23 months

Rachel here. I'm not sure how it happened... but my mini-me is 23 months today. WHAT?! That means in exactly ONE month she'll be TWO YEARS OLD! It honestly seems like only yesterday she was a blob smiling at me... now she's a KID who just throws things at me. :) But seriously she has the cutest little personality. She loves to dress up these days (as if you couldn't tell by the numerous funny glasses pictures I've posted in the last month), loves to push her cars in the stroller (no baby dolls for her), bath time is better than ice cream (literally), and running outside or riding in the wagon are some of her favorite things to do. She's a great little jumper now too. :) I've officially moved her into 2T clothing. She still fits in most of her 18-24 month stuff, but with the changing seasons, it just worked out. Oh and she LOVES to dance!Some not so favorites. She hates going to sleep. Luckily we've moved past the kicking and screaming phase (this phase returned after a small hiatus) and have now moved to the scream at the top of your lungs for an hour phase. She's not angry or upset... just wants to scream. That is just FANTASTIC... or maybe it's NOT. It literally drives me crazy. We've done everything... we've whispered to her and told her to use her inside voice, we've changed bedtime to a later time (and have since moved it back to between 7-730), we have a solid routine down pat... but she still loves to scream. Ahhhhh... toddlers.

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Language. The kid literally speaks well over 200 words, and there are more times than not that I can't understand a damn thing she's saying. :) We're adding to the vocabulary: belly, orange, sun, pink, gaws (golf), penkin (penguin), Hopbeet (Happy Feet), Nemoie (Nemo), bug, pig, Tales (Veggie Tales), toes, set go, hold still, garden, sanky (stinky... which she says everytime we change her diaper), clean, checheese (mac & cheese), watch, bunch (lunch), hot dog, beesh (brush teeth), mace (face), there it is!, Goger (Grover), SheShe (Sesame Street), gokeesh (goldfish), campout (timeout), sick (music), dance, vacuum, cayons (crayons), puter (computer), dropped it, you're welcome (which she says right after thank you), soller (stroller), and lay down. Just listening to some of the other kids that are a little older than Reese makes me realize that this "Asian language" she sometimes speaks mixed in with English words will slowly be fading, and I'll soon be begging her to be quiet. :)

Glad to say her appetite is coming back! She still loves to eats tons of different things, but she had become a huge fan of the toddler diet... meaning she would only eat small portions and basically graze all day. She is now eating a substantial amount at meal times (breakfast is very touch and go), and then she has her two snacks. Really we can't complain.

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Potty training... psh. Our plan is too lock ourselves in our house, the four of us, over Thanksgiving break and do the naked tactic. Basically she runs around naked for a week until she can go to the bathroom on the potty. I've read some really great things about it, and it comes highly recommended, so we'll give it a try and keep the carpet cleaner handy. :) I've already been peeking around at little girl underpants. I refuse to do Dora or Disney Princesses, and Reese would rather wear the Nemo and Cars underpants. I would totally go for that, but they only come in boys underpants, and that wigs Bryan out. So the search continues for the perfect underpants. Bryan also refuses to help with ANY and ALL laundry once there are small underpants because he said folding them would make him feel dirty. DRAMA.

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Big Sister. Reese is doing GREAT when it comes to Emma Grace. She LOVES to tickle her belly and grab her hands and dance them around. We do have to constantly remind her to be gentle though. She adores playing with her and running her cars across Emma's belly, but if Emma touches her or is near her toys... she FREAKS out. Luckily EG is still comatose for the most part, and we have some time to figure out how to make Reese share. Ugh.
I guess the next time we do one of these my mini-me will be 2!