23 months: Long update

So clearly I couldn't keep up with Lila's monthly updates since I haven't posted one in quite awhile! I do want to record some of the things she is doing. There are so many times that Lila says or does something funny or sweet, and I wish I could jot it down somewhere. I know I've missed a lot of silly things she's said and done lately, but here is my best shot at recording these milestones and memories for posterity.

Age: 23 months, today! My baby is almost 2! This age is super fun. We never know what she is going to say or do and she surprises us every day! Last year at this time I was very emotional about her turning 1, this year I'm not, so far!

Weight and height: My petite little peanut is finally finally over 23 lbs! Last time I weighed her at home she was 23.6 lbs. She is starting to look chunkier in the face and legs too. We've had a hard time getting weight on her (some of this is due to her vomiting issue, mentioned below), even though she eats a lot and is only just now getting kind of picky. Must be daddy's good metabolism. She is getting taller, but won't know until her 2 year appt.

Sizes: She wears mostly 18 and 24 month sizes, but there are a few 12 month pants that still work. She has a tiny waist, so most 24 month and some 18 month pants won't stay up. She wears 24 mo and 2T in tops. Size 6 shoe and size 4 diaper. We will likely never buy 5s.

Favorite foods and eating: We have recently ditched most of the processed foods in our house and diet, but Lila's favorite foods remain about the same. But instead of mystery food Nutrigrain bars, I've been making her homemade breakfast bars on the weekend to give her on our busy weekday mornings. She loves her "cakes". She also loves bread of any kind, chicken and beef, black beans, cheese, blueberries, broccoli, green beans, bananas (banas), mac and cheese, guacamole, crackers of any type, and her new fave ... chocolate chips (!) I love that she can tell me what she wants to eat. She usually says, "I want a snack" or "I wanna eat". And will tell us what she wants.. "I want pizza" "I want mac n cheese"... or yesterday.. "I want tacos, mommy!" She has a great appetite and usually eats more for breakfast and lunch and not much at dinner.We've switched to organic whole milk and she has done great with that. We try to limit it to make sure she is eating enough actual food and not just drinking her calories.

Vomiting/allergy/asthma update: I'm not sure how much I've mentioned it on the blog, but I suspected that Lila's weight gain issue was partially due to how often she had been throwing up at the end of last year. During the fall semester (which was outrageously stressful and busy for me), she was throwing up her food at least once a week if not more... We had a couple stomach bugs come through, but this was more often than that. I'm happy to report that she hasn't had any odd vomiting issues in 2 months, probably. I think a lot of this is due to her finally being diagnosed with asthma and getting a nebulizer breathing treatment. She has always coughed a lot while eating and would often throw up due to coughing. We have also made a lot of dietary changes and cut out processed foods. The elimination of sketchy food additives, dyes and other mystery things has helped tremendously. I've also tried to reduce her milk intake (some days none at all) and let her take her time to eat. We've alos been doing well managing her egg allergy. Now that the foods we buy and eat have much shorter ingredient lists (usually under 5), it's easier to make sure she isn't getting any egg at all. I'm also making most of her foods!

Favorite toys and books: She loves baby dolls the most! She always has a baby, stuffed animal or toy in her hand. She pushes around her stroller constantly. She especially loves her "cake baby" which is Strawberry Shortcake. She also likes cars and blocks and puzzles and her play kitchen of course. She has been playing a lot with Christmas gifts like her Leap Pad, doll that goes potty, Melissa and Doug magnetic dolls and other new toys. Her tea pot and little people are still favorites.  We also play a lot of Hide and Seek and other physical games together. As for books, it's all about Curious George. We had to hide all of the George books at one point because the obsession was getting out of hand. She also loves Goodnight Gorilla, If you Give a Mouse a Cookie, Clifford and Tea for Ruby right now.

Random Development stuff: 

• Lila can count to 12! I'm amazed because just a few weeks ago she was counting like this, "2, B, O, 1"... now she is getting it! Thanks $5 clock puzzle!
• She is SO affectionate. She not only voluntarily hugs and kisses us all the time, she is very loving to her dolls and toys. She gets very attached to things, but oddly doesn't have a main lovey, but just a whole bunch of them. Yesterday, I was home with her and and she started talking to a stick of cucumber that she was calling a snake. We held and petted the snake, and gave it a kiss and hug before we released it into the sink. Odd!
• She names her toys. Is this normal developmentally for age 2? All of her dolls are named after babies or kids that she knows, or from books. She has a baby Eli, baby Sam, baby Emmy and most recently a baby Owen. She yells for Owen if she can't find him. Hilarious!
• Sleep wise things are normal. We got a little off track over the holidays, but back to routine now. She still remains a sleep machine. 8:30pm-8am for the most part with a 2 hour nap, I try to never sleep past 4pm for naps. She sleeps more than most 2 year olds, but I like to think it's making her smarter. :) Oh and I've been singing her On my Own and Bring Him Home from Les Miserables every night and it works like a charm! I have to run her to her bed so she doesn't zonk out on me.
• Dances and sings all the time. Loves Newsies and Raffi and Patty Shukla and Top 40 radio, especially Bruno Mars. I am hoping to continue to work on her love of music. I think I hear some vocal talent, but can't be sure yet!
• She is still SO happy and expressive! Everything makes her laugh and she often gets in giggling fits over nothing. I LOVE this! She is so fun. She makes the funniest faces too.
• Also she had her first ear infection over New Years and NYE. Sad! She slept 20 hrs off and on one day. It was odd not having to chase your toddler around. She just laid on us and slept. Glad to have our spunky girl back.

Language related stuff:

She speaks pretty clearly and we have conversations with her all the time. She seems to understand everything we say! She must know hundreds and hundreds of words, maybe a thousand! Who knows. Sometimes she'll be able to identify an animal or something I didn't know she knew, like penguin or camel.  Also, when I pick her up from daycare, and I ask her how her day was, she usually has a lot to say about what she did and who she played with that day! It's so fun to move to this stage where she is truly involved in our conversations! I find language acquisition really interesting, so I take note of this stuff a lot. It's not to compare, I just find it interesting!

Phrases we hear a lot... a lot of these were from a previous post that was left in the drafts, so many of these she's been saying for 2-3 months.

• "Watch, Mommy! or "Look, Mommy!" Before any flip, dance move or anything really.
• When we say I love you she says it back! "I Wuv You, Mommy. I Wuv You Daddy"
• Plurals: "I want two books. I want the babies. I want two night-nights." - Night-night is her paci. Ugh. Need to get rid of the night-night.
• Adding "too" to sentences. "Mommy eat. Lila eat too! Daddy eat too!"
• Possessives and pronouns: "My babies. Lila's babies. Daddy's cup. Mommy's hat."
• Yay for manners: "Tank you, Daddy", "Welcome Daddy". "Mommy, I want a chip please". Keep in mind these are sometimes shouted at the top of her lungs... But for the most part she is very polite!
• Questions.. that make sense. "Where Daddy go?" "Where is Mommy's car-car?" Where'd (insert name of doll or toy" go? She also asks "WHY?" a lot! 
• When she falls... "I okay! I okay, Mommy!" OR asks us if we are okay or if her babies are ok.
• More involved sentences: "I wanna play Eli"(the baby at daycare). "I wanna go in the car-car." "Mommy, I want the pretties please." Pretties are crayons.
• Mispronounces oatmeal as "ole-mut" and ketchup as "chup-etch". I find this extremely funny.
• She can say Grandma, Grand-dad, Mamaw and Papaw now! She often asks... "I call Grandma?" We've started Skyping some!
• Has just in the last few weeks started saying "Come here! Sit and play me!" Which breaks my heart when I drop her at daycare and she wants me to sit and play. She also says, if she wants me to come play, "Come on, baby!" So funny! I must say that a lot!
• She says "mine" and "my owns" which is too funny to me. 
• She tells her babies to "Wait! Sit. Stay. Good boy!!" Like she is training them! So weird!
• Showing definite two year old independent-ness. "Lila do it!" and "Me do it" are heard often. 
• She is very opinionated about what color spoon/fork/cup we give her... so far, she doesn't care about what clothes I pick for her, but of course sometimes objects to wearing any at all.
• Lila is showing off her sassy attitude at times. I reminded her to chew her food well, and she looked at me and said, "Mom. I know." Hello teenage Lila!

Okay, that's clearly enough for now. I probably will post a few things around her birthday next month! I am planning a Strawberry / Strawberry Shortcake party for her! I'm so excited that her birthday actually falls on a Saturday this year. Last year it felt so wrong to be working on her birthday. I hated that and I was super emotional and just cried a lot that day! I think I will keep it together this time! I'm SO glad I wrote all of this down but I know I missed a lot. We are really just enjoying the fun parts of parenting and trying to block out the crappy parts so we might just do this again sometime!