Life as a 2-year-old

Life is (mostly) so much fun with two great little girls in our house - especially with our sweet two-year-old Jillian! Here are some of our favorite parts of Jillian!

1) All bugs (for the most part) are butterflies (pronounced "whu-why") However, you can tell if she is referencing an actual butterfly/picture of a butterfly versus an ant, spider, beetle, etc by the inflection in her voice. The latter has an incredibly cute, but pouty or whiny tone. The other sweet thing is that any time she is hurt she tells us "whu-why got me!" (with the whiny tone, of course!) We heard this lots and lots in the hospital with all the little sticks on her. Not even sure how she knows that much about bug bites, but she does!

2) This girl loves pancakes. "Cake-cake!" is often the first phrase we hear in the morning.

3) Jillian can almost always be found with a book - she loves the Pinkalicious books (which she calls "cake cake" books - for the cupcakes, not pancakes, of course!), Elmo books, and ones with animals. She even makes sure she has them in her bed to read as she is going to sleep.

4) Jillian is super into colors. She loves to shout out color names on everything we see. Sometimes she mixes them up, but she is a pro at pink, orange, and yellow, especially.

5) She also likes to tell knock-knock jokes...They go a little something like this....J: "knaw knaw. who der." Me/daddy: "yes, who's there Jillian" J: "popo (hippo). hehehehehe" Or sometimes it is an endless cycle of just the first line.

6) Her other favorite past-time is singing songs like "Twinkle Twinkle", which she calls "How Wonder Are", and playing little games like "This little piggy" which, to her, is "wee wee wee, home"

7) Even when she is being moody, she is still polite, telling you "No, thank you"

8) Other random loves: picking out fun plates at meal times, opening the microwave when her food is done, brushing teeth, riding in Daddy's car with the sunroof and windows open

9) One of her favorite phrases, which comes in two forms is: "one more time" and "last time", includes her sticking up one finger and crouching down. But neither of these actually means that she thinks that she is doing the referenced activity only one last time.

10) Bathtime (especially post-bath) is probably her favorite time of day. The best parts start when she gets to pick her hooded towel. Then she loves to put the towel on my head and tackle me with her sister - over and over! Then it is time for her to run off naked through the house squealing....then running back to me to tell me "last time" (see #9)

11) She has skipped easy skills like learning to count in the usual order and has gone straight to counting by two's. So everything that she counts is "two, four, six..."

12) Angry Jillian is probably the hardest thing for me to keep a straight face at. Ever. When she gets really mad (usually because I have told her not to do something or gotten onto her) she gets this wide-mouthed face and freezes completely, then she just stares. So sometimes this happens with her arms straight out or up. Neal even said he took her to time-out one time and he carried her to time out with her arms straight in front of her and she kept that position the whole time in time out.

13) Jillian has a big heart for babies and baby dolls. She is always so excited when she sees babies out and ooohs and ahhhs over them.

14) Jillian loves character PJs, which meant that I recently went on a shopping trip to buy up a few more to make bedtime a bit easier (and cleaner - because don't doubt that I didn't put some on her that were probably due for a wash back on her when it came to that).

15) We still have a girl that loves her paci and her Ruffles. Not sure how we are ever going to get her to part with her paci (or her "ba-ba" as she calls it). I start to think about it, then I just decide I will worry about it....tomorrow.

16) Like most little ones, she loves animals, but she has a funny mix of calling them by name (with "key"=kitty, "po-po" = hippo, "raffe"= giraffe, "ishie" = fish, "mou" = mouse, etc) and by their noise ("woof" = dog, "roar" - lion, etc) or even by a characteristic ("hop, hop" = kangaroo)

17) I love how she adores her "sissy" and how her sissy adores her. They have lots of fun together and watch out for each other.

18) This girl knows what she likes. And of course, what she doesn't. It makes things clear cut, but sometimes isn't so great. For instance, with shoes. There is one kind that she will wear. That is all. Sadly, we bought the last pair in her size before they discontinue them and they are now falling apart. Hoping this is a phase that she will grow out of, preferably tomorrow?

19) Everytime we pass the park next to our house, she has to wave and say "Hi, swings. Hi, slide!"

20) She is super cuddly, which I love. When you pull her out of bed, her first motion is to lay her head on your shoulder. She loves to be rocked before bed. She loves to "chochu" (hold you) at any point....she would actually prefer me to carry her around pretty much anywhere we go.

Love you, sweet Beans. You are the perfect Jillian and the perfect addition to our family. I can't imagine our life without you in it....you truly make every day fun and exciting. I am blessed beyond words that God chose to give you to me!