Two Years Old

At Bailey's two year check-up, she weighed 28.12 pounds (76th%) and was 35.5 inches (90th%). This was one of the most difficult checkups for me. Bailey has never liked going to the doctor. She likes talking about it, and she gets excited to go, and she'll be completely fine at first. At this checkup, she even had to get her finger pricked first, and she didn't cry or wince at all. She just sat on my lap and watched the nurse do everything. But as soon as it was time to get weighed, she was crying and resisting everything they were trying to do. When the doctor came in, she had to look in Bailey's ears. This is one of the worst things for her. She was crying and wouldn't let the doctor do anything. Then she kept saying, "I be okay. I be okay." It was at that point that I completely lost it and started crying. (I don't think the doctor noticed, luckily.) It just broke my heart to hear her trying to comfort herself. That's something that I kept telling her in preparation for this visit, that she would be okay, that she didn't need to be scared. And now she was trying to tell herself to calm herself down. The doctor even felt bad when she heard her. Unfortunately, we ended up having to hold Bailey down on the table so the doctor could look in her ears. They even had to call a second nurse to help hold her down. She was doing her awful cry that sounds more animal than human. It was TERRIBLE. The doctor said by her next visit, she will probably not be so scared. I certainly hope so.

***Funny things she's said:

1. One Sunday, I was wearing a necklace with a single pearl on it. Bailey pointed to it and said, "A tic-tac." (For some reason, she LOVES tic-tacs. I keep them in my purse, and she asks for one just about every time we get in the car.)
2. During one of our trips, we were at the airport and for some reason, Bailey wanted to sit in time-out. She knows that hitting will get her an automatic time-out, so she came up to me, hit me on the leg, then walked over to a chair and put herself in time-out. Not quite sure what to think about this one.

3. She'll say to Skigh or me, "Look at me," while she holds our face in between her hands. Then she'll say, "Don't hit." She thinks this is really funny.

4. This is probably only cute to me, but I didn't used to let Bailey drink milk or juice in our living room because some of it would inevitably end up on the couch or carpet. One day, she had some milk and asked in her sweetest voice, "Drink milk on couch?" Then she said, "I be careful." I must say that a lot.

5. One of the funniest things is to listen to her talk on her phone. She's usually talking to her friend, Will. She'll say, "Hi, Will." Then she'll break out into laughter. Completely, totally fake laughter. Then she'll say something like, "Yeah...(laugh)...no...(laugh)...yeah...." It's honestly like she's having a real conversation. I don't know where she gets the idea that she needs to be laughing all the time when she's on the phone, but she definitely thinks that's an important part of it.

6. It's funny when she tries to whisper something to us. She mouths the words, but absolutely no sound comes out. I can't help but laugh when she does it.

7. During the Christmas season this year, she absolutely loved listening to Christmas music. If I would ever change it to some other kind of music, she would somehow be able to tell, and she would get upset and demand, "I want Christmas music!"

8. One day I didn't have the energy to straighten my hair, and I wasn't going anywhere, so I just left it curly. When Bailey saw me after her nap, she said, "Mommy's hair funny." Exactly why I don't wear my hair curly.

9. She already has a great sense of fashion at such a young age. When I'm wearing new shoes, she'll say, "Cool shoes." Or if I'm wearing something she's never seen before, she'll say, "Cool shirt, Mom." And now on Sundays after I get her dressed for church, she says, "I look cute."

10. She now understands that Skigh and I have our own first names, not just Mommy and Daddy. She thinks Skigh's name is Skigh and mine is Honey. She'll say, "Hi, Honey."

***Things she's done that surprised us:

1. The first time Bailey sang the alphabet, she went from A to P with no help. I was in shock. I had never tried to teach her the alphabet, so I couldn't believe she had somehow picked it up. The next day, she sang the entire alphabet.

2. Same with songs.... She sang "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star," and knew all the words. Again, Skigh and I were completely surprised. She knows all the words to a lot of songs. Whenever I sing her something new, she gets so quiet and watches me so intently, trying to learn the words.

3. The first time she counted to ten, I was completely surprised. It's like she knew how to do it all along, but one day, she just decided not to keep it a secret anymore.

4. One evening I was asking her different questions just to see how she would respond. I asked her what her name was, and she wouldn't answer me. I knew she knew her own name, but she was acting like she didn't know what it was. Then she finally responded, "Bailey Lewis." Again, totally surprised. I had no idea she knew her last name. And she knows that we all have the same last name. She said, "Daddy Lewis and Mommy Lewis." We went to Colorado for Christmas and for some reason, she really enjoyed saying the name, "Colorado." A while after Christmas, we asked her what we should name the baby, and she said, "Colorado Lewis."

5. I was giving her a bath one morning and out of nowhere, she says that we should name the baby Nathan. We hadn't been talking at all that day about naming the baby. She has no friends named Nathan. We've read no books with a character named Nathan. ....Random. A few days ago she declared that his name should be Rainbow. That would be one tough boy.

6. She's also learned quite a few colors. She's been interested in them for a while. She would hold all kinds of things up and ask what color they were. But she wouldn't quite be able the recall the colors herself (accept for white, black, and yellow, which she picked up pretty easily). Now she gets her colors right most of the time.
***Cute things she does:

1. Every night after she brushes her teeth, she has to say good night to Elmo, Cookie Monster, and Ernie, her bath time toys.

2. She is obsessed with looking at the moon. Anytime we're outside, she asks where it is. She gets so excited when she sees it. If we can't find the moon, she says, "The moon is sleeping." When she finds the moon, she says, "The moon wake up!"

3. She already loves her baby brother. She always wants to see my stomach, and she hugs it and kisses it all the time. And she'll say, "Hi, baby!" and ask me how he's doing. She literally tries to lay her entire body on my stomach. Not the most comfortable thing, but I guess it's their bonding time.

4. When you ask her a question that she needs to think about, she'll go, "Ahhh..." while she's thinking. It's so funny.

***Daily routine:

1. Wakes up around 7:00. Skigh still gets her in the morning (since he's already up) so they can have some one-on-one time, and I get to sleep some more. Love it.

2. After Thanksgiving, Bailey finally dropped to one nap a day. I held on to two for as long as possible. She was taking a really short nap (an hour and fifteen minutes), but finally consistently takes a 2.5-3.5 hour nap each day. I love it.

3. Bailey loves reading. Lately, we read about 2-3 hours a day. Sometimes 3-4 hours. After breakfast, she'll request to read. When she wakes up from her nap, she'll immediately say, "I want to read a book." Since I don't have a ton of energy to do much else, I'm perfectly happy with this arrangement. I've been taking her to the library for Musical Jamboree every week. Each week, I take home about ten new library books. It's her favorite thing to go home and read all the new books. She gets so excited. I love it when I catch her reading a book to herself, and she quotes exact lines from the book. Also, the past few weeks she's started to cry again when we leave her in nursery. I don't know why, but at least it only lasts for about a minute. Last Sunday as we were leaving her, we could hear her say through her tears, "I want to read a book!" A minute later I peaked in, and she was sitting on the nursery leader's lap reading a book.

4. 7:30 is bed time. Skigh typically gets her ready for bed (clean diaper, pajamas, teeth brushed) while I do the dishes. Then we read scriptures (which she normally doesn't pay much attention to) and say a prayer (again, doesn't pay much attention). Once in a while, she will help say the prayer though. The other night, she said her first real prayer all by herself... the beginning of it anyway. She said, "Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for the day, thank you we were safe, thank you for Mommy and Daddy." Then I think she got distracted by either her dress-up shoes or trying to sit on the handle of the rocking chair (the two most common distractions during bed-time these days). She's definitely getting better and better at stalling when it's time to go to bed. She'll all of a sudden express great interest in doing anything but go to bed. Once the light is out, she makes three requests, always in the same order. One is for a story (the main characters must always be Cookie Monster and Elmo). Then she wants to sing "Old McDonald Had a Farm." Then "I am a Child of God." This was becoming quite the lengthy process, but I've turned it into a super-short story, only three animals for Old McDonald, and about three rounds of "I am a Child of God." (She used to be put to bed in total silence, but she would always want me to put her to bed instead of Skigh, so he started enticing her with stories and songs. Now it looks like it's a permanent part of the routine.)

5. I've started movie day on Friday, and I love it. I used to let her watch about 20 minutes of TV a day, but I decided to cut that out. Now she only watches it on Friday (unless I'm trying to make dinner, and she's being difficult). We usually watch part of a movie... Snow White is her favorite lately. She loves Dopey and seems very concerned about him. Whenever he's not on the screen she asks, "Where's Dopey?!?" in a panicked voice. She started crying last week because he ran into some things and fell down.

One Sunday after church, she came down the stairs like this. She loves wearing this purple hat that is too small for her. She has on her necklace that she got for Christmas. And she's sporting one shoe each from the two pairs she got for Christmas. This is how she always wears her shoes now...one pink and one blue. Never two of the same. That's just boring.

Oh, and of course the glasses from Mr. Potato Head.

I love this girl!