My 2 year old

Brianna is at such a fun age right now. It is a bit trying at times as she's learning to be independent, but there is so much joy in this age as well. 

At two years old, Brianna loves to read. Her favorite book right now is Brown Bear, Brown Bear. There I days that I must read this to her at least a dozen times. She can quote the whole book, so she also likes to sit and read it to herself. She will even insert other animals into the wording while she plays (for example, while playing with her zoo, she will say "Giraffe, giraffe, what do you see?"). 

We took Brianna for her two year check-up on February 22. She is healthy (such a blessing!) and developing right on track. She is long and lean weighing in at 24 pounds 8 ounces (22nd percentile), and measuring 34 1/2 inches tall (69th percentile). Her head circumference is 46 1/2 cm (24th percentile). She wears size 24 month and 2T clothing and size 6 shoe. Most of her pants are too big in the waist if they are long enough.

Coloring is another favorite activity of Brianna's right now. She also loves stickers! She knows her basic colors, although she isn't always cooperative about telling us what they are. She can also recognize a few letters (B is her favorite), but has little interest in working on this. I'm not pushing her right now . . . I think she'll get it eventually. She recognizes basic shapes, and can count to 10 (but usually leaves out 3 and sometimes 4). She can somewhat count to 10 in Spanish as well (thanks mostly to Dora, another favorite right now).

I love the way she holds crayons, pens, and pencils like a big girl!

One of her favorite things to say is, "I love him/her/that/this." When she says this, she hugs herself (as seen in the photo below). "Love" usually sounds more like "luff".

Brianna has been potty trained since December (22 months old). She rarely has accidents (like once a week or less), though she still uses a pull-up or diaper for nap and night-time. She wakes up dry from her nap about half of the time. When we go on a longer outing, we use a pull-up. This is mainly because she waits until the last minute to tell us she needs to go potty and we can't always make it to the bathroom in time. On shorter outings, she wears panties. She uses size 4 in diapers and size 2T in pull-ups. She hasn't had a poop accident in several months. She has recently started to get her own toilet paper and try to wipe herself. We're still working on that :-).

Cooking is also one of Brianna's favorite things! She loves to help me mix things up, and she loves to pretend cook in her kitchen. She's always making things for me to eat.

She'll tell you to be careful of the cookies because "Those are hot!" She's always careful to wear her oven mitt.

For her birthday, my sister made her this apron. She loves it! I think she looks just adorable in it.

Brianna's language absolutely exploded around 20 months of age. She's always been a talker, but it was around this time that she started talking in sentences. Now, she talks in sentences all the time. She even uses correct grammar (and will correct herself) a lot of the time. For example, she'll say, "I want that" then notice there is more than one and correct herself by saying, "I want those". "I want" is probably her most used phrase right now, but we are teaching her to ask for things in a nice way. She is really good to word things in the way that we ask her to. For example, when we go to the store and she sees something that we have at home, she used to say, "That is mine!" I told her that she should say, "We have that at home" so that's what she says now. She is good to use her pleases, thank yous, and excuse mes. She loves to say "Bless you, so-and-so" after someone sneezes or coughs.

She does say cute little toddler-ish things like, "Momma hold you?" (instead of "hold me") and "Him's in the swing" (referring to Brenson). Lately when she wants to be held, she'll sometimes say, "I lay on Dadda's shoulder" (and "shoulder" usually sounds more like "sho-der"). Other very frequently used phrases right now include, "I do it", "It Annie's turn", "That mine/those are mine", "Cean it up yater" (clean it up later), "Dadda work, be home yater", and "Dadda/Momma help pease". She also says, "I yike it" (I like it) while shaking her head yes if she does like something or while shaking her head no if she does not like something. We are trying to teach her to say, "I don't like it" when appropriate, but we're not having much luck so far.

Recently, B has started calling Chris and me "honey". She'll say, "I want a drink, honey." While this was cute at first, we are trying to break the habit. Once in a while, she'll call us by our first names, but she knows this is a no-no.

Another favorite of Brianna's right now are her blocks. She had a few of these that she played with daily, so Chris and I bought her a few more for her birthday. She loves building with these and seriously plays with them every. single. day.

She'll just sit against the wall and play and play and play.

Every nap and night, Brianna sleeps with her 4 Cabbage Patch babies. She also loves to put them in her doll stroller, feed them, change them, burp them, etc. Now, they frequently end up in Brenson's swing or bouncy seat when he's not using them. She also generally takes one in the car with her when we go places, and she always had one with her when we went to visit the Baby Doctor.

Brianna also loves to play outside. Her main birthday gift from us this year was this Big-Wheel. She enjoys it, but is a little small for it still. She asks to play outside pretty much everyday, though we don't make it out that often (especially now as I'm trying to adjust to having two).

When we're outside, she likes to play with sidewalk chalk, bubbles, her Big-Wheel, and on her swingset. She got a bubble gun for her birthday from one of my friends that is a favorite right now.

Brianna is still a great eater, and will try about anything we set in front of her. I hope she never outgrows this! She eats whatever we are eating for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. She definitely loves fruit, but eats a wide variety of everything.

Every night we have a little family devotional before bed. Brianna loves to sing! We'll catch her singing Jesus Loves Me and other songs sometimes (still trying to get video of this). Also, she likes to pray on her own - she'll fold her little hands, close her eyes, and say something like "Thank you God Momma, Dadda, Annie. Amen." We also work on memorizing Bible facts at this time. She can tell us the names of the first man and woman, what was created on each day of creation, that the Bible is God's Word, that Jesus loves us, etc. She is just a sponge right now, soaking in all kinds of information!

This is probably silly to say, but I love that Brianna is such a little person now. I thank God daily for the blessing she is to me!