Let's start with her statistics. She had her check up on January 5th, and she weighed in at 23 pounds, 2 ounces. That puts her around the 10th percentile. This is an improvement from her last appointment, which had her in the 5th percentile. The doctor gave us the ok to finally take her off of whole milk, which made me pretty excited. I have been buying 3 kinds of milk for the past year (skim for me, 1% for the boys, whole for Allison), so it will be nice to go back to only two kinds. I let the doctor know the boys drank 1%, and he seemed fine with that. I just need to make sure she gets enough of it!
Allison's height was 34 inches. They say (and I am not sure who "they" are) that you can double your child's height at the age of 2, and that will predict what their height will be as an adult. If that holds true, our baby girl will grow to 68 inches, or 5 foot 8. That is two inches taller than me, and the same height as Mike (on a good day - lol!). Hmmm... I had to go back and look and Michael's height at age 2, and he was 35.5 inches. So that would put him at almost 6 foot tall as an adult! Gulp! He is already almost at my chin, so that just might happen! Ugh. I can't think about that yet.
Allison seems to be hitting all her milestones just fine. She seems to be doing great in the vocabulary department, as she can say 4-5 word sentences without batting an eye. But we are noticing that she is having troube with her "s" sound. Socks are "cocks", stroller is "troller", amd snake is "nake". So we have been over emphasizing words that start with an "s" to her. S-s-s-s-s-socks! She thinks we are pretty funny when we do that. She will repeat "S-s-s-s-s-s-cocks!" We will keep working on it! :)
She is soooo Miss Independent! She insists on doing everything for herself, and will have a meltdown if you do it for her. She must put her own shoes/boots on/off, as well as her own coat. Sometimes she will let you put her hat on her head, but other times she wants to do it on her own. If she is having trouble, you can help her when, and only when, she asks for help. Don't even think of helping her if she is struggling. You must be asked for help! She also refuses to get help going up and down the stairs. Going up is no big deal, but she nearly gives me a heart attack going down. Recently, she feels as if she doesn't need to hold on to anything to go down the stairs. She will balance herself as she takes each step down, and she does pretty well. But then I swear sometimes she acts like she wants to jump down the stairs. I have to put the brakes on that pretty quick.
She wants to brush her own teeth, but will let me do it more often these days. She loves to drink from a regular cup - not a sippy. However, I still insist on a sippy if she is going to be on the move, obviously. She does great with utensils, but will still use her fingers to eat quite a bit. We have to remind her often to use her fork/spoon, which she willingly complies. She has started to try to undress herself, but so far it has only been her pants, and thankfully at appropriate times. She doesn't normally like to be without her clothes, so she hasn't tried to strip down unless it is bed or bath time.
She is a great eater! By that I don't necessarily mean she eats huge quantities, but more like she isn't very picky. She usually will eat anything we give her, but there have been a few times she has spit something out. I think the majority of the times she has spit something out has been because of texture, and not because of the taste. She struggled with mashed potatoes at first due to the texture, but she eats them now without an issue. Some meats she still struggles to chew, but she does well for the most part. Now if we give her something she really loves, like unsauced chicken wings (pulled off the bones for her of course) or rotisserie chicken, she gobbles that down! She has other favorites too. Like broccoli & carrots (cooked), spaghetti, cheese, and hot dogs. She likes most veggies, except not always corn. Sometimes she eats it, and sometimes she just scoots it around the plate and plays with it.
She was obsessed with Elmo for a long time, but it is rapidly changing to Dora. She loves all the Disney and Sesame Street characters, but when it comes to TV, she demands Dora. I love to watch her when Dora is on. She answers Dora's questions (or Boots', Backpack's, or Map's) out loud, and claps at the appropriate times. We (yes, I said "we") even dance at the end to the "We did it!" song.
She has this little game she likes to play with Mike and I, usually in the car. It goes like this:
A: "Mommy!"
Me: "What?"
A: "Daddy!"
Mike: "What?"
A: "Mommy!"
Me: "What?"
A: "Daddy!"
Mike: "What?"
A: "Mommy!"
Me: silence
A: laughs
Michael: laughs
Us: sigh
Another lovely thing she is doing is answering everything you say to her with "Huh?"
Me: "Allison, put your shoes on."
A: "Huh?"
Me: "Put your shoes on, please"
A: "Huh?"
Me: "You heard me."
A: "Huh?
Me: sigh
She is definitely learning how to be "terrible two". She has the tantrums mastered, and can cry, or stop crying at the drop of a hat. When she gets upset, she tends to throw things. I know she does it for attention. She will throw things, and then watch us to wait for a reaction. When she doesn't get it, she turns on the water works. Thankfully this stage passes!
But I totally love this stage in life, where they are learning so many new things. She is so proud of herself when she accomplishes something new, and she exclaims, "I did it!" And we cheer for her like crazy people.
I love watching her and Michael play. She loves for him to chase her around, and vice versa. We do have to reel Michael in sometimes though, when he gets a little rough with her. But they love each other so much, and I hope they are always close.
So that is about it. I will leave you will a few pictures from her most recent photo shoot:
