal with her turning into Satan Herself within seconds of me mentioning going to pre-school.

Potty training has been, how do I say it, INTERESTING. Last weekend we went cold turkey at home and started putting her on the potty every 45 minutes. She managed to stay dry all day and her only accident was when she pooped. I was all excited and then she went to daycare for a day and then to pre-school and then back to daycare and when Friday got here and I started trying to get her to do it again, she was having NONE of it. She peed ON MY BED that day and I was so FRUSTRATED because I feel like the whole thing is totally out of my control. It took me all weekend to hype it back up and Sunday she stayed dry all day again and was proud of herself for going and now she's back to daycare. RUNNING IN CIRCLES CHASING OUR TAILS. Progress is progress, I guess. I'm so proud of her when she goes. I was sitting in there with her yesterday and I seriously almost teared up about my kid pissing in the toilet. PA-THE-TIC.

She got her first haircut this month which basically amounted to me allowing someone to cut her rat tail off. You know how biker dudes have that long, thin, gross braid in the back? Yeah, she was totally rocking that look. I was so worried that trimming it off would kill the curls but I'm happy to say that they didn't go anywhere. And she looks so much more grown up now.

She let me put her hair in a ponytail but I had to tell her that it was a "princess braid." Becky at daycare had tried a few times to put a ponytail in her hair and I don't know if she pulled it too hard or what but the kid hears the word ponytail and she bolts like I'm going to try to tie it in knots or something.

She thinks her brother is funny and she mimicks the sounds he is making. When I tell her that "Ma Mi" is his way of asking for more milk, the next time she asks for milk, she says it exactly like that. I love that she still calls him Cammon and once in a while I even catch her slipping him special treats.

There are a couple of books that she thinks are really funny and when I get to the page before the page she thinks is funny she starts laughing with her whole body. She gets herself to the point where she laughs solidly for like 10 straight minutes. It is the cutest thing I've ever seen in my life.

She still loves stickers and I am sooooo tired of them being stuck to everything all over my house. I find stickers in my hair, all over the furniture, the other day I found a sticker stuck to the TOILET.

She says "I asted really nice" after she makes a request and when she really wants her way. She says PWEEEAASE and thank-you and excuse me at the proper times. I think it is hilarious that she still uses the T sound for the K sound. She says it like it's totally right and when I correct her and try to get her to make the T sound, she says MILTTTT with the emphasis on the T and looks at me like I'm an idiot for correcting her because she is totally right.

She loves to play tag. It used to be "run with me, Mommy" where I chased her around the house and she squealed with joy but now she wants to chase me as soon as I catch her.

She's obsessed with finding matches for things. Like, if she finds two cards with the number 4 on them she'll come running over to me and say "Mommy, they MATCH." She's knows all of her letters, numbers, shapes, colors. We've started spelling words now and she gets a kick out of that.

She plays pretty much exclusively with puzzles and legos. She's starting to pretend in weird ways, like the other day she made "seeds" out of playdoh and "planted" them all over the carpet. When I went to pick them up she FLIPPED OUT because she was watering them so that they would grow into "beautiful flowers."

I was hoping to escape from the phase where she blatantly ignores everything I say but we're there. Hello, three year old. I'm going to need medication to stop from flipping out because seriously. I KNOW YOU HEAR ME SO QUIT PRETENDING LIKE YOU DON'T. It is so frustrating.

This Dora fairy costume that my sister Jen got her for Christmas is pretty much her uniform of choice. I love how she flaps her wings and flies around the house.

She still loves Mr. Tiger the best. When I took this picture she was looking at him telling him that she missed him when he left and that she loves him very much. I love that she calls him (and the rest of her stuffed animals) "friends."

She's my girl, my best girl, and she always will be. She won't even let her dad put her coat on most days because she wants Mommy to do it. I have to admit that I secretly sort of like that part. She's no dummy, she knows who loves her best ;)

twenty-nine months

The most insane part about having a two and a half year old is how extreme everything is. Either she is the sweetest, cutest, most hilarious little person I have ever met or I want to drop her off on a secluded road somewhere and never go back. Some days she rolls with things and some days she flips out about EVERYTHING.
 
What is that all about? Also, I just can't get over what a GIRL she looks like in that picture. She's almost not even a toddler anymore. Sad, sad, sad.

I realized this month how many times a day I must tell Renee I love her because she has started saying “I love you too” when I say it. And I get to hear it a lot right now and it makes me smile every single time.

I love how awkward she is when she’s giving kisses. She has the whole hug thing down but she sort of scrunches up her face when she goes in to give a kiss and then turns her head at the last minute.


My absolute favorite thing is when she says that "Bizzle baby is in the hizzle." Referring to her brother being in the house after he wakes up from a nap. HAHAHAHAHA. We are creating a monster.

I went away for the weekend last weekend (which is why this post is very, very late) and she was ADORABLE when I got home. She was all shy and sweet and she kept coming over for a hug and insisting that she wanted to sit with Mama. She kept saying “I missed you SOOO MUCH.”

She’s really into reading books right now and it is so fun to watch her actually listening to the stories and thinking about the message. She’s memorizing them word for word and I’m totally amazed sometimes when she can “read” entire books to me, on the correct page with the correct inflection and everything.

She loves candy and sweets. Halloween was really the first time I had given her anything like that and now when she gets in the car after work to head home she says “You have something?” And when I ask her what she wants she says she wants something special. I ask her what is special and she says candy. Every.single.time.

She still will only watch Dora and it is driving me MAD. I keep trying to get her to watch a different show or a movie but she’s not interested. All of her cousins were curled up watching some Pixar moving over Thanksgiving and she whined and carried on until we took her upstairs to watch Dora instead.

She got a big girl bed this weekend and I'm not sure whether to think it is going great or going fine. I worry about her in there by herself. Yesterday, on day one, I went to get her from her nap and she was sleeping in the middle of her floor with her sparkly shoes on. Seriously? Isn't the bed more comfortable than the floor? And what is with the shoes? WEIRD. She slept through the night though...after taking a bit longer to go to sleep. I think she was a little bit scared.

I’m so glad to know her, to watch her develop. I look at pictures of her a year ago when Cameron was born and I can hardly believe how much she’s changed. Her looks and her vocabulary and her interests have changed but at the core she’s still my sweet little Mama’s girl who loves to curl up in that perfect little nook next to my chest and snuggle. She’s liked that spot since the first time I held her and she always is so calm and peaceful there. I dread the day when she doesn’t fit in that nook anymore. Stop growing, baby. Please.

twenty-eight months

She’s my snuggler, my girl, my sweet. She always wants Mama, will settle for Daddy and is getting better and better at branching out to a stranger here or there. I hurt my back this month and she was so sweet, telling me she “loves me SO MUCH” and insisting that she hurt her back too so that she can lay down next to me on the couch. 
 
She loved Halloween this year, so happy to have an excuse to demand candy. I have called her Mu Shu Chicken pretty much since she was born. Sometimes on my way home from work I’ll say things like “How was your day, Chicken?” without another thought about it. So after asking her at least 100 times what she wanted to be for Halloween and getting no answer I decided she was going as a chicken. And I’m not even kidding the very next day she decided she wanted to be a frog. I tried to put the chicken costume on her and she cried and cried and cried begging to be a frog. So I sent the chicken costume back and bought her a frog costume. What Renee wants, Renee gets. Just ask her. Numerous times this month she said "I'm the boss, Mommy."

We hired a babysitter for the first time this month and she was totally cool with it. I told her that Katie was going to play with her for a while and that we’d be back and she was all like “whatevs, dudes, have fun.” When we got home I scooped her up and hugged and kissed her and asked her if she had fun and she said she did. I almost died. She had fun with someone other than us, she’s really living on the edge. 
 
Her relationship with her brother is growing stronger. She’ll finally allow him to take a bath at the same time as her and she likes to push him in the swing and make him laugh. He’ll climb up next to her on her chair in the living room and they’ll both start giggling. Most of the time she’s swiping stuff off of him but once in a while she’ll give him something and say “Here you go, Cammon” and she smiles sweetly when we make a big deal about how good of a big sister she is. She wants us to believe she doesn’t like him but we know better.  
 
One day out of no where when I was putting her to bed this month she asked me to leave the overhead light on in her room. I don’t know where it come from but she is pretty adamant about it. I leave it on while she reads in bed and then I go up and turn it off after she’s been in bed for a half an hour or so. Very strange. She has also woken up screaming a few times this month and she doesn’t really seem awake when I get in there to soothe her, she just seems scared. I think she must be having bad dreams or is afraid of the dark. 
 
She had memorized quite a few of her books, reading them to us at night now before bed. She loves Cars, Trucks and Things that Go and giggles and sings a little “Goldbug, goldbug, where are you?” song when we’re looking for him. She’s a cheese ball and fake laughs when she’s trying to be funny to get a laugh out of us. The best part is that she knows when we are being sarcastic and is sarcastic back. 
 
She calls her stuffed animals her “friends” which totally kills me. We lost her favorite Mr. Tiger this month and Ski and I both moped around for two weeks feeling like there had been a death in the family. Every single morning and every single night she’d ask where he was and our hearts would break. Then we got a replacement thanks to Nena who made a special trip to the zoo for her and she was so happy to see him. She was like "Mr. Tiger, where have you BEEN?"
 
She’s starting to like girly things in general, INSISTS on wearing sparkly shoes that she calls “BEAUTIFUL” every where she goes. Once in a while now she’ll let me put a barrette in her hair but most of the time she still pulls them out right away. 

She’s shy and will only talk to us with a whisper when she’s in big groups of people. It makes both her dad and I laugh. Well, almost everything she does makes her dad and I laugh. I really can't imagine what we'll do for fun when she grows up and moves out. We're going to have to go back to watching comedies and sitcoms and they are not comparatively funny.
 

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.
 

twenty-six months

My little Rosie Roe, my Mu Shu Chicken, my Baby Girl.
 
"No Mommy, I'm a BIG GIRL, I'm not a baby." She's Baby Girl to me and she always will be. I tell her that and she glares at me like I'm a total moron. Like, GET A GRIP LADY, I ALREADY TOLD YOU THAT I'M A BIG GIRL. I keep telling you and you don't listen. You must have worms for brains. INSERT ROLL OF EYES HERE.
 
She rolls her eyes. CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT? She's twenty-six months old and she's already rolling her eyes at me. I'm SCREWED.
 
She is obessed with legos. We play legos all day every day. We build bridges and garages and houses and boats. And really big towers with huge staircases. She's starting to color code them. It makes me smile. 

She says Boonta Beentie all of the time and I have no idea what it is. It's like she's making up her own language. Ski and I find ourselves saying it too. When you don't know what to say, Boonta Beentie works. TRY IT. I DARE you.
She's BOSSY with a capital B. She has started putting the phrase RIGHT NOW at the end of requests. Last night she looked at Ski and said "You go put my blankies in my room RIGHT NOW." He just stopped and said EXCUSE ME? And she repeated herself. He and I couldn't even make eye contact because we would have busted out laughing. I'm holding out hope that she'll learn to like her brother once he starts following orders, the little drill sergeant.

She loves to play Hide and Seek and will close her eyes and count to five while I hide. She squeals with delight when she finds me. When it's her turn to hide she wanders around the house while I count and when I open my eyes she's standing right in front of me and says "There's me!" So we've got the seeking part down but are still working on the hiding.     
We went north for Sarah's birthday party this month and my sister Jen gave Renee some peas out of her garden and I'm pretty sure the little girl single-handedly cleaned my sister out of her pea crop for the year. She must have eaten fifty peas, she had Auntie Vicki and Papa sneaking her peas all day long. When I give her peas for dinner now she says "No like those peas, like Auntie Jen's peas." It's safe to say she's a pea snob.

I love how she tells me to BE CAREFUL! when I'm walking down the stairs and how she claps and says "Yeah Mommy" when I cook dinner or water the plants. HIL-AR-I-OUS. I love it when I give her something she wants and she looks at me and says "Mommy, you make me SO happy."

The feeling is mutual.

twenty-five months

This post is better late than never, I think. At least that's what I tell myself. I wouldn't want to miss this month because it's been full of big changes. In addition to turning 2, Renee spent three entire days in the care of someone besides her dad and I and she lived to tell the tale. She repaid me by insisting that I never leave her side again though, not even Daddy is good enough for her now. She used to inform us that "It was Daddy's turn last night so it's Mommy's turn tonight" when we asked her who she wants to read her books before bed, keeping tally to make sure her time with us was evenly split. Since we moved she has refused to let him put her to bed and last night when I was laying next to her reading books she said, "I love you, Mommy. I missed you SO MUCH." And then my heart split in two and I died. But I died happy.
 
She also got a new house and a new bedroom and a new backyard. You would think this would scare her but it didn't. Once she realized that her throne (the chair that she sits in when she watching Dora in the living room) and her crib were there, she was totally fine. When she went into the new bedroom and I asked her whose room it was, she smiled sweetly and said "Me's," recognizing her crib and bedding and stuff on the walls.  
 
That was pretty much it until she realized that our new neighborhood doesn't have a playground. We had gotten into the habit of going to the playground every night after dinner and last night she was all like, "Finish eating people and LET'S GO." I felt pretty bad. On my current TODO list: Find a pimp playground nearby. STAT.
 
She travels with an entourage, insisting that I carry her as well as fifteen stuffed animals up and down the stairs every day. AND her blankies (TWO of them) AND her pillow. Seriously, she insists on having all of this stuff crammed onto her throne with her. She is partial to Mr. Doggie, Mr. Tiger and Elmo though and refuses to leave home without them. She can thank her dad for the (not-so-creative) names. I tried to get her to name the stuffed tiger "Fred" and she looked at me like I had lost my ever-loving mind and said, "That's Mr. Tiger, Mommy." DUH.
 
She loves to build houses with blocks, loves legos and likes to read. The "Just ONE more book, Mommy" game goes on for HOURS sometimes before bed. She laughs like she knows she's pulling a fast one on me every time I give in. Going down the slides at the playground is still her favorite past-time and she still HATES the swing.  
She narrates our shopping trips. When we are driving by Target she says "Ahhh, there's Taaaget" and "Let's go drive the car cart at the grocery store" when we drive by Cub. She also requests a muffin the minute we enter the grocery store. The muffin is actually a donut hole. It took me a few days to figure out what in the heck she was talking about. She had a donut hole at daycare (called a muffin) and then saw them at the grocery store and started asking for them. Gotta love it. She also knew just what an Oreo was and the other day saw a popsicle on a t-shirt and said "MMMM Popsicles." It's no wonder she doesn't eat at home, I'm not sure how I'm supposed to compete with popsicles, Oreos and donut holes.
 
I love it how she closes her eyes and pretends like she's sleeping when I got in to get her out of bed in the morning. She rolls over and says "I'm still sleeping" with this adorable little smirk on her face.
 
Her brother annoys her, which makes me sad. He is ENAMORED with her and she just totally blows him off like she's too cool for him. She screeches these high pitched screams when he crawls over to see what she is playing with and just last week she clocked him on the head so hard with a toy that he had an instant bruise. She ended up in Extended Time Out that day. Extended Time Out is code for HOLY CRAP, Mama is pissed off and you better get out of my sight before I LOSE IT. I've never seen her be aggressive like that and I had NO IDEA what to do. She doesn't like Time Outs and will cry when we put her in one so they seem to be working.
 
She got a new pet fish for her new house and she loves to feed him and watch him eat. The first thing she says to me in the morning is "Mr. Fish slept in my room last night, let's feed him." She giggles uncontrollably every time the fish gobbles up one of those little pellets.

She's a good kid, about as sweet as they come. She likes to make us happy, thriving on our praise and you can just tell that she dwells on it when she gets in trouble. When she smiles and giggles the whole world is a better place and when she's crabby, watch the frick out.  

twenty-four months

I've struggled with whether or no to discontinue her monthly posts when she turned two, thinking that maybe I could do without the pressure of getting it done on-time and wondering if there would be anything to write about. And then over the weekend I was thinking about how really she is just getting good and then Ski said something to me along the lines of "you need to make sure you put that in your monthly post" and I decided then and there that I was going to keep doing them. I absolutely love being able to go back and read about what she was up to and it amazes me each time I do how much my mind forgets. It makes me take the time to sit down and reflect on her life, on her childhood and I hope that someday she gets a kick out of reading about herself as a baby and then a toddler and then a pre-schooler (BabyCenter is STILL mocking me, last year with the implication that she turned from baby to toddler over night and this year to pre-schooler).

She is particular about what she likes right now and has nothing to do with her toys at all. She wants to play outside or watch Dora and as far as she's concerned those are the only two choices. She loves slides and to play in the water. She loves her little pool, still likes the water table and LOVES to throw rocks into the lake.

She bolts up the driveway with a look over her shoulder that's just daring me to try catch her. When I speed up to make sure she doesn't get close to the road, she literally squeals with delight.

She doesn't eat much at all, blueberries, watermelon, cantaloupe, broccoli, cheese and once in a while a chicken nugget. She would rather drink her dinner in the form of milk. I'm beginning to think that as long as I send her a gallon of milk a week at college, she should be good to go. That's about all she requires right now.

I think she is pretty scared about the upcoming move. When I ask her if she is excited about her new house and her new room she says "No Mommy, I love THIS house" and then starts crying. I'm crossing my fingers that it only takes her a few days to get adjusted. It is going to be a big change.

She is picking up on words and phrases that she probably shouldn't. The other night the kids were playing what we call One Up, One Down where the second you lay down after putting one of them to sleep, the other wakes up. I was laying next to her after she had JUST fallen asleep and I heard him start screaming. I muttered a word I probably shouldn't have and she kept saying "fuct" over and over like she knew it was a word she shouldn't say. I hate to bite my lip to stop from laughing.

Ski always jokes around when he's going to change her diaper and apparently must occasionally say 'Diaper Up' because the other day he told her to come over so he could change her diaper and she looked at him totally straight-faced and said 'Diaper Up.' We both laughed for hours about that one.

She insists on being carried and directs me around. Today after we got home from work she was throwing her little hissy fit about not wanting to go inside and then when she realized I wasn't going to give in on that, she started demanding milk and Dora. She all as-a-matter-of-factly said "You go that way and then use your other hand to get the milk." I'm not kidding, she said it exactly like that.

She says "No, No" whenever she wants to assert a negative.  Never just No, always "No, No." And she says "YES" very directly with an emphasis on the S. It cracks us both up. She still says "Mow" for more and "No like it" when she gets upset about something. 

My Renee, she's something special. So particular and so loyal and so stinking girly. She looks girly and when she holds her cups, she holds them like you would think a girl would. When she spills she gets upset and demands "clean me up" but is totally fine having her hands and feet caked with dirt while she's playing outside. She doesn't like shoes and will literally run around the neighborhood with no shoes on. Just when I think I have her all figured out, she changes things up on me. Just when I think she's not going to like something, she does and just when I think she has become a Daddy's Girl forever and ever, she snuggles up close to me and cups my face in her hands and says "My Mommy. I love my Mommy." And then she always follows that up with, "And I love Daddy too. And Cammon. And Simon. And Sashy." And that pretty much sums it up, she loves us all and it is impossible to put in to words how much we love her back.
 

 

twenty-three months

I really could go on and on and ON about how this month was the best month yet and about how I wish I could bottle up her cuteness forever and ever. She has us in hysterics pretty much all day long.
She goes to bed with a book all by herself now, no struggle, no pleading, just a goodnight hug and a kiss. I tuck her in and tell her that I love her after we read her stories and she says "Night, Night Mommy, sleep tight. BYE!"
The predictability is so refreshing and welcomed when you have a baby in the house. The two year old? She's got nothing. She doesn't even scratch the surface of difficult. I would have fifteen kids if they came out like Renee is right now and stayed that way forever. FIFTEEN.

I curse the day that I took her to the playground all excited to show her the swings and the slides and the bridges because now whenever we are outside or driving in the car all she can talk about is how she wants to go to the playground RIGHT NOW. She says HAVE IT! when she sees a slide in someone's yard and then she repeats her request to play on it over and over and OVER until I find myself begging her to please just shut up already. 
She loves puppies and bunnies and when she sees someone walking with their dog she says "HAVE HIM." And Ski and I just laugh because the dog? It is SO not happening. I can't even handle the kids and the cats, can you imagine life with a dog? SHOOT ME. I have to admit she makes it sound pretty appealing though when she says "Please, have him, Mommy?"
She's fallen in love with TV and if we're not outside with her she would prefer to sit on that couch and belly up to the milk bar and watch Go Diego Go! I love how when I ask her if she wants to watch Diego she says Go Diego Go! Like she is telling me that I'm getting the name of the show all wrong. I absolutely love how she puts up her pointer finger and says "ONE show, Mommy. ONE show!" circumventing the limit she knows is coming. And each and every time I turn on the show she follows up that request with "Glass of Milt." She still begs for milk pretty much all day long. Given the choice of ice cream and milk the girl would take the milk.

I would have promised her a lifetime of chocolate when I was on maternity leave if she'd just sit on the couch and watch FIVE MINUTES of a show and now I'm back to pushing the blocks and the trains and the Little People. I think if Cameron had been born when she was 23 months old I would significantly less wrinkles.
It makes me smile every single time I warn her to be careful doing something or tell her that we are going inside in five minutes and she looks at me and says "O-tay."
She apparently doesn't like big diggers because with all of the construction around town right now she spends pretty much all of our car rides saying "No like digger, Mommy, no like big digger." I tell her that I don't like diggers either and that we should go get our nails done instead.

She doesn't like me to take her picture anymore and says "Mommy, no picture"  with a whine when I get the camera out. You'd think she'd be used to it seeing as how I've had the thing plastered to my forehead since the day she was born. She glares at me when I try to take her picture.
I love how she says "EWWW" when I change Cam's dirty diaper or when one of the cats puke in the house. Her brother is always going for her hair and the tattling has already started. If you get him too close to her she says "Cammon, no pull my hair or Cammon no tickle me." I love that grammar is all wrong.
She has started to play pretend, feeding Elmo grapes and blueberries and building houses with staircases with her blocks. She LOVES playdoh more than anything else in the world and sort of wants to like finger painting. She likes it for the first few minutes and then decides she wants her hands washed.
She pees on the potty almost every night before bed and we are getting ready to make a run at potty training. She is interested and understands it. I'm still a little concerned that she is still waking up with pretty wet diapers in the mornings and I know that is one of the signs that I'm supposed to be looking for but I figure we should at least try it now while she interested and loves to read her potty books.

She's a sweet little girl, my Renee. There are so many days when I look at her and I just can't believe how lucky I am to be her mom. I can't believe how much I took for granted when she was a baby and I can't believe that I ever once thought she was difficult. She shares better than any kid I have ever seen, giving her brother toys without prompting and has always been a good sleeper and a good eater. She rolls through changes easily as long as mom and dad are close by. She's still pretty shy around people that she doesn't see very often. I have been putting together pictures of the last year for her birthday coming up and my heart breaks when I see how much she has grown, how much she has changed, how independent she has gotten in the last year. I love her at twenty-three months as much as I have ever loved another stage of her life and I love that little girl more than I have ever loved another human being. I am so incredibly proud to be her mommy.