2 1/2 Years Update!

General Stats: 28 lbs, 35.75 inches tall   Movement: Obviously as a 2-year old, this is becoming a less interesting update. Isis loves to run & dance & she is absolutely a little climber! She loves to climb up on Lewis' weightlifting equipment. I swear she can scale some of that stuff! I have to keep an eye on her or she'll be climbing up somewhere she shouldn't! She is starting to be able to walk up and down the stairs like normal, alternating legs. But she doesn't do this all the time. She has had a couple of tumbles down the last couple of stairs if she starts going too fast, so she's not yet going down stairs alone.   Food: For the most part, she is an excellent eater! We were told that she would start to eat less this year, but we are still amazed at how much she can put away! She usually eats well for breakfast and lunch and then dinner is hit or miss. If we're eating Mexican food or pizza, she can throw down at dinner. But if it's anything else, it just depends. She loves yogurt, peanut butter & jelly sandwiches, broccoli, bananas, noodles, tomatoes, grilled cheese & tomato soup, Mexican food and pizza. She'll also ask for chicken pretty frequently and she likes fruit and she LOVES chocolate! We limit the sweets to weekends except for M&M's still sometimes for potty rewards. She's pretty good about trying things and we rarely have a day that she just flat-out refuses to eat anything at a meal, so that's something to be thankful for!   Teeth: She is currently getting her 2-year molars in the back. She's constantly telling us about her "new teeth" coming in. She'll point to them and say "don't touch, they hurt." Poor thing, those big molars always look so painful! She has one of those toothbrushes that blinks a red light while she's brushing and turns off after a minute so you know how long to brush. She loves brushing her teeth with this! And usually does well at letting me or Lewis finish to make sure we got everything. She also lets us floss her teeth, which is awesome! And she had her first visit to the dentist! She was an absolute doll when she went! The dentist was commenting on how calm she was and how willing she was to let them do everything! She did the fluoride rinse and let them count her teeth and even use the little sucker tool. That was the biggest thing that they were shocked about! She even asked for them to do it again & they took a picture of her with it in her mouth! What a big girl! Neither me nor Lewis have had an issue with going to the dentist in our lives - I don't dread it like some people do, so we tried to intentionally be really positive and excited about the dentist!   Talking: Her speech is growing rapidly & she's picking up on lots of new words every day! She can carry on conversations and be really funny! She's starting to pick up on funny sayings. The other day I did something in the car and she goes, "oh snap!" She's also said things are "ridiculous" and she'll tell us "don't freak out." I love it! She's hilarious. She loves to sing right now and she will frequently run around singing and you just have no idea what she's saying when she does that. It sounds like complete gibberish. But usually we can understand most of what she's saying at this point! She's also started to ask everyone for their name. She'll come up and go "what's your name, mommy?" So she's discovered that mommy is Cameron (sounds like Camman), Daddy is Lewis (Woo-wis - not great with L's right now), and her name is Isis.   Sleep: She is still napping everyday for about 2 hours. We recently moved her nap time to 12:30 rather than 12. This is working out better at this point! She was trying to refuse the nap every once in a while, but pushing it back those 30 minutes has seemed to solve that problem for now. If she does try to refuse, I just leave her in her room if she's doing that and usually she'll just sing to her blankets or talk or play in her bed. We're definitely keeping that nap time or rest time in her room for as long as possible! She still goes to bed around 7:30, although again, it could be anywhere from 7:45 to 9:00 before she's actually asleep, but she's in there by herself from 7:30 on. She's been waking up anywhere from 6:30am to 7:30am all summer. Once school starts she'll have to be up by 7:00 and once this baby comes, it'll probably be a little earlier than that.   Potty Training: She is fully 100% potty trained! She never wears diapers anymore - not for naps, nighttime or swimming. She wears "big girl panties." She has no trouble with going #1 or #2 and she has only had 2 or 3 days with accidents since we potty trained her in June. She still asks for "M's" when she goes #2 sometimes, but overall we've tried to phase out the candy as a reward. We're also starting to work on her pulling down her own pants to go potty so she can be more self-sufficient with it.   Discipline: Oh the 2-year old tantrums! This girl is strong-willed! She wants what she wants when she wants it and we are constantly dealing with appropriately maneuvering her attitudes. The thing I want to try to be intentional about is both affirming her headstrong attitude and teaching her appropriate boundaries. I love her spirit and I hope that if properly encouraged and given those appropriate boundaries, that her strong-willed attitude will lead to a child and teenager who is able to think for herself and voice her opinions and concerns without fear or persuasion. I have been reading Boundaries with Kids and it's really helping me to set these boundaries while still encouraging her spirit and allowing her to make choices about her behavior. It's a daily struggle and something I'm sure we're going to make mistakes in as parents, but I feel like emphasizing boundaries, choices and love are all helping us!   Milestones: As far as milestones go, she's doing great with more self-sufficient activities. She can wash her own hands and brush her own teeth, both with a little help from us to make sure she gets everything clean! She holds a pencil properly and can draw little circles within the lines on a regular piece of notebook paper! Nobody even taught her that, I guess she just picked up on it from watching us! She jumps with both feet, opens and closes doors, counts to about 15 correctly - 20 with usually a mistake somewhere in there, recognizes most basic colors - she confuses red and blue for some reason and still gets mixed up sometimes with yellow & orange, and she can name all her friends!    Overall I feel like she's just a bright, beautiful 2 1/2 year old! I love seeing how much she changes each day! She's just growing a little each day, in all ways! I'm so proud of her!