Lucy 24 Month Update

Wow - it has been a long time since I have done an update on Lucy! She has changed so much in the past 4 months, I'll try to capture as much as possible here!

Stats:
Weight: 32.1 pounds (97%)
Height: 36.2 pounds (96%)
*Doctor said she is the average height of a 3 year old, which makes sense because all she wears is 3T and some 4T clothes
Sleep: This is currently back to normal (8pm-8am nights, one 2 hour nap around 1pm) but we had about a month when Lucy was skipping her nap (staying in her room the whole time talking) and/or staying up for and hour or two after we put her to bed talking. This was a tough time for me because I knew Lucy needed sleep (I could tell by her temperament during the day) but Lucy just kept fighting sleep. I'm not going to lie, this crazy sleep schedule stressed me out a little, I was definitely not ready for Lucy to give up her nap but luckily I had read about a lot of kids doing this at two years old, so we continued to stick with the schedule we thought she needed and she eventually got over her sleep funk (at least I'm hoping we are done with it!)

*side note, the day that I wrote this Lucy actually decided not to nap, I went up after an hour because she had started to cry which is weird for her and I discovered she had pooped (which I was thankful for bc we are having poop issues) but she had gotten it all over her sheets, blankets, 4 pillow cases, the wall, up her back, on her arms and legs... let's just say I spent the rest of the day cleaning and disinfecting.

Temperament: Lucy continues to be an extremely sweet toddler. She definitely has her moments, or sometime weeks, where she seems to be in full-swing toddler mode, but for the most part she seems to be a pretty easy going toddler. Our hardest moments are when Lucy is over tired and I want/need her to do something that she doesn't want to do. I'm still trying to figure out how to deal with this! Months 20-22 seemed to be a breeze and I thought maybe we had skipped over the whole terrible twos, but around the time we started potty training I saw the real toddler come out! I think potty training, bad sleep, and a momma who just didn't know how to manage a toddler led to several crazy weeks. We are through that time (although I'm sure we'll go through another phase soon) - I think a lot had to do with Lucy's bad sleep schedule and my needing to get a little more creative with my parenting (finding ways to make going potty fun instead of just forcing it, for example).

Eating: Lucy is a great eater and continues to love food - her appetite and palette continue to amaze me. I can't help but smile when she requests baby trees (broccoli) and hummus for lunch, this girl seriously eats better than her daddy!

Potty Training: I think I need to do a separate post with an update on this because it has been a major roller coaster, but I'll do a quick summary here - after about two weeks of great potty success it seemed things started back tracking with Lucy refusing to go to the bathroom and having lots of accidents... boy was I overwhelmed! W pushed through this, and Lucy seems to be doing pretty well with going pee on the potty now only having accidents every once in a while. A couple things I learned - I have to be creative with getting her to the bathroom most of the time, I need to remind her to go, especially if people are over, and a lot of times it is just easier to leave her naked if we are alone at home so I don't have to stress about helping her as much. Poop has been a challenge (she likes going in the potty, but keeps forgetting to stop playing to go) and we are currently working with the doctor to figure out how to keep Lucy regular by using Miralax... this has been awful for me to work through, and I've just been praying that she understands the importance of pooping on a regular basis soon.

Discipline: This is something I've been trying to read up on, ask friends about, talked to the doctor about, etc... It's tricky to know the best way to approach disciplining a toddler when you've never done it before! I've played around with a couple different approaches, but currently I am using time out as a last resort (for major offenses like hitting, running in the street, etc.) and trying to use options or "breaks" for the minor offenses (she likes and sometimes needs to take breaks in her room, which she loves because it's the only place she is allowed to have her pacis). I sometimes have to walk her through what I want her to be doing, but typically she is willing to go along with my requests. I have found ignoring unpleasant behaviors, being consistent in my discipline, and staying true to my word all to be important in parenting Lucy. I still need to continue learning about this and adapting as Lucy gets older, but for right now this seems to work for our family.

This girl continues to amaze me every day! She can count to 13 (this is the number of steps we have, which we count every time we go up and down), she knows most of her colors and major shapes, she can sing her ABC's (for the most part) and lots of other songs, she runs, jumps, kicks throws and climbs anything she can. She uses complete sentences most of the time (from what her sunday school teachers say she's very verbal and very independent!), I'm not sure there is a word she won't at least attempt to use (today while we were reading Hop on Pop she repeated back to me "Constantinople and Timbuktu"... it was pretty cute). She makes me laugh several times per day with the stuff she says or does - just the way she says stuff is adorable, everything she says is usually accompanied with a "momma" - i.e. "no mama, yes mama, read books mama?", she also loves to says things in exclamation (imagine the way Oprah welcomes people, literally) and shakes her hips back and forth - i.e. "We're going to the PARK-Y!!!", "I want PEANUT BUTTER AND JELLY!!!", she also loves to make silly faces and look at her reflection while doing it... I think she's starting to realize just how cute she is. She's adorable, I wish I could remember more of the specific things she does... hopefully I'll write more in the future!

Lucy loves going to church, going to either of her grandparents house, going to the park, going on walks, playing with her baby dolls, doing puzzles, playing with blocks, playing in sand/water/noodles (or whatever thing I let her get into), playing with play dough, coloring, dancing/music, watching anything on TV or playing with my phone/computer (although I still really try to limit this, I don't like it to be a daily habit, not yet anyway!), reading books, her pacis (these are limited to the bed, but this girl would seriously want to have a pacifier in all day if we would let her!), and best of all snuggling!

We have had lots of play dates lately, but Lucy still seems to play pretty independently (I don't notice that she is super interactive with other kids unless it is fighting over toys, although sometimes she'll want to give hugs and hold hands with other kids). She has definitely become more possessive with toys and we have been working on playing nicely with others lately! Her favorite playmates are JJ, Jordyn and "Drew-Erin", I think because she gets to see them the most. She also loves all of my girlfriends who don't have kids yet and come over and shower her with love and attention. She's super outgoing and loves when people come over or when we go to visit people. She's also been getting better at playing independently at home for longer periods of time - very nice for Momma and Hank!

These last couple pictures make me crack up laughing. Lucy always wants to look at the pictures I take so I took her downstairs so we could upload them to the computer. She asked for some of mommy's coffee so I gave her a coffee mug with water in it. When I stepped back to look at her I couldn't help but snag a few more pictures because she looked hilarious - like a little business woman sitting at a meeting...




Look at all that hair!! Still business on the top, but major party in the back..