Little Bits of Our Life: The "Middle" Child

It's been a while since I did a post on our sweet two year old. She's now the "middle" child. My sister (middle child for most of her preteen years) says that at times the middle child gets left out, overlooked, forgotten. I will do my best to be sure our girl never feels that way! She has transitioned from being the little sister and the only girl to big sister pretty well. She struggled at first and wanted Mommy to lay by her at bedtime when I was taking care of the baby but after a few weeks, maybe less, she went back to her normal bedtime routine. It was cute yet exhausting when she would peek around the door to see what was going on when she was supposed to be sleeping.

A few months before baby #3's arrival, we noticed that at nap time, bedtime and in her car seat she had started pulling out strands of her hair. At first we didn't think much of it but then we noticed she was putting it in her mouth and it was getting tangled on her pacifier. This both disgusted and worried us. She would only do it at those certain times so we felt like it was a comfort thing for her because she would also twist it in to a ball in her hand. We asked the pediatrician about it at her 2 year well child check and she said it wasn't all that uncommon in two year olds.

We tried having her hold yarn at nap & bed time and in the car as a substitute because she was starting to get a little bit of a bald spot and we could feel prickly pieces where the hair was growing back. That seemed to work for a little while but then she would still pull her hair out too. Mommy decided it was time for the pacifier to go on August 6. I was nervous that we would have a few rough nights because she loved her pacifier but she actually did really well. Although even more than a month later she will still tell us, I have no more pacifier! Once we took away the pacifier she completely stopped pulling out her hair! We couldn't be any more thankful for that!!

At her two year well child check she weighed 26 1/2 lbs. (50th %) and was 34 1/4 in. (75th %) tall. She's growing well and still talking so much! People always comment on her vocabulary and how well you can understand her. She can partly say her alphabet and she is always trying to count. She currently counts 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14. :) She can also partly say how to spell her name. We made a song out of spelling her big brother's name which is how he learned so we have a song for her name now too. She is starting to recognize and be able to name most colors. She is so proud of herself when she gets them right! She's really good about saying please and thank you (tanks)!

She has the most adorable curly hair in the back. We normally just put a "pretty" in her hair to keep it out of her face and the back naturally curls.

Just before she turned two she was so incredibly mischievous. Any time you didn't have eyes on her for a minute she was in to anything she could find. Thankfully she has grown out of that stage for the most part. She wants to do the things the big kids can do but isn't quite there yet. It's amazing though how much she has matured in just a few months since she's been "big sister".

In March she could go up the stairs well but not down the stairs. She somehow got down the stairs on her own a couple of times and we were not sure exactly how she did it so we taught her to go down on her bottom. When she wants to go to the basement to play she will say, I go down on my butt. The funny part is that she will sit down feet away from the stairs and scoot over to the stairs. I guess she's getting a head start. She has taken a tumble a couple of times going down stairs (no serious injuries thankfully) but she does pretty well now both holding on to the railing and going on her bottom. Speaking of bottoms, she was doing pretty well with potty training shortly before and even after baby #3 arrived but isn't showing much of an interest right now.

She's so animated and funny! She gets excited about things and her eyes completely light up. It's the sweetest thing. She, of course, imitates her older brother all the time and it drives him crazy! Ha ha I think that's to be expected with siblings. It melts my heart though when they play nicely together. It's an almost daily occurrence that I have to basically drag her out of her brother's classroom because she wants to "stay to preschool" too! She definitely mimics us. She loves to swaddle and nurse her babies and to put them in the car seat and in the bassinet.

Some fun things she is saying at 2 years and 5 months are:

"My (I) love you soooo much."
"Ok Mam" or "Yes Mam" (not sure where she picked that up).
"Never!" which is sometimes cute, and other times naughty!
"Shake it booty"
"You're a good helper Mom"
"My gonna push play for YOU"
"She's my cutie baby" (her little sister)
"Do you know the Muffin Man who lives on Taco Bell road? I'm gonna get some QUESADILLAS!"
"Booga (or Booger) TV" is her term for the Veggie Tales movie, "Where is God When I'm Scared?"
"I do it myself"
"I have to text Grandma"
"What happened?"
"Push up honey" (when her baby sister is having tummy time)

Favorite Songs:

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
You Are My Sunshine
Old McDonald Had a Farm
Jesus Loves Me
Rockabye Baby
Keep Walking (from Veggie Tales)
Hole in the Bottom of the Sea (Veggie Tales)
The Wheels on the Bus