Happy 2 and
a half birthday, Charlotte!!!
This 2 year update is a
little belated, but we've been working it since Charlotte turned 2. Adding little tidbits here and there. They're in chronological order, so the first half were around the 2 year mark and the last few are completely current. And there are a LOT, since we have so much to catch up on.
Here goes - some
fun facts about our
Sha-Zha, as she calls herself :)
Charlotte says "puppets" when she means "muppets" - whom she loves, mostly because of Elton. (See prior post.)
She exclaims her happiness at accomplishing any task by throwing her hands in the air and yelling, "Yay!"
She calls herself
Sha-Zha in a quiet, breathy voice.
When she goes to bed, she proudly says, "Momma go bed. Daddy go bed. Emmy go bed. Sha-Zha go bed."
Every night at bedtime she wags her finger in front of Emily and says something very serious that sounds like, "Uck uck, park Emmy, Sha-Zha, good girl. Ok?"
(This was right around the time she turned 2, and sadly she no longer does it.)
She LOVES to give hugs. Dad gets hugs with a running start. Fortunately he's learned to brace himself.
She loves chocolate. And often requests a "cho-co coo-coo" (ie. chocolate cookie). She usually asks for them for breakfast. She also named a little toy cat she got from Emily for her birthday "Choco kitty."
She loves parks. LOVES parks. Especially St. Mary's. And going down slides. Especially tunnel slides. In fact she was the one who
finally convinced Emily to try the tunnel slide.
She likes to try to read
Brown Bear, What Do You See? She can name nearly all the animals and their respective colors in there. The colors she recognized first are blue and purple. She knows a few other ones like pink, red, black, and white.
(She knows them all now.)
She loves to say "CHEEEEZ" and squint her eyes when posing for pictures.
She likes to comment on how full her diaper is, especially when she's being changed. "BIG poop."
She goes to bed without complaint every night... for her Dad.
She likes to mimic e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g we do. Tonight I was crossing my arms and she subtly looked from my arms to hers until she'd gotten hers placed just so, to match mine. She mimics Emily a lot - including crying or getting up from the table during dinner.
She used to LOVE broccoli, but now she's a little pickier with food. And no matter what, the food on her plate that she does eat is exactly the
opposite of the food that Emily eats. It's weird.
She can climb ladders - much to our dread. She can also confidently walk down stairs.
She knows the numbers 2 and 4. She likes to count down 2, 4, 2, 4, 2, 4 before she does something like jumping. (
Fortunately she's learned the proper sequence and now says a dramatic 1 - 2 - 3.)
She can drink from an open cup unassisted. Which doesn't sound like a big deal, but her sister couldn't do this until she was 3. (Although we're taking complete responsibility for that fact - we always gave her sippy cups to prevent accidents.)
She is quickly growing out of the biggest nighttime diaper size that
anyone makes.
She loves taking baths with her sister, but does not enjoy hair washing. Her favorite part is drinking the bath water. She always requests "bu-bu baths" (bubble baths).
She loves both honey nut cheerios with milk as well as instant oatmeal for breakfast - just like Emily.
She loves to jump in place - and can jump pretty high while exclaiming "BIG jump." She can also jump off of small ledges without issue. No hand-holding necessary. She's very steady on her feet. Always has been.
She LOVES to say, "Sha-zha
try" and often gets upset if you help her. Then she'll assert, "NO. ME. DO. IT."
She's shy and likes to pretend her babies are shy too. She will often announce to us in the car before a playdate or party, "Sha-zha shy."
She's growing quite attached to the quilt that she sleeps with, much to mama's surprise and delight. (Mama made it before Emily was born.)
She loves pacifiers and calls them "puh-bahs." She sleeps with 4. The purple one's her favorite.
When she gets frustrated, she throws things and kicks her feet. She also screams quick, little screams to get our attention when she's upset.
This girl can snap! (Much to Em's dismay - she cannot.
Update - Emily learned how in the past month!)
Whenever someone leaves the room she asks, "Where's ___ going?" Over and over.
We can coax her to go nearly anywhere if we tell her we're going to look for kitties. Daddy was clever enough to figure this out - and luckily they often DO find kitties.
She recognizes heart-shaped things. She likes to hold up the pretzel pieces and tell you what letter it looks like - she's usually correct.
She loves to get in your face - especially Emily's. And just look at you and smile. She has a great smile.
Her name for Emily went from "Em" to "Emmy." She can say the syllables "Em" - "Eh" - "Lee" distinctly, but when she goes to string them together, out comes "Emmy."
Her favorite toys are bubbles, soccer ball, Oscar/Elmo figurines, baby dolls, baby Calico Critters, baby stroller, puzzles, wooden shapes.
Recent update:
She CANNOT sit still during dinner - in fact she's completely fine skipping dinner and just playing. Even the offer of dessert doesn't tempt her to eat more.
She is potty trained as of 12/30/14.Yiipppppeeeeee!!!!!!! And training was a breeze. She was a perfect student: no little potty needed and she only used the toddler sized seat cover for a couple days. She has had a total of 2 accidents, both the day after training. We are SO proud of her.
Speaking of proud: she now has a big-girl bed that matches Emily's! We gave her Emily's owl that turns green at a pre-set time letting her know it's ok to get up, and she hasn't disobeyed it yet. Stays in bed from 8pm to 7:30am, when she usually calls for Emily or Daddy.
She really likes to sing, but if you notice and start watching her she gets upset. Her favorites to sing are ABC's, Elton John songs (
of course), It's a Hard Knock Life, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, Rapunzel song, and she'll occasionally hum tunes from the Nutcracker.
Speaking of Elton, before the holidays she had no interest in sitting on Santa's lap. However, she very much wanted to sit on Elton's.
She likes to prompt Emily to do silly stuff by saying, "Emmy do THIS" accompanied
by a funny gesture or facial expression.
She wants to do E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G herself.
She loves her baby dolls. They are her favorites and she very sweetly cares for them - including changing their dirty diapers... repeatedly.
She also likes to "play" with the little
Lego sets that Emily's put together. She tries to be gentle with them, but inevitably they break apart.
With her switch to the new bed in the past month, we've gotten into the habit of reading a few books alone with Charlotte before bed. She really likes
I'm a Big Sister Now (uh oh...) and Gyo Fujikawa's illustrated animal/ABC/123 books.
Her favorite Disney princess is Rapunzel. They're such good buds she calls her "Punzel" :)
She might be more interested in soccer than Emily, so it's a shame she isn't old enough for a class yet :(
She's become very good at winking - after practicing during dinner for a couple months.
She just started taking her first art class --> Mad Scientist. Also went to the same studio with her sister for a movie night a couple weeks ago. Gave us 3 hours to get dinner by ourselves!
She' very accepting of our many nicknames for her (see some
here), but she will not tolerate being called "Charlie" - we're hoping she comes around on that one.
She LOVES pasta and asks for it every night for dinner. But it must be "clean pasta" (which is her way of requesting no sauce).
She likes to ask people to "smell my breath" and "smell your breath?" This happens especially when we eat mints or chocolate.
Her unit of measurement for quantity is "much." So in response to giving her a few dried blueberries or teddy grahams, she'll insist, "No. I want much. MUCH."
As proof that she's done eating, she likes to open her empty mouth REALLY wide.
Like any 2 year old, she gets frustrated easily, but she never cries for long. Eventually we hear her yell, "Mommy, I need you!"
When asked why she did something, she often emphatically explains, "Cause I WANT to!"
As you can see, life with our 2.5 year old is great. If there were a pause button on her age, we'd be tempted to push it now. Our Sha-Zha is a
delight!!!
Emily made her mainstage debut back in March at the Commodore Sloat Elementary School talent show. When auditions were announced, she was desperate to be in it. But not by herself. Luckily after a little convincing and coordination we got 3 other girls from her class to join forces in a Bollywood hula hooping act. 
