31 Months
It's a miracle! Only a few days after the girl's 31 month birthday, this entry is being written? What's gotten into me? 
Anyways, this past Tuesday the 22nd, Yaya turned 31 months old. Here she is:
Another fast-paced month has passed by. We did our first 2011 New Jersey work trip in February, and had a lot of fun. Yaya was chanting "Yaya goes to hotel!" all the way in the car. Needless to say, it was a long 11-hour drive. Poor thing. We kept telling her, yes, we're going to the hotel but it's still a long way away. Her enthusiasm was unflagging, "Yaya goes inside hotel!!!!" and variations of this statement occurred. This was also the first road trip where she seemed to really take a huge interest in her surroundings - "Mama, look at all the trees!", "Mama, look at all the buildings!", "Yaya sees birds", "Ni Hao Mr Sun", etc. She was looking around, noting everything, and really telling us what she's seeing and what she thinks about them. And once we got to the hotel, she went around chatting away to all her favorite people, and even introduced herself to perfect strangers. It's really amazing to see her come this far.
She is now also singing along with music in the car - her naptime songs (from the Shrek soundtrack - Bad Reputation, You Belong to Me, and Hallelujah), and her new craze, the Beatles. She's really taken to my Beatles 1 album (all the number 1 songs in one compilation) and she really sings along to songs like She Loves You, I Want To Hold Your Hand, Yellow Submarine, and Hello Goodbye. It's really quite hilarious to hear her singing "Daaaaaaaay tripper" in perfect time. I mean seriously, a two and a half year old singing along to Day Tripper? It really did make me laugh. She also sings the A-B-C song well (both the regular version and the version Alpha Pig sings on Super Why), Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and the Itsy Bitsy Spider. With words! We know she sang before, but now she's figuring out the words to songs which is more than I can do on my best day. We are also listening to music at dinner time at home - Vin and I take turns choosing the music so she's being exposed to all kinds of things, from Bob Dylan to Franz Ferdinand, and Bach to Andrew Lloyd Webber. She loves to dance to the Indigo Girls, and actually bops along to Chopin's Ballades while we eat (saying "Mama plays piano!" which of course my rendition of the Ballades would be more accurately described as "slaughtering" of them).
Bedtime book has been Green Eggs and Ham by Dr Seuss. She gets very excited when we get to the denouement - "Say, I like green eggs and ham!" she will sometimes recite it along with us. She points out that the character is "mad" in the beginning and "happy" at the end. Yaya has been very interested in emotions lately. She will ask Vin and me to cry, and she will comfort us and pat our faces gently, which is very very cute. And she likes to tell us "Yaya happy!" if she's happy. Some nights she just keeps jabbering on and won't fall asleep for quite a while, telling me about what happened during the day, or what happened on the Wonder Pets, and such. Oh funny thing happened, we had candy the day before Valentine's Day - Lindor Truffles. Which she loved to play with! She counted them, transported them from here to there and there to here, carried them in her hands, divided it up between Vin and me. Anyway, she handled them so much that after a couple of hours, one individually wrapped truffle actually exploded in her hand. Caramel and chocolate went everywhere! On her shirt, her hands, her sock, her face, the carpet. She was quite horrified. Now she still tells us the story of the exploding chocolate. Boom! But of course, she refused to taste that good stuff she had all over herself. Oh well.
Her memory is quite long, too. Just the other day she recounted the birthday party that Aunt Joan, Kathy, Biz and the rest of the Maryland family organized for her - including describing her swimsuit, the tiara, playing in the water, and the presents she got (Miss Toot-toot, Miss Toot-toot's boat, etc.). It impressed me, to be honest. Because I know I for one have no memory of my second birthday.
OK, I guess now it is time to show you how she spent her 31-month birthday. Sadly, both Vin and I completely forgot to take pictures until mid-afternoon. We remembered the night before and reminded each other about it before bed. But on the day itself, nada. Until her afternoon nap.
She was quite active after her nap.
The sweater was knitted by Yaya's Opah!
See Yaya's dinosaur slippers?
Note that she has now added not only the red ribbon in her hair, but her bead necklace as well. The hair plus the purple sweater and the dinosaur slippers - can we say that her fashion sense is eccentric?
And then it was time for dinner. Sadly, still eating only the same stuff as last month, a very depressingly short list. Although she did request and eat mangos once.
Doesn't the above remind you of the Planter's Mr Peanut guy? He is even wearing a hat! My only contribution was to fix the logo on his torso to be an "R" (Yaya tried and it looked funny). For some very odd reason, all of the drawings we make, if anyone is wearing a shirt, it will have an "R" on it. Why? You have to ask Yaya about that. We have, and we don't get any answers. If you do, clue us in, OK?
OK almost time for bed. Instead of showing her in her jammies in the morning, you get to see her jammies right before she goes to bed tonight. Strangely, there are coffee cups, tea, and other pastries on this one. All things she is either not allowed to have, or dislikes. No toast to be seen.
And then it was bedtime for little girls. And not long after, bedtime for her exhausted parents. Thanks for another wonderful and exciting month, and for all the laughter and joy you bring to our lives, little girl. Happy birthday, baby! Love you lots! And see the rest of y'alls next month!
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