It's hard to believe, but it's true -- our sweet and feisty girl is two years old! In some ways it seems like she was just born yesterday, but at the same time it feels like she's been a part of our family forever.
This age is just so much fun. Watching her vocabulary explode is nothing short of amazing. In a few months she went from having a handful of words to saying complete sentences and expressing abstract thoughts. Some of the things she's saying now include:
"How about me?" (when you tell her you're about to do something or go somewhere and she wants to as well)
"Good idea!" or "I have an idea!"
"Where did Mommy/Daddy/Roz/etc. go?"
"But I'm not tired/sleepy!"
"Let's go to the playroom/park/outside!"
"Good job!" or "You did it!"
"I'll help you!"
She knows all of the major colors, including gray (the color of my car). She knows most of her numbers up to 10 (although she doesn't count through them all the way up, she can identify them if you show them to her; the other day she brought me her "8" magnet and announced, "this is the number eight!"). She throws out all kinds of unexpected words: wine, helicopter, iPad, microwave, probably. She says please, thank you, and you're welcome, usually without prompting. (In fact, she corrected Papa Tig the other day when someone told him thank you and he did not say you're welcome back.)
She picks up on inconsistencies and points them out, like if everyone but one person is wearing a coat, she'll take note and ask "where's your coat?". And she calls you out if you tell her one thing and later tell her another. Some birds made a huge mess on my car recently. When it rained, I pointed out to Scarlett that the rain was cleaning the bird poop off. Several days later, Scarlett pointed up to the moon roof and said, "Where did the bird poo poo go?" I told her that I cleaned the car and got up on the roof with a towel and scrubbed it clean (which was sort of true; technically the Fuel City car wash did that, but I figured that was a mere technicality). She shook her head and said, "No, Mommy, the rain did that."
Scarlett will repeat back absolutely anything you say, which can be really funny when you get her to say crazy things like "I'm hungry like the wolf" or "Shake it like a Polaroid picture" or "Take me to your leader", but also fairly dangerous when you say something that doesn't sound quite so cute coming out of the mouth of a two-year-old. I said "shoot" in the car a month or so ago and apparently said it with enough emphasis that Scarlett took note and thought to herself, "self, this is a word I must learn and use dramatically when something frustrating happens, like Mommy just did." So now she says "shoot" when she can't open something, she drops something, etc. Chris recently said the not-so-nice-version of "shoot" in the car. I jabbed him in the ribs, shot him a dirty look, and yelled "peanut butter!" (I read somewhere that if you accidentally drop a bad word in front of your toddler you could try to distract her with another interesting word said with emphasis). Thankfully, Scarlett assumed Chris said "shoot," because she started to repeat it over and over and over from the backseat. She also probably thinks I am losing it and/or really into peanut butter (I'm pretty sure Chris has reached the same conclusion). She also periodically announces out of nowhere that "Mama says shoot", so I am really, really glad that is, in fact, all I said that fateful day.
Of course, it's not all puppies and rainbows and adorable anecdotes. Two can be a very frustrating age as well, as anybody who has ever parented a two-year-old can attest. Lots of loud demands for "More Little Bear!!" (her favorite t.v. show); regular screeches for "More grapes/milk/peanut butter jelly/etc.!!" at the top of her lungs, despite the fact that you are sitting two feet away from her; struggles to get her to take a bath (although you can usually call her out on that one and tell her if she doesn't take a bath, it's straight to bed without books, at which point she usually changes her tune and hollers, "bath! bath!"); the seemingly impossible task of getting her to eat anything green (the week-long broccoli love fest came to an end as abruptly as it began); and, of course, the famous "No I don'ts." But since I like a girl with a bit of sass, I'm not concerned, and the sweet certainly outweighs it.
We gave Scarlett a red retro kitchen complete with pots, pans, food, and condiments for her birthday, and it was a big hit. She loves to cook just like her Daddy (Chris is the cook in our family, lucky for all of us), and she is quite the hostess, offering her guests an intresting array of food, from mustard to orange juice and hot dogs.
Happy second birthday to our beautiful girl! Here's to a healthy, happy year!
