28 month update

Yesterday I was peeling apples with my Pampered Chef Apple Peeler/Corer/Slicer. Claire was watching very carefully and asked, "That hurt the apple?"

As I said before, she LOVES HIDING. She will tunnel into blankets or a clean basket of clothes and yell, "Find me! Wanna find me? Come find me! Where I go?!"

She likes to also play this teasing game where she pretends everything is hers. She will say, "That's mine." Then she wants me to pretend I want it so she prompts me to "Say that's mine!"

Knows almost all colors and shapes...even the funky ones most of the time.

Sometimes identifies letters/shapes...I'm not too worried about this at this point. She knows what letters are versus numbers and can sometimes tell me what it is.

She can put on velcro tennis shoes and aqua socks...she has done sandals since her 2nd bday. I was very excited when I discovered that she could put her tennis shoes on by herself!

She climbs in and out of car seat/stroller/highchair or booster seat pretty well.

She hasn't discovered how to open doors, but I always discourage her from touching the doorknob. I'm sure she'll figure it out soon enough.

She still nurses 2-3 times/day...always before bed to fall asleep and for naps at home. Seriously...this is the best knock out medicine known to man!

She will help me unload the bottom rack of the dishwasher and hands me stuff to put up in the cupboard. I'm sure this will become increasingly useful as my belly grows.

She loves to be my little helper and gopher to get stuff I've dropped or things I ask her to get for me.

She has started to color with more of a purpose. I try to have her color with something everyday...be it chalk, markers, or crayons...just like I try to make sure we get in an adequate amount of reading time as well. She has started to color with more of a purpose. If I look at a coloring book from 3 months ago, it is totally scribbles. A picture she did today will have tried to actually follow the lines more. I don't know...do coloring books inhibit creativity? I try to mix it up and also give her blank paper. Chalk and bath crayons are always on an open canvas, so I guess she gets a mix there too.

She loves to read...her favorites continue to be animal books and GOODNIGHT MOON. She has also fallen madly in love with a musical princess book that I got her at a yard sale for a quarter.

Her favorite fruits are apples, oranges, bananas, and grapes. She loves boiled potatoes, corn, peas, green beans, and broccoli. I think her favorite meat would be fried hamburger or something from the crockpot. She is also a huge fan of soups! Other favorites are mac n cheese, spaghetti, hot dish, tuna casserole, and tater tot casserole. She is very hesitant to try new things which is something we struggle with when away from home. I try to carry some snacky things for her, but like when we went to MI City last Saturday, she had eaten all the snacks because she wouldn't eat the lunch out (I ordered her a hot dog which she has eaten before but didn't touch it there.) So when we stopped for dinner she had chocolate milk and 12 saltine crackers. She refused to try any of the other food including the rice because it had bits of veggies in it. I also can't even get her to try fries but she likes potatoes???

She does love her junk food though like any good American and is a huge fan of pudding and ice cream. Josh and I recently took her to a Mexican restaurant and tried to get her to try the fried ice cream. She refused to try it even after Josh bribed her saying she would get some candy when we got home. All she ate there were the chips.

I guess from my list above she eats pretty well but sometimes when eating out it seems like there is nothing even on the kiddy menu that she will eat. She might eat the mac n cheese that they have but only if it's the regular Kraft kind, but I refuse to pay like $3 for one serving. She can have her crackers or food from our plates. I always try to make her a little plate and set it in front of her but she won't try stuff 95% of the time. Frustration. What to do? I've tried to not ask her to try stuff and just talk it up and say how good stuff tastes, which usually works, but not always.

I guess since she didn't really start eating solids until 18 months, she is really eating like she's just over a year, which seems to be on par. I finally cleaned out the cupboards and trashed the baby rice cereal she would never eat. :) I was actually was trying to think about when I started to carry snacks with me for Claire and the first time I really remember was at Holly's wedding in April...before that she just nursed. What kinds of snacks do you carry? Something diaper bag friendly?

I usually try to carry something like a Granola bar...the make HFCS free ones now more and more! Same with fruit snacks...I swear these same brands had HFCS in them in Jan. when I really started reading labels. Always a favorite are pretzels or cheerios, but I don't like to always carry such carby snacks, so I try to bring an apple but nothing else travels super-well. She won't eat yogurt drops if they get crushed. She's discovered teething biscuits kind of suck now compared to normal food. Those were a huge hit all spring, though.

She has also gotten really big into imaginative play...not just cooking me stuff or asking me to drink some tea she poured for me, but setting up her baby dolls to read to them or putting stuffed animals in the little chairs around her table and feeding them. One day she set 5 baby dolls in a row on the couch and put food in front of all of them. Then she came to get me and said, "Wanna see my babies eating?" It was so cute. I went to get the camera, but she had moved everything of course by the time I came back around the corner.

She also likes to pretend that she is Princess Fiona from SHREK. She will drape a blanket over her head and say, "I getting married!" She says, "Mommy, you the Donkey. Daddy's Shrek. I Princess Fiona." Do I sense a complex?

Anyways, we went shopping today. She was acting up so I decided to give her some Halloween MnMs in the store. She calls them "nim-nims." I opened the bag in the store. Don't worry I paid for them. But of course, being the 'shit-magnet' that I seem to be sometimes, when I ripped open the little bag, they went all over the aisle floor. So then I gave her another little fun bag which kept her happy for several aisles. :) Sometimes I feel guilty when I open stuff for her in the store, but I always make sure it's something with a set price, not something like, say grapes that are weighed. This is the confession of the mommy blogger today. Keep me in check. :) But today I saw a mom with 3 kids in one of those mega carts. Each kid had their own can of Pringles, happily munching away. Ha! I am sooo not the only one that does this. Goldfish are also another favorite to open in the store since the bag rolls down nicely and the cashier doesn't notice it's been opened while ringing it up. Is it un-kosher to open stuff in the store? I always pay for it of course. Was I rewarding her bad behavior or just trying to survive another shopping trip with a toddler in tow? I know she'll sit quietly without trying to jump out of the cart or run away if she's munching on something!

Well she's playing with a box of paperclips that she jacked out of my desk. I think it's bathtime.