Catherine update

I've been begging myself to catch up with the Catherine update for weeks! So here's what she's been up to:

We had her 2-year doctor's checkup. (it was a month ago, but I'm catching up) Stats: Height 35.25 inches; weight 31.5 (80th and 90th percentiles, respectively) Perfectly healthy, besides her persistent dry skin. Sorry sweetheart, you get that from me. The doctor was super, super impressed by her. She complemented her language skills, vocabulary, problem solving, behavior - the whole package And on the development checklist (activities and skills that she can or can't do), she was at the 3-4 years level. I still haven't come down from that boost of pride!

She really is an amazing conversationalist for a 2 year old. She surprises me more and more each day. She's talking mostly in sentences now. Her vocabulary is huge, but I'm noticing how much more she's throwing in the "in between" words like 'and', 'that', 'it'. She's been experimenting with pronouns and past tenses, too. I feel like half of the time I'm with her I'm just staring at her with my jaw to the ground.

Today I realized how much she's grasping the flow of stories. She was walking around with one of her little books that is "humpty dumpty". And with each page, she wanted to tell me what the picture was. "He falling" was the picture of him just falling off the wall. "He fall down" was the picture of him at the bottom of the wall. "He crying" was the next page (when I asked why he was crying, she said "he has owie"). "He all better" was the picture of the horses coming to help. And then she would flip back to the beginning to the picture with him sitting on top of the wall and she said "he back up again". Cutest thing.

Catherine is continuing to embrace her toddlerhood and wants to fight about something new each day. I try to remind myself that it's natural and I fight along with her, fighting to go with the flow. Her favorite tantrum move is jumping up with both feet and throwing herself down on her knees. It makes me wince every time she does it, but I have to stifle a laugh, too.

Another sign that she's my child (my mom will crack up at this). Her crazy, curly hair is getting pretty long. When I brush it, I can pull it half way down her back. Being an active toddler, her hair gets pretty tangled. And naturally she is getting more vocal about not wanting her hair fussed with. I still get to brush it, but putting it up in a pony tail or anything? She won't have it. It might last 5-10 minutes, but then she complains "no ponytail!" and pulls it out. Sigh. I might actually need to get it cut.

Yesterday morning I'm trying to drag myself out of bed, Stephen is up and getting ready and he has the door open. I hadn't heard Catherine get up yet, but suddenly I hear her calling "Mommy, I wake up!" Oh boy.

talk about a bad hair day - this is what her crazy hair looks like the morning after a bath

at Sarah's baby shower - my beautiful little 2 year old girl