Audrey at 2 1/2 years old
I've been meaning to write a long post about Audrey ever since she turned 2 1/2, which was two months ago. Oops! Apparently I'm busy or distracted or something. Shocking, I know.
Two-and-a-half-year-old Audrey is brilliant, hilarious and adorable. We are constantly amazed at the intelligent and fluent observations that come out of her. Just the other day she stepped onto the front porch to test the air and said, verbatim, "It seems a little cool out there today." She pronounces most words correctly, though she has a few mispronunciations that I adore. Almost every day she asks me, "Do I look pis-tinguish?" (distinguished). She always does.
Her favorite foods at the moment include pancakes, pasta, butter, carrots, broccoli, most fruit (but not bananas!), turkey sandwiches, and jam sandwiches. Audrey would eat jam sandwiches all day long if I'd let her. We have a lot of conversations that go like this:
Me: What would you like to eat?
Audrey: Hmm...how about...hmm...oh! I know! Jam sandwich.
Me: Great! Jam and bread and (mumbling) peanut butter?
Audrey: No! No peanut butter! JUST JAM! Jam sandwich.
Me: How about jam and butter?
Audrey: How about jam, jam and butter?
That reminds me of another cute pronunciation. A friend gave us a jar of pomegranate preserves, and Audrey asked for "papa-granate jam" every day until it was gone. She still asks for it, actually.
Audrey has taken to dressing herself and has strong opinions on what she will wear. She prefers soft pink pants, dresses and her purple Lakers shirt. Today she dressed herself in the Lakers shirt, undies and a pink hat. She was very satisfied with the result.
We are working hard on potty training at the moment. Audrey has been using the toilet now and then for ages--a year maybe?--but now she is more than ready to be completely trained. For the past week she has been wearing underwear at home and we keep encouraging her to use the toilet. We've had a few accidents, but I think it's going okay. I'm still putting a pull-up on her when we leave the house and when she sleeps, though we did brave one trip outside the house with no pull-up, and it went fine. We'll be doing more of those.
While Maggie is at preschool, Audrey and Jane and I are together most of the time. We go out shopping, to the library or to playgroup at friends' houses. We haven't done any classes for a while--the music class I took Audrey and Jane to last fall was nice, but I think it was too confining for Audrey. Lately she has been asking to take dance classes, and I've found a dance studio that offers a "creative movement" class for ages 2.5-5. The girls are going to try it tomorrow. I'm happy to have found a class they can take at the same time!
Every Tuesday, I take Audrey and Jane over to my parents' house for a few hours so I can run errands alone, work, or do something fun. Yes, it is my favorite day of the week. Audrey quite likes it too--she is always very excited to go to her "Grummys" (that's how the girls say Montgomery). About once a month, she gets to go with Maggie to spend the night at her Grandma and Papa Graff's house, and she absolutely loves that too.
At home, Audrey often asks to do her "cutting work" which means she cuts (and cuts and cuts) paper with scissors. (We just had an unfortunate cutting incident involving her own pillowcase and Maggie's favorite dolly, so Audrey has been banned from scissors for the time being. Also, please don't mention anything about Dolly to Maggie--she has not yet noticed that Dolly's ribbons have been trimmed.) She also likes to draw with markers and make collages (more cutting and glueing) and do play-doh. I've been trying to get her to write an "A" but she doesn't have the patience to try. On her own, she draws really nice lines and swirls, but she resists my attempts at instruction.
She likes to play in the backyard and is now trustworthy enough to go out by herself (with me checking on her every few minutes). She likes to pick flowers and leaves, look for sticks, dig in the dirt, and (best of all) play with water.
She loves to help with anything and everything. If I give her a damp paper towel, she makes herself busy wiping the tables and anything else that's handy. She helps me unload the dishwasher and often sets the table for meals with napkins and silverware. She even helps with Jane, bringing her toys or picking up things she drops. If Jane gets fussy, Audrey will take it upon herself to go find a pacifier and plunk it into Jane's mouth.
Audrey and Maggie are the best of friends. They play together almost constantly, and though Maggie is usually the leader and director of things, Audrey is increasingly able to voice her own ideas and insist on fair treatment. They love to perform. They will often put on a circus complete with three or four acts each. Audrey will say, "Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, presenting Audrey, the amazing bunny hopper!" and then hop around the room. Or, "Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, presenting Audrey the pancaker!" and pretends to flip pancakes into the air and catch them in her mouth, making chomping and yummy sounds.
Audrey can count to 20 (though she tends to leave some numbers out on the way--there's something about 17 that doesn't sit right with her). She says the ABCs perfectly. She can sing lots of songs, and loves to sit at the piano and carefully play one note at a time. It seems to me that she has some natural musical ability; she is already singing in tune a lot of the time and can make her voice sing the same note as mine.
Lately I keep hearing myself say "Audrey is very, very two today." She is in the throes of terrible two-dom, with strong opinions, mini-tantrums and easily upset feelings making daily life challenging for all of us. The smallest things can set her off, and it's hard to keep my patience, especially at the end of the day when I'm tired and sick of dealing with the antics of three small children.
But every day, Audrey makes me laugh with the wacky things she says, and melts my heart with her many acts of sweetness. She often claims she is cold and says, "I need you to snug me." She loves to pucker up and kiss my cheek. She has invented a ritual to say goodbye if I'm leaving the house without her: she blows kisses, blows a hug (by wrapping her arms around herself and squeezing tight with her eyes shut), then waves wildly and grins. When I return, her wild cries of "Mommy! Mommy's hoooome!" and the sound of her footsteps running toward me, and then the sight of her face lit up in pure joy, and then the feel of her body pressed into me for a tight hug, and then her face puckered up for a kiss, and then her content sigh of "Mommy" ... these are the things that make me grateful for every day with Audrey, thankful for every moment I have this tiny, blonde, cute, sassy, smart, nutty little person in my life.
Two-and-a-half-year-old Audrey is brilliant, hilarious and adorable. We are constantly amazed at the intelligent and fluent observations that come out of her. Just the other day she stepped onto the front porch to test the air and said, verbatim, "It seems a little cool out there today." She pronounces most words correctly, though she has a few mispronunciations that I adore. Almost every day she asks me, "Do I look pis-tinguish?" (distinguished). She always does.
Her favorite foods at the moment include pancakes, pasta, butter, carrots, broccoli, most fruit (but not bananas!), turkey sandwiches, and jam sandwiches. Audrey would eat jam sandwiches all day long if I'd let her. We have a lot of conversations that go like this:
Me: What would you like to eat?
Audrey: Hmm...how about...hmm...oh! I know! Jam sandwich.
Me: Great! Jam and bread and (mumbling) peanut butter?
Audrey: No! No peanut butter! JUST JAM! Jam sandwich.
Me: How about jam and butter?
Audrey: How about jam, jam and butter?
That reminds me of another cute pronunciation. A friend gave us a jar of pomegranate preserves, and Audrey asked for "papa-granate jam" every day until it was gone. She still asks for it, actually.
Audrey has taken to dressing herself and has strong opinions on what she will wear. She prefers soft pink pants, dresses and her purple Lakers shirt. Today she dressed herself in the Lakers shirt, undies and a pink hat. She was very satisfied with the result.
We are working hard on potty training at the moment. Audrey has been using the toilet now and then for ages--a year maybe?--but now she is more than ready to be completely trained. For the past week she has been wearing underwear at home and we keep encouraging her to use the toilet. We've had a few accidents, but I think it's going okay. I'm still putting a pull-up on her when we leave the house and when she sleeps, though we did brave one trip outside the house with no pull-up, and it went fine. We'll be doing more of those.
While Maggie is at preschool, Audrey and Jane and I are together most of the time. We go out shopping, to the library or to playgroup at friends' houses. We haven't done any classes for a while--the music class I took Audrey and Jane to last fall was nice, but I think it was too confining for Audrey. Lately she has been asking to take dance classes, and I've found a dance studio that offers a "creative movement" class for ages 2.5-5. The girls are going to try it tomorrow. I'm happy to have found a class they can take at the same time!
Every Tuesday, I take Audrey and Jane over to my parents' house for a few hours so I can run errands alone, work, or do something fun. Yes, it is my favorite day of the week. Audrey quite likes it too--she is always very excited to go to her "Grummys" (that's how the girls say Montgomery). About once a month, she gets to go with Maggie to spend the night at her Grandma and Papa Graff's house, and she absolutely loves that too.
At home, Audrey often asks to do her "cutting work" which means she cuts (and cuts and cuts) paper with scissors. (We just had an unfortunate cutting incident involving her own pillowcase and Maggie's favorite dolly, so Audrey has been banned from scissors for the time being. Also, please don't mention anything about Dolly to Maggie--she has not yet noticed that Dolly's ribbons have been trimmed.) She also likes to draw with markers and make collages (more cutting and glueing) and do play-doh. I've been trying to get her to write an "A" but she doesn't have the patience to try. On her own, she draws really nice lines and swirls, but she resists my attempts at instruction.
She likes to play in the backyard and is now trustworthy enough to go out by herself (with me checking on her every few minutes). She likes to pick flowers and leaves, look for sticks, dig in the dirt, and (best of all) play with water.
She loves to help with anything and everything. If I give her a damp paper towel, she makes herself busy wiping the tables and anything else that's handy. She helps me unload the dishwasher and often sets the table for meals with napkins and silverware. She even helps with Jane, bringing her toys or picking up things she drops. If Jane gets fussy, Audrey will take it upon herself to go find a pacifier and plunk it into Jane's mouth.
Audrey and Maggie are the best of friends. They play together almost constantly, and though Maggie is usually the leader and director of things, Audrey is increasingly able to voice her own ideas and insist on fair treatment. They love to perform. They will often put on a circus complete with three or four acts each. Audrey will say, "Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, presenting Audrey, the amazing bunny hopper!" and then hop around the room. Or, "Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, presenting Audrey the pancaker!" and pretends to flip pancakes into the air and catch them in her mouth, making chomping and yummy sounds.
Audrey can count to 20 (though she tends to leave some numbers out on the way--there's something about 17 that doesn't sit right with her). She says the ABCs perfectly. She can sing lots of songs, and loves to sit at the piano and carefully play one note at a time. It seems to me that she has some natural musical ability; she is already singing in tune a lot of the time and can make her voice sing the same note as mine.
Lately I keep hearing myself say "Audrey is very, very two today." She is in the throes of terrible two-dom, with strong opinions, mini-tantrums and easily upset feelings making daily life challenging for all of us. The smallest things can set her off, and it's hard to keep my patience, especially at the end of the day when I'm tired and sick of dealing with the antics of three small children.
But every day, Audrey makes me laugh with the wacky things she says, and melts my heart with her many acts of sweetness. She often claims she is cold and says, "I need you to snug me." She loves to pucker up and kiss my cheek. She has invented a ritual to say goodbye if I'm leaving the house without her: she blows kisses, blows a hug (by wrapping her arms around herself and squeezing tight with her eyes shut), then waves wildly and grins. When I return, her wild cries of "Mommy! Mommy's hoooome!" and the sound of her footsteps running toward me, and then the sight of her face lit up in pure joy, and then the feel of her body pressed into me for a tight hug, and then her face puckered up for a kiss, and then her content sigh of "Mommy" ... these are the things that make me grateful for every day with Audrey, thankful for every moment I have this tiny, blonde, cute, sassy, smart, nutty little person in my life.
posted by Deborah Graff @ 9:20 PM
3 comments
And here are Audrey and Jane in the same sweaters, today!
