Lydia Elise: 22-23 Months

Lydia Elise. This beautiful little girl brings more joy, more laughter, (and sometimes more frustration) to our lives than we ever could have thought possible. Sometimes I think that my heart is going to burst into a million pieces and float away because of how cute and tender she is. This is the last month that she will be my little one year old. Next month, she will be two years old. I'm holding tight to this 23 month old baby for all I'm worth. 

I don't have many stats to give, and I'm really looking forward to her 2 year appointment just so I know how much she weighs. (I've considered getting a scale just to weigh her for her monthly posts - but I only ever really think about it when I'm sitting down to write her stats.) She is growing out of her 18 month clothes, and most 24 months clothes fit her well, even if there are a tiny bit big. She has lots of darling little curls on the back of her head and is still working on breaking in the two front molars on the left side of her mouth. (As soon as they are completely in, that will bump her teeth count up to 10.) She can't wear size 3 diapers anymore, they are much too small- so it's size 4s all the time now. Size 5 shoes are a tiny bit small and size 6 shoes are a tiny bit big. 

Some other things about this month: 

--She loves being outside. She loves to run around and explore. The days are warming up, and every day that we get to go to the park, or play in the backyard, is the best. day. ever. She cries every time we have to go inside. She loves to find new things and she is very tactile - touching everything she can. 

 

-She has started to ask me to put a bow on her head every day. Usually when I am combing her hair, she'll say "Bow?" and run and give me a bow for her to wear. Sometimes one isn't enough, and she keeps bringing me bows to put on. She has some of her favorites that she loves to wear - and I love when she asks me to stick one in.

--This month was Melissa and Blakes wedding, and Lydia was the sweetest little girl running around. I die when I see these pictures of her in her little dress. I am always amazed at how happy she is, all the time. She was a champ the whole day, and just loved all the of the excitement that was going on.

  

--She likes to "watch a show" in the morning, or in the evening right before David gets home from work. She has several shows that she will ask for by name: "Tiger" which is Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, "A Frog" which is a series of LeapFrog shows, "Bah-be" which is Barney, and "Suh-puh Wye" which is Super Why. If she knows that I am going to turn one on for her, she gets really excited and jumps around and will often climb up on the couch and pull a blanket over herself. It doesn't usually last long - she usually "watches" her show while climbing all over the couches/tables, standing on the floor, or jumping on the trampoline... but I love how cute she looks when she's cuddled up on the couch. She was especially cuddly after getting stitches this month and would want me to sit with her and hold her while she watched a show.  

-She's really good at putting her puzzles together. She got several puzzles like these for her first birthday but for a long time she wasn't super interested in them. Now she will sit down and put all the pieces back in (naming them, if she can remember their names), then dump them out and start over. She she will line all of her puzzles up and dump their pieces out together while she works on them.

--David and I have always tried really hard to keep Lydia away from candy and really sugary treats. We are really happy that she loves strawberries and oranges and is a really good eater - and we attribute a lot of that to the fact that she doesn't eat cookies or cake or candy. (We know that it's easier for us to say "not at all" than "no more", so that's something that we've done as parents.) But sometimes we have to laugh at how little she knows about candy. If she ever finds a piece of candy on the floor, she is much more likely to come and bring it to us than she is to put it in her mouth. (To the shock and laughter of those hanging out with us.) One day, she found an M&M on the floor and carried it around in her hand like a little toy because she honestly didn't know that it was food.  

--She loves to climb the rock wall in our backyard. It's a problem, mostly because she's so good at it that we can't really tell her that she can't do it. We've already determined that we will allow kids to climb on the wall, because it's awesome when we can send them outside and they climb up the rocks and run down the grass. There is no way that she would be okay with other kids climbing the wall (i.e. Carson, cousins, friends...) She loves it and I'm always impressed at her coordination and balance. She's tried to climb closer to the middle of the wall, but so far this is the easiest place for her to climb, and I'm happy because it's not quite as high and there are a few good footholds. I can't believe how big she is.

 --People ask me if she's reached "The Terrible Twos", and honestly she hasn't. She's sweet and happy, and a little grumpy sometimes but nothing that I would ever describe as being terrible. However, she has started quite the independent streak. She has started picking out things that she wants to wear and being bound and determined to wear them. She knows what she wants, and now that she can communicate it, her most common words are "I want". I want to hold it, I want to try it, I want to slide, I want a coat.... Whatever she wants, she is sure to let you know. Oh, I would be remiss if I didn't include the thing that she "wants" more often than anything else. She always says "I want to watch a horse!" Which means that she wants to watch the video clip of her at the farm with the chicken, and then watch the random You Tube videos of horses that pop up after it's done. It's ridiculous, but she loves it and she always asks to watch a horse. I've tried to evolve that into watching farm animal clips that teach sounds, letters, and numbers to make myself feel better about letting her watch You Tube.

 --At the very beginning of her 22 month-ness it was like something magical happened. She's always been sweet and happy, but she was SO sweet and SO happy all the time. She was so cute that I couldn't help but kiss her all the time. Her face, her head, her tummy, her toes, her arms. I kissed her all day every day. You know when you hold a tiny baby and you can't help but smother them in kisses because they are so sweet there isn't anything else you can do? It was like she was a tiny baby again just waiting to be covered in kisses. I wrote this in my planner where I jot notes throughout the month "My very favorite stage. She is so cute that I can't help but kiss her head all of the time. I love her curly locks, I'm always running my fingers through her hair, brushing her bands to the side or kissing her." I told many people, in complete honesty, that if I could freeze her - that very day - and have her stay that way forever I would do it. Unfortunately, I think all of my smothering attention triggered the above mentioned "independentness". It doesn't matter though, she is still so cute and sweet and I still just want to kiss her all day long.  

--She still climbs on everything. She also jumps off everything within reason (many times her reason and my reason are two very different things.  

 --You can see the cut on her forehead really well in the picture above (of her reading the book) that she got from pulling her highchair over on top of her while she was trying to climb in. Then just over a week later, when those pictures of her wearing that darling dress were taken, she tripped and hit her head on the piano bench and we spent the evening in the ER getting stitches. Many people expressed just as much concern for David and I as they did for Lydia, but I'd say we handled it really well (all three of us). I think it is in part that we knew that it was bound to happen at some point, because as safe as we try to keep her she just never stops climbing, and jumping, and running. 

 --Her eye has healed really well though! Other than talking about the doctor pretty much every day since the incident - her eye hasn't bothered her much at all (something that we have been very grateful for. It's been interesting to watch the cut on her forehead and the cut on her eye heal at the same time. The stitches very obviously have made a huge difference, and while they are both much, much better now - you can tell that the stitches made a huge impact on how well the eye has healed and how quickly. You can barely tell that it's there unless you are looking for it, where her forehead will probably have a small scar.  

-She has the grumpiest little face when she doesn't get something that she wants (or if someone is talking to her that she doesn't know/hasn't warmed up to yet). It makes me laugh. 

-She has discovered a love for coloring. She hasn't really gotten into it very much - and it's still not her very favorite thing to do, but she does enjoy it on occasion. Unfortunately, she likes markers better than crayons and usually ends up covered in marker. (Also, you can see the bruising above her eye - that isn't marker, it's just her body's healing process.)  

--We've loved seeing her explore and learn more words. Some of the cutest things that she says started out as as simple sentances: "I did it!", "I found it!", "I climbed it". And they have evolved quickly into "Fox wants to slide", and "The chicken was out." She also has started to name numbers as she stacks her blocks, "Five, Six, Eight... Six". It's darling. Oh, and she says sorry, please, and thank you on a regular basis and it makes me so proud of my polite little girl. 

Here are some other fun pictures of our adventures this month: 

I just can't say enough how much we love this sweet sweet little girl. She makes us so happy and we love having her in our lives. Happy 23 months my darling girl. In just a few short weeks you will be two and life will be full of even more adventures together.