The days of 2's

I don't want to say that we've reached the "Terrible Twos", but we have reached some new benchmarks, some of which I have found to be very challenging.

I haven't written about this yet for fear of the blog curse, but we have been potty training.  We started during Christmas break so that Woody and I would both be here for the change.  Riley was showing some interest in pottying, so we went with it (because two babies in diapers is a lot of waste and a lot of money).  After running around with no clothes on below the waist for 2 days, it just kind of clicked for her.  She gets really excited to "peep", as she calls it, in her Elmo potty.  We also bought a little potty seat that fits on a regular toilet for traveling.  Turns out, she likes to use this more that the Elmo potty that is her size!  I think it's because she can hear the pee pee hit the water.  Most of our days are really good, with no accidents.  But we do have days from time to time that we have an accident.  She is still running around the house with no panties on, but we have graduated to leg-warmers and socks!   When we leave the house, she does get to wear panties and pants.  But so far, she hasn't asked for big girl panties when we are hanging out at home.

She is also in the thick of sentence-making.  She talks SO much.  Her current favorite phrases are:

• "My do it!"
• "Check it out!"
• "I peep!  I peep!"
• "I need hold you."  ~when she wants to be held
• "Ball.  Ela-stic-ity" ~because Sid the Science kid talks about elasticity
• "I need make up" ~as referenced from the picture above
• "I stuck" ~almost every time she is in her highchair.
• "Hoop-a-la!" ~this is her phrase for "Hooray"
• "Ly-ee Grace" ~Riley Grace, she likes to narrarate whatever she is doing in third person

~I'll add more as I remember them.  There are so many that it might take me a couple of days to remember everything she says!  I love it. 

The challenges that we are getting to are ones that all parents experience (so I will probably be hitting you girls up on suggestions).  Riley does not like getting dressed or undressed for the day.  So she runs from me when I have the new clothes in hand.  Fun.  This picture is from the other day when I was going through last summer's clothing to sell at the spring Rhea Lana Consignment Sale.  I had her try on several things, which she happily complied with, until I tried to take the swimsuit off of her.  Not happening.  So she hung out in the yellow polka-dot bikini all morning- with snow outside.  She also has decided she doesn't like to eat, so our mealtimes consist of me serving her breakfast, lunch, or dinner.  Then listen to her whine/cry while I feed Jude his food and then eat myself, because our standing rule is that we all sit at the table until everyone is done.  This could be one reason I've lost all the baby weight, because I often cut my meal short so that I can get up, get diapers changed, faces cleaned, and whiners out of their highchairs. Right now, I ignore her whining and let her not eat (because I'm not sure if that is a battle I want to fight "you have to eat two more bites" etc, etc).  Then she gets to be hungry until it's time to eat again.

But beyond those two challenges, she is such a great girl and awesome big sister.  I am very lucky to have this girl in my sights all day everyday.  She makes all the tough stuff worth it.