On June 3rd our little Audrey turned two years old. It's still hard for me to believe she's been around that long (everyone has to say that, don't they?) It's really been the best two years of my life. Audrey is such a fun kid who challenges me, makes me laugh, and teaches me on a daily basis.
Her birthday celebrations (yes, plural) were not as extravagant as last year because 1) I got lazier and 2) we had THREE separate celebrations. Tony's sister was leaving for Europe, so we celebrated with his side of the family early, then we had a little friends' party, then one in Indiana. Like I said, none of them were extravagant but still fun and Audrey still asks me, "its my birthday again?"
I'm going to try to write as much about this portion of Audrey's life as I can think of. It seems like every stage becomes my favorite, but this one is just so much fun. She's turning into a little person and it's just so fun to watch!
GREATER COMMUNICATOR
Audrey's always been a good communicator and has always tried to tell us things. It's been nice to be at the phase where we can easily explain things to Audrey. She always likes to know everything about everything and exactly what is going on. This proved very helpful on our plane ride...more on that later. Our grocery store trips have become much more pleasant because I can tell her on the way over that she has to sit in the cart and if she's good she'll get a prize -- usually a few M&M's I bring from home.
She's also gotten really good at telling us what she's feeling. The other day she started throwing a tantrum and I asked her to use her words so I could help her. She came over to me, put her hands on my knee and said, "I'm very angry." It took all of my strength not to crack up, but I helped her through it and we totally avoided a tantrum because of her new-found communication skills.
I remember as a little girl playing Barbies with my sisters. It was a lot of "okay now you say this. Now Ken says this." We pretty much just told each other what to say. Sounds fun, right? I'm fairly certain most little girls do this. Audrey is starting to kind of get into that. Every time I go into her room after nap I usually say, "hi babe! Did you have a good nap?" If for some reason I don't Audrey will quickly remind me "Say 'Hi Babe! Good nap?"
THE PRINCESS SYNDROME
I like to consider myself a fairly progressive parent, keeping in mind that it's good to encourage Audrey to take interest in all sorts of things, not just things deemed "girly." We have a basketball hoop, firetrucks, helicopters, tea sets, dolls, castles, princess toys, etc. We encourage her to be herself and let her know that we think she's super great. (Not too much though. There's nothing worse than a toddler ego.)
HOWEVER...
This girl was born royalty. Or so she thinks. Out of nowhere she became engrossed with princesses. The only cartoon/Disney-type movie we owned was Cinderella and she immediately loved it. I'm not particularly "princessy" but Audrey has it down. She only wants to wear dresses and it takes a lot of bargaining to get her to wear her other clothes. When she wears her dresses she walks with her hands above her head and says "I'm a princess!" When she comes into a room she'll announce for everyone to take a bow and very politely curtsy for a good 5 minutes.
We jokingly call all of this "the princess syndrome" and think its great that Audrey seems so confident with all of it.
GROWING AND GROWING
Audrey had her 2 year check up this past week and her stats were pretty similar to her last check up.
90th % for height
60th % for weight
99th % for her big old head
FAVORITES
Food: blueberries
TV Show: Mickey Mouse Clubhouse
Movie: Cinderella
Clothing Item: ANY dress
Audrey is the light of our lives and we are so blessed and happy to be her parents!
