Kate: 23 Months

Kate: 23 Months

 

Kate continues her love for accessories and is beginning to take it to a whole other level of creativity. Note the bottles of bubbles in her pockets? That was all her. She also wears sunglasses around her waist like a belt, and insists that I string her Snug Bug toys together in a circle so she can wear them as a necklace. Bugs as a necklace? Lady GaGa wishes she thought of that one!

Kate is starting to say some pretty cute things for an almost 2 year-old. “Oh my goodness!” is a favorite of mine that she’ll use when she’s excited or surprised. G also taught her to hold two fingers up and say, “Peace” which is super cute. But my favorite thing to hear from her this month is, “Markets are up!” She learned this one from Grandma Pam who turns on the TV to check the stock market when she’s here watching Kate on Tuesdays. She tells Kate, “Grandma’s got to check the markets” and will then tell Kate if the stock market is up or down. Kate has since decided that the markets are always up and will go around exclaiming, “Markets are up!” followed by squeals and cheers. She had us in stitches when she busted this out out of the blue after her daycare Christmas pageant. We were so proud of her and were clapping and cheering and saying, “Yay Kate! Great job!” and she got all excited and joined in the cheering saying, “Yay Kate! Great job! MARKETS ARE UP!”

Yeah, you heard me right—I did say “her daycare Christmas pageant.” I’m still playing catch-up with Kate’s monthly posts, and her 23 month post brings us to Christmastime. I already wrote about how much Kate loved our Christmas tree, and the magic continued on Christmas day. Kate savored opening her gifts—making sure to get every piece of wrapping paper off—and thoughtfully admired each and every one. I loved that she did not instantly toss each opened gift aside, looking for her next present.

We are beginning to teach Kate the concept of “privacy” this month. We always know when she’s pooping in her diaper because she will run behind the loveseat and stand where we can’t see her. If we come to check on her she will say, “No! Go to the kitchen, please.” which is a spot where she knows we can’t see her when she’s behind the loveseat. I respond to her by saying, “Oh, would you like Mommy to leave you alone? Do you need some privacy?” She’s starting to catch on and will now ask for “Privacy, please.” when she needs to do her business.

We continue to sit Kate on the potty, usually at least once a day, but we haven’t had much luck with potty training yet. We don’t want to push her though, and we’re really just trying to put her on there to keep her used to sitting on the potty and not being scared of it. She loves sitting on the potty and sucking on a lollipop, while we read a book to her. I have to admit, I’m kicking myself for starting the whole “potty pop” lollipop thing. I originally did it to coax her back onto the potty and now she’s a total player about it. She asks to sit on the potty all the time just so she can get a lollipop. I put the brakes on it this month by implementing a new rule: only one lollipop per day. (And you have to know IT KILLS ME that she even has one that often! I take a little bit of comfort in knowing they’re all-natural, but still—sweets are sweets. Ugh.) This led to some pretty major tantrums at first, but when Mama makes a rule she doesn’t break it. Kate knows this, and knows her tantrums negotiations are useless with me.

Enter the beginning of parental manipulation.

Kate stunned both me and G one day when she said she needed to sit on the potty, asked for a lollipop, and I responded, “No. You already had a lollipop today. You only get one lollipop each day, remember?”

She politely responded, “Mommy go in the kitchen?”

I mentioned earlier that this is her common request when she needs to poop (plus she asked so nicely) so I obligingly stepped the necessary 3 feet away from her to be standing in the kitchen.

She then turned to G, smiled adorably, and said, “Lollipop, please?”

TOTAL PLAYER!

Here’s what I don’t get about Kate not jumping at the chance to be potty trained—she HATES getting her diaper changed! I mean, come on! She’s a pretty smart kid; you think she’d put two and two together. Nearly EVERY DIAPER CHANGE IS A STRUGGLE. She is the sweetest little girl all day long but mention “diaper change” and she’ll cut a bitch.

G and I are constantly thinking of tactics to make diaper changes less of a battle and this one is our current success: We give her a book and ask her to find or count something in it. “Can you find a fish in this book?” “Can you count the airplanes on this page?” She loves being challenged, so this is right up her alley, and luckily it distracts her long enough to get her changed without having to call the cops.

Once her tush is nice and dry she’s back to being a total sweetie, and right now that includes wanting to hold hands everywhere she goes. Everywhere. Just before walking from Point A to Point B she’ll pause, reach out, and ask, “Hold my hand?” Personally, I love it. I will happily hold on to that little hand every single day for as long as she’ll let me.

She is also so into jumping! She loves to jump in her crib, on the ottoman, and on her foam Elmo puzzle while holding mine and G’s hands and jumping together “as a family.”

“As a family” is another one of her latest favorite sayings. She loves it when the three of us to do things together like jumping, walking up the stairs, sitting on the floor, going outside—anything!—“as a family.”

Last but not least, Kate has all of the basic colors down: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, black, white, gray, brown, and pink. It’s one of the many things she’s likely learned during diaper changes (in between trying to shank us).

Kate’s 23 Month Videos
While hanging out with Daddy down in the basement, Kate found a socket wrench, decided it was a “doctor’s tool,” and proceeded to check G’s ears with it.  This is now one of her favorite things to do:

 

Kate’s had her “ABCDs” mastered ever since she was 20 months old, but this month was the first time she finally let me record her singing them on camera!

 

And here is a video of her singing The Itsy Bitsy Spider (in between hiccuping!):

 

If you’re interested in her little medley of the two songs, you can check out this video as well. She also does a few of the Itsy Bitsy Spider hand gestures…when she’s not too distracted with playing with the Christmas ornaments and watching the football game on TV.

Kate has a new dance this month where she almost looks like she’s dancing in slow motion.  The clip below was recorded about a week before her 2nd birthday party when balloons were just beginning to overtake our house!

Additional Kate 23 Months Posts:
The Magic of Christmas
Things Loved in December
My Love Language