The Big 02

Well, my baby turned two years old on the 18th. We didn't have any big celebration but we did have a picnic in the park and cupcakes and fun so I think that qualifies so that I am not a too neglectful mom.

She finally got her first haircut. I took a couple of inches off the bottom and "The Mullet" is now gone. Then this morning I took a couple inches off the comb-over that was on top. Now the whole thing looks much more even and very cute. And the tangles are seriously diminished. I have been trying to get a picture but she hasn't been real cooperative.

Summer. I can't believe how fast it is flying by. I had so many plans for fun things to do and so few of them have come into fruition. This depresses me. But I will try to relax and not make things worse by over-scheduling. Plus these last couple weekends have just gone by in the blink of an eye. I have quite a few errands that I keep meaning to get around to but...

Just a few days ago we finally caught on to how much signing Odessa was doing. Actually, Larry did when he recognized the sign for "more". Many many months ago I gave up even trying to remember to incorporate the signs into our daily lives. But she is learning it at school. Now I see that she is signing "all done" and "thank you". I should have realized the "all done" sign, now it is so obvious what she is doing when she says "Eye Dye!" (or "I die!" -- She is my baby and I am a bit of a pessimist but I am going with the former). I bet there are more but I need to take a refresher course in signing myself. She is also learning the signed alphabet at school and she will try to make the hand 'poses' but she does so really, really poorly. She is good at recognizing the ones that I make though, and will say the letter "A" etc. And I actually remember how to sign the alphabet from when I was a kid.

Last night Odessa was reading "The Giving Tree" to herself. I was reading my own book but had to stop and watch her. I am not totally clear on what her version of the book is about but I know that it contains a lot of hats. On almost every page, she would speak her little martian language and then say "hat" or "hair" and then touch the top of her head. There was also very clearly some content about apples (which are actually in the book).

Odessa now find nose-picking incredibly funny. I think it was because I reacted and said "ucky". For the next ten minutes, she would continuously stick her index finger inside of her nostril and stare at me, waiting for a reaction. I then spent ten minutes trying not to laugh. It didn't really work.

Just a few days ago Odessa had her two-year well-baby check-up with the pediatrician. All is good. And she is in the third percentile for weight! Yoo hoo at least she is on the curve. As with every visit, the doctor then asks me how she is eating. It is tough because I have never had another baby with which to compare. I told him that I feed her three meals and two snacks. She will eat a good portion of two of the meals and it is hiss and miss with the others. Lately she is also into choosing her own food and she will mostly choose yogurt, cheese, ovaltine, and berries. So now, not three days later, she is eating like a...what?...what eats a lot? Anyway, she will eat a whole carton of yogurt and then ask for "more". She used to just eat a third or so of it and then be done. So, go figure, maybe at our next visit she will have climbed all the way up to the fourth percentile :)