How… what… where… She’s two?!

I have this terrible habit where I don’t get around to doing something like emailing/writing/calling a friend until it’s really gone on long enough to be uncomfortable. And then rather than just deal with that, I let the awkwardness build until it’s almost like a staring contest with the mirror.

Eventually, usually, I recover. Sometimes my correspondence lapses for egregious amounts of time. Blogging is the latest edition of this terrible disease I have. It’s like a big open-ended correspondence. Who reads it? Some people. But the more I post the more people would read it! Post! Post dammit! But now I have so much to talk about! I don’t have time to post it all!

Okay, so I’ll post some of it.

Like how she’s the most beautiful, amazing, sweet, helpful, adorable, curious, bright eyed little girl I’ve ever met?

No, not like that. Every parent feels that way (it doesn’t make it any less true, though).

So, the basics! Her 2 year appointment went great. No shots, yay! She’s totally normal, except for the things we already know about like speech and gross motor delay. I got a referral to make sure that her speech delays are not related to minor hearing loss from the non-stop fluid behind her ears. Otherwise, 34.2lb (97th percentile) and 36.5in (98th percentile).

Her birthday also went really great! Recently there have been a lot of birthdays in her room at school, and so she definitely knows what they are. I woke her up singing happy birthday and she was ALL SMILES. When we went out into the den to get ready, I’d left a single present on the floor for her to open. It was a book. She tore into it and then we spent the rest of the morning trying to get her ready while reading Goldilocks and the Three Bears. At school I brought 4 pints of raspberries in for her birthday treat, and when I picked her up 3, almost 3.5 were gone! I let her eat the rest as a snack before we went home. Then, home! Daddy was there and dinner was ready, but she wasn’t ready to eat. So we opened the rest of her presents from Grandma and Grandpa, all of which were books. She was thrilled! For dinner she had leftover beef and broccoli, which is one of her favorites. Then we put two candles in a chocolate pudding cup and she blew them out immediately! Pudding for all! After pudding, she got to open a present from us. It was a small toy stroller for her dolls, and she spent from that moment all the way until bedtime strollering her dolls and trying to climb into the stroller herself. So sweet! Then a bath from Daddy-o and reading some of her new birthday books, and off to bed. A few times during the day she would stop what she was doing, look up at me, and say, “Jojo happy!” At first I thought she was trying to say how it is her birthday, but then later she said it was her birthday, and then even later she clarified: “Jojo happy! No sad Jojo. Happy!” I told her I was happy too, and she got a very satisfied look on her face and said, “Yeah. Jojo happy. Mama happy. Daddy-o happy.” I agreed with her, and she went back to playing.

This weekend I’m planning to have a very small bubble-themed get together, with a bubble machine, a bubble-cake, and champagne for the grownups and sparkling juice for the kids. I’m also going to give her the rest of her presents (except for one or two that will have to wait until my parents get here in June).

YAY! I love having a two year old!

Recently she’s really started to talk a lot. Her confidence in her own speech is exploding. The doctor asked her to say stethoscope and she gave it a good solid try!

She’s also moving up to her new room at school in June. I’m so excited, I think it will be fantastic, and she fits in so well there! But it’s also hard because the transition is a little difficult. They’re doing it over the course of two weeks, but it will definitely be strange not to go see her in the Owls anymore. She’s also one of the first to move up, even though she’s the youngest in her class. She’s ready, and I have no idea how they figure out how to transition all these children! What a job scheduling that must be! Her biggest issues with it seem to be communication (all the kids in Dino Buddies right now talk just fine, and many of them are transitioning out and up as she transitions in). She also seems to get confused on the playground, because the Dino Buddies share a playground with the Owls, and when she gets out there she seems to miss her friends and want to play with them. I hope she makes new friends soon! It’s only been a week but she still spends a lot of time latched to the student assistant she recognizes from the Owls room. In many ways, this transition is probably harder for me than for her.

That’s all I can think of. Commence non-awkward regular posting… NOW!