Sam and Anna already 2 years old-
woah. It hardly seems like 2 years ago they were born, and yet, it seems like they have been a part of our family for forever. We're definitely reached the point where we can't imagine what we did every weekend before they were born, but life must have been certainly more boring.
Size wise, Anna's back in size 4 diapers after running out of our box of free size 3s. Sam is wearing size 5 diapers (yup, still not attempting that potty training stuff and won't be for a while although two potty chairs sit our basement). Both Sam and Anna are wearing almost all 24 month/2T things, although they are in that in between stage when the size down looks too small and yet the size up is sometimes too big. I can't wait for warmer weather to stay and have them live in shorts and Ts every day when the length of the sleeves and legs don't matter.
Sam and Anna are talking in almost all complete sentences or long phrases of 3-5 words. It is so easy to communicate with them now. Sam likes to report the day's events from daycare, like what they ate for lunch, what they played with, and he even told me last week that he had a "poopy diaper at nap time" when I noticed he was wearing different clothes than he was in the morning. Their vocabulary is growing by leaps and bounds too- it seems like every day, they utter a new word in appropriate context that I've never heard from their mouths before. Both Sam and Anna say "Moot!" when they want somebody to move... which I think is pretty darn cute. They are also doing more labeling of adjectives before nouns unprompted, like pointing out a "red truck" passing us (minor truck obsession on car rides going on right now), or telling us that the milk jug they are helping carry is "heavy milk." Along with a greater memory for their increase vocabulary came requests for specific food at mealtimes. It is rare we get through a meal without requests for "cheese please (Parmesan cheese)" or "Ketchup" or "yogurt (from Sam)." In the past, Sam and Anna were able to often say the next letter in the alphabet song if we pause, and now they are able to sing several letters in order on their own. Sam started called Anna "Annabel" more frequently (because a new child at daycare calls her that as well), while Anna calls Sam now about 50% of the time "Sam" and 50% "B" She's also calling herself Anna less and using I, me, and mine more often.
As they have for months both Sam and Anna know all 11 colors... but lately Anna has taken to calling everything pink (because it's her favorite color or because she
wants it to be pink). When we call her on her mistake, she almost always tells us the correct color the second time, so I know she still remembers them. Sam's favorite color is probably blue right now. At 22 months Sam and Anna knew circle, star, triangle, heart and diamond... now they are getting a good handle on rectangle and square as well. Sam and Anna have counted objects to around 5, they can recite numbers (oral counting) to about 10 and they have a good understanding of what 1, 2 and 3 means when asked how many are in a set of objects. We are working on representing the numbers 1, 2, and 3 with fingers and Anna especially has been really catching on. Anna can identify the number 2 in print (although I don't know if they can identify more than that). Letter and sound identification is about the same, but they are beginning to remember the way the letters look in their names... i.e. recognize their name in print.
It may be partly because of their size (which at this point I don't think is that much smaller than average) but it seems like everywhere we go, people are commenting on how advanced they are. Neither one is shy in a public setting. Anna likes to tell people "Bye- thank you!" to random strangers- whether they held the door open for us, checked us out, or told us a compliment. They do so well out in public (most of the time), that I thank my lucky stars and hope it continues so that taking both of them out and about isn't a headache. Going out to eat has never been a problem, and rarely do we have issues in stores. Sam and Anna willingly leave the playground and children's museum when we say it is time to go. I am thankful for two very obedient children when we go places.
Pretend play continues to be a big hit. Anna's dollhouse from Christmas is probably the top hit tied with our kitchen. Mega Blocks and Little People are also daily faves. Sam and Anna love to color, use playdoh and paint. We try to paint once a week on the weekends- so far we've finger painted, painted with tubes, marbles, paintbrushes, shaving cream and peppers. Sam asks to paint often, but it just isn't something we can tackle on weeknights once we are home from daycare. Sam and Anna rotate pretty well between what we have to play with, and I can't really think of many toys still out that aren't played with much anymore.
Over the winter we received several Elmo books as gifts, and they are daily requested reads, especially Elmo Loves Hugs. Good Night Gorilla is making a resurgence in the book department for Anna as well. Sam particularly likes our small collection of Hands Are Not for Hitting, Teeth Are Not for Biting and Tails Are Not for Pulling... which is good, because he needs the messages reinforced more than Anna does!
Sleep wise, Sam and Anna have been in a small rut of taking longer to go to sleep at night. I'm thinking they need less overall sleep right now, but they still need to wake up at 6:40 am on weekdays and the days when they take a long time to fall asleep are the days when they don't want to get up for us. Then we have two grumpy kids that don't want to get peeled away from their cozy cribs. After that, they end up napping late- sometimes we wake then at 4:30 pm after starting nap at 1 pm, which means then that they aren't sleepy enough for bedtime when they should be. It's a vicious cycle that I'd love to figure out a way to break. Sam and Anna are still in cribs and sleep sacks. However, Anna has been pacifier-free for over a month! It was much easier that I thought it would be, so I am extremely glad we waited until she showed us she was ready to ditch it.
I think Anna is a little more advanced in motor skills than Sam right now. She's great at jumping and kicking a ball, although Sam can also do both. Anna is also much more of a calculated risk-taker when it comes to climbing things. Sam kind of crashes through life, climbing everything and running everywhere- which sometimes results in more bumps and bruises for him. I still have a hard time getting him to lift his feet off the ground in the Cozy Coupe so I can push him, while Anna mastered that last summer. Anna has also mastered our toddler light switch pull, but Sam hasn't figured out how to push it up to turn the light off again. Sam's fine motor skills are excellent though- when he really wants to, he can really get in a zone and carefully stack a tower of blocks taller than himself... or put together an entire train track by himself. Anna and Sam both take off their coats on their own (unzipping and removing the arms) and Anna puts on her own pants most days. Either it is a huge coincidence, or she gets that the label goes in back/zipper in front because almost all of the time, the pants are not backwards- whether jeans or an elastic waistband.
Sam final incisor finally broke through within the last week or so, making his total teeth count 16. He got all 4 canines before that incisor which was supposed to show up on average a year ago. Anna's last canine (upper left) is about to break through at any time- which makes her tooth count 15 going on 16. Anna's hair? Still super curly. I adore those ringlet curls and I will cry the day I realize they are gone for good.
Within days of their 2 year old birthday, it seems like a switched flipped and someone clued our toddlers into the fact that they were supposed to start acting like two year olds at meals. Anna refused to sit in her high chair for several days in a row. And after that, I was tired of the same old battle so the high chairs got retired and boosters were introduced at home. We still get a daily challenge from her to get in the booster, but not as much. Sam and Anna have sat on real chairs for months at daycare though, so I am sure that is where her issues are coming from. She also has become super picky about what she'll eat lately, which is concerning to us, since her weight has always been something we've had to think about. I'm hoping for a nice number on the scale at the well child appointment in a few days so we can relax on working so hard to get her to eat. Sam though, is eating like a champ. He's our little meat and yogurt lover- and will eat anything with ketchup or Parmesan cheese all over it. The other day he moved all his corn and peas into his ketchup spot, slathered them up, and then (only after that) ate every last one. Anna loves crackers, especially a big graham cracker. Because one broken up just doesn't taste the same, of course.
With the Twos come more wanting independence, more asserting possession, and LOTS more "Mines!" If there's a way Anna thinks she can do something herself, she will try. Sam and Anna like to play the "My ____!" game with each other... so the phrase
"I'm everybody's mama" (or insert just about any other word: Daddy, Bella, Elmo...) is said a lot these days.
2 year old weight and height stats to come in a few days!
