25 months

I was not sure if I was going to continue doing a monthly post after Katherine's second birthday but she just is doing so many cute things and learning so much that I could not resist. I actually read a blog where she just posted her daughter's 49th month so I guess I don't feel like too much of a dork. Katherine now says "I love you" all the time and to all of her family. It is so cute. She used to have to be coached but now she says "I love you too" after we say it to her and sometimes she says it on her own without responding to us. I love it!

For awhile she has been commenting on the color of people's eyes. Sometimes she will just start listing off "mommy has blue eyes, daddy has blue eyes, fafrine (Katherine) has blue eyes, Hoogan (Hooligan) has black eyes" We are working on extended family members as well. I only remember that Nana has green eyes, Pops has Blue, Jaime and Will have Brown, Sophia has blue and George's family blog name is the Blue-eyed zoo so I assume they all have blue. Grammy and Grandad, what color are your eyes? I need to go look at pictures.

She also knows all of her family members' names and who all is in the same smaller family unit. We will list one person in a family and she will list off all other people who live in that same house. We were especially impressed when we said "Uncle Justin" and she said "Leah" since she has only met Aunt Leah once and we only have one picture of her.

Katherine is getting better at counting. She can go up to 14 pretty consistently. For some reason she was getting stuck and could not remember 5 but after you prompt her she can continue up to 14.

She babbles all the time! Rarely is that child quiet - except when she meets a new person who asks her a question. I can decipher 90% of what she says and Sam can decipher about 50%. There are times though when she tells a long story of gibberish. It is so funny.

As with all toddlers there are a few speech quirks that Katherine has. I have asked my speech pathologist friends to make sure she is OK and at this point it is just cute. One thing she does is pronounce her hard "K" sound with a "T". Some of my favorite words are "tooties" (cookies) and "tean up mommy" when she wants me to clean up.

She "reads" her books to us. She know the name of almost every book and can sit and tell the story. I love that she loves to read. I think it contributes to her huge vocabulary. Today we went to the playground at the library. I went inside to get something and she followed shortly after with Sam to use the bathroom. Then she decided that she would rather sit and read all the books than go back out to the park to play. That's my girl!

This month she learned our first names. She now will sometimes call out "Sam, Sam" when she wants her daddy. The way she says my name reminds me of how my brother used to say it when he was little. It is something like "Sisty". She is also learning what her grandparents' first names are. It is pretty funny to hear her call for us by first name. We are not encouraging it but it is a good thing to know in case we ever get separated.

She knows that on Tuesday we go to Bible Study. One day she was in our bedroom and asked what the book was beside my bed. I told her my Bible Study. Now whenever she sees it she talks about Bible Study. I do hope that she will be a young girl that also enjoys studying her Bible.

Ever since her Birthday she has been fascinated with the ages of people though I do not know that she truly understands what it means when she says she is 2. She will say, "Fafrine is 2, Robert is 2, Evie is 1, Ben is 2, Fa (Sophia) is 1. Mommy 2?" and then she laughs because she knows that I am not 2. I have taught her that Mommy is 35. The problem is that a "th" sound is hard to say and usually comes out as a "f" and therefore "Mommy is firty-five". I do not like that she adds 10 years to my age.

I think she is going through a growth spurt. Almost every night this week Katherine has eaten the same thing for dinner that Sam and I have eaten. other parents of toddlers know that this is sometimes a challenge. For us it has been a huge challenge since we are always trying to get her to eat more. We are really trying to encourage more eating the family meal. We also have started eating dinner in the dining room and requiring her to stay in her booster chair until all three of us are done. We realized that in eating in the kitchen and letting her get up when she was finished had created a toddler with a short dinner attention span. Not a big deal at home but a huge deal when we go out to eat.

We pray before every meal. There have been a few times that we have forgotten and Katherine has reminded us to pray. We all hold hands and bow our heads as one of us prays. She really enjoys the prayer time and sometimes will ask to pray again later in the meal.

We are making great strides in potty training (note all the dedicated posts this week). we have been without any diaper or pull up for almost a week. Today she woke up dry in the morning and after nap as well as only having one tiny accident. At 25 months she is one of the youngest of her peers to be potty training but she is doing great. Everyone comments on how we are doing it so early. I encourage other mom's of toddlers to go for it.

Sam and I feel that we are in a really sweet spot right now. Katherine is eating, sleeping and pottying well. We remember the times in the beginning where those three things were our constant focus and source of stress. We are glad to have a few months in this sweet spot before we welcome Squeak when we can really enjoy Katherine without stressing about those things. Of course we are dealing with all kinds of other issues such as discipline, sharing, respect. . . but we are really enjoying where we are.