Twenty-Four Months With Maggie

At twenty-four months, Maggie...

Weighs twenty-eight pounds and is thirty-four inches tall. 

Talks in long sentences and never really gets frustrated trying to communicate. She can say things like, "Betsy is going to come out of Mommy's tummy and grow up so fast."

Can sing! She knows all the words to "Rock-a-bye Baby", "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" and the "I Love You" song from Barney way back in the day. She has knows the chorus to several Daniel Tiger songs - her favorite is "I like you just the way you are."

Doesn't know her colors. She can really only identify her favorite color, pink. However, she can identify all her body parts, sing the ABCs, and count to ten. 

Finally behaves better at Mass and doesn't really need to be taken out. She loves to bless herself with holy water and shakes hands with everyone during the sign of peace. She often asks to say grace again so she can practice making the sign of the cross properly. During bedtime prayers, she usually pays better attention than her big sister and usually says she's thankful for her birthday party.

Is really, really good at climbing at the playground and is completely comfortable in the water. She always goes down slides backwards on her tummy and she gets frustrated when she can't keep up with Claire, like how she can't reach the pedals on the tricycle. 

Likes to draw, paint, and do play dough. Her attention span is growing for art projects. She really wishes she could do Claire's puzzles or make bead necklaces like her. She can keep up with some matching activities though, like Zingo, Spot It, or dominoes. 

Can build a mean block tower, but is usually engrossed in some sort of imaginative play. She likes to take care of her dolls, make them pretend meals, and give them check-ups with the doctor kit. Mostly, she's pretending to go on some sort of trip - maybe on an airplane or train or camping or to a hotel. 

Loves dress-up clothes. She is often requesting to dress up like a princess and then perform a ballet show for us. She's very excited to see the Nutcracker this Christmas and for the day when she's finally old enough for dance lessons. If you ask her to do some ballet for you, she will do some adorable squats or leg lifts. 

Has lost interest in using the potty like Claire. If you ask her, she'll tell you that she's perfectly happy to wear a diaper, which is totally fine with us. We don't plan to potty train her until next summer. Changing her diaper or her clothes often results in some tears, but maybe slightly less often now. 

Throws a pretty typical two-year old tantrum, complete with falling on the floor in frustration. She'll say things like, "I do it myself!" or "Go away, Mommy" all the time. She particularly hates it if you don't allow her to climb into her car seat on her own. 

Doesn't have a super long attention span for stories. She's still mostly reading board books, except for the short list of picture books I know will occupy both children. Her favorite board book is "Each Peach Pear Plum" and her favorite picture book is "When Sophie Gets Angry." She has each almost entirely memorized.

Watches one or two episodes of television after nap time. It's usually Daniel Tiger or Franklin, but lately Maggie's been on a Curious George kick. She loves Peppa Pig as well. They get to watch a movie occasionally - the rotation is Winnie the Pooh, Cinderella, Frozen, and Tangled. She knows the names of all the Disney Princesses though!

Hasn't had the biggest appetite lately. She is still willing to try most fruits and vegetables, while more cautious with meat. She doesn't have a huge sweet tooth, never really touching her doughnut after Sunday Mass, but she loves chocolate ice cream and gummy candy.  She doesn't like spicy food as much as the rest of the family, insisting on just salt instead of Cajun seasoning on her eggs.

Very, very rarely skips afternoon nap, though it's starting to happen every once in a while and she can make it without one if we're out all day. She probably only averages about ten hours of sleep at night since she's sharing a room with Claire. She's still very easy to transfer from her car seat to her crib if she falls asleep on the way home from an outing. Now she insists on sleeping with a pillow, something Claire didn't do until age three.

Loves her pacifier something fierce. We're doing our best to limit it to sleeping time. Of course, there are no rules while we're traveling. She's started imitating Claire's thumb sucking unfortunately - at first she just put her fist in front of her mouth expecting something comforting to happen

Thankfully doesn't get carsick like her big sister, so we were able to keep her rear-facing up until the age two recommendation. 

 

Soaks up the one-on-one time while Claire is at her little classes. She is so excited to go to the library and run errands just with me. But she's always thrilled to be reunited with Claire again, going in for a big hug as soon as she sees her. 

Thinks she's the same age as Claire and tries to keep up with Claire's friends rather than their younger siblings. She's convinced that she turned four on her birthday, not two. 

Fawns over the newborn babies in our life and can't wait to be a big sister herself. 

Maggie likes to tell me that Claire's my big girl, Betsy's my baby girl, and she's my little girl. I love that.