Two And a Half Years Old

Charlotte is 2 and 1/2 years today.  Doing a bit of quick math in my head, that translates to 30 months. I remember when Charlotte turned six months old and what a milestone that seemed to be. Now six months flies by faster than I want.  She's really not much of a toddler anymore, but a little girl. With attitude, with opinions for certain, but with a pretty happy disposition over all.

I would list all of the things she's learned over the past six months, but I wouldn't know where to start! Her vocabulary grows with each passing day, and it never ceases to astound Chris or me when Charlotte says something that we know she didn't learn from us.  Last week, she stood in the middle of the kitchen and shouted: "And I'll huff, and I'll puff, and I'll blow your house down!"  We've never read her the story of the "Three Little Pigs," so I know she learned that at Miss D's.  And when Charlotte helped me bake Christmas cookies, she took a bite of cookie dough and squealed, "That's delicious!"

Both her enunciation and her pronunciation are not the best - I think part of that stems from the fact that she touches her tongue to the roof of her mouth all the time, so she has quite a lisp.  And it's strange the things that she can't pronounce.  She can say "Mommy" clearly but the word "milk" comes out something like "nyoot."  I'm not sure at what point we should be concerned about her speech, but she does make progress - "nyoot" used to be "nyah." And Charlotte talks so incessantly that we're not always sure what she's saying without considering the context in which she's saying it. Only then can we usually figure it out.

Dancing at the Moms' Club Holiday Party

  Charlotte loves stories.  We have to limit the number of books at bedtime each night or she would never go to sleep.  And even so, nine times out of ten, we'll find her in the morning, sitting on her bed with a pile of books.  One day, I went in her room to get her up from her nap, only to find her milling about the room, throwing books on her bed.  When I asked her in a serious-yet-joking tone what she thought she was doing, she immediately burst into tears, thinking she was in trouble.  (On a related note, Charlotte has still not yet left her room once she's gone to bed or been put down for a nap).

She's excited about being a big sister, but doesn't quite seem to grasp the concept that her baby sister's Mommy and Daddy are also her Mommy and Daddy.  That might be an unwelcome realization when it happens, especially her love of being the center of attention for every adult she encounters.

Our little monkey making monkey faces at the zoo

We don't have a well child visit at 2 1/2 years old, so I don't know how much Charlotte weighs these days.  She has definitely slimmed down and she's grown a little taller. The growth chart in her room has her at just over 36 inches tall, which, according to the babycenter.com percentile calculator, is somewhere in the 50 to 75th percentile.

Finally, I worry about how things will change when the new baby comes.  Life is pretty great for our little family.  Each and every day Charlotte makes us laugh and smile.  I know this new baby will as well, and I just hope that Charlotte won't be too upset and that she knows how much we love her.

Moving the candy cane to the number 19 on our advent calendar

 (P.S. I know it's not relevant to this post, but I passed the one hour glucose test! Hurray! Bring on the Christmas cookies and sweets)