What a busy first quarter of two it has been! It began with Easter, wrapped with the 4th, and spanned lots of fun in between!

You seemed to love your Easter dress this year 🙂 It was our first time back in church for this holiday and it felt so lovely and normal! You checked yourself out in the mirror an awful lot before we left and loved coming into the service at the end to hear the music.

With the nicer weather becoming more consistent, there was a whole new world of getting outside for more adventures. Aside from a sudden and intense fear of bugs that thankfully mellowed after a couple weeks, you’ve loved the go-go-go of adventuring outside, park-hopping, and playing in all the water.

Before the school year wrapped for Crew, we did another round of swim lessons, this time with your friend, GiGi and her mom. It was fun to have a friend, and helpful to curb your fearlessness in the water just a tad 😉 I had hoped it could be a “mom stays out of the water” scenario and you’d go to the teacher, but you just weren’t having that. You are, without a doubt, my clingier kid!

It’s been a fun season of “firsts” as the world sincerely feels “normal” again. You (and Crew!) attended your first wedding. You’ve always been of the mindset that if you are dancing, no one else can, and instead we just have to watch and cheer ha! This wedding changed your perspective and now you LOVE when everyone is dancing together.

Another first was the farmer’s market for you! It was particularly special to me to have this outing with you after we made it so many times with Crew at this age. You LOVED seeing the dogs of course!

You continue to love a task, and you are particularly focused when it comes to drawing/painting and anything with small details. You hate to be “messy” and will ask for a wipe to clean up your hand or a spot where you drip, so it’s pretty low-stress to give you free reign with these activities – you can more or less be trusted! 😉

You’re starting to understand real phone calls versus FaceTime – “hello! What doin?” is heard on repeat as you turn everything in the house into a pretend phone. You’re very into pretend now in general and your favorite toys are Little People, your peg dolls, and little animals that you can have converse, eat pretend food, and tuck into bed.

You are talking so much more than three months ago, and yet I still laugh outright sometimes at how different your verbal development is from any toddler I’ve heard. You will articulate a full sentence of clear words…and then go back to rambling in your own language for the next few thoughts. “Oh no, Mom — baby sad!” if you hear a baby crying, and then back to your own jargon and we just nod and smile along. You are LOVING having Crew home this summer and with that much more convo in the house, your language continues to expand – it’s already foreign to think of the time I kept a list of words you know hoping to clear 100…I would guess you are up to a thousand-plus now and adding more every day.

Speaking of Crew, the bond is the strongest we’ve seen yet — he’s just enough older now to read you better, and you’re just enough more communicative to meet him halfway. You think everything he does is hilarious, and you often copy his every move. Thankfully he’s incredibly tolerant, and I think he secretly loves being idolized. 🙂

And in other tight-bond news, you have definitely hit that bell curve where you truly remember Papa and Mimi between visits and no longer have to “warm up” every time you see them. Visits are that much more fun now!

Two is so busy and so full of emotions…lots of focus and frustration and big excitement and intense love and all. the. things. all at once. It’s so helpful that the communication is booming lately and our understanding of each other continues to strengthen each day. You can voice more opinions without meltdowns, or decline things before we waste them offering them up to you. You’ve gotten pickier about food choices lately…but we also suspect some molar movement has to do with this one.

You’re game for most of what the rest of us want to do, hate to be left out of anything, and want your “own” of whatever we are doing – case in point with the golf club you had to carry but barely used at our round of mini golf.

The firsts continued this quarter with a first official (read: not clumsy Mom-snipped) haircut. You were immediately fine after but in true form didn’t like doing something that wasn’t 1000% your idea.

You can answer when asked what your name is or how old you are, but often won’t do it unless – again – it’s your idea 🙂 You count “one two five two!” but will keep going in random order depending on how many objects you need to cover. You love to sing Happy Birthday (“to me!”) and you exclaim at any animal that it is “awww! so CUTE!”

Between Dad’s frequent work from home days and Crew being home for the summer, you are loving all the face time you get with everyone around. Fall is going to seem so quiet — and yet, you love furniture that is your size, predictable routines, fresh toys, and other kids — so I think you are going to LOVE the two mornings a week of preschool in store for you come September.

This first quarter of two wrapped just after Independence Day. It was insanely hot and we spent the weekend in the pool for the most part, you rode in your first neighborhood parade, and you stayed up late to experience a few fireworks. You liked them from far away or even down the driveway, but after a while your exhaustion caught up with you and we finished them with you sound asleep in your crib. 🙂

Definitely our firecracker child. We can’t wait to see what this next portion of age two brings for you, Greer Girl. Xs and Os.