My Sweet Two Year Old

I wanted to devote an entire post to Ayla before baby #2 comes along. She is my sweet little punkin girl. Recently she has exploded with knowldege and language skills. She can now count to 14, before she starts to get a little confused. She can sing her abc's the whole way through. She can sing lots of primary songs and little kids songs like "5 Little Monkey's" and "Itsy Bitsy Spider" etc... She sings all the time even sometimes in the middle of the night when she wakes up and wants to "play".

Here's some info about Ayla Celeste Walde

Age: 2 years and almost 5 months

Height: 37 inches

Weight: 32 lbs.

Favorite Food: Oranges or pretty much any kind of fruit, she prefers fruit to cookies or any other kind of dessert.

Favorite song: Popcorn Popping

Favorite Tv show: Sesame Street, she also likes Curious George

Favorite Book: "Are You My Mother": by P.D. Eastman, it's about a baby bird's search for his Mommy.

Favorite color: Green

Favorite person: Grandpa (Lucas's Dad) she LOVES her grandpa. It touches my heart to see her get so excited when he comes over. She loves playing with him and always asks for him and when she has pretend phone conversations it's almost always with grandpa.

Favorite Activities: playing on her new swing set in our backyard, reading books, singing songs, nursery at church, hide and seek (she can never stay hidden for more then like 10 seconds before she has to come out), "Bear" when Mommy or Daddy (lately always Daddy) turns into a bear and chases her around the house, coloring, watching Sesame Street or "Elmo" as she calls it, playing with her "friends", (any little kid).

Here's a few stories and anecdotes about my little two year old.

She has just in the last couple of weeks stopped using her binky. We wanted to get rid of it before baby #2 comes along and recently she started losing it in the middle of the night. When she would wake up and not be able to find it she would start yelling "I need help Mommy!" When I would go in her room she would say "Can't find my binky!" Then I would have to search in, around and under her bed until I found her binky then she would go back to sleep. Well I wasn't going to put up with that, and when she bit through her binky nearly severing the nipple part of it off we decided it was time. She wanted us to "fix it" we explained we couldn't and that she was too old to use a binky and that was that. The first night she called for her binky for quite a while maybe close to an hour until she fell asleep. The next night was better and after a few nights she stopped asking for it. It's been about two weeks now and she doesn't have a problem with it unless she sees someone else with a binky then she remembers hers and asks about it. I'm very proud of her and how she handled the situation. She never once cried and overall it was pretty easy getting her to give it up.

Here's some funny things she's said recently: On our way to church she asked me "Mommy where's the church?" I told her you'll see when we get there it's not too far. Then I proceeded to talk to her about something else. About ten minutes later when we pulled intot the parking lot she says "Oh good we found the church!" Lucas and I burst into laughter, apparently she didn't have much faith in our ability to get there.

Two weeks ago was stake conference at our church which is not a normal Sunday. She's used to sitting in the adult part for awhile then going to nursery with all the other kids her age where they sing songs, have a snack, learn a lesson, color, etc.. Well on Stake Conference Sundays there isn't any nursery. She was not happy. When I told her she said "Oh no!" and proceeded to cry. I felt bad becasue she really looks forward to playing with the other kids.

Last week when I was very sick I was home from work and my mother-in-law came over to help me out. At one point I was in the kitchen and I heard Ayla say "Oh no!" I went out and asked her what's wrong she said "Grandma's shows!" Grandma was turning on one of her "shows" that Ayla does not appreciate watching. It was pretty funny.

Last Thursday when we were watching American Idol she looked at me and said "Mom it's like a jamboree!" I looked at her and asked "Did you just say it's like a jamboree?" She said "Yes". Lucas and I looked at eachother and my thought was where the heck did she learn what a jamboree was. Later I realized that it's from one of her Elmo DVD's called Elmo's Rootin, Tootin, Hootin, Hollerin, Country Jamboree. Apparently from watching this she realized that when a group of people sing it's called a jamboree. It was really cute.

Recently she's been getting up really early (like 5:00am) and coming into my room and telling me "I'm done sleeping, play now". One time when she did this I took her to the window and said "Look the sun isn't even up yet it's too early for you to get up." Then put her back to bed. She was really good about it and didn't get up again until 7:30. Well I thought that she had gone back to sleep but when I went into her bedroom later I found a bunch of books hidden under her covers and under her pillow. Apparently she snuck a bunch of books (which are on a shelf in my room) out of my room without me being aware and took them into her room to keep herself occupied. Like mother like daughter I guess.

Here's some pictures of my funny little girl!

I bought her some new spring and summer shoes a few weeks ago because they were really cheap. I put them away in a box because at the time it was too early for white shoes. Well Ayla has a shoe fettish (like her Mom, I'm sure it will be great fun when she's a teenager) and she kept asking to wear her new shoes. I told her that she had to wait until it got warmer outside. I guess she got tired of waiting because one day when I went in to check on her at naptime this is what I found.

Ayla and her friends "Richard and Granger". Richard is only a few months older than her but she prefers Granger the "older man". Ayla in our backyard

Setting up her lawnchair to sit next to Mommy

This is how she "sat" on her lawnchair

One day I couldn't find her, I was looking for a few minutes when I decided to look in my bedroom. This is how I found her.

She loves chillin in Mommy and Daddy's bed

Ayla with "Baby Emily", my friend Jessica's little girl. Ayla has become baby obsessed lately (just in time I guess) and constantly points out babies and asks to hold them. Since she met "Baby Emily" she talks about her all the time and everytime we go somewhere where my friends are she asks me "Baby Emily there?" It's pretty cute. When grandpa asked Ayla what baby brother's name is going to be she said "Emily". Grandpa was a little worried, I reassured him and then told him he'll have to wait like everyone else.

Ayla sniffing flowers. This tree is in our front yard, I LOVE it, but it only blooms for a couple of weeks. It's almost done already.

Ayla saying "cheese"

Showing how she can be reverent

Looking at the flowers