2 Years Old

You are talking so much now.  We call you a little parrot because you repeat everything that we say.  On your own, you talk in 4, 5, 10 word sentences, and it leaves us completely amazed.  You are starting to use articles and plurals and try and be grammatically correct!  I love every word, but especially when you grab my legs and say "HI.  I LOVE YOUUU!"  We call you a little sponge because you are soaking everything up and remembering it too.  You love songs, nursery rhymes, and books and try to commit them all to memory and then recite phrases, right on cue.  It is incredible, and leaves us in a state of delightful shock and awe all the time.

You like to cuddle and give me hugs all the time. You give kisses by lightly pressing your lips on my face, but never really puckering up! You like to wait for people to kiss you.  You love being silly with Dada.  You giggle like crazy.

You love food!  I can't even think of something that you don't like to eat.  Maybe raw salad and avocados?  We gave you Indian food and you said it was too hot, but the other day you tried my Thai yellow curry sauce on rice and ate it up.  You love pasta and cheese and pancakes with syrup.  You like sausage and chicken and asparagus and broccoli and cooked spinach.  You love zucchini with parmesan cheese! Powdered parmesan cheese means you will eat anything.   You eat all kinds of fruit, but your favorite is blueberries.  You love snacks and are always asking for crackers and chips and your "Dog Biscuit" shaped cookies.  Oh and yogurt raisins, which you call "Nuts" because they come in trail mix.  You stand at the counter saying, "Want nut.  Want nut."  It is adorable.

You love to play outside.  Sometimes you even request, "Play outside all day!" or "Go for a niiiiice walk!"  On our walks, I try and point out every bird and bug and airplane.  You saw a grasshopper once and are still leaving a delicious stick out for it to entice it to come back and eat it.  You pick up unripe peaches that have fallen from the trees and try and leave it for ladybugs on the ladybug tree.  There are so few ladybugs left this late into spring, but you want to feed them, nonetheless! I was so happy to find one today and let it crawl over a few pieces of fruit left in your offering on the planter box ledge.  It was a green ladybug, and you noticed its spots!  What will we do when there are no more ladybugs??  You also like to find tiny broken bits of plastic easter egg shells and leave them next to the little ant hill for the ants to come and eat.  It is so sweet how you want to feed and care for all the creatures.

You love animals.  You love cats and dogs, and trips to the pet store fill your heart with joy.  You like snakes and turtles and brown mice (they stand out from the white mice). You like to feed bravely cows and goats at the Little Farm.

You don't like having your teeth brushed by anyone other than you.  You don't like having your hair rinsed or getting water in your eyes.  You don't like having your hair brushed.  You seem a little sensitive to bright lights.  You prefer wearing your little moccasins to the cute sneakers I bought you.  I think you like to be able to feel the ground beneath your feet.  They say it's supposed to be good for you, at least!  You don't like it when pets or other babies get held on Mama's lap.  You don't like bandaids or having neosporin or lotion/sun screen put on.

You love going to Meme and Papa's house.  You like to play with toys and watch Caillou and get spoiled rotten stinkin' good!  Meme is your touchstone and no one makes you light up like Papa.  You love playing with your cousins.

You love school buses and playing in cars.  You love trying to fit keys in keyholes.  You love taking your pull-toy dog Rufus on walks.  You love to dance.  You are learning how to hop and actually get your feet off the floor.  It is the cutest thing.

You are full of curiosity and wonder.  You just seem to have this spark, this desire to investigate everything, while at the same time being sweet and happy.  It's pure delight.   Two years have already gone by, but I can't imagine a day without you.  You are magical, Cordelia, and I'm so happy to be your Mama.

2 Days Til 2

Well, much less than that by this hour of night.

We had Auntie A visiting us for part of the weekend and then she baby sat Cordelia yesterday all by herself.  Cordelia was happy to be entertained by her auntie all day.  They went on walks, read books, and ate quesadillas.  Auntie A had to change 3 poopy diapers.  Cordelia regularly has between 1-3 poops in a day.  Yesterday she had a total of 4, which is a lot for her.  She just eats so many fruits and veggies with gusto, she she has regular BMs. Tonight she asked for more asparagus several times!

Cordelia has been going to sleep very well lately.  She does not stay up playing and talking to herself as much aka "The Cordelia Show" on the baby monitor.  Even at bedtime, I am able to put her in bed still awake if she is not falling asleep on me.  She likes to be on our shoulders and have a few songs, like Rock a bye Baby, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and You are My Sunshine.  Sometimes she has been saying "Good Night, Kiddo," when she is put in her crib, sending herself off to sleep.  I tell her to lie down and Mama will cover you up, and then she does not even move!  She goes right to sleep.  She has not even been waking up crying, though her molars are yet to come in.  We are in a good place!  I am thinking of gently weaning her over the next month or so.  We made it to 2 years. Wow!  With how well she is doing with sleep routines, and not popping back up begging for "more mama milk!",  I think it will go smoothly.

Another fun thing we did earlier in the month (on Mama's Bday actually) was go to a wedding for some community center friends of Jason's.  Actually their reception was AT the community center.  Cordelia partied hard!  We took her out to the playground a few times, but she really liked dancing and jamming to the music.  There was a disco ball of colored light displays on the floor and she LOVED that so much.  After the bouquet toss there was sparkly confetti all over the floor too.  She was celebrating and dancing with us so much and we even got to dance with each other a bit too as her aunt and uncle held her for us.  Both her cousins were sick and Papa and Mama got the same tummy bug later in the week.  I am still praying Cordelia  and Jason will hold out against it, because I don't want anyone to be sick on her birthday!

We took some pictures of her for Mother's Day gifts.  She is just too cute.

Meow and Dog deserved a picture, and I think it is my favorite.  I feel like they represent her love of being one year old.  To be honest, her love of cats and dogs began before her first birthday, and I remember thinking instead of a Milk and Cookies Party, a Dog Party would have been a great theme.  Well, the passion has lasted, so this year we will have a Cat and Dog Party.  Meow joined us on Cordelia's birthday and became her favorite love, like no other stuffed animal had before.  She doesn't cuddle and carry Meow around, but her loves are a comfort to her and a signal to sleep.  Cordelia picked Dog herself.  He is a $5 wolf sold at Kohls with some charity tie in.  She picked it up as something to carry around the store to keep her occupied while we shopped.  I thought we should put it back, because we didn't need to buy our daughter every toy that strikes her fancy for a few moments.  But Jason said, "Come on!  It's $5!" He likes to spoil our daughter.  But this was a $5 well spent. Dog is gray and white and basically… the dog version of Meow.  Cordelia named them both herself.  Dog joined the "Crib Crew".  There is also a small black and white cat named "Little Meow" and a calico cat from Meme on Halloween, so his name is Jack (for Jack o lantern.)  At the thrift store I recently got two beanie babies that she now sleeps with too.  "Kitten" and "Puppy."  I try and hold off on having more members of the Crib Crew because her bed is getting full, but she really likes them.  Puppy looks like Carl from the books.