Beebop-a-Lula

Lulu is smack dab in the middle of being a two year old. There are good days and there are bad days. She is definitely trying to assert her independence much more lately. She likes to feed herself. She gave up the highchair for Rose months ago and sits on the counter stool like a big person. She likes to take her own pajamas off when it’s time to get dressed.

While we’re definitely thinking of potty-training, she just isn’t there yet. She knows what the potty is and sits on it from time to time. Recently she has started to tell us when she has “poopie-pants” and when she wants her diaper changed. We are encouraged by this. But we’re not going to push our luck just yet.

Going for walks she doesn’t like to be contained in the stroller and wants to roam free-range. Unfortunately, I have to revoke those rights on many occasions because she doesn’t listen to me and runs for the hills like an escaped prisoner. Since it’s been really cold lately she hasn’t been so eager to get of her warm seat and when she does she doesn’t complain when it’s time to go into the warm house.

She has also reached full-on mimicking, parrot stage and it’s hilarious to hear the things that come out of her mouth. Her father and I have kept the swearing in check, as she was beginning to drop F-bombs and scream “ASS!” at the top of her lungs when we least expected it. Otherwise, it’s very funny to hear our expressions come out of her mouth in her sweet little voice. This morning she was watching Sesame Street and I heard her say “Hi Oscar, how are you doing?”

And the other night Forrest came home from work and she said, “Hi Da-da. I’m so glad to see you.” Of course it broke his heart a little because he had to run out of the door for a night-time meeting.

Since the winter months are upon us, she’s been waking up at weird times and very early in the morning I can hear her chatting it up in bed. Typically I can hear her singing “That’s Elmo’s Worrrrld!” loudly and off-key. Or she says “Sparkle-NOSE!” and goes through the Yo Gabba Gabba role-call: Foofa, Muno, Brobee, Toodie, Plex, then laughs like a lunatic in the dark.

In the morning when they both wake up she actually waits for me to bring Rosie downstairs and then she comes down on her own to make a grand entrance (even yells “ta da!” when she enters the room). We’ve been encouraging her to play on her own more and she has been which is encouraging. Sometimes I jump up in a panic because she’s too quiet, only to find her playing with her baby doll or lining up her Little People to take a swan dive off the edge of the toy box.

Given the time of year she is starting to learn all things associated with Christmas: Santa Claus, christmas trees, wreaths, snowmen, etc. I did not subject either child to going to the mall to get their picture taken with Santa, as this would definitely lead to a photo with them both screaming in terror. And possibly scar them for life.

The other day she experienced the joy of her first candy-cane. I’m not so sure she liked the taste of it as much as the act of fish-hooking herself with it and just getting all-round sticky. Of course, getting all sticky is a good excuse to wash her hands in the sink, a new favorite activity. Honestly, I don’t think she cares if her hands are clean. It’s just an excuse to get some part of her body into water. This kid loves water. If she hears the word “bath” she instantly tries to take her clothes off and head for the upstairs bathroom.

It is more than true that you can’t reason with a two year old. And she leaves a path of destruction wherever she goes. She bores easily. And sometimes I want to wring her little neck. But this is also a really fun time! It’s so cool to witness her learning and becoming so smart and creative. To see her personality forming. To watch her be a goofball, to dance to all kinds of music, to watch hug her sister or to simply sit with us to read books.

It’s those little moments that I want to pick her up and squeeze her until her eyes pop out of her head.

I have to apologize for my crappy camera skills on this one. I captured this on the fly this morning with my iPhone. Also, I was actually shocked that she started to sing when I asked her to and my cat-like reflexes were not up to speed, so I missed the beginning.

Yes, that is my finger in the shot a few moments in…

But here is my incredibly smart and gifted child, for your viewing pleasure.

(Video may take a moment to load because I am too lazy to compress it further. If you cannot view it you will need the QuickTime video player)

I’ve been meaning to write an update for Lulu for quite a while now. But honestly I’ve found the task a little overwhelming because she’s changed so much in the last few months that I don’t know where to begin.

one of the last summer images

She is become a lot more articulate as she gets older. Over the summer she was learning to pronounce some words while others were a work in progress. Before she would say “bee-ya-mo” for banana and now she says “bee-yanna” which is a lot closer. We’re still working on her communication, she’ll still whine if she wants something, but for the most part I can understand her fairly well.

just hanging out at the side of the pool

Every Saturday morning her father still takes her to swim lessons. She has grown to really love it and looks forward to going every week. And she’s becoming quite a little mermaid. There are a few small obstacles that she needs to clear before she goes on to a higher level (which is where the 3-4 year olds are), like jumping off the side into the pool (she’s just recently learned how to jump on her own, so she’s probably not ready to take that first leap into the pool yet). Sometimes she doesn’t listen to the instructor and has her own agenda, like to flirt with the boy lifeguards.

I mentioned before that she’s quite the budding artist. She draws some really phenomenal pictures, so I decided to be brave and try some finger paints. Not surprisingly, she had a whole lot of fun getting her hands covered in paint. The only problem is that she used ALL of the paint on one piece of paper!

The change of the season has been an adjustment for her. She is still in warm weather mode and she doesn’t always want to keep her sweaters and socks on. But she has been having fun with all of the leaves that are on the ground.

Oh and how could I forget to mention that last weekend Lulu went into her very own bed! I’ve been dreading the day that we would try this because I’ve heard so many horror stories of kids who are like boomerangs when you try to keep them in a bed. I went and got her a toddler bed, despite everyone telling me not to. I like it because it’s the same size as her crib and still has the rails on the side. And Rose can use it in the future, too.

I got her new bedding, which she loved. On the weekends we bring the girls into our bedroom sometimes to hang out in the “big bed”-so she already understood the concept. When bedtime rolled around she was so tired she went right to sleep. Second night, no problems. Now almost a week later she is very excited when it’s time to go to “Lulu-bed.”

October in Salem has been pretty interesting for her. We watched the kickoff parade in town and she seemed to like seeing everyone dressed up in costumes. One of her favorite things to do is walk around town out of the stroller and she has some favorite store windows that we have to stop at every time. There’s a carnival in town so we took her there over the weekend and she went on a few of the rides. I think the merry-go-round was her favorite ride, she went on that twice. Typical girl. And she loves all the “punkins.”

Lulu started off the week with a bit of the sniffles. At first I thought maybe it was due to some teething, she’s getting her second molars in and she’s had most of her hand jammed inside her face for days. She has forfeited her once a day naps over the summer, so when she fell asleep on her father I knew she was definitely under the weather.

sickie

As the week went on she got a little worse with a fever and looks really pale and lethargic, with small spurt of energy here and there. Yesterday we went to the park to take advantage of the nice day and I thought some fresh air would do them both some good. Rosie at that point didn’t appear to be sick and I prayed that she would stay healthy.

rolling the ball off the bench

Rose-beef

Sadly my prayers were not answered because when Rose got up from her afternoon nap her nose was runny and stuffy. Both of them were a little feverish last night and it was a snot factory all night long. I thought for sure that I would not be sleeping that night, having to get up with one or both of them. But they both stayed asleep and I got to sleep, too! Woo.

Today Lulu was still no better. In fact, she spent the better part of the morning in her jammies on the couch with her Yo Gabba Gabba blankie, watching Blues Clues with her thumb firmly planted in her mouth. And Rosie’s first nap lasted for three hours, which was fortuitous for me because Lulu was very clingy today, wanting to be held in my lap.

In the afternoon I took them out for a walk. About halfway around the block I noticed Lulu sort of slumping to the side. She was clearly tired and wanted to rest, so I put her seat back and she actually fell asleep! Then I thought: well, what the heck do I do now? Lucky for me the Salem Farmer’s Market was happening, so I grabbed some apple cider donuts and Rosie and I shared one while we let her sister sleep.

sleepy girl

And even though they both are sick, they still manage some play time. Now that Rose is getting bigger, I love to see her interact with Lulu!

are her shoulders down?

Miss Lucille Frazier loves to draw. And she’s getting really, really good at it. Almost every day she and I will sit down together with crayons and a large sheet of paper. I may start off doodling my own things: hearts, butterflies, fuzzy little creatures or flowers, but soon she begins to dictate things that she’d like to see: snowmen, the sun, clouds, “more hearts” etc.

She knows all of the crayon colors, although I always find it interesting that she picks the same 2-3 crayons to hold in her little hands. For whatever reason she gravitates to the green and sky blue.

The magnetic doodle pad has been a life saver in recent weeks. She can still get the instant gratification of drawing pictures without the commitment of crayon and paper. And she can do it by herself without relying on one of us.

A few weeks ago we noticed that she was actually starting to make shapes while drawing, putting little arms and legs on the circles we would draw for her resulting in a little person. And then faces. Even hats and feet! From then on her drawings became even more detailed. Instead of just dots for eyes she was actually drawing little circle eyes with dots for eyeballs in them!

I took this video of her yesterday with my phone (I was holding Rose at the time, so it’s a little shaky and the noises you hear off screen are her). The video may take a while to load up, it’s rather large (I’m testing out getting videos from the phone online!). But I love how focused she is on what she’s doing. And the resulting image, of course!

Last week was Miss Lulu’s 2nd birthday. It’s amazing to see her grow and develop. She truly is becoming a sweet little girl. We had a family party for her the day before her birthday and she had a lot of fun. The kiddie pools were out for her and her cousins, my mom put out a great spread of food (and plenty of Yo Gabba Gabba decorations) and my dad was rockin’ the grill. She had so much fun that she fell asleep right before we were going to have cake, which brought the party to a screeching halt for about 45 minutes. She got so many great presents and she loved them all!

smooch.

The day of her actual birthday was relaxed and low-key. We spent a lot of time outside and that night rather than getting another cake we gave her a big bowl of ice cream and a cookie. It all started off harmless enough, but ended up with a trip directly to the tub!

so far, so good...

erm...

ta-da!

and now...cookie.

yum.

She also had her two-year check-up at the doctor’s yesterday.
weight: 26 lbs
height: 36.75

trying to "feed" Elmo

She falls into the 97th percentile for height and 30th percentile for weight. Since her last visit, she great 1 3/4 inches and gained only a pound. The doctor wasn’t concerned about her weight since she’s always been thin. Food is still a big issue with Lulu but hopefully she’ll grow out of it someday soon. Until then, we’ll continue to stack her meals with as many calories as we can!

The Brooding Toddler phase has begun. There’s lots of frustration and pouting happening because she can’t communicate as well as she’d like to even though we’ve been encouraging her to talk rather than whine. We know she can pretty much say any word she wants to, like when she says her sister is “loud” or the other night when she ran around squealing “ASS!” at the top of her lungs and giggling like a maniac.

french fries are her favorite food group

She’s being very independent these days, doesn’t want a lot of help from us. Like the other day when I was upstairs with her and Rose and she went down the stairs all by herself. When I recovered from my instant heart-attack I realized that she made it down with no problems. I was grateful that we taught her the “sit & slide” method of getting down.

lost in Gabba Gabba Land

She loves to color with her crayons, assigning me different things to draw for her: clouds, “flowies”, “meow”, moon and sun. And recently she discovered the joys of sidewalk chalk. We busted out some PlayDoh the other day, but she  doesn’t quite get it yet. The containers are more interesting than the dough itself.

umm...I got nuthin.

Swimming lessons are going great. Her father says she’s becoming quite the mermaid (he claims she’s the next Dara Torres!) and loves being in the water. I am looking forward to taking her to the beach this year.

We’re preparing for some big changes as well. Lulu is finally going to get a roommate. We’re going to put both girls in the same room in the next month or so. That should be interesting. Both sleep pretty well, but lately they’ve both been waking up in the middle of the night and chatting, singing, etc. I guess they’ll be able to keep each other company!

And since she turns two next month (!!!) we’re beginning to think about making the move from the crib to a toddler bed, but we’ll let her get used to her new roommate first. I’d like to start potty training by the fall, but we’ll see how she’s doing at that point. I’m not going to rush her into that too soon.

Wow, my baby is turning into a little girl!!!

This is what happens you don’t pay explicit attention to a quiet (almost) 2 year old. Needless to say, she had to take a bath at Grammy’s house before we went home…

She’s definitely my kid…