Howe Two: 1.75

Our dearest littlest is officially 21 months old today. That's 1.75 years for those of you who prefer decimals, or 1 3/4 years for my fraction-loving friends. No matter how you slice it, she is getting big. Big. Independent. Busy. Curious. Busy. Curious. Busy. Curious. (Trying to make a point here...). Persistent. Smart. Sensitive, very sensitive. Snuggly. A tad whiny. Ridiculously verbal. A Mama's girl. And A Daddy's girl. Milk monster. Book lover. Diaper fiend. Silly. Happy. Fun.....she is her own unique person with a personality that's growing every day. It's interesting to me how Jillian was born with a big personality, and Adrienne is sort of easing into one. I am pretty convinced that Jillian sat her down for a secret conversation recently and informed her of the few toddler shenanigans that she didn't try, and told Adrienne to try them. This means we have a nap-refusing, sleep-fighting, clothes-stripping, diaper removing little stinker on our hands. And we all think she is pretty darn great.

A few random facts:

-Adrienne will not allow you to put her shirt on until her pajama pants have been removed. There are tears and loud protests ("I want take the pants off!") if you try and dress her out of this order she has decided on.

-Adrienne is counting. She can count to 4 or 5 pretty good, and to ten with a little help, but what shocked me is when she heard Jillian counting something the other day and proudly inserted "thirteen!" appropriately between 12 and 14 when Jillian paused to take a quick breath. The ABC's are fragmented and totally adorable. I need to get them on tape.

-Adrienne insists on carrying Jillian's lunchbox into school. She knows it is her job to put Jillian's lunch on the lunch cart, and she is proud of her participation.

-Adrienne is testing me in the nap department. Really testing me. Though she has been in that toddler bed for about 3 months, she just figured out that she could actually get out of it yesterday. This is not good. She is now terrorizing her room, trying to open the door, climbing on the window seat and pulling on blinds, and basically doing whatever it takes to steal the minute piece of sanity I have. I am scared, but I am determined to win (as I type she is finally sleeping after 2 days of said terrorizing instead of sleeping). To add to the drama, she loves to remove her diaper. Most days, I go in to get her and she immediately hands me her soaking wet diaper ("Here you go, Mommy!"). I pray every day that we will not repeat the poop incident of last month, but I'm sure it will happen again. Her latest diaper tricks involve reaching underneath the snap that covers the zipper of her footed pajamas and successfully unzipping them to remove the diaper (snap still in place!), and reaching up under her onesie to unhook the diaper and pull it out through the onesie (that is still completely snapped!). We have a true Houdini on our hands.

-Adrienne is a master pouter. If you reprimand her at all (even with semi-stern "No"), she juts out that lip fast. If you have really hurt her ego, the tears come about 5 seconds later. The pout is pronounced, and pretty shocking--I admit it instantly makes you want to apologize all over yourself for even thinking of redirecting her as you worry she is scarred for life. It's a pretty awesome manipulative tool she's got going on. Luckily, this is not my first time around the block with a toddler.

-Adrienne's conversational abilities are what truly define her at this stage. Recently, she has begun to understand ownership of objects and loves to point out things that belong to each of us ("Dat's Daddy's water bottle", "Dat's Jillian's lunchbox", "Dis Mommy's boots", "Dis Ay-dee-en's jacket"). I also love how she repeats phrases she hears me say all the time back to me at appropriate times. When she starts pulling wipes out of the container or Ziplocks out of the drawer, I hear "Dat's enough". After she picks out her pajamas, she prompts me "Dat's a good choice", most recently I have heard "Just a minute" when I ask her to do something. Oh dear.

-Adrienne loves to read books and is at the stage where she can recite most of the familiar ones when we read together. If I pause on a page, I often hear the last words ( i.e.: This is George.... "He's a good Monkey" or George is...."curious"). Her favorite books right now are Curious George (obviously), Iggy Peck Architect, Who's Baby Am I, and My Busy Stomach.

-Adrienne likes to sing and loves music. She now requests "Mama Mia" in the car ("I want to hear Mama Mia!), and now I have two kids who could pretty much sing any ABBA song at a karaoke bar. But, her favorite song is Beyonce's "Single Ladies" (I know, I know...this is Matt's fault. He calls it "All the Single Babies". It does make for a great dance party!) She likes to shake it, bob her head and sing "All da single babies!" She regularly sings "Twinkle Twinkle", "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "Jesus Loves Me" whenever the mood strikes. I got a cute little clip the other day.