Mara-27 months

Mara is now 27 months!  I decided to switch these monthly updates to quarterly as she gets older.  Lately she is all toddler.  She is constantly running around and exploring her surroundings.  She loves to challenge our authority and is always seeing how far she can push us to get her way.  Because we all know a two year old knows best! :)

Sleep has had it's ups and downs these past few months.  At age two I started to only sit at the foot of the bed when she fell asleep instead of laying down with her.  She was accepting this and sleeping through the night most nights.  If she did wake she was easy to comfort and fell asleep quickly.  The past month she has gotten worse.  She will usually wake once or twice a night screaming.  She seems unsure of her surroundings and wants us to lay with her.  We don't want to make this a habit, especially with the new baby on her way, so we refuse.  We've tried music and just reassuring her again and again.  Our rule is she can't get out of her bed till Daddy's alarm goes off so some mornings this means we have to listen to screaming for an hour or so if we can't get her to go back to bed.  We've also tried putting up the gate at her door (we can't lock her door) but just last night she showed us she is capable of scaling that.

She talks about the potty all the time but refuses to sit on it.  She also hates getting her diaper changed.  This is hilarious to me because she will tell us when she is wet most days but when we say ok let's go change you she doesn't want any part of that.  I wanted to have her potty trained here before the baby but now think we should just wait till after.

Currently she's not a fan of bath time.  I don't know what it is but it's a struggle.  She uses the excuse that she has to go potty to get out.  She knows we want her to sit on the potty so she offers that instead of being in the bath.

Her vocabulary is exploding.  She now says: please, keys, salt, mooo, ice, neigh, "oh toodles", hey, I do, hop, hat, and meow.  She also has her own language for some things.  Ee you dah means music.  Ice is water and boot is our housekeeper Lizi.

Her favorite toys are her new trampoline.  She loves jumping on this all day and we are thankful she has an outlet for her energy these winter months.  She also loves her doll house and plays with it everyday.  She moves the little people around and pushes all the noise buttons.  Musical instruments are always a hit with her and on a typical day they are all out to some degree.  We got her a cupcake sorter which she does everyday matching the shapes.  As always she loves her books and puzzles.  Puzzles she typically wants others to do for her but she will do all of her wooden ones.  Lastly legos are big here.  She really likes building towers and her skills have really evolved.  At first she was building up on one block but will now mix the shapes and colors of the blocks to build a unique structure every time.

These past three months have been her last as an only child and we've cherished them.  She is really moving into that roll as a toddler and we are looking forward to seeing how she interacts with her new baby sister.