Makayla turns 2 on August 2
nd! She's quite the chatterbox and has non-stop energy lately! Here's a sample of her recent activities...
In the past week,
Makayla decided she no-longer wants to sit in her high chair for meals! She now sits/kneels/stands on a regular kitchen chair. I am not sure if this is because Lydia started sitting in a similar high chair or maybe just because she is almost 2 and asserting her independence! Who knows!? I think we must tell
Makayla to "sit" on her chair 20 times during the meal! She likes to stand up to help herself to more food or just to laugh and see what we'll do!
Unfortunately, now that
Makyala is no longer in a high chair, she can also get down whenever she is done eating. I have already had to chase her around the house to wipe ketchup and pancake syrup off her hands because she decided she was done and ran off to play! Sometimes, I have to tend to Lydia or am trying to get the dishes done, so I am not always watching her as she eats. One day, she was kind of quite...so I looked up from doing the dishes, and she was smearing yogurt all over her arm! I said, "
Makayla, what are you doing?" She replies "Sunscreen on!" I go over there and look and she has thoroughly covered both legs and one arm with her yogurt!
Arg...we headed
straight to the bathtub that night! (And you think I'd learn...but no...a few days later, we had a similar incident with pancake
syrup!
Arg!...off to the tub again!)
Makayla also likes to do things herself! Another sign that she is almost 2! She has mastered the phrases, "I'll do it" and "self". When she has a snack, she wants to get the snack out of the box or bag herself. She can say "hand in there!" She tries to put her clothes on, but often times has to ask for help after she gives it a
valiant effort! After dinner she wants to wipe her hands and face herself...which can be a little tricky since I don't want my house to be covered in stickiness! She wants to put her own toothpaste on her toothbrush...this was okay until I saw her sucking toothpaste out of the tube! Luckily, it's a harmless baby toothpaste! She doesn't like to hold my hand when we are anywhere that looks like it might be fun to run around...
ie the mall, a store, the road, a parking lot! We are working on this one! Even on a walk,
Makayla doesn't like to sit in the stroller...she wants to walk next to me or push the stroller herself! So much for burning any calories on my walk!
The other night we were playing outside. I had Lydia in the baby
bjorn baby carrier and
Makayla was in the driveway. A
neighbor couple walked by and then were taking their 2 year old granddaughter for a walk. Instantly,
Makayla wanted to go for a walk too! The little girl was holding each of her grandparents hands, so
Makayla wanted to hold my hands...so, we
awkwardly walked down the road as I held both of her hands in both of my hands and carried Lydia in the baby carrier. We followed this little girl for about 6 houses and
Makayla was very proud of herself! Then, we happened to see another neighbor girl, Kaitlyn, who is also 2 years old and was out pushing her dolls in her umbrella stroller! I think she was with her grandmother too. So
Makayla decided she wanted to push her umbrella stroller. So we walked all the way home to get
Makayla's stroller. Kaitlyn happened to notice
Makayla and followed us home, pushing her stroller. So
Makayla gets her umbrella stroller and heads back out for a walk! It was rather comical....
Makayla and Kaitlyn pushed their strollers all the way around the block!
Makayla was being a goof-ball and Kaitlyn was copying everything she did!
Makayla would run and push the stroller, so Kaitlyn would run and push the stroller.
Makayla would walk backwards, so Kaitlyn would walk backwards!
Makayla kept looking back to see if Kaitlyn was doing the same thing!
Makayla would sit in the stroller, so Kaitlyn would sit in the stroller. Sitting in the stroller lasted about 30 seconds and then
Makayla was done sitting in the stroller (and so was Kaitlyn).
Makayla buckled the stroller buckles, Kaitlyn buckled hers! You get the picture! This walk took FOREVER since we were going at a 2-year old pace and we were stopping every few minutes to do something different with the stroller. Lydia just hung out in her baby
bjorn and took a snooze for part of the walk! At least by the time we got home,
Makayla was super tired and we headed right to bed!
I have recently been painting our house. I painted
Makayla's room pink and I painted our master bedroom a brown-ish
orang-ish color. So
Makayla understands painting and when she walks into our room, she says "Mama painted!" Well, the other night it stormed and then the sun came out. I told Chad to look for a rainbow, so he and
Makayla looked out the back door and sure enough, there was a beautiful rainbow that stretched all across the sky!
Makayla looked at the rainbow and said "Mama painted!"
With all of the storms we've been having,
Makayla has been learning a lot about rain and thunder! I was trying to teach her how to say thunder. She kept saying "
hunder". I was practicing the "
th" sound with her. I was sitting face to face with her and showing her how to put her tongue against her teeth to make the "
th" sound. She was trying, but didn't quite get it. All of the sudden she figures out how to make the "f" sound. So so says "
funder" for a few times and I still working with her on the "
th". So she tries really hard and says "
ffffffunderrrrr" followed by a spit filled attempt at "
th" right in my face! That was the end of our "
th" lesson for that day! :)
However, a few days later, I was having her say "thunder" for Chad. She had been saying "
hunder" so I reminded her of the "
th" sound. So she starts saying "
funder" but she was saying it kind-of silly and it sounded like she was saying the f-word! Chad and I were laughing so hard that we were about crying! Which of course made
Makayla say it all the more!
When ever
something is missing,
Makayla will say it went bye-bye.
Makayla was in the kitchen eating a piece of string cheese and all of the sudden, the cheese is no where to be found and I KNOW she didn't eat it that fast. So I asked her where she put her cheese and she just said "cheese bye-bye!" and walked away.
Hmmm....I found the cheese a few days later stashed in one of my cupboards! I played this trick back to
Makayla when I was trying to rid her of her pacifier She only started wanting because Lydia briefly used one. She'd walk around with 2 pacifiers in her mouth and pretend she was a baby. Then, all of the sudden, she started wanting these 2 pacifiers along with her blanket for bed...I think because there is a girl in her class that still uses a pacifier and blanket, especially at nap time. Since Lydia quit using her pacifier, I figured,
Makayla no longer needed to play with hers. So one day, I just said "
Nuk bye-bye" and sure enough,
Makayla accepted that and life went on without the pacifier! Phew! That was easy!
Makayla now wants to "watch and see" everything. We "watch and see the garbage truck" and "watch and see the rain" If I tell
Makayla that Chad is on his way home from work, she runs to the window to "watch and see Dad!" I started letting her stand on a chair and watch me cook at the island. She also likes to "help" me cook! We've made several messy batches of pancakes because she is "helping" me! Yesterday
Makayla realized that she can push a kitchen chair around and get up to any of the counters! When I was in the bedroom changing Lydia's diaper, she quickly pushed the chair over to the island, climbed up, and was helping herself to a piece of zucchini bread! Luckily, the knife was out of reach! Now I really have to keep an eye on the knives and what I leave on the counters!
If we run out of something,
Makayla always says "all gone, store more".
Every time the milk is empty or we finish off the bananas, she says "store more". This works great when I want her to stop eating a treat! I just say "It's all gone, I need to go to the store and buy some more!" Or if she wants something, like strawberries, and I tell her I don't have any, she says, "Store more strawberries!"
Makayla loves to run around naked! However, I hate to clean up puddles of pee! So I have become a pro at hearing diaper tapes opening up...even when I'm way across the house! I have had to use masking tape over
Makayla's diaper tapes in order to prevent her from taking off her diaper! She hated this, so it has mostly cured her from taking off her diaper! Although, it can still be a challenge to get the diaper on in the first place!!
Somehow,
Makayla has grown a few inches without us noticing! Things in the top drawers in the bathrooms used to be safe, but now she can get her little eyes over the edge enough to spot what she wants, and then her little hand darts right in there to grab it! I keep moving stuff up, but am running out of places to move it! We are going to have to resort to the drawer locks pretty soon!
So with a 2 year old comes tantrums! Makayla had her share of tantrums between 18-20 months, but has toned it down some lately. I've found that as she can use more words, I can usually get her to tell me what is wrong and fix it before the tantrum kicks in! Usually it's something stupid like she wants the pink cup, not the green cup! Of course, sometimes there are times when I cannot give her what she wants, but most of the time, I can nip the tantrum before it starts! Also, I have learned to stay one step ahead of her and prep her for what is coming next (ie bath time or bed time). That also seems to save a lot of complaining!
Well, this has become a rather long post, so I think I'll wrap up my
Makayla stories for now!
This photo was taken prior to Makayla recently deciding that she no longer will sit in her high chair!
Makayla loves this little couch! What a great rummage sale find!
This was a rough morning. You can see Makayla sleeping in her high chair and if you look closely, you can spot Lydia sleeping in the sea of toys! This photo was taken shortly before Lydia learned to roll around! Now that she can roll, she rarely falls asleep on the floor!
Here's Makayla with 2 of her cousins, Lucas and Erik.
Here's Chad learning to barefoot water ski on our boat! He bought this special pole, just for barefooting. It's also useful to help our nephew learn to ski!
Here's Makayla and me on the boat!
Another boat ride with Makayla, Lydia, and me.
Here's Chad swimming at the cottage with Makayla and her cousin, Addison.
Makayla enjoys her wading pool. She recently learned how to blow bubbles in the water. She also likes to sing the songs that she learned in swimming lessons!
