Look Who Turned Two!

Without a doubt, the past two years have been the best of my life because of our sweet, amazing Margo. As we celebrate her second year, I must admit it is a little bitter and a lot sweet. Margo is blossoming into such a bright and happy, wonderful toddler, but she is also slowly relinquishing her babyish ways. I love that she has recently loved to rock with me again and wish I could hold onto those precious, quiet moments forever. I love that she runs into my arms at the sight of me with such enthusiasm and I wish it could stay this way forever. At the same time, she also wants to run away from us at times, exhibits her independence and is slowly learning to trust herself. I know this instinct will continue to become stronger and while I am glad she is growing emotionally as she should, I wish she could be my baby forever.

As Margo goes into her second year, she continues to grow verbally and physically. Her shoe size did not increase for almost a year and just shot up over two sizes! I actually bought three pairs of new shoes that were too small! She is also counting to 11, which I find amazing. One day we were playing and I counted to two or three and she finished the string of numbers. I could not believe my ears! She truly is like a sponge and repeats EVERYTHING we say! We have to start really being careful. Her GiGi caught her saying “shoot”. She has copied me saying “dogawnit” and says funny things like “oh my goodness”—a new favorite phrase! Basically, we are at the point of if we can say it, she can say it. She now fully speaks in small sentences and rarely gives one word responses. She knows how to ask for exactly what she wants and knows how to throw a fit when she doesn’t get it if she’s in the right mood for a tantrum. She asks for either peanut butter or a cheeseburger and fries at almost every meal. She begs to play outside, go to the park, go to the grocery store and whatever she has in mind for the moment. Many times though, she is perfectly content playing in her favorite place—her room, where we play music, dance and read books!



Our girl is also very musical. She can recognize the piano playing in a song and knows the words to several songs like London Bridges, Twinkle Little Star, This Old Man, C is for Cookie, Elmo’s World and If You’re Happy and You Know it! We will definitely be putting her in piano lessons when she gets older, which is also supposed to help with math skills. As our offspring, she needs all the help she can get in that area! This video is long, but the best dancing video ever captured with her new birthday piano!



She loves to be outside more than anything and I am so welcoming this cooling weather, so we can have lots of outdoor activities! She cannot stand to be messy, doesn’t like food or dirt on her hands, hates the sand and already seems afraid of bugs! I have been forcing her to play outside without shoes, so she can get used to being a little dirty and I refuse to wipe her hands until she is finished eating even though she complains about the mess.

And so far, while I can definitely say she is challenging at times, I would not yet call this the “terrible” twos and hope that it never really gets that hard. Don’t get me wrong, Margo knows how to throw a fit and is actually quite hard to discipline. She thinks us yelling or being firm with her is a complete and total riot and laughs hysterically when she goes to time out. Sometime, we have to put her back in time out, Super-Nanny style, upwards of 20 times until she actually gets it. Even then, she rarely cries and will finally sit there for the required two minutes. The thing is, there are many days she doesn’t go to time out at all and then some days where she may go to time out five times. I think it depends on her sleep almost entirely. Our challenges that we are using discipline for right now are sitting still during diaper changes, dumping her food or throwing it on the floor and hanging/crashing into the blinds. Otherwise, she is our usual delight most of the time. She may whine for something or even cry her eyes out if she doesn’t get what she wants when she wants it, but my typical method is to ignore it or distract her until she gets over it.

Her Two Year Stats are:
Weight: 25 lbs & 45%
Height: 34" & 56%
Head: 31%

I could go on and on boring you with the details of Margo’s exciting two-year old life! She is a true ray of sunshine, has so much personality and does the funniest things everyday! She brings me more joy than I could ever put into words and I celebrate her precious little life with the fullest heart a mama could ever have!