Two Years Old!

Our sweet little Cali Cat is 2 years old!

I don't know where the time has gone - it honestly feels like Cali grew up overnight.  One morning Jay and I looked at her and then each other and said, does she seem a lot older to you?  It's been a challenge, but also lots of fun.

For Cali's birthday we decided to keep it small - a dinner out, just the four of us.  With it being New Years Day and having no family nearby, added to all the travelling we've been doing lately (another post on that soon), we didn't think a party was wise.   So after waking up to balloons and presents, and spending the day hanging at home playing, off to Miller & Carter we went for a lovely meal.  We even brought party harts and our own cake to make it more festive.  Cali had a blast and loved blowing out her candle!

Balloons!

Party hats!

Blowing out her candles

She picked out the caterpillar cake and was very excited about it

She specifically requested to eat the face

Mmmm yummy!

One last present before bed.

Cali has really grown a lot in the past month or so.  Physically, she shot up nearly an inch since September (after basically not growing at all for months) and is now 33.5in tall and weighs just over 23lbs.

The most notable change over the past few months though has been her speech.  Cali's always done well getting her point across and has been able to say hundreds of words quite clearly for a while, but now she speaks in complete sentences.
     "Watch this, everybody!"
     "No, mumma, I do it."
     "No, Ceci, stop.  It's mine."
      "More please, Dada."
      "Ceci like sausages?  Dada like sausages too?"
      "A scarf mumma, I put it on.  You nice and warm?  There. All better."
      "Where's Ceci gone?"

It's been absolutely amazing to watch. And makes her seems so old - having proper little conversations with her and seeing her opinions and likes and dislikes.  And her temper - yikes.  She does NOT like not getting her way.  But we're working on it.  She's also really into counting now, and knows when there's 1 or 2 of something (but after that it goes crazy - "1...2...7...8...NINE!", she also really likes the number eleven for some reason).

She's started showing a lot of interest in potty training.  She always liked to sit on the potty but nothing ever came of it.   We've been using pullups since she's been so interested, though.  Then one evening she runs into kitchen saying "I did it Mumma! Come see!" and there was pee in the potty!  I was so surprised!  But it was a one time thing - she hasn't repeated it yet.  Then today she decided she didn't want to wear diapers and instead had undies on all day.  And peed in the them all day - it didn't even phase her, she'd just keep playing.  Ugh.  So we'll see.  I'm in no rush, but if she keeps insisting on no diapers we may have to go for it more seriously.

Pee pee on the potty!  She was so proud.

She naps once a day from about 1-3pm and sleeps at night from 7:30pm-7am.  She generally pretty good about bedtime and we finally seem to be coming out of her very clingy phase.  (Fingers crossed!)

She goes to school three mornings a week and loves it!  She's in the baby room still (0-2) but will transition to the 2 year old room next month.  She loves the babies in her classroom and all the fun activities they do - painting, cooking and messy play especially.  Drop offs are still tough and she cries most days (doesn't help that we've taken quite a bit of time off since starting back in September) but they say she calms down within minutes (somtimes seconds) and is completely happy the rest of the morning.

She loves to eat, pretty much everything, but her favorites are cheerios with milk, sausages, pancakes, hot dogs, chicken, pizza, french fries, all fruit, cucumbers, peppers, carrots, peas, anything chocolate, jelly beans, yogurt, shrimp, fish, pasta, meatballs, and ice cream.  But basically sausages above all else.

Dinner time

She is totally off bottles, and drinks milk from her Munchkin 360 and water from a straw cup.  She can also use a big girl cup with or without a straw really well.  She hasn't really used a paci since she was a baby and started refusing it though every now and then she'll request one at night, usually when she's teething.  It hasn't stuck though.  She does have a little blankie she sleeps with that we call her silkie.  And whenever she tired or nervous she twirls her hair.  She especially loves having a little pony tail to twirl.  It's adorable.

She's still a crazy climber.  For Christmas we gave her a climbing frame and it has not disappointed - she's on it constantly and every day she seems to learn something new on it.  Her upper body strength is impressive and so is her coordination.  We've enrolled her in a Tumble Tots class which she loves and it teaches her proper climbing technique.

She loves dressing up.  Especially as a superhero ("I'm Super Cali!  Zoom!") and Elsa ("Mama, I'm Princess Elsa!").  She also loves bags and hats.

Drawing as Princess Elsa.  The gloves were non-negotiable.

Just like her sister, Cali loves music and dancing.  She goes to ballet with Daddy every Saturday morning and has really started to fully participate in the class.  She loves to sing and has recently started to sing whole songs on her own - favorites include Old MacDonald, Itsy Bitsy Spider (or Incy Wincy as they sing here - she does both!), Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Row Row Row Your Boat, and Let it Go).

Cali really funny and she LOVES getting a laugh.  She'll repeat something over and over if it made us laugh (she walked into and bounced off a cloth wardrobe and after we all laughed she got up and kept pretending to bump into and fall over).  Out to dinner she got some pudding on her face which made us all laugh so she started rubbing it all over her face - we couldn't stop giggling so she just kept going!

She is obsessed with her sister.  They play so well together and it's so sweet to see.  Cali loves playing with Ceci and copies her all the time.  Though she can also hold her own and is very clear if she doesn't want to play or if Ceci isn't being kind.

"Helping" Ceci sweep the floor

So much love.

She loves babies, and often pushes her dolls around in her baby stroller or feeds them or rocks them.  It's very sweet.  She gets worried if she sees a baby crying (even just a picture) and has to point it out and ask if they're ok.  She's started to become very empathetic and if any of us say we're hurt or cry or say ouch/sneeze/cough she'll come over and say "Mumma allright?".  If Ceci gets upset she'll come over and say "Ceci allright" and rub her back.  Afterwards she'll excitedly say "Ceci all better?" .  Too sweet.

Giving her baby a kiss

Cali, you are so silly and add so much joy to our lives.  We love you to pieces and can't wait to see what this year holds!