2 1/2 years

Our Lucipea is 2 1/2 years old today! I couldn't decide if I wanted to make a big deal about her half birthday or not, but in the end we decided not. She's had quite her fill of cookies, donuts, cakes & brownies lately, so best to keep the sugar away!

Notes at 2 1/2 years...

-the girl has THE.MOST.AMAZING.MEMORY. Seriously - she memorizes library books (and I mean LONG books) after a few nights. Sing a song to her just a few times and you can count on her repeating it 10x a day from then on. (ABC song, itsy bitsy spider, twinkle twinkle little star, lullaby & goodnight, rock a bye baby, jingle bells, away in a manger...just to name a few). She regularly quotes movies, books & shows totally out of the blue. When we have visitors she remembers where they sat at the dinner table (she still remembers where her friend Noelle Determan sat almost a year ago and where Myrtle the Great sat last summer).

-She has good manners, for the most part. She certainly understands the expectation, and if she doesn't use her 'nice words' you can bet it was a choice and not just something forgotten.

-She love, love, loves her FP Little People...better known as little friends by her. She has 2 houses, a Tree House & a school bus, and she plays with them about 1/2 the day I'd say. They go to bed when she does, and get up most mornings shortly after she does.

-After some encouragement from her Grandmas, she now mixes in her ponchos (horses), her Nativity scene Mary, Joseph & baby Jesus, and Cinderella with the little friends. Didn't occur to her crazy mama to mix different types of figurines for even more fun...mama wanted to keep them all separate...cause mama is anal like that.

-She loves her some Grandpa bread. Grandpa Pierse makes the BEST bread in perfect little Luci size loaves.

-She is GREAT at pretend play. For example she just delivered me some Grandpa toast on top of a Laughing Cow Cheese package cover (serves as the plate) and warned me it was too hot to eat. I originally asked her for some tea, to which she replied, "No tea today. No, not today."

-She likes TV well enough, but wants to 'turn the TV off' more than she wants it on. She prefers the one on one attention & engagement she gets when the TV off. Which is great...but I'll be honest, sometimes I wish it was a better babysitter. Or maybe that I had a better babysitter...that is really what I wish for! If I could only get those Grandmas to move to Texas...

-She can take her PJs off by herself if she really wants to, but usually doesn't. She cannot get dressed on her own yet...but it isn't really something we've worked on.

-She does put her own shoes on, and 99.9% of the time the shoes are on the correct feet.

-She still hasn't successfully done anything on her own without Mom or Dad...except going to Miss Amanda's house or Miss Trina's house. We tried a 30 minute ballet class a few weeks ago...she was so excited, literally for DAYS...and then after 5 minutes in the classroom the instructor brought her out sobbing. She wants to go back though, so we'll try again this week. She loves her ballet shoes, her tutu from Miss Amanda, and the class is full of her little friends...so I'm hopeful she'll get the hang of it. Oh, and the promise of the instructor delivered lollipop at the end of class also seems to be a motivating factor. "I go to ballet class. I go with Miss Nikki. No, no Margeaux, not today (her friend Margeaux wasn't there the week she went). I get a lollipop; maybe a purple lollipop!"

-Funny phrases..."I hurt my this one" (pointing to whatever body part ails her), "What is this one all about" (when she sees something new), "I want my this one" (pointing to what she wants), "Over dere" (over there), "That's funny" or "That's a funny one", "I put this one on".

-She refers to her little brother as "GUUUUUUUUUSS", and says he is "SSOOOOO Little" or "SOOOOO teeeeeny"

-She gets obsessed with one book/movie at a time. The Cat in the Hat obsession has been replaced by a new love for The Lorax. We go from one Dr. Seuss story to another it seems.

-She received several instruments for Christmas and LOVES all of them. We often have family band time. She plays the piano and assigns us each another one of her many instruments. Then we all play together to the demo music on her piano until she hits the stop button and says "freeze" or "stop", then we all stop until she hits play. She love, love, loves family band time.

-She's wearing size 5 diapers. She's interested in big girl panties (today we even put them on over her diaper), but her mama is not so interested in training her right now....maybe when Gus is sleeping through the night...

-I often ask her the same set of questions after each activity...to the point where now if I don't ask, she'll prompt me to ask her. For example after Dad takes her to the park, if I don't ask, she'll say, "Any friends there today? No, not today. No friends today." Or in the morning she'll say, "What I dream about? I dream about DADDY!!!"

-She may or may not be done with her afternoon naps. I can't tell if she hasn't napped well for 2 months because of all the new baby / visiting family hubub, or if she really doesn't need the sleep, or maybe some combination of the two.

-She definitely knows she has 2 sets of grandparents, and she thinks that is pretty cool.

-She knows her full name (Lucia Rosonke Pierse) and that she lives in The Woodlands, TX.

I know there are many more things I would like to document, but given it is Thursday & I started this on Monday, I'm just going to post!

Most of all, I hope that if/when my Luci reads this someday she can somehow comprehend the joy she brings to our lives. I love you my pea.