A Letter to Elise at 2 Years!

Wow, Elise, you are 2 years old! You have officially graduated from monthly letters and from now on I'll just do shorter, less formal updates on what you are up to. It is amazing to me how quickly 2 years pass when you are loving and watching a child grow and develop. Time never moved as quickly as it does for me now! You continue to be the perfect addition to our family. You are sweet, sometimes cuddly, loving, and opinionated! You can keep up with the best of them and were even joining in on a game of Zombies with the boys at the playground on Monday (the day before your birthday) when the other girls were too scared. You very happily hissed at the zombies when they walked by and would chase after them with your arms out while yelling zombie back at them like they were doing! Sometimes as I watch you I am just amazed at how grown up you are and how proficient you are at doing so many things. You have some amazing physical abilities and just love to jump. When you get excited you repeatedly jump up and down. You will also hop across the room at times which is stinkin cute to see! You are also a dare devil and attempt to copy so much of what you see Carter do. You climb things I never would have imagined you would even think about climbing. You also do things that blow my mind, like putting things in your mouth and coming to show me just to get my attention or rubbing eye shadow all in your hair. We discovered you with something all caked in your hair at dinner and Carter was certain you had thrown up on your head somehow. We finally figured out what it was and it did not wash out easily! Eventually I washed it out with Dawn dish soap! I started this post before your birthday but then you decided to throw my phone into the toilet, ruining it and causing me to lose the note I had on my phone where I list down new things you are doing each month. So now the rest of this post will be based off of what I can remember without the help of the notes I was taking.

 

You are talking so much more now and keep picking up more and more sentences. You string together 2-3 words constantly and even 4 words on occasion. Some of my favorites this month have been: here ya go, here we go, I need that, fill it up please, and I do it! You like to take a marker and color on your fingernails. When I ask you what you're doing, you say, "Paintee nails!" You call your friends Charlee, Jake, Autumn, and Addison by name, they sound like Char Char, Dakey, Auta, and Addson. When you do things you know Carter doesn't like you'll say, "Sorry, Caca!" You also tell him sorry when he's done something and is apologizing to you. He'll laugh and say, "Elise you didn't do anything!" If Carter tries to take something from you, you'll very aggressively yell, "LET GO," at him. When we ask you your name sometimes you say LeeLeese and sometimes you say Baby. I think it depends on your mood. Sometimes you even just yell out random words and then start laughing because you know what you are doing.

You went on your first plane ride this month when we went to Florida to visit Great Grandma and Grandpa, Uncle Paul, Aunt Amanda, and Wyatt. You enjoyed seeing the beach for the first time. You had a blast playing with Wyatt and just loved him. One day you threw something at him. I put you in time out for it. When you got back up you immediately did it again and then walked yourself back over to time out, days without naps are a disaster for you! While in Florida we let you each pick out a souvenier. You didn't want anything and Carter picked out a stuffed animal which he named Sharky. Immediately upon returning home to great grandma and grandpa's house you decided you wanted Sharky and Carter pretty much just gave him to you. Sharky now sleeps in your bed with you along with Otter, Pandy, Teddy, and Carter's Chameleon which you have named Froggy because you insist it's a frog. Otter seems to be your favorite and you like to drive him around in your stroller. He also goes pretty much everywhere with you. At the zoo and aquarium you make sure to hold him up to the glass so he can see the other animals. At the aquarium you totally freak out over the otters and get so excited screaming and jumping up and down that you'll even fall over. You also love to feed your "babies" using a toy bottle and tuck them into your baby doll crib. You still sleep in a crib because you don't try to climb out and are an amazing sleeper so we see no reason to change things up and ruin a good thing at the moment!

You love playing with shoes and stuffed animals the most. Every day in the car you pull off your socks and shoes and sometimes you put them back on. When you put them back on, your socks are always inside out because of the way you pull them off. I'll giggle and tell you they are inside out so lately when I go to get you out, if this is what you've done, you'll tell me, "eesi out," before I can say anything. With as girly as you can be as far as "painting your nails" and playing with baby dolls, you are also super rough and tumble. You think it's hilarious when Carter growls at you so you'll do it to other kids your age but it scares them! You also like to wrestle and don't mind when Carter gets too rough. I'll tell him he's being too rough and he'll tell me, "But Elise is laughing!" Often times you'll push or hit other kids to get their attention so I have to remind you to say "hi" and wave to get your friends' attention. You are really good about doing that when I redirect you so I'm hoping you catch on to that more appropriate way to get attention. You aren't afraid of much either. You will jump off our bed with no fear and love jumping off or sliding off stuff. You're bad about just jumping straight down instead of jumping out so you often catch your hiney and slide it down what you are jumping off of, scratching it. You also like to climb on the counters. You also love to run, especially down ramps. Hopping is also a favorite as well as jumping on the trampoline. We have a bunny that plays music and you like to dance and hop along to the music.

You love to do things by yourself and are getting to be more independent. You like to help clean up and when you spill something you go running for a towel and clean it up yourself. You also love brushing your teeth on your own but that may be in part because you like to suck the toothpaste off (it is flouride free so I'm not stressing about it since you don't understand how to spit it out yet). You can now drive our toy tractor by yourself. You can't steer it but you sure jump right on and take off driving at top speed which is hilarious, especially with your crazy curly hair blowing in the wind! Sometimes you want to snap your seatbelt by yourself which can be excrutiating because you can't do it so I have to stand and wait until you give up. If you were interested in doing the top clip across your chest you might be able to do it but you insist on doing the bottom clips which are really hard. If we're in a hurry and I do it for you, you get so mad and scream and cry. It's sad, but girly we can't make Carter late to school! One of Carter's chores is unloading the silverware from the dishwasher into the silverware drawer. You can now match the spoons, forks, and knives and can help him which he just loves! He kept commenting on how much faster it goes now that you are big enough to help him. You still aren't interested in tv and I love that. We had a picnic lunch on the living room floor while watching a show one day and you sat with your back to the tv, watching Carter as you ate.

You love using the potty and if we let you run around naked on the bottom you will use it on your own. If you are wearing undies you don't notice you need to go like you do when you're naked and you will potty in them. Sometimes when you're wearing a diaper you will tell me when you are going potty. When we are out and about if I use the restroom you usually want to go too and will sit on the potty and at least squeeze a little potty out, it's pretty impressive! I've been thinking about putting you in pull-ups because when you use the potty in public I have to then take you over and put your diaper back on. If we are at home and I ask you to sit on the potty most the time you scream and cry and it turns into a power struggle so I let it go. If I offer fruit snacks you will often times sit on the potty, but other times still tell me no. So although you are doing really well on your own, I'm not ready to attempt full-on potty training because I would need you to be willing to get on the potty when I ask you to. It's surprising to me that introducing treats into potty training actually has made you less likely to go. I guess going potty is rewarding enough for you that you don't need a treat to do it, but you want it to be on your terms!

I mentioned that you threw my phone in the toilet and ruined it (even though I had a LifeProof case). Well the week before that you swiped my phone while I was vacuuming and threw it in the bathtub. You also like to throw food into my cup when we are eating. I'm amazed at your aim and accuracy, but it is super annoying to have to fish food out of my drink. You also still like to sit on my lap while eating and have been a big of a snuggle bug lately. You love to give Harper kisses and it's adorable to watch you lean down to kiss her on the head. You have such a sweet heart and really love animals. It is adorable to watch you!

You were such a good girl during your 2 year well check. You opened your mouth for the doctor when he asked to look at your teeth. You also turned your head for him when he asked to see your other ear. You weighed in at 26.8 pounds which put you in the 52nd percentile. You were 34.7 inches tall which put you in the 75th percentile. You only got one shot and cried pretty hard over it but calmed down quickly once I picked you up. I love you so much, Miss Elise! Keep growing and making this world a better place!