And since I was so late with the last two 2-year birthday blogs, here we are, on August 29th. Allie is now 25 months and 1 week old! July and August have just flown by! Ramadhan Mubarak to everyone! Courtney had been in town for a conference and so spent the weekend with us (yayyyyyy!!!).
[[image:allie765a.jpg:I’m pink and rowdy!:center:0]]
* Mouse over the pictures for captions
Before we get started, I have to apologize. You can see in the first picture above that there is a pinkish tinge to it? Well, the reason why is because we had to resurrect our older camera, the one that we had to replace because it was taking pink pictures – remember that one? Well, the reason we had to use the old camera is because “somebody” “dropped” the camera and it no longer works. The fatal “lens error” appeared and the camera will not turn on, and unfortunately it is two months past the end of the protection plan (of course!). Bah, humbug. So, since we had not yet gone out and purchased a replacement camera, we had to bring the old workhorse out of retirement and we get some interesting shots sometimes. I tried to fool around with the pictures to make adjustments if I could, but I don’t really think I made any improvements. So, there it is. “Somebody” “dropped” the camera. Yes, Yaya, I mean you. And when I say “dropped” I’m really not convinced she dropped it. I was in the other room and heard a loud ker-thump that to me, sounded like somebody threw the camera. But Vin stands up for her (even though he did not witness the incident either). What can I say? She hasn’t confessed. She has a great poker face. 🙂
In the month since she turned two, she’s definitely grown even more. She has called me “Mama” which made me happy, but it’s rare that she’ll do it. There seems to be more words coming but she does prefer not to use intelligible words. She is now quite garrulous, which, given that she doesn’t really use actual words, makes it quite hilarious. She babbles in full sentences with intonation and everything. She’s telling us stories and really expressing herself. It frustrates us that we can’t actually understand her, but it doesn’t seem to frustrate her at all! She just takes it all in stride and assumes we’re the crazy ones who can’t understand what an intelligent person like herself is saying. 🙂
The terrible twos have definitely set in – when we were in New Jersey, for whatever reason she decided that Susan (who was one of her absolute favorites at the hotel) had done her wrong. So she refused to go to Susan, refused hugs, kisses, conversations, even refusing to meet Susan’s eyes or look at her! We have no idea what the perceived slight was, but she sure punished poor Susan. I am hoping that when we next go back to Jersey, she will have come out of her snit and will go back to being best friends with Susan again. She’s definitely pushing the boundaries now – if we say “No” to anything she pushes it. We have to stand strong and ignore her crocodile tears (because they are crocodile tears). She can turn them on and off like a faucet! But we’re trying not to let her get away with it and if we don’t pay attention to the tears and continue on our merry way, she calms down right away. You can tell she’s just trying to throw a tantrum to see what it will get her. Plus “No” is her default response to everything. But other than the occasional tantrum, she’s still herself, full of smiles and laughter. She loves to arrange everything now and just adores all the building blocks of different sorts that we have around the house. She is building things and showing them to us proudly. I should really look into some kind of rudimentary 3 or so piece jigsaw puzzles as she seems to enjoy spatial challenges. She sings and dances with us all the time, and is still the TV and Music Dictator. She seems to love books and music, and playgrounds and balls. She has an endless amount of energy. Our night-time book is still Hop on Pop by Dr Seuss. She definitely enjoys all the Seuss books.
She now has thirteen teeth! Two more have sprouted in the past month. It’s so strange to see her smile with a mouthful of teeth now. Also, she had her 24-month appointment and she is average for weight. But here’s what made us rub our hands together gleefully – Allie measured 36 1/4 inches tall! She’s taller than 99 percent of children her age! Wheehehehehe! I guess to those of you who know Vin personally, that’s hardly a surprise right? I guess all that milk drinking is doing something. Her Toddler 2T outfits are stretched tight, and Toddler 3T outfits seem to fit just perfectly. I guess it’s time to buy her more clothes…
Anyway, let’s get to the pictures of how Allie spent her 25 month birthday. Auntie Courtney was here so we had a fun time relaxing with her and watching the Food Network (The Great Food Truck Race anybody?).
[[image:allie766a.jpg:Yaya and Auntie Courtney:center:0]]
[[image:allie767a.jpg:Intently reading:center:0]]
Yaya discovered that she could move her table and crawl around under it:
[[image:allie768a.jpg:Duck!:center:0]]
[[image:allie769a.jpg:Coming through:center:0]]
Our merry mischief maker basically has a fun day running around the house. We decided we needed to have a nice relaxing weekend and so we didn’t organize any activities. Plus since it’s Ramadhan, we didn’t want to take on anything too crazy.
[[image:allie770a.jpg:Alphabet magnets:center:0]]
[[image:allie773a.jpg:Climbing on a box:center:0]]
[[image:allie775a.jpg:Watching TV:center:0]]
Here’s an example of a funky picture that the poor old camera might take:
[[image:allie771a.jpg:Groooooovyyyyy:center:0]]
What she was actually doing is playing with some new blocks from Auntie Aeisha:
[[image:allie772a.jpg:Narrating her playtime:center:0]]
A couple more “smile” grimaces from Yaya:
[[image:allie774a.jpg:Yaya and Mama:center:0]]
[[image:allie776a.jpg:Smiiiiiiiiiling looks painful:center:0]]
A few more pictures around the house:
[[image:allie777a.Action shot:aaa:center:0]]
[[image:allie778a.jpg:Upside dowwwwwn:center:0]]
[[image:allie779a.jpg:Pulling off her barrette:center:0]]
And then it was bath and bedtime for little girls and their exhausted parents. It’s been another fun and busy and fast-going-by month! Happy 25 month birthday baby! Love you so much! Thanks to everyone who has called, emailed, skyped, come by, thrown parties, given cards and gifts to Allie these past couple of months! Tune in next month for more adventures with Allie!
[[image:allie780a.jpg:See you next month, y’alls!:center:0]]
