Happy 27 months, Sarah!

On October 16, Sarah hit the 2&1/3 year mark. She seems so grown up these days...definitely a little girl on her way to becoming a young lady. Thankfully, we have a few more years of little girl time before we get there :)

Weight: ?
Height: ?
Diaper: size 5/cloth
Clothes: 2T and 3T; shoe, size 6

Likes: playing "school" (learning letters), bubbles, being chased, hiding, being motherly to stuffed animals (changing bobbins, putting them to sleep, etc.), "nuggling"

Dislikes: loud noises (ex: car alarm [hehe, good story here], vacuum, etc.), fuzz in the bath water, not getting snuggles when she wants them

Schedule: Sarah wakes up around 7am and we get to have breakfast as a family. She goes back down for a nap around 1pm and wakes up around 3-4pm. We put her back to bed around 7pm. A bedtime routine is a much bigger deal than it used to be. Once she is ready for bed we sit in the rocking chair to pray, read one book, kiss and tuck her in, and then ask her what she wants to sing. It is always Twinkle, Twinkle and Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow.

Eating time: The books all say that toddlers go through phases were they barely eat and other phases where they eat you out of house and home. This is occasionally true for Sarah. Most often she is a good eater with just a tad of a penchant for being picky. She usually picks a couple of favorite foods that she asks for all the time. Current favorites: yogurt, crackers with peanut butter, and watermelon. With the cool weather rolling in we started warming her milk in the morning. Now she insists on warm milk throughout the day. This was a problem when the power was out for 24 hours recently :)

Talking: Her language development is just growing by leaps and bounds and we couldn't be happier. She loves decision making and bargaining, singing and making Josiah laugh. Occasionally sassing. She still loves to keep a running commentary on life. And I'll tell you, life from her perspective sure is fun. And wonderfully black and white. She is getting really good at "yes/no ma'am/sir" and an unsolicited "thank you". It took a little coaching to figure out when to say ma'am and sir, and when she gets flustered it often comes out "yes ma'am Mommy, yes sir Daddy" no matter who she is talking to. We have studied letters A-K with some success. She loves doing "school" and that enjoyment is most important to us right now. She can also pretty consistently name numbers through 11, but not actually count, and gets most normal colors right. She is a sponge and a parrot, so we are trying to patiently live this stage to the fullest!

Developmentally: She still hasn't really taken off with running and jumping, but in true Sarah fashion continues to slowly, but surely, be making progress.

Random, but fun:
* She seems to be getting her last tooth in.
* People we saw on our megatrip are often on her mind. We hear things like, "Awe Mr. Raymond soooo sad- he needs a snuggle!" when she is mindlessly playing.
* She is becoming increasingly aware of people watching her and how they react to what she does- for better or worse.
* Her hair is getting really long. We like to do braided pigtails to keep it in place and she looks like such a big girl.
* She can tell us what she did and who she played with in nursery.

Next appointment: Monday, January 28, 2013 at 10:45am

She loves snuggling Josiah!

One of her favorite car games.

Playing in the leaves with Abigail.

Enjoying herself between Josiah and Aunt Ella. Note the eagle stick on her right cheek...she was in love!

Our groundhog at the zoo.

She was very confident in the petting zoo at the fair.

Two pretty smiles!

Reading time with Daddy.

Joint tummy time.