I don't even know where to start. I just love her so much. She is so much fun to be around. She lights up my world and is 90% of our entertainment around here. 2 1/2 is such a fun age!
Bullet point lists are helpful for me, so I'll just put whatever I can think of in a list so you can join in on the loving of my sweet Rosie Posie. (But also, you don't have to read this either because it will probably be long. It's mostly to help me remember her at this age.)
- Rose is so talkative. I love listening to her little voice as she learns new words and tries to use them. I think she is brilliant but she does mix up some of her words. Like sometimes I'll pretend to hand Lucy to her and ask her to hold Lucy. She'll give it a shot and then say "I can't. I'm too big!" She also likes to copy our words like when I'm cooking in the kitchen and say "Dang it!" she loves repeating that. Or the other night when she was not being a very good listener and at bedtime I gave her a big hug and said "You have been kind of crazy tonight, huh?" and she giggled and said "yeah, I'm a stinker!" One random word she knows is: "quatrefoil" (the clover shape, I just thought it was a clover, but it's a quatrefoil, and she knows that at 2). She is also very particular with some words like if I pick out pants for her to wear and it's jeans she'll say "those aren't pants! They're jeans!" or if I say "Let's get in the car" She'll say "Not the car! The van! Silly Mom!"
- Rose also has an amazing memory for names. She is always asking who different people are in books. She recently learned who John the Baptist is and can point him out in pictures of Jesus being baptized. She also recognizes Ghandi and George Washington if you show her pictures of them. She remembers people she meets and their names SO quickly, it blows my mind! Normally when we have play dates I'll introduce her to the kid that she's playing with, but later when we are talking about how much fun we had she will list the name of everyone that was there. Including the mom, dad, and other kids not her age. She knows everyone in our extended family and a bunch of our friends and her friends by name. She also knows my sister's roommate's name who she's met twice.
- Rose loves to "help me" cook and bake in the kitchen. Like any 2 year old, I suspect that she is mostly just there to try to eat as much of whatever it is I'm making before it is actually done. We make banana pancakes (mashed banana, 1/4 cup of oats, 1 egg, a small scoop of peanut butter, some cinnamon, and some chocolate chips) 1-2 times a week for breakfast and she likes to help mix the bananas and when I'm not looking she eats spoonfuls of the mashed banana and while my hands are busy she sticks her hand into the bag of chocolate chips and eats as many as she can fit in her hand. We try to practice counting by lining the chocolate chips up on the counter, but those numbers are tricky to remember in order and she just plops the chocolate chips into her mouth before I can stop her.
- She loves loves loves books and reading. We try to go to the library once a week to get us out of the house (so so so grateful that our library is still open.) And I could blame Rose on the fact that we have like 40 picture books checked out at any given time, but it's definitely half my fault. When she really likes a book she memorizes it too. So far she has memorized "My Heart" by Corinna Luyken and a potty training book that she found (I don't have it on hand, but it's not that interesting so you probably don't mind.) She loves the potty training one even though we are not planning on potty training anytime soon. It starts off "when I was a baby I drank lots of milk. glug, glug, glug, BURP! (she thinks that part is hilarious and quotes it all the time.) then it says "I peed and pooped in SO MANY DIAPERS. Yucky, stinky diapers!" and just goes on in that sort of fashion. It's riveting. And of course she loves it!
- Rose is getting to be very independent. We got her a stool (she calls it her "stoolf" we aren't going to correct her any time soon). She takes it into the bathroom to brush her teeth, wash her hands, and "put her contacts in" (dip her finger in my contact solution and put it all over her face like make up). If she can't reach something in the kitchen she goes and gets her stoolf and brings it to the kitchen. She can get her own silverware from the drawer, and she can reach stuff on the counter. When we go on walks she likes to walk by herself. If we ask her to hold our hands she either puts her hands in her coat pockets or tells us that she will hold her own hand. She's a pretty good helper. She throws her and Lucy's diapers away, puts dirty laundry in the laundry basket, puts her dirty dishes in the sink, and brushes her own teeth (with some supervision and extra help). She also turns the noise machine on and off for every one of Lucy's naps. And she picks her own outfits for the most part. She has colorful fashion taste.
- She loves singing. Her very favorite is "Into the Unknown" (I will try to remember to include a picture of her singing her favorite part below.) But she also loves "I am like a Star" from the Primary children's songbook, "I am a Child of God", and "Rockabye baby" (the nursery rhyme version and the pop song version.) Every afternoon when I put Lucy down for her nap, Rose starts to turn the noise machine on, then turns it off and demands that I "sing I am like a star!" and I'll start singing and she'll say "sing louder!" Then when she is satisfied, she turns the noise machine on, touches Lucy's back or hand and then we go into Rose's room.
- Rose loves her animals. She was obsessed with her stuffed horse for a long time, but it looks like horsie has been kicked to the curb and replaced with piggy who is often sad in the mornings and needs to be hugged. (I just do what I'm told, I don't ask questions.) Off the top of my head I can count at least 15 stuffed animals that reside in her crib. She knows who is who and knows if any are missing. In the morning she can always tell me if I forgot to grab a stray animal from the living room.
- She loves Lucy and being a big sister. She is always at Lucy's side if she starts crying to try to cheer her up (doesn't always work, haha two year olds aren't the most gentle.), she notices anytime Lucy loses her sock and lets me know that she needs her sock back on, she is always tucking Lucy's blanket over her feet so she can "get nice and warm", she likes to pick small pieces off of her food to share with Lucy, and like I said earlier, she likes to help me put Lucy down for her naps. Sometimes she sings the song to her, gives her a kiss, and then likes to touch her hand or back before we turn off the light and leave.
- Some of my favorite things that Rose does: She loves to cuddle with Ryan. He takes naps on Saturday and Sunday nights before going to work his night job and we normally go in at bedtime to wake him up. Rose always snuggles up close to him and tells us she is just going to sleep right there in our bed. She also always asks me to lay down too so I can "nap" with them. And she makes sure that I get some blanket on top of me so I can be "nice and warm." Another thing is that I love going on walks with her. I've always loved noticing tiny beautiful things like leaves and sunsets and rocks and stuff. But she opens my eyes up to even smaller things like a ladybug, and a leave that just has really cool colors. Stuff that I'm used to seeing so I can't see how beautiful it is anymore. She is always finding little leaves and holding them close and saying "This is leaf is SO special!" I love the way she calls her hair clips: "cwippers." I love that every once in a while she says "Mommy, I just love you SO much!" She also likes to "comb" my hair before she goes to bed every night, which is just her grabbing my hair and pretending to comb it with her fingers. But she puts it just so when she's done and tells me that I love so pretty, just like a princess. Even on days when I definitely don't feel like a princess.
Experiencing the world through her eyes is magical and beautiful and so much fun. I think I mentioned this at the beginning of my post but Rose just brings so much joy and life into my life. Watching her grow and figure things out is an incredible experience. I just love everything about this little being and I'm so grateful to be her mom. <3
I hope you will enjoy some of these pictures of her. I try so hard to capture her personality and who she is with my camera and I think you will find a wide array of that below.
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