(25 Months) - 2 Years and 1 Month

A new year, and thus a new photo tradition. I had an idea to make a constant backdrop comprised of garlands of cute paper circles, taped up in her new playroom. Then I got said garlands all sorts of tangled and lost my patience trying to de-tangle. And thus the chalkboard wall was born. I've seen other people use a chalkboard backdrop, but it's hard to tell whether it's been real chalk or just a great job at Photoshop. This, for the record, is real chalk. I had painted the wall in our kitchen with chalkboard paint a couple of years ago, and since then we've mostly had frames with lists. But then for the Bean's 2nd birthday party, we transformed it into the "Burnside Bridge" so that the kids could color beneath it. And now, it'll serve as her photo backdrop, for at least during her 3rd year of life. Yup, I'm still going with these monthly updates. My only fear is that when baby #2 comes along I won't be as consistent as I have been for the Bean. The pressure is on. I kinda want to do these monthly photos until our kids are 18, and then make a video of all the pictures, like a flipbook. I'm sure the monthly summaries will ebb and flow, some months with lots of info, others with just the basics.

- Potty-training! I don't know when it is you can officially declare your child potty-trained, as in, all done, but the Bean regularly wears undies, pees in public potties, and sits her cute little butt on the potty to poop. But that's a whole different post, TBD.

- Counting alligators, aka "count agilators, pease." As in, me saying, "one alligator, two alligator, three alligator, four alligator, five alligator ..." This helps her to do things, as in, "I'm going to count 10 alligators and then leave for work." "I'll give you ten alligators worth of pat-pats and then I'm going downstairs." "I'm going to count three alligators and then you need to put your undies on."

- She's stopped crying at daycare drop-off for a combination of reasons, including counting alligators and her new obsession with friend Ella and teacher Delilah.

- Her vocab continues to grow. She's like a little parrot, repeating all sorts of phrases. Not excluding "lesbo,""tampon," "fuck!" and "get it."

- Her language, too, continues to explode. She still mostly speaks in strings of noun/verb words, but will range anywhere from 2-4 words, with 2-6 different components/ideas. As in, "Dani sing that song. School. Downstairs. Nap."

- Her motor skills continue to develop as well - she's becoming more of a big motor person, running circles around the house, jumping like a kangaroo/hopping like a rabbit, skipping, crawling, climbing, etc.

- She loves to sing. She loves when I sing. Lately it's been all about the duets:
"sun shine, pease"
"You are my ..."
"sun shine"
"My only ..."
"shine"
"You make me ..."
"happy"
"When skies are ..."
"greeeeey"
You get the point. She also likes to do this with Twinkle Twinkle and Wheels on the Bus.

- I'm still nursing her (I say this with a blush in my cheeks because most people who nurse toddlers don't read blogs. Which means anyone who is reading this blog likely believes that nursing should last at least 6 months and no longer than 1 year. Two years, MAX). But, she's not weaning, and I don't have a good reason to wean her. I don't feel good about doing something "just because that's what's normal." And clearly, given the fact that my barely-2-year-old practically potty-trained herself, there are likely no contraindications of nursing at this age. Plus, she only nurses before nap if I'm home, or before bedtime. She has, however, developed a distaste for me looking at my phone while she nurses. "No phone. Tension." = "No phone, pay attention to me please."

- She says and does some funnny grown-up-seeming things. She puts herself in time-outs, with a cute little punum, usually naked.

"Sowy mama."

"Ready. Happy now."

"Space."

"Listen.now."

"Want it."

- I love the way she says dandelions and ukelale (ookalady).

- Whenever she spots something, like a very small plane in the sky, a bus, a bird on a billboard, I say "G double-O D E Y E, goodeye, goodeye." When she tries to copy me it sounds like "go die."

- She now calls herself "Feesee." From "ish," to "ceecee," to "feesee."

- She sweetly gives eskimo, butterfly, and regular kisses.

- I would still describe her as the kind of kid who goes around rather than over or through things.

- She likes to categorize, as in, "bof cute," "bof hats," "bof eating." Even if there are three of us, it's still both.

- She likes to assign mama, daddy, and feesee to things, as in "mama tree, daddy tree, feesee tree," or, "daddy rock, mama rock, feesee rock."

- She loves the Caspar Babypants "Run Baby Run" song.

- "Show mama." Ev.ery.thing.

- "Daddy. Soccer. Kick ball. Chase ball. Run fast."

- She's starting to have more reciprocal conversations with her friends.
Logan: are you going pee or poop?

Francie: pee!

Logan: hmm, popping is hard.

Francie: yeah.

Logan: pooping is hard for me.

Francie: yeah.