23 months

Holy cow my baby is going to be 2 YEARS OLD in less than 3 weeks!!

How can this be?

Just yesterday we were on our way to the hospital unsure of whether my water had just broken. 

Just yesterday we were watching her roll over, sit up, crawl, and walk for the first time. 

Just yesterday we were watching her stick her fingers in her cake at her first birthday party.

Another year has passed.  Time is going by WAY. TOO. FAST.

This post is going to be fairly chaotic, with no organization.  I just wanted to put in writing some of the things Mary Hyatt is up to these days so I'm just going to basically type whatever comes to mind. This will probably be pretty boring for any of you that may be reading.  I'm not even gonig to take the time to add pictures, so you may want to skip this post.  Here we go...

One thing that is constantly changing is her vocabulary.  She is talking like crazy.  We can now hold conversations with her and we can almost always understand exactly what she is trying to say.  (Still to an unfamilar listener, it may not be totally intelligible but it's close.)  I can't even begin to count how many words she has.  She has started to put 2-3 words together and even occasionally 4 words.  Just tonight she walked over to our fence and said "Emma, where are you?"  clear as day.  I was totally shocked.  This past weekend we had people over to celebrate Memorial Day and Ben had pulled out a bunch of chairs in our backyard.  Mary Hyatt walked over to the door and said, "What happen chairs?"  Again, I was so surprised that she had the words and knew how to put them together to form such an appropriate question.  She talks non stop.   I do think she may be a tad bit advanced in her communication skills...which is truly music to this speech therapist's ears.  Her teachers at school have made the comment that she talks so much more than her friends and just last week she came to my work and a few of the teachers made several comments at how impressed they were with her vocabulary.

Some of her favorite things these days are Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, baby dolls/strollers, purses, jewelry, shoes, books, puzzles, and lately her biggest obsession is with trains. She talks about "choo choo's" all the time.  She especially loves to go to Decatur because we can hear the train from my parents house.  She associates it with my dad, Pappy, and always asks for him or reaches for him whenever we hear the train.  It's pretty funny.  That brings me to another obsession, she LOVES my dad. She talks about Pappy all the time when in Decatur and in Birmingham.  She cries for him often and when we are home she is like his shadow.  She follows him everywhere and is always in his lap or in his arms.  We aren't sure what prompted this; she just has a connection with him.  She also watched Cars 2 with us one day because it just happened to be on TV, and ever since then she requests to watch it daily.

It's fun to watch her play these days.  She is developing so much more independence.  Almost at least once a day, we will find her putting stuff in and out of her pretend purse, throwing it on her shoulder, and then pushing the grocery cart around the house.  She loves to play with baby dolls and her favorite thing to do is to pretend to feed them a bottle. She plays in her kitchen and has started to bring us cups or spoons to pretend to feed us.  

Mary Hyatt still eats just about anything but she is starting to become a tad bit more picky.  Don't get me wrong, this child can still eat Ben and I both out of the house, but she just doesn't eat everything on her plate in one sitting like she use to.  She would much rather graze, and she definitely prefers fruits and vegetables over any kind of meat.  Of course, like her mama and daddy, she loves snacks and sweets.

She is wearing mostly 24 month or 2T clothes and weighs about 26 pounds.  I'm not sure how tall she is.  I'm looking forward to finding all of this out at her next doctor appointment.

The "terrible two's" tantrums have definitely hit full force.  They seem to be less on the weekends when we are home with her all day and she gets in a good nap, but during the week after long days at work/daycare she really knows how to push my buttons.  "No" is becoming a frequent word used and if we tell her "no" or don't give her what she wants, it's not unusual for her to whine/cry and sit on the ground/kick to pitch a fit.  She wants to do everything all by herself, which causes a lot of the tantrums.  For instance, if we have a bag of chips or goldfish, she wants to hold the whole bag and get it out.   If she wants some water out of a water bottle, she wants to hold it.  If I say "I have to help you" because I don't want her spilling the bag or the water etc. all over the place, she pouts/whines and throws a short tantrum. We have been spanking and using time out frequently.  It's actually pretty funny sometimes though, because when she realizes she has done something that isn't nice, she instantly says "sorry mommy" and usually follows that with "sweet mommy" while she rubs my face.  She says that because I often say to her "Be sweet to mommy" or "Those are not sweet hands." 

Though the tantrums happen daily, in the blink of an eye she can be the absolute sweetest child on the face of the planet.  Just tonight she was sitting on my lap facing me and I was talking to her.  A piece of my hair was kind of falling in to my face and she grabbed it so gently and pushed it behind my ear.  Some days when I pick her up from daycare, she is in a big play room area that has giant windows that look out to the parking lot.  I'd give anything if I could bottle up a video in my memory of her jumping up and down with a giant grin on her face when she sees me.  Melts my heart every single time. She loves to give hugs and loves to cuddle. She will now lay on the couch with us and watch whole episodes of Mickey Mouse.  She even watched the entire movie "Tangled" with me one night. She also loves to help us with any chore around the house. Her teachers say she has such a sweet heart, that when other kids in her class are crying she always walks over to them, pats their back and says "daddy workin'"  "he be right back."  haha  I guess that's her way of consoling them...and I guess she thinks the only reason they would be crying is because their mama and daddy isn't there.

She is still hooked to her passy and I dread the day we decide to take it away.  For now, I'm not pushing it.  Sometime soon we are going to try to start limiting it to sleep/nap times though.

Sleeping is still not an area that is pleasant to talk about.  It's my fault.  Let's just not even go there.

Still a huge mama's girl and typically won't leave my side, or my hip, from the moment we get home until bedtime.  She has started this thing where she requests me to do everything.  For example, Ben may be changing her diaper and she will cry and say "mama change you." (waating me to change her instead of him.)  We don't usually give in though...because mama just can't do it ALL the time. :)  With that said, she does whimper and whine for at least a couple of minutes whenever Ben leaves the house.  For example, he goes to play basketball or workout a good bit during the week.  When she sees him go out the door, she often cries for him. She loves her daddy and loves to play with him.

For now, that's all I can think of.  I may be back to add some more if I think of it haha but I think this pretty much sums up our sweet girl for now.  Can't believe this 2nd year of her life is almost over.