2 Year Stats

I took Anna in for her 2 year well child check up on Monday. She was initially excited to see the fish tank at Dr. Jeff's office, but as soon as she saw Jill (our M.A.) she was not happy and clung to me for the rest of the visit. Nothing about the visit shocked me...she is healthy, developing appropriately, and is quite smart for her age. She is still my tall, skinny little peanut!

Weight: 22 pounds, 14 ounces (7th percentile)
Height: just shy of 34 inches (56th percentile)
Head: still big (50th percentile)

Can I just say that these stats present a clothing size challenge? Summer clothes are great because I don't have to worry about the length. She still wears size 12 month short sleeve shirts, capris, and dresses. But now that we are heading into fall, I have to buy all new pants and long sleeve shirts...her arms and legs are just too long. And if I buy a size pants that fit her in length (24 mo-2T), they fall right off her skinny waist. She will love this one day, right? Tall and skinny. Lucky girl. If it is true that you can estimate how tall a child will be by doubling their height at age 2, then that puts Anna at 5'8". She will tower over her mother, but that isn't really that difficult of a task to accomplish.

I was surprised at how difficult the shots were for Anna this time. She had to get 2 shots in one leg (a flu shot and a new booster of the Prevnar) and after Jill was done, she had thick, racking sobs for 45 minutes. Even now, a few days later, each time I check out her leg, she starts to cry and says "No more leg pokes!" Heartbreaking.

A few things I want to remember about Anna at this age:

-She has an almost endless vocabulary. Dr. Jeff asked me if she knew 50 words. I had to laugh...Check! She knew about 80 words at 18 months and her vocabulary is much more extensive now. He asked if she was putting 2 word sentences together. Just then, Anna pointed to her forehead and proceeded to tell the pediatrician "I fall at John's house and got bruise." Check! This time it was Jeff that laughed.

-She knows her ABC's and sings them regularly. She goes straight from L to P, but it's easier that way, right? We are now working on recognizing what each letter looks like. She knows "A" and "N". She tries to spell her name, but usually just says "A...N...A...N...A.....Anna!"

 -Her enunciation is pretty clear on most words, but she still has a hard time with "F" and "V". Both of them come out sounding like the letter "S". Fruit loops is "Soot loops", watch a movie is "Watch a moosie" etc.

-She has been able to count to eleven for a while, but the other day she started counting to 20. I was expecting the typical "11, 8, 9, 10, 11, 8, 9, 10..." but then she went on and counted all the way to 20. Yes, she still sometimes skips 8, and she usually skips 14, but other than that, she is consistent. She claps for herself after she shouts 20.

-She loves to sing. Her favorites are "Old MacDonald", "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star", "You are my Sunshine", "Tomorrow" (from Annie), "Baby Bumblebee", and "The Farmer in the Dell". She has also been singing "Happy Birthday to Anna" for the past 2 weeks.

-She is OBSESSED with animals, but especially her horses. She has a collection of about 20 plastic horses (as well as a giraffe, a few elephants, a zebra, and a lion), and she carts them everywhere we go.

-Anna still loves her "pretties", meaning any type of jewelry or anything that sparkles. We have to avoid walking past the jewelry section in any store or risk a two-year-old tantrum. She loves to make her horses pretty by placing a bracelet around the horses neck. Pretties & horsies...future rodeo queen??

-Her favorite movie right now is Racing Stripes, the one about a zebra who thinks he is a race horse. She asks to watch it about 5 times a day. I only let her watch it once a day. Mean mom. She also loves Monsters, Inc, Finding Nemo, and Charlotte's Web.

-She is getting more and more particular about food.  When I asked her what she wanted for lunch the other day, she replied "Chicken, sighs (fries), diet coke". Uh, oh. Can I say too many trips to Wendy's?? (And no, she doesn't get diet Coke. She gets Sprite. But she thinks everything with carbonation is diet Coke.) She loves the typical kids foods...hot dogs, chicken nuggets, mac and cheese. But there are some things that she likes that surprise me. The other night she was having a great time spearing her salad with ranch while saying "Come here, salad!". She ate the whole thing! She love asparagus and green beans also. She still LOVES her emmas (M&M's).

-If I left this child naked all day, she would probably be potty trained. If she is naked, she will run in and go pee-pee on the potty. I guess I will have to set aside a week when I can leave her naked all week and then gradually add clothes back in, right? She loves her collection of "panties", but she doesn't wear them much. She loves to stack them and organize them (imagine that!).

-She has really become a mommy's girl. When she gets tired, she will look at me and say "Nock with Mommy?" and off to the rocking chair we go. She also loves her back scratched, which has become a nighttime ritual. "A mommy scratch Anna's back?" I have to admit I love the snuggle time.

I now realize why each mom thinks their child is the cutest thing on the planet. We see what no one else sees. Every time I pull out the camera and attempt to get any of her cute behavior on camera (ABC's counting, etc.), she pulls attitude and says in a sweet little voice "No". So for now, all I have is this documentation. ;-)