23 Months!

Sara Kate, you are 23 months old!! Only one more month until you are 2 years old!! What have you been up to?

You have learned this month that the month stickers are stickers and you like to play with them!! You know they peel off and will stick back on!
- You are doing so good at school! You are learning so much. You trace letters and numbers, practice writing your name, do other worksheets, you play outside, you have song time, you have reading time, you are a good helper and help clean up at the end of the day...overall, your school day is great, and we can tell you are learning and thriving. Also, your separation anxiety has gotten so much better in the last couple of weeks. You are doing GREAT about walking into your class like a big girl and not getting upset when I leave you! It makes it easier for me to leave when you are happy and in a good mood! One more thing to note is that you are doing great about not using your pacifier at all while you're at school, not even at nap time!
Something I want to remember is when you are finished getting dressed for school in the mornings, you stand up and say 'smile' because you know it's time for me to take your picture. You don't always look at me (sometimes you look down or away from me) but sometimes you smile perfectly for me!
- Most days, you love to eat! You get excited when I wake you up and you get to eat your Poptart. You get excited when we get home from school and you get to have a snack. You get excited when we tell you to 'go get a bib' or 'it's time to eat.' Also, you're doing really great about eating what we give you. Some of your favorite foods include cheese, sandwiches, turkey, yogurt, apple sauce, crackers, bananas, grapes, spaghetti, chicken, chili, eggs, Veggie Straws, Poptarts, Fruit & Grain cereal bars, graham crackers, and pizza. Unfortunately, you aren't very adventurous when it comes to trying new things.
- You are a great sleeper! You go to bed between 8-8:30 at night and during the week you have been waking up right before I come to get you up, around 6:45-7:00. On the weekends you can sleep until 8 or so, but you are content to play in your bed until 9 or later! I put a couple books in your bed and you will just hang out in your bed and read and play. I also put a couple books in your bed for after nap time.
- You LOVE animals!! You love to pet the dogs and cat. You love on them and give them hugs and kisses...it's very sweet. All your books that have animals (which is most of them), you love to all the animals kisses. You like to give your stuffed animals kisses, too. You had school pictures last week with a live bunny and you were the only one in your class that would hold the bunny.
- You are very into mimicking right now. You will repeat anything we ask you to say, you will mimic any face or expression we make, you will watch and copy everything daddy does while we eat dinner or you copy how mommy puts on her make up (for example). When you start imitating faces or expressions it cracks us up and we laugh and that makes you bust out into an adorable laugh.
- It seems that you have a mouth full of teeth, at least that's what other people have noticed lately! You have your 4 top teeth, your 4 bottom teeth, your top and bottom 2 year molars, and your top I-teeth have broken the skin and are coming in slowly. We're still waiting on the bottom I-teeth, though.
- You talk all the time!!! Some of the words you say on a regular basis include: mama, dada, dog, cat, duck, Poppa, Meme, bubble, paper, my, me, bib, bow, ball, my bow, my bib, my ball, my book, more, bath, bird, bumble bee, milk, apple juice, water, bite, eye, mouth, nose, ear, teeth, hair, belly, that, what's that, where did it go, where's my mom, out, one, I love you, all done, go, no, yes/yeah, car, hi, bye-bye, Elmo, snack, drink, stop, get out, tickle, baby, smile, movie, pacifier (which you actually have your own word for...pe-pa), one, two, three, tree, please, thank you, up above (from Twinkle Twinkle Little Star)...I've added to the list from last month, but I'm sure I am forgetting some. You say new words every day!
- Some of your favorite things include books (You LOVE books! I hear you 'reading' to yourself and it's just precious!), blocks, any ball (you like to say my ball!), being outside, you love animals, you love to eat, you love Elmo, you love your best friend Grayson, you love going to Meme's house (and you even grab your bag sometimes in the evening, say 'bye-bye,' and when we ask where you are going you say 'to Meme's and Poppa's'...very cute), you like getting on the iPad and having Face Time with Gran & Pop(pa), you love putting a bow in your hair (and you say my bow!), you love to jump, you love to climb stairs and furniture, you love coloring and sitting at your little table, you love to be silly, and you absolutely LOVE music (it warms my heart to hear you humming songs to yourself, which you do all the time).
- Your personality comes through more and more every day. You are VERY determined, thoughtful, very sweet and loving, funny, you can be shy at times but you open up and adapt quickly if we are with you, most of the time you are very friendly, and you are becoming very opinionated (you like to pick out your jammies and if I don't get the right ones you get upset)!
- You can have a bit of an attitude at time if things don't go exactly your way. You will pull hair and hit when you get frustrated with us so we have started doing 'time out.' We sit in front of your closet and make you sit there for a few minutes, then we make you say sorry and give hugs and kisses. Thankfully you don't have bad behavior at school and act out like that (I asked your teachers!!).
- Because of the season change, you are wearing size 24 month clothes and you actually need size 24 month shirts for length in the torso! You still wear your size 18 month jeans and dresses. You can still wear your size 18 month jammies, but we have a bunch of size 24 month stuff borrowed from cousin Hannah so you're wearing some 24 month jammies even though they are too big.
- You are wearing size 4 diaper.
- You are wearing size 5 shoes. Thankfully, your foot growth corresponded with the season change!
- I absolutely cannot believe you are about to be 2 years old! We love to see your beautiful smile and your beautiful blue eyes, your hair is getting so long and has quite a bit of curl in it (daddy loves that!), and we love to hear your cute little laugh. You are so precious to us and we love you so much!