My little girl is now 2 years old! And she’s definitely a little girl – or as she likes to say “big girl!” Because we spent the weekend before her birthday in Nashville, we didn’t have a party, but we both stayed home from work and had a fun family day.
When she woke up, we gave her a present from Grandpa and Gramoo – a Disney castle with figurines (instant hit!) After breakfast, we went to a new playground to run around for a bit.
After her nap, she got dressed up in her birthday outfit and came out to the living room where her new play kitchen and table and chairs were set up! She loved them!
The play kitchen and table and chairs have since become a favorite activity. She puts her dolls/stuffed animals in the chairs and sets the table for them, saying “Elmo plate, Harper plate, Mommy plate.” Then she says “Elmo all done?” Her favorite part of her new play kitchen is the water dispenser in the fridge – she pretends to fill little cups of ice water for us. She also loves cooking strawberries and talking on her play phone to cousin Avery.
Thanks to Aunt Lisa for the fruits and veggies to stock her fridge. She thinks carrots are just Olaf noses.
We went outside to open a few more gifts and take some pictures. Thanks to Aunt Kari for the play-doh set and art book!
We each had a cupcake and we blew her candles out for her because she didn’t blow hard enough. And we capped off the evening by going out for dinner.
What this 2-year-old is up to…
Harper likes to say her letters and numbers and points them out when she sees them. Her favorite letters to identify are H, D, M and U. She likes to count when she’s doing something like climbing steps or eating. She’s been working on her colors and says them right about 50% of the time.
She’s been stringing more words together for phrases and still mixes in some gibberish, but we’re getting good at deciphering her language. Like one day we thought she was saying “Abu Dhabi” but she was saying “Harper diapy.” And she calls her blanket “bacon.” She sometimes mixes up “s” words. She’ll say “poons” for “spoon”, “outdise” for “outside”, “neeze” for “sneeze” and “kirts” for “skirt.”
She refers to herself in the 3rd person but I’ve noticed just recently she says “me” or “mine” in some cases. She’ll say “Harper me” instead of just “me” though – so cute. So she’ll say “Harper outdise?”, “Harper all done”, “Harper lunch”, “Harper mine!” She loves to say hi to the cats – even if she’s crying or whining she’ll completely snap out of it when she sees a cat and says “Hi Margot!” or “Hi Maeby!” For a while, she called them both “Meow-kitties” but then she got their names. Now she’ll yell at Maeby to get off the counter – “Maeby! Down, down, down! Thank you Maeby!” She also says please, thank you and sorry (they must work on this at school.) Sometimes she’ll say thank you where she should say please, or say sorry when she doesn’t need to – it’s super cute.
When she wakes up in the morning she immediately starts chattering to herself about things in her crib or in her room. And then starts the “Mom? Mommy? Mooooooom. MOOOOOOOM!” And sometimes she gets frantic if she drops her lovie out of her crib – “MOM! HARPER DROP LOVIEEEEE!”
Other phrases she says a lot: “Anna! Elsa! Olaf!”, “Daddy work”, “watch Ariel?”, “Daddy, Mommy, Harper, baby, family!”, “I love ya Mommy”, “nigh nigh Mommy”, “Tickles!”, “Harper toot!”, “Hands and face!” when she’s done eating, and “Bye fwends!” when she leaves school.
She really enjoys school and her friends there. She’s just moved to a new room with more kids her age, but 5 of her friends that she’s been with for the last year came with her, so the transition was easy. Her teachers love her and say she’s very bright, a social butterfly and a good leader and listener, although she’s quite shy in the mornings when we drop her off.
She refers to herself as big sister now and likes to pat my belly and say “Baby!” She loves anything to do with babies right now. I think she’ll be a great big sister and will love to help.
Her favorite music right now is: Ariel! (Little Mermaid soundtrack), Anna!Elsa!Olaf! (Frozen soundtrack), Annie! (Original Broadway soundtrack), Belle songs! (Beauty and the Beast soundtrack), Sound of Music soundtrack, Woody song! (Toy Story “You’ve Got a Friend”), Taylor Swift’s “Shake it Off”, and sometimes she’ll tolerate Wilson Phillips if she’s distracted. Paul Simon’s Graceland album has always been a favorite since she was itty bitty. I recently tried to get her to dance with me to “All About That Bass” and when the song ended she said “More bass?”
She also loves pretty much any video I show her on Youtube, particularly songs from Disney movies, videos of cousin Avery and videos of cats. I recently showed her a video of ballerinas dancing to the Nutcracker and she was mesmerized. “More video more video!”
Besides the toys she got for her birthday, she currently loves: baby doll (she named Baby Anna) and doll stroller, her purse (filled with random things), Elmo, Woody (from Toy Story), play-doh, slide, soccer ball, books (Olivia is a favorite at the moment) and puzzles, stickers, any playground, rides in her wagon or tricycle and evening walks around the neighborhood. She also likes dancing (like at my cousin’s wedding or at a kid’s concert.)
I recently took her on a walk in her tricycle (that has a long handle on the back for me to push her) and I popped her back on two wheels which she got a kick out of and she held both arms in the air while I did it. I said “Wow you’re a daredevil!” And I put her back down and she said “More devil? More devil?” LOL
She’s been a good eater lately too. I wouldn’t say she’s super adventurous in trying new things, but she definitely scarfs down her favorites and asks for more. Maybe it’s a growth spurt. She’s really into lettuce salads now! At her 2-year checkup she was 85% in weight and 86% in height!
All in all, I think she’s got this being-two-thing down pretty well. She’s pretty happy and smiley most of the time and we just love her to pieces!
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