23 months!

I can't believe our baby will be 2 years old next month!

STATS
Weight: 29lbs
Height: 35.5"
Clothes: 2T, mostly 3T


EAT
As you can tell, we enjoy the sweeter things in life (someone takes after her mama.)

Culver's is a favorite treat.  Mmmmm

And of course, this kid loves her donuts! 

Mama has been able to sneak fruit and veggies in where we can.
Squash/applebutter/banana pancakes
Mac&cheese with squash and sweet potato puree

cookies!

After having a cold for a few weeks, we decided to make a tried and true favorite: dirt cups.

They were a hit

Thankfully, this little big girl still loves to eat apples!

SLEEP
After about a month with a cold (that included a bad cough and lots of congestion), sleep has been rough.  We're slowing getting back into the groove and sleeping a majority of the night.  But boy oh boy, you can tell when someone needs a nap!

PLAY
Charlee loves to sit in her play room and play.  She'll go in there and play by herself when I'm getting ready.

It was dead silent when I got out of the shower one morning.  Usually that means trouble for any toddler parent.  I peaked around the door and saw the little big girl playing with her farm and pretending to drink water from the well.

We're finally into building with blocks (really just matching all the colors or stacking all the same type of blocks together.  Can we say Type A personality?)

WITH FRIENDS
Oh do we love our BFF Aubrey!  We usually meet Aubrey and her mama at the library a few times a month so these two little friends can play together.

We also met our Mother/Baby Hour play group at the farm this month!
It's hard to believe that these little friends are all almost 2 years old!

We fed the baby goats.

 And pet the kittens.

And also played a lot in the sandbox, saw the chickens and pigs, pet the bunnies... oh and ate a donut :)

FALL FUN
This fall has been pretty enjoyable, weather-wise.
We were able to go for a morning hike at the arboretum.

We love leaves!

We went to New Glarus with Daddy for the Harvest Fest.

Then visited the New Glarus Brewery.

We also went up to Holmen to visit Glamma and Pops!
We went out to the apple orchard and pumpkin farm.

We got to feed some sheep.

The weekend before Halloween (on C's 23 mo bday), we went to the Great Pumpkin Giveaway.  Did you know that the best way to pick out a pumpkin is to sit on each one?

Then this little butterfly went trick or treating at Hyvee.

We also dug out the dog costumes and Charlee decided that she wanted to wear Lucy's banana costume.

CLASSES
Charlee and I have started going to a toddler movement/dance class.  She loves to sign and dance!

TOT SCHOOL
Since September, we have started doing Tot School.  It's more of a way to incorporate more color, shape, number, and fine motor practice into our daily activities and to do some fun art projects.

The shape sensory bin has been a hit for a few months now.  Charlee loves to sit and sort all the shapes out of the rice.

We also have a moon sand bin and we threw some pom poms into the rice and practiced putting them in tubes.

This little big girl loves to color!  We have crayons and colored pencils, paper, and coloring books in practically every room of the house.

Charlee is really gold at sorting colors. We've done a few art projects to practice sorting colors.

We went for a fall leaf walk and made a paper tree with the leaves we found.

Charlee loved making a hand print tree (the trunk) and then painting the leaves with q-tips.  Really, she just loved me tracing her hand, so this quickly turned into a mama project.

We painted a polar bear with shaving cream/glue.  Then decided to give the hedgehog a bath with the shaving cream.

We made a collage turtle when we were learning about animals.

She made animal tracks in paint with her toys then gave them all a bath.

Making lion masks was a mama/Charlee project that she loved.

She also painted a pumpkin a decorated it with stickers!

And we practiced carving playdough pumpkins.

FAVORITES
Bath time has turned into a silly time at our house.  Lots of bubbles and bath paints and crayons.

Her favorite part is getting all bundled up after her bath.

We love visiting daddy at Epic and walking around outside.

Of course, who could forget the park?  Charlee has mastered going down slides by herself!

lots of digging in the sand and swinging

She really loves going to the park with Daddy.

When it's nice out, I pick her in the wagon.  Some days, she likes to help pull the wagon home.

MILESTONES
saying "I love you" = "I YOU!"
Can sing "The Wheels on the Bus," "ABCs," "Tiny Tim the Turtle song," "Row Row Row Your Boat"
Can say blue in Spanish: "AZUL!"
Can count to 20 with help (to 10 on her own)
Knows all her colors
Can identify shapes if you ask ("Where is the circle?", can point to it)

LETTER TO CHARLEE
Dear silly girl,

Oh my goodness, you are such a mama's girl in every sense of the phrase.  But more so that you are exactly like me: emotional, sensitive, and stubborn.  It's no wonder that we butt heads and you drive me crazy some days!

You are talking up a storm and try to desperately to say sentences like we do, but they mostly come out as jibberish.  I can usually understand what you are saying, but to the untrained ear, it's difficult.

You love to snuggle with your Lucy and to terrorize the dogs with your push toys and cars. Surprisingly, they don't like it as much.  You are a big help and will put their food in their bowls. You also help by putting your dishes away when I am unloading the dishwasher.

You absolutely love going to school!  The Seventeenth Radish is definitely one of the highlights of your week.  You have been learning Spanish and playing a lot with your friends and teachers.  We also starting going to a toddler movement class this month.  You really enjoy dancing and singing.

You have gotten so good with colors, shapes, and numbers!  You can count to 10 and we have started counting to 20 (which you can do with help, kind of).  You can identify your shapes if we ask you to find one and colors are a breeze for you now.  You love to sing "Wheels on the Bus."  You point out all the buses as we are driving and get so excited when you see one!  We sing the "ABCs" when we brush your teeth and you can sing the end of the alphabet, but we are still working on the beginning.

You love to do things "myself" and don't like help unless you ask for it (which really means, I have to ask you 10 times if you want help before you say "yes").  But you are pretty good at doing things on your own.

We can't believe that you are going to be 2 next month!  The past two years have just flown by and we have loved watching you grow up and develop your little personality.

We love you, silly girl!

mama and daddy

OUTTAKES