Let's here it for 22!

So, a few days back Kayla became a 22 month old and that much closer to being 2!  Can you believe it?!?!  Crazy huh?  So, what's our little girl been into this month???  Welll...

She is obsessed (still) with her rings (those little plastic rings that you can link together into a chain) and putting those rings into a bucket, onto a plate, into a bowl... whatever she can find to carry them around in though mostly her bucket.  Into the bucket, out of it.  Into her hand, off her hand.  To daddy, to mommy.  She can't just do this once or twice either - it's over and over and over again.

She is also now obsessed with Dora.  She basically wakes up saying Dora.  Dora the Explorer, the little hispanic girl who teaches Spanish, as well as problem solving, prepositions, sequence, colors, objects, etc (can you tell I think it's a great program?) is for kids 3 and up but Kayla is really into it.  She answers the questions they ask on the program, loves it when you need to say "map" to see the map, and is getting pretty good at saying "backpack" (for when they need the backpack).

And speaking of words... I swear to you she says 3-5 new words or phrases a day.  Apparently I'm the only one who can understand her and I do a lot of translating for others but, seriously, more words a day than I can remember.  And, though they are not actual sentences, or necessarily phrases, she does put multiple words together (mainly just 2 words) so she's communicating so much better.  As long as you understand the context you can figure out what she's saying. 

She says "strawbe" for strawberry, "hambgaga" for "hamburger", "i to" for ice cream, rink for "ring, "lelling" for yelling (when she yells, and I say "Kayla!", she says "enough, lelling." too cute!) "buddy" for bunny, "bucky" for bucket, and "bankie" for blanket. On the couple times we've driven around looking at the Christmas lights she says "more light. more light". I love that she loves them - now if I can get her to love Christmas songs!

Speaking of which, she does not like me to sing along with songs on the radio or her toys most of the time.  She looks at me and yells!  What?  I'm not a good singer??? 

Back to the TV - She loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Sesame Street, Curious George, and, as I said before, Dora the Explorer.  Mostly right now it's Dora but every once in a while she'll throw in one of those other ones. 

She's learned to make the kissing sound when she kisses you - which is just about the most adorable thing ever!

She's very good about using her stool to go to the bathroom and wash her hands or stand in the kitchen to help mama bake. 

She just keeps becoming a better big sister as they both get older (though she does not like him playing with her toys, unless of course she gave him the toy and even then she wants it right back.)

She weighs 27ish lbs, 34.5 inches tall, and wears 24 month or 2T clothes, though the 2T is still a little big on her.  (She might be losing weight at this point since I can barely get her to sit still, let alone eat!)

She does not like to eat dinner.  It's always a struggle.  Breakfast, lunch, snacks, no problem.  Dinner - she'd rather play with her toys.

She doesn't really like her food mixed up. Goulash is out of the question as is Shepards Pie. Seperate everything and then you might have a shot of her eating it.



She understands so much, and you can tell by her behavior and her communication (or attempts at communication).  It's so crazy how much she understands.  She's obviously still really young but not that young.  We've really got to watch what we say now because she's a sponge!

She's a good mimic-er.  I've said this before but it's getting more frequent and more complex actions.  Super cute to watch - who wants to sweep?  Her, that's who!

She is in constant motion and almost always saying something.  It's amazing, really, how she never stops and how much energy she has.... all the time!

Her favorite answer to any question is "yea" (or any variation of that - yes, yup, etc).  Although occasionally we get a no, nope, or a yea-no.

She still loves to help, when the mood strikes her, get dressed, get her brother dressed, change diapers, bake, stir, etc.

When she does something herself, and is proud of it, she says "self.  self" like when she gets the stickers off the sheet herself.

She knows several colors - blue, yellow, purple, pink, green (though she says something like greet or greek).   She also knows some of the non-basic body parts like ankles, thighs, shoulders, ear lobes, eye brows, wrist.  I eased her into the body parts - wrist was obviously going to come after arm though elbow was learned before wrist for some unknown reason.  :-)

Every day I think to myself  "I need to add that to her post" but now I've forgotten all that so I'll probably continue adding for a few days, but since I'm already a week late here I figured I might as well get it published.  Until then...