Here's what Ceci's been up to in the last few months...
Loving school! She runs all the way from the car to her classroom in the morning and is in a great mood when I pick her up in the afternoon.
Starting to recognize and talk about her feelings. She'll ask for things to "make Ceci feel better" - sometimes a snack, or to listen to a favorite song, take medicine for her teeth, etc. The first time she said "I'm frustrated!" in the back of the car when she couldn't get her strap off I almost drove off the road. Now if I'm getting visibly irritated she'll ask, "Mumma, are you getting frustrated?" It's too cute. She also understands when she's excited, mad, and upset. She has such big and often overwhelming feelings, I think being able to name them helps her to feel a bit more in control.
She can't always name and control those big feelings, though, and she's definitely hit the tantrum phase. She's been known to push if another kid (or parent, or Cali) gets in her way or near a precious toy, throw or hit when she's angry, and assume the tantrum position (flat out on her stomach) and scream/cry when she doesn't get her way. But overall, so far at least, they're relatively few and far between. She goes through phases - a couple weeks here and there - when it feels like we're in tantrumville and that we'll never leave - and then suddenly she won't have one for days.
Speaking in complete sentences and picking up new, complicated phrases left and right. ("No, dadda, not that one. The blue one, over there, on the shelf!") She also remembers things unbelievably well. She really only needs to hear something once and she's got it. We really have to be careful what we say around here! She's also super polite, which I really hope continues - it's more often than not "yes, please, mumma!", "thank you very much dadda", "excuse me Cali", etc. It's so, so sweet, and most of the time completely unprompted.
Took her first trip to the dentist (since a quick hello visit when she was only 6-ish months). She did great! She had seen a Peppa Pig episode about going to the dentist and was really excited by it so we thought we'd ride that wave and it turned out to be a great idea - she did great! And she got a great report from the dentist.
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| Big girl at the dentist! |
Interested in potty training, but not really there yet. We've had a few false starts where she'll go on the potty, seemingly by accident, but then not do it again for weeks. Just recently though she's gotten some "big girl undies" that she adores so she practices wearing them around the house. She loves pulling them down on her own and sitting on her potty but then getting up and peeing in them. We're not rushing it or pushing it, so we'll see how it goes.
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| Big Girl Undies! |
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| Using the tablet to encourage longer potty time...and she still ends up peeing on the floor. |
Jumping on two feet, running relatively coordinately (she is my child after all), doing forward rolls and log rolls, climbing onto and jumping off of whatever she can, doing the big slide at the playground "all my by self", doing the stairs alone, and pretty much being as active as she possibly can.
Had her two year review with the health visit and scored well above age level in every category. For most categories, including communication, she got a perfect score! The only things on the check list she hasn't yet mastered is getting herself dressed (something we never really give her the opportunity to do, so we're trying to remember to) and taking stairs one foot at a time (rather than two feet on each step). We're so proud of how much she's grown!
Is a big fan of drawing and painting. Drawing smiley faces (or at least her version of them) is definitely her favorite.
Still obsessed with water in all forms. We stopped swimming lessons because they were really expensive and she wasn't terribly interested (she would only do about 1/3-1/2 of the class and cry/complain the rest of the time). So instead, Jay takes her for a fun swim together at the local leisure centre while Cali and I have our lessons at a different pool. Ceci has thrived! I think she just wanted to do her own thing in her own time. She's now started using floaties (water wings) and is so confident in the water. She swims on her own with them, even in deep water, goes under water, and jumps off the side to Jay and all by herself. It's been amazing to watch her grow in ability and confidence! She also still loves water play of any kind and bath time too - and has started laying back and dipping her head in the water.
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| Laying in the bath |
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| Water play in the yard |
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| Paddling pool time |
Eating really well. No wonder, with all the energy she burns through every day. She's very independent so she of course will occasionally refuse to eat certain things or to stay at the table, but for the most part she's a great little eater. And a habit she picked up from school that we're really happy with is saying "maybe I like it..." then trying a bite of something and saying "I do like it!". They prepare a cooked lunch for the kids at school and really encourage them all to at least try everything. It's been great seeing it working for Ceci! She also loves cooking, and we try to include her as much as possible! Favorites includes peanut butter and jelly, cheese, bread and butter, all fruit, smoothies, yogurt, cereal, all pasta (especially tortellini and mac n cheese), sausage, fish fingers, all condiments, ice cream, ice lollies, corn on the cob, hot dogs, grilled cheese, popcorn and chocolate!
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| Making cookies |
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| Sausage sandwich at the foodies market - yum! |
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| Making pizza! |
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| "Mumma, I get some corn." |
In love with Frozen. And Bing, Mickey and Minnie, Elmo. And the movie Inside Out. Other shows she enjoys are Teletubbies, Peppa Pig, Sesame Street, Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, Go Jetters, Doc McStuffins, Twirlywoos, Salty Dog, I Can Cook, Swashbucklers, and pretty much anything on CBeebies. She's been watching a bit more TV now that Cali is around because otherwise putting Cali down for naps is next to impossible. She learns a ton, so I'm OK with it for now. (We also use TV shows with great messages - like Bing, Peppa, and Daniel Tiger to help us in sticky situations. Like going to the dentist. Bing also helped with "don't need a lot, just a little bit will do" as well as helping her overcome her fear of the vacuum. Daniel Tiger's little song "grown-ups come up" is a huge help whenever she gets nervous about Jay going to work.)
Is slowly weaning back off the paci. We are thankfully back to only using her pacis in her bed. No more on the couch, or in the car (unless it's nap time and we're hoping she'll sleep), or in the stroller. They got tough with her on it at school so we decided to continue the trend at home. It was a rough couple days of her crying for it ("I need my paci!") to which we'd offer her taking a break in her bed. She only took us up on it a few times and each time for only a minute or two. She hardly ever asks now, even when she gets hurt - instead boo boo ducky or boo boo princess (her two freezer packs) do the trick along with kisses of course. We're not ready to tackle taking the paci away from sleeping yet. Though they've started affecting her bite a bit the dentist just said to limit her time with them as much as possible, but wasn't concerned about getting rid of them all together in a hurry. So we'll just see how we go.
Become very attached to her Teddy - the one in all the monthly first year pictures with both her and Cali. It's adorable. Just the other day as she gave him a squeeze she said "I love my Teddy". Too cute. He sleeps with her for every nap and bedtime. And sometimes comes along on adventures with her too. We're hoping this will continue and will help make the eventual giving up of her paci a bit easier.
Sleeping great (knock on wood!). Who would have thought our little high maintenance sleeper would turn out to be such a great, easy sleeper. I can count on one hand the number of times she's woken up at night since we moved here in February. And a couple of those were from jet lag. She loves routine and is generally in bed from 7pm-7am (though it's often 8pm before she's actually asleep) and then naps from about 1-3pm (give or take a bit on either side). The most amazing part though, is that we go in her room follow our little routine (put on her sleep sack, say good night to mr sun on her clock, turn on her white noise, and shut the curtains) put her in her crib, say night night and walk out the door. The end. No crying. No stress. She just sings and plays until she falls asleep (with Teddy and 6 pacis, lol). I can't believe we actually made it here. I dread switching to big girl bed and getting rid of the paci because everything works so well right now. We're hoping to wait until Cali is consistently sleeping through to tackle it - divide and conquer!
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| Passed. Out. |
Is newly into pretend play. She loves her frozen tea set and pretending with her Teddy and baby dolls. She also loves, loves, loves her play house in the yard with its pretend kitchen. She's often out there making ice cream or chocolate soup or tea for us. Or washing her hands or the dishes. Then she'll get in her play car and tell us she's leaving - "Bye! I'm going to the store. I be right back!" - or sometimes it's school or the doctor or Nan's house. Her little imagination is really getting a work out these days.
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| Giving bear his lunch |
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| "Mumma, I see something!" |
Loves "playing games" - a phrase I think she picked up at school - which mostly just means playing catch. But she's also gotten into her magnetic fishing game and a few other game-like toys we've recently bought.
Is SO silly. She loves making us laugh and if something worked once, she'll randomly try it again days or weeks later. (One of her best bits is saying something crazy in a really high voice - like asking for french fries at breakfast or for her paci during dinner. Hilarious. And she laughs just as hard as we do.)
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| "Mumma, I'm hiding" |
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| "Look! I'm in a box!" |
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| Making "silly faces" |
Still in love with all things music and dance. Music class is still the highlight of the week and now that's it's on break for the summer we've been trying out substitutes. She also now asks for her nursery rhymes CD in the car ("Wheels on the Bus" is a firm favorite), and she often requests to put on song shows on TV so she can dance. She loves playing her keyboard and her mini music player.
Has gotten really into dress up. She also loves putting on skirts and dresses and saying "I'm a princess". She then immediately asks for music so she can dance.
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| Mumma, we're pirates! Let's take a picture! |
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| Going to work like Dadda |
Ceci had tons of fun over the past few months. Here's a few highlights:
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| Riding a fire truck at Family Day |
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| Fireman Ceci! |
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| Riding the teacups like a big girl! |
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| Feeding the duckies (and swans!) at the local lido |
These past few months have been so much fun. Challenging at times, for sure, but watching Ceci grown into such a sweet, smart, funny, confident little girl is an absolute joy. We love her so much!
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