Allie is Finally Two!

I've been thinking she's two since she was 10 months old and now she finally is!  Though she might tell you she's three.  Selena's been working on this with her though, and she knows that Floyd and I are 30 and Selena is 4, but she'll still sometimes say she's three, or she'll say she's a baby--one or the other.  Overall she's really good with numbers, not only can she count to 12 or 13 but she can count up to 10 objects accurately most of the time.    She also can count in Spanish and Japanese.

Her favorite thing right now is doing puzzles.  While Selena is at preschool we spend the majority of the time doing puzzles.  She also does a puzzle game on my rooted Nook Color.  She also likes a superhero game we play outside. We pretend the big bad bear came and kidnaps one of us, and then the other two have to be super heroes and find the key to the dungeon, fight the big bad bear and free the one who was captured.  Hide and seek is also a hit.

We continue to leave her naked at home and she goes potty almost 100% in the potty all by herself, but if you put any underwear, pants or diaper on her she will only go, or ask to go, rarely.  She will often ask to go when we are out, or if Selena is going, but she usually just sits on the potty.  She says its hard.

She has become quite the snuggle bug.  As an infant she didn't often like to snuggle.  She'd wiggle and do baby death rolls to get out of your hands.  At night she didn't like to sleep snuggled.  Now she willingly snuggles for significant periods of time with lots of members of the family and often insists on snuggling in my arms while sleeping at night.  It's very sweet.  She also told me that she was Auntie Cynthia's favorite and that Auntie Cynthia loves her and snuggles her a lot.  She also calls her Auntie Mel Uncle Mel. :)  She also spontaneously will tell me that she loves me so much, and that I'm the best mom ever.

She still is very opinionated and knows what she wants.  For instance here is a conversation between her and Floyd.

Allie: I want Word World

Floyd: No

Allie: You no say no.  I want Word World on the TV.

Floyd: Maybe

Allie: You are making Allie mad.  You only say yes. Not no.

Or when we were at the Y swimming she wanted to buckle a life jacket by herself, but insisted on not buckling the correct corresponding straps, and then wanted to jump into the pool, and me not catch her, but start 3 feet away from the edge, and she doesn't really know how to jump.  When I would go to catch her she would get mad and go sit on a bench telling me, "You are making me mad!"   She kind of has a bit of a temper.

Homemade Egg Rolls

I've never really liked egg rolls.  They taste too cabbagy to me.  I'm not sure exactly what causes the cabbagy taste.  Old cabbage, or maybe over cooked?  I'm not sure, because sometimes I eat cabbage and it tastes just fine, great even.  Like in these egg rolls, and other times its just gross.  I'm not sure how or why I found this recipe, or why I decided to try it (since I don't like egg rolls, but maybe Floyd wanted me to), but these are really, really, REALLY good.   Apparently I am not allowed to make them without inviting my mom over.  Oops.

Follow the directions on how to wrap them exactly.  The first couple times I did, but then I started getting nonchalant and then they started unfolding while frying.  I did change the recipe in that I shredded all the veggies with a food processes making them very tiny.  I think it improves the taste and texture of the filling, which by the way is so good, you can eat it by itself.  Having the super thin wraps is also important.  The first time I made them I didn't, and they were still good, but when I did have the thin wraps they were even better.  Personally I am very intimidated about going into an Asian grocery, so I lucked out when I moved, and the grocery store I shop at has a huge Asian section. :)

Selena Ballerina

Selena started a ballet class at the Y a month or so ago.  She is enjoying it a lot and practices her tendu, releve, plie and saute's often.  She loves the terminology and is constantly asking me what each move is called and then in class loudly and confidently answers the instructors questions. She also enjoys going to the child watch at the Y.  She always seems to meet a friend and play games.

Preschool is also going well.  She seems to be enjoying it more now, despite the waking up early, and seems to be making more friends.  The preschool planned a mother's day performance and it was very sweet.  The kids sang some songs and recited some poems.  We signed her up for an afternoon program next year, but apparently she is the only girl signed up so her teacher recommended switching to the morning.  When I asked her if she would mind being in a class with only boys, she got very upset, and said she likes girls better.  So I guess she'll be waking up early again next year.  Now the dilemma is whether we should send her three days a week or stay with two like we had planned.

Her math skills are developing.  She is constantly counting things and is starting to add and subtract.  She is also always asking, "Is 60 more than 80? Is 80 more than 60?  Is 10 more than 30?  Is 30 more than 40? etc, etc"  or "What is bigger a house or a tree?  What is smaller a car or a river?"  The size comparison questions are hard to answer.

We went to the fire station and got the girls new helmets that fit well and since then Selena has been riding her bike a lot.  She's getting really fast on it, but still has a bit of trouble when the pedals land in a certain way, especially if she is on an incline.  Then she needs a little push.

She grew an inch!  She is now 37 inches.  I was starting to worry a bit because she hadn't grown in quite a while and after mentioning it to a few people a week later my sister-in-law said she thought she looked taller. I took her home and measured her and she was!  So that has eased my mind a bit.  Food intolerances are seeming to be identified more frequently now, so I start wondering if maybe she has some, but then I'm pretty sure both Floyd and I were probably just as small as she is now, when we were that age.  However I do think her bowel movements aren't that healthy so I'm going to keep an eye on that a bit more carefully.

She has been going to sleep at night a bit easier, and on my sleep in days, and her sleep in days she has voluntarily chosen to fall asleep on her own.  So that has been fairly nice.

When we go out her behavior is usually fairly good, but at home we are having some problems with her just being plain mean.  Mostly to Allie but also to Floyd and I.  Her random self-talk always seems to veer off to, "Allie needs to go to jail.  I'm better than Allie.  Allie needs to go away.  Allie's rude. etc, etc."  And she'll also randomly kick, poke, hit me or Allie.  Sending her to her room temporarily helps, but it is constant throughout the day, really aggravating, and it upsets both me and Allie a lot.  It mostly happens when she gets bored.  I'm developing a strategy to work on this but I really need to just start implementing it.  But I'm really tired and worn out so I just keep hoping the weather will get nicer and I can just send her outside.

Random stuff

• When her and Allie play baby dolls she is always the dad.
• She was telling me that white, right (as in correct), and right (as in right vs left) all sound the same but mean different things.  So I tried to explain that white, was with a W and had a slightly different sound.  I went to write it down to show her, and realized that write also sounds the same as right, but has a W but does not make the W sound.  Poor kids, how are they supposed to figure all this out?
• She is always climbing.  She climbs really high.  It's pretty crazy.
• She ran a 1 mile kids race, while I was running a half.  Floyd ran with her and was encouraging her to pass people.  When she caught up to them she turns to Floyd and says loudly, "I passed him."  But she ran a 13:22 mile and got first place for girls four and under.  She was really excited for the race and all week was talking about how she needed to get her race shoes, and her watch, and her stretchy running clothes all ready.  I can't wait till she and Allie are a bit older and we can run together.
• I've been getting a few plant and animal identification books, and I was looking through them and she was kind of bored and asked me to read her my plant book.  I read her a fairly complicated passage about plants growing in the canopy of maple trees.  She seemed pretty bored so I stopped.  A few days later we were walking on a trail and I pointed out some ferns growing way up in the tree, and how that was kind of weird, and she looked at me and said, "Yeah mom, your book said that the moss made dirt up there, so plants could grow."
• Bob the Builder is out and Diego is her new favorite show
• She is very logical and always nay says my fantastical stories.  For instance I couldn't get a hold of my sister and I was getting worried.  I said, "Maybe auntie has been kidnapped by alien's and that is why she can't answer her phone."  Selena said, "She probably just left it at the gym and that is why she isn't answering."