24 Months
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| Loves her daddy! |
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| Rooftop playtime |
Mid-November--already?! A 2-year old in the house--already?! Time is passing so quickly! This month, we began our birthday/holiday months. Atley and I will always have our birthdays exactly 1 week apart (poor Taylor--so much planning and shopping in 2 months--ha!). We celebrated my day with some breakfast out with friends and a nice dinner, the two of us, on my actual birthday. 31 is looking so different than 21 could have predicted--but I love it!
And of course, our sweet princess, chose a Frozen style birthday party (with a requested chocolate M&M birthday cake...). She had friends over for the occasion and seemed to be just as overwhelmed as everyone else--what can you expect with 20 people in a tiny apartment?! It was pure fun, though! We have loved every minute of her precious 2 years!
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| Cloak wearing days! |
Stats: 36 inches and 28 pounds. Our baby that was once so scrawny has now started to take the lead amongst her peers. Atley's feet continue to grow (her parents were the same!) and groooow. She is now wearing a size 9 and wearing 3T clothes, if not 4. Everything is still covered with a cape (sometimes I wish this season away but know I will miss it dearly and the cuteness of imagination that comes with it!) or replaced with a Cinderella and Elsa dress. Atley LOVES to twirl, dance, curtsey and dip in her fancy dresses. I even see her walk the hallway with a bit of a sashay to her stroll!
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| Loving her boho pants from Thailand (and Jenny and Dave!) |
Favorite Words and Other Milestones: Atley's communication has changed this month--it's hard to explain how--but I think she has more opinionated tones or sass to her dialect (oooooh, goody!). She has such a humor in things she says and drags out words or tones for a laugh (when told it's time to go to bed she'll say, "Uhhh noooooo.") It's like she has picked up on our ability to say more through changing our expressiveness--it's very fun (and funny) to witness. She likes phrases that sound funny, "Goodygoodygoody," "Oh fooey," and "Aiyaaaaaa" are some of her favorites. Taylor has begun instructing Atley on our dinner prayers. It's so sweet and innocent and is usually something like, "Thank you God for this food, for Mommy, for Daddy, for Mila, for Lively, and for me. Ammmmmmmen." Atley has made some good friends in the neighborhood (kids of friends we work with) and she loves bringing home their phrases from playdates. One night we were sitting around and out of nowhere she gasped, spent a couple seconds in thought and then yelled repeatedly, "Hey guys! NO!" It was unrelated to the conversation and we could easily tell she was SO happy to have learned it! Too cute! Once, while asking Atley about the size of my belly, Atley claimed, "Whoa, Lively!" She has such a fun way of picking up new phrases and words and we're loving the combinations that come from this! We find she is often speaking in 5+ word (ok, ok I've been known to count...it just catches me off guard when she makes such clear sense!!) sentences ("Mommy, I'm looking for the match"..while trying on my shoes!) and speaks of upcoming things like birthday parties and Halloween. We have to be careful if we discuss future plans because she will hold us to them! She has asked if she will be able to hold Lively on the couch--we think this little girl is excited for her sister! She loves to match my essential oils to colors of Barney and characters (picks them out and says, "Just like Barney, just like BJ and just like Baby Bop!).
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| Beach baby bummin' it! |
Favorite Foods: Atley is still pretty consistently, a good eater. She is not the biggest fan of sandwiches/American food so we do always think about what she will eat (anything on rice) and make foods that we can sneak veggies into (she loves cooked veggies and is slowly eating more raw). Recently she gobbled up some Japanese curry and I said, "Wow, you love your curry!" She replied, "I love RICE!" We're following the concept that toddlers know their eating needs better than adults (interesting, right?) and if she asks to be done she can be--usually--with the understanding that there is no more food or snacks until the next scheduled time. She is always ok with this so it seems to work! She still loves her sweets---loves 'chocolate drink' (Ovaltine) from the noodle shop, coffee from Starbucks (vanilla steamed milk), and ice cream/chocolate/M&M's.
Favorite Activities: Atley has started to love building with Duplos. She takes lead from our ideas and repeats them often--she builds dinner tables for her princesses, airplanes, and large castles! Recently, she got 2 new sets--an ice cream builder (of course!) and a bus with passengers. Hours of entertainment! She always requests to go, "Outside to walk?" when we get home from work and loves to play our version of Simon Says. Basically, we tell her to do something and she does! Great fun! This is how we learned she knew her alphabet, could count to 10 and was able to balance on one leg. She likes to make science experiments with her dinner food--liquids get mixed and somehow, before we can stop her, food is scooped in to her drink. Fortunately, she doesn't seem to mind still drinking it that way! She continues to love running the hallway with her cape and has begun to sing her favorite songs with a new 'rocker' mentality. We have several videos of her mouthing as though she is yelling and pumping her fists--hilarious! She loves to jump on the bed and couch--she's wild!
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| Big toddler girl! |
Favorite Activities: Atley has started to love building with Duplos. She takes lead from our ideas and repeats them often--she builds dinner tables for her princesses, airplanes, and large castles! Recently, she got 2 new sets--an ice cream builder (of course!) and a bus with passengers. Hours of entertainment! She always requests to go, "Outside to walk?" when we get home from work and loves to play our version of Simon Says. Basically, we tell her to do something and she does! Great fun! This is how we learned she knew her alphabet, could count to 10 and was able to balance on one leg. She likes to make science experiments with her dinner food--liquids get mixed and somehow, before we can stop her, food is scooped in to her drink. Fortunately, she doesn't seem to mind still drinking it that way! She continues to love running the hallway with her cape and has begun to sing her favorite songs with a new 'rocker' mentality. We have several videos of her mouthing as though she is yelling and pumping her fists--hilarious! She loves to jump on the bed and couch--she's wild!
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| Sweet princess waiting for her party to start! |
Favorite Things: Atley absolutely loves all her 'characters' from shows, movies, and books. She always likes to know where they all are. For example, she owns a Barney stuffed animal but always wants to know where Bj and Baby Bop are? She is very aware of groups and connections and is always concerned! She likes playing with her water table and spends time washing dishes or pouring and scooping water into different objects. She likes her Little People still and has named them all and again, seeks all of them out if 1 is missing. She still sleeps with Bunny and 'Atley's blanket' but has lately been asking to snuggle with 'Baby Linus' blanket' (her cape). She must listen to the beach while falling asleep. She loves her new tennis shoes!
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| Rocking the Manning jersey with a tutu! |
Least Favorite Things: Atley is still not fond of getting her hair rinsed in the shower and melts into any wall she can find as though she is getting away from it. She does not like to run the hallway with a diaper and hates having to wait to get one on. She would still rather not have anything done to her hair although for Halloween and her birthday, she let me copy the princess hairstyles willingly! Atley would still rather not ride in the stroller or be carried by Dad--oh, how things will soon change!
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| On her actual birthday she got to have dinner and ice cream at McD's! |
Random Unforgettables:
Atley saw Mom's belly one morning and said, "Whoooa, Lively!"
One night at dinner, Atley pulled her shirt down off her shoulders and said she was a mermaid and began swimming in her chair!
Atley has grabbed Mom by her cheeks and given her a big smooch on the lips!
Asks, "Who's that guy?!" about people sitting next to us on the train or bus!
Hides from Dad when he comes in the door and squeals with delight as he comes to chase/find her!
Painted her nails with chalk!
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| Classic Atley look--usually given when she is asking for something she wants--many times in a row! |
This month has been a busy one for the Williams' gang! We both worked several weekends of October and have been battling multiple colds for all in our house. We are looking so forward to cooler weather and hopefully clearer air to help with the allergies! Taylor has been working on 2 grad school classes and will slow down to 1 in January--but is on a break until then. Yay! He has been making some fun apps and really starting to apply what he's learning to ideas he could use in his classroom, too. It's fun watching him learn all of this new technology! I have been sleeping great and feeling really good, too. Lively is growing and is about 2.5 pounds now. We're moving slower and taking naps on the weekends--but there's a simple pleasure to that! Taylor and I love to dream about the future and love to reflect on the past--but we also remind ourselves of how great our current days are. God has truly blessed our adventure!
And to wrap up the 2 year birthday post---some party pictures!
