23 months old!!!

these last few months have been so much fun with bowie!  she is growing into this sweet, funny, smart and curious little person.  her imagination is wild, her heart huge and her smile and laugh are contagious.  she is the happiest and even tempered kid i know and chill like mom and dad.  but she is also very particular about certain things.  she does not like a "mess" and insists on cleaning it up with the vacuum (this sounds like me) and knows when things are out of place.  if a pillow or decoration is out of place she has to put it back in its home.  and she is very meticulous about lining up her little babies and disney figures.  i'd say this is a combo of moms OCD and dads engineering skills.  either way it is funny to watch!

when she got sick with the stomach flu she lost some weight and it especially showed in her face.  i felt like i could see the little girl she would become with this prominent chin and defined check bones.  it made me sad to see my baby look like a big kid, and if you put her in pig tails well then she is sure to look a lot older than she is.  i'm glad she has regained her appetite and has baby face back!

this age has been so much fun for me to watch.  she is very into pretend play and able to communicate in sentences.  it blows my mind how her vocabulary and ability to put words together has snow-balled in a matter of weeks!  she is also making connections about who people are and who go together.  for example "grandma, grandpa and kitty cat." or "ari, jason and elyse."  and her memory about events is surprising.  i will tell her what we are doing the next day the night before.  and she will tell me people that are usually there or what to expect.  for example, i will tell her we have her little gym class the next day and she will tell me "shakers, balls, stamps, sticks and guitar."  these are all things we do at her gym class.

she is a busy body, she rarely sits still other than to watch an episode of mickey's clubhouse, puppy pals or elmo.  thank godness she is at an age where this can hold her attention for longer than 5 minutes, which was a god send when we traveled to california a couple of weeks ago or when we have my doctor appointments.  her big thing is to grab you by the hand and say "come on mommy or daddy." to get you to play or show you something.  but it sounds more like "mum on mommy."  it is a crack up!

i wish i could video and bottle up every cute thing she does, cause i don't want this age to end.  i am hoping we don't enter the terrible twos anytime soon or just bypass them all together.  and i can hardly believe she will be 2 in a month!  i am starting to make some birthday plans for her.  it will be different than last year.  i have 3 different groups of friends and i am thinking of doing small playdates with each of these groups instead of one big party.  so i know for sure that with our la leche friends we will be going to juz play in issaquah for a indoor play gym experience.  then i am toying around with the idea of a tea party and easter egg hunt or pizza making with my other groups.  still TBD, but i'll figure something out.  and then she has her mimi and papa coming the weekend of her birthday and we will be going to fox hollow farms!!!  so it's looking like we may have 4 smaller celebrations!

bowie milestones...

~size 6 shoe (almost size 7), size 6 diaper, size 3T pant, size 4T shirt, size 4T pajama
~eyes are dark hazel, hair is dark golden brown
~weighs about 31-32 pounds from our last dr appointment when we were sick and 2 feet 11 inches tall
~can talk in short sentences and too many words to count!
~loves mickey & minnie, trains, baby dolls, little people and her kitchen
~loves tubby time!  this can be an hour activity!
~down to 1 nap a day usually from 12-2 (sometimes a 3 hour nap if extra tired)
~bed time is between 7-8 and you usually sleep 11-12 hours
~still is not eating meat, but likes noodles of all kinds and fruit
~loves the llama llama book series and books of all kinds!  we read the "dada" book and 2 different llama llama books every night
~very good with manners.  she uses please and thank you for everything!
~still uses binky, but will transitioning off of this soon
~loves milk!!!  more attached to milk in her sippy cup than she ever was with the bottle
~has to sleep with 3 mini disney characters, bear, elmo and a larger minnie mouse and her 2 blankets
~loves to compliment and tell you things are "cute" or "pretty"...very good for the self esteem
~has a two year old molar coming in on the top left hand side
~learning to count, she can count to 3 right now
~learning the alphabet and can say the first 5 or so letters
~she can hum the tune of some songs like twinkle twinkle or itsy bitsy spider
~sings the clean up song all the time
~is starting to understand that mommy has a baby in her tummy.  sometimes she will lift her shirt and point to her belly button and say "baby!" or one time at my ultrasound she looked up at the screen and said "baby brother."
~loves saying "cut into pieces" at meal time.  she wants me to cut everything up for her
~has mastered her age appropriate puzzles
~she can identify some colors (yellow, purple, blue, green) and some shapes (heart, circle)
~likes to jump, which looks more like a gallop
~shows signs of empathy
~loves animals and knows all of their sounds