Reagan - 2 Years Old

Happy Birthday, Reagan!

Life is non-stop with a two year old! As tiring as having a newborn can be, I think I'm more exhausted after spending time with her! Reagan has changed so much in the last few months. Looking back to the pictures from this summer, I can't believe how much older she looks. Here are some of the highlights of having a two year old:

• She is learning to dress herself. She can put her shoes on by herself (usually on the right feet). She puts her arms in the armholes of her jacket and flips it over her head ("Like William") and is pretty good at pulling her pants on most of the way.
• Reagan is great at singing. I can't believe all the words she knows to so many songs. Some of my favorites include "Single Ladies," "Catch the Moon," "Mickey Mouse Club," "Rock and Roll," "Beautiful Day," and "Happy and You Know It."
• She still loves to read books. Right now we're hooked on "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie," "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs," "Where the Wild Things Are," and the "Baby Reagan" book. She has started to repeat portions of the book back to us and sometimes says the right words with the right page.
• Reagan is definitely a talker. Her sentences get longer and longer every day. We can understand probably 75% of what she is saying, but I don't think anyone else can. She was able to tell our neighbor, Kim, exactly what happened to her balloon (although Kim may not have understood it all).
• Some of Reagan's words are a bit off. John and I think it's cute, but hopefully we aren't encouraging her too much to say things wrong. Milk is "Nilk." Snow is "No" which leads to snowman being "noman." Some 's' sounds change to 'f' as in fwing and fweater ("swing" and "sweater"). And for some reason, she has developed a Swedish accent when she says 'school.'
• Things are starting to stick in Reagan's memory. Reagan will say something out of the blue that she must have heard somewhere or remembered from something. We hear "Need share with Ani" and "Play nice with Owen" a lot, so we're assuming that she hears those two things a lot at school, which isn't necessarily a good thing!
• She's learning about consequences. We had been giving her time outs in the crib, but when we found out she was enjoying it a bit too much and took the time to just jump, we switched to the steps. Now, Reagan will throw a tantrum and say "I need to sit on steps" before we can dish out the punishment. We still have to put here there (she doesn't go by herself) but once she's on the step, she doesn't move.
• Reagan has just started the transition into a big girl bed. The first few days were touch and go and ended with John reassembling the crib at 4am. With five days down, we're starting to think the big girl bed is a keeper. Although we need to put up a gate . . .
• Reagan loves playing in the water. At school, her teachers can't keep her away from the kid sized bathroom sinks. She loves to stand on her stool at home and wash her hands and brush her teeth. She really loves the water table at school and only once has she needed her spare outfit because she got too wet.
• She's one smart cookie. Reagan can sing the ABCs, count to 20 and has started to draw circles, but when it comes to colors, everything is blue. I guess we know what we need to work on!
• Reagan loves Elmo, and Cookie Monster and Big Bird and Abby (Ca)Dabby (You get the picture). Elmo has come in handy now that baby brother is around. When Reagan wants to help, she can do whatever I'm doing with brother to Elmo (that has included breastfeeding Elmo on her belly button!)
• Reagan has no fear. She definitely takes after her dad in her personality. At gymnastics, she has no problem walking the high balance beam with barely a hand on her. She also loves to hang and drop from the bars, even the high bar. She loves to be thrown up in the air, loves to jump high and loves to have her dad swing her around the living room. As long as she's moving, she's a happy kid!