2.75 Years Old

1. She really enjoys being read to, and she's now also enjoying "reading" (reciting) books to us. Some of her favorites right now include: Llama llama misses mama, Fancy Nancy books, Olivia books, Clifford books, How do Dinosaurs eat their food, and Curious George books.

2. She doesn't enjoy having her hands and face washed because her shirt often gets a little wet in the process, and this really bothers her. She's also rather particular about the temperature of the water; she doesn't like it to be too cold or too warm.

3. She's gotten much better about not crying when I brush her teeth or clip her nails. We're still working on not crying when I brush her hair. She's making progress with that as well.

4. She's drinking a lot more water these days. YAHOO! Milk is still her favorite, but water isn't nearly as repulsive as it used to be.

5. She has been eating a few tiny bites of veggies every night. She usually cries (ex. tonight she cried over the five kernels of corn I required her to eat prior to eating her egg salad sandwich), but it takes less than five minutes to get her to eat them. Actually she fought me more over the corn than she did over the green beans she had been eating every night earlier this week. She loved corn on the cob last summer. She's just in a really picky stage right now. Last night she fought me over eating 3 tiny morsels of chicken breast, and yet if I were to give her a chicken enchilada, she'd eat it right away. Her default assumption right now (towards everything except desserts) is that she doesn't like it. Lovely.

6. Her appetite has been more consistent lately. Last month she went through this phase where she would hardly eat anything one day (maybe 100 calories the whole day) no matter what I offered her (even her favorites) and then a few days later she'd be eating house and home. I think she might be in a growth spurt now because she's been eating house and home at almost every meal. Yesterday for breakfast she ate THREE entire (adult size) bowls of Raisin Bran. She asked for a 4th bowl, but I said that was enough! Wow! On Monday we had lunch at McD's and she ate her entire cheeseburger (happy meal) and asked for another one. I gave her a banana instead. She usually doesn't eat the whole thing, and she's never asked for a second one before.

7. We've been working on correcting her pronunciation of a few words. For many months she's called a banana a "mana". Now she says "ba mana." Daddy has worked with her on saying spaghetti instead of "psghetti." I'm also trying to get her to call a donut a donut instead of a "chocolate bagel." LOL! The other word I've been working on is yogurt. For many months she's pronounced it "wergert." Now (if I remind her) she'll say "yo yo yogurt."

8. Her prayers are still very repetitive. For several weeks she has been thanking God several times a day for Abbey and Kohen (two four year olds at church).

9. She has started including Ian (of her own initiative) as one of the recipients of her nightly hugs and kisses before bed. Ahhh so sweet..

10. Lately she's been saying "I'm so excited (about xyz)" rather frequently. It's so cute!

11. She LOVES chapstick. She was introduced to it on the cruise in January by Grandma, and then a couple of weeks ago Grandma gave Nadia an assortment of lip glosses and chapsticks. She calls them her lipstick and loves to use them.

12. She likes having somewhere to go. We are in agreement than staying home all day long is not our preference. Today her grandparents took her to Climb-a-Lot Clubhouse for the first time. She loved it!

13. She's come along way over the past two months with learning Bible verses. This week I decided to start having her memorize the reference along with the verse. The last few days she learned Psalm 23:1-2. I want to teach her the whole Psalm.