Sally at 2 1/2 years old

 

Sally is just too cute for words and FULL of personality.  I just wanted to remember some things she is doing at this fun and challenging age.

She is STRONGLY opinionated about EVERYTHING.  She makes all kinds of very funny and expressive faces.  Her angry or disgruntled faces are the funniest.  She wants to do everything herself, in contrast to her sister, who almost always prefers to get help from us to do things.  If I try to help her buckle her seatbelt on her carseat when she wants to do it, she will say, "No mommy, that is MY job!"  She is very willful and can be very defiant.  She will scream, "No! I don't want to!" if we tell her to do something that doesn't seem very fun at the moment.  However, if she is sent to her room, she will usually emerge from it in about a minute saying, "I'm sorry for ____.  I am ready to be nice now."

She is very affectionate, as she has always been.  When either of us starts to leave the house without telling her goodbye, she runs after us saying, "Wait!  I want to give you a hug and a kiss!!"   She also still loves to be held and rocked.  She asks me on a pretty regular basis, "Mom, will you rock me and sing rock a bye baby?"  Who could say no to that?!  She always closes her eyes when I do it and moans these little fake cries to imitate a baby, I guess.  It is really cute.

She and Sophie are getting along better these days.  They still have their fair share of fights, but they are learning to play together more cooperatively.  One of the phrases most often heard around here is, "Hey, Soph!  I know what we can do!  Let's play. . . (long pause) Blocks!!!"  (or whatever activity sounds appealing).  They can be very sweet and caring toward one another if one gets hurt.  "Oh, you hurt your leg Sophie?  Are you ok?  Here, I will give you a kiss."  It is fun to see them affirming each other in the same way that we affirm them when they show us something they have done.  "Look Sally, look at my castle!"  Then Sally responds, "Oh, wow.  That's a great castle Sophie!"

She is growing like a weed!  94th percentile for height and 91st for weight.  She is like a constant ball of energy.  Always running, always bumping into things.  I have to watch out for her since I am pregnant and she is likely to hurt me if she bumps into my stomach too hard.  All of her movements are SO not gentle or slow or unintentional.  We started calling her "the wrecking ball" when she was a baby, and that is still a good description of her.  She has to jump everywhere--off of the potty, out of the chair, even getting dressed she will jump as she puts each leg into her pants or panties.

She has a very outgoing personality, and seems to have mo problem hanging out with new kids.  

She loves to play outside, swim, play with play-doh, color, play with blocks, dress up, and create a gymnastics center out of the furniture and couch cushions in the living room.  She has NO fear of "big kid" activities.  We took them to a bounce house type facility one day, and Sally was in heaven!  She did not stop running for about 2 hours straight except to ask for water.  She was up and down the 20 feet high slide all by herself before I even knew where she went.  I feel like she needs this kind of activity on a daily basis just to get all of her energy out!

She is a major night owl, and is usually awake till at least 10:00 every night.  We put them to bed around 9-9:30, but she usually sits in her room and sings or plays for a while.  She wakes up anywhere between 7:30 and 9 and takes a nap for at least a couple of hours every day.

Potty training is hit or miss with her.  For a while she was doing great, but she broke her leg and had to have a thigh high cast, forcing us to use diapers again for a while.  She has transitioned back to panties now, but doesn't seem so great at telling us when she needs to go all the time.  She'll get there soon though, I think.

She is not a picky eater, and her favorite foods are probably avocados, yogurt, cheese, broccoli (she asks for it sometimes before bedtime--cracks us up), ice cream, nectarines, bananas, really any kind of fruit.

Sometimes, I can't believe how old she seems already!  Her speaking abilities easily match Sophie's, and she is just so independent!  She is such a precious blessing!

Here she has a splint on her leg.  It was just a day or two after she broke it, and she hadn't gotten her cast yet.

typical Sally-the entertainer, typical Sophie-entertained by Sally

I LOVE watching her sleep.

silly girl

One of her late night activities that she wanted to show us--playing  dress up instead of sleeping.